Question Installing AMD drivers breaks Windows

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Ebowla

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Jun 15, 2015
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Hi,

Ive ran into trouble with my new build.

I initially had it working perfectly with an unactivated windows 10 'home' installation but bought a key for 'pro' and had to reinstall windows from that.

Now I go about clearing my old hard drives and leave the computer to do it's thing

When I get back the PC was showing the 'trouble booting' blue screen - I continue and realised my AMD drivers are no longer installed.

When I installed the GPU drivers from AMD it crashes and breaks windows. Ive tried doing fresh installs a few times with similar results and now can't even do an install.

Any ideas?

Build:
Ryzen 5 3600
AMD RX 5600 XT
16gb RAM
500W PSU
Multiple hard drives.
 
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Ebowla said:
Here is what i bought: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/352967229078?ul_noapp=true

The key they gave me diddn't work with my first windows install but when doing a fresh install it went through.

Right now i'm setting up a new windows setup media and wont put the key in till after i've installed things
Click to expand...
---------------------------------
INSTANT Microsoft Windows 10 ProF Key Product Key License Code 32 / 64 bit

Price: AU $9.50
---------------------------------


I'm not quite sure how many ways this can be said to be Not Valid.
A Windows license costs what it costs. Win 10 Pro is not $9.50.

Where did your "install" come from? Either the original Home or the new 'Pro'?

In any case, an Upgrade from a real Win 10 Home to Pro, with a valid license key, does not require a reinstall.
 
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Actually, I beg to differ. Sometimes your theory on this is not correct. At work in the past systems have been purchased that will not allow you to upgrade from Windows 10 home to our Windows 10 pro volume license. When this occurs, here is what must be done.

www.google.com

Windows 10 Generic Products Keys for Various Editions

Sometimes you may need to install Windows 10 in a virtual environment like Hyper-V or VirtualBox for evaluation purposes, and don’t want to activate Windows. In most cases, you should be able to skip…
www.google.com www.google.com

Disconnect from the internet, tell Windows you want to upgrade.

Use the Windows 10 pro key there. It should allow you to actually get to Windows 10 pro after some updating.

When the system reboots, reconnect to the internet.

After connecting you should get errors about your Windows not being activated. Tell it you want to change the product key. Sometimes I've had to do this through command prompt which you can find that procedure on Google.

When you get a legitimate key entered it should then activate.

NOW......OP, toss away the key you bought and buy a legal copy. We DO NOT condone software piracy. Those 10 dollar keys are almost certainly not legal, or grey market at best.
 
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In the situation at work, systems are required to be on our domain, but for whatever reason people at times have purchased home systems and we have to upgrade them to Windows 10 pro. So for us, the systems would have active Windows 10 home. And when you try to reinstall the systems just go back to home version. Hence having to do the procedure above.
 
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Ok, so ill go get a real product key. Thanks guys.

However, now i'm having another problem:

Whenever i try to install AMD GPU drivers my PC crashes and i have to do a system restore. Any ideas?

(Currently windows is not activated + am about to try to update windows and get older AMD drivers)
 
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ohio_buckeye said:
In the situation at work, systems are required to be on our domain, but for whatever reason people at times have purchased home systems and we have to upgrade them to Windows 10 pro. So for us, the systems would have active Windows 10 home. And when you try to reinstall the systems just go back to home version. Hence having to do the procedure above.
Click to expand...
OK.
The whole domain communication/authentication/activation adds another layer of complexity.
 
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Ebowla said:
Ok, so ill go get a real product key. Thanks guys.

However, now i'm having another problem:

Whenever i try to install AMD GPU drivers my PC crashes and i have to do a system restore. Any ideas?

(Currently windows is not activated + am about to try to update windows and get older AMD drivers)
Click to expand...
A valid Win 10 install that is Unactivated has no impact on operation or driver status.

Fix one thing at a time.
 
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Ok, so i'm still going with this one.

I've bought a real Windows Key etc, so all good on that front.

I'm still faced with whenever i try to install AMD GPU drivers the PC will crash mid-install - sometimes resulting in having to do a system restore, clean windows install or similar.

Recent things i have tried:
Updating motherboard BIOS
Installing AMD chipset drivers
Older GPU drivers (unfortunately there is only two driver options to choose from)
Fresh windows install without network connected
Fully up do date windows
 
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ohio_buckeye said:
From a few years ago, but this might be a way to approach it.

Click to expand...

Nice!

I manage to go through those steps and ended up with this message:
"No AMD graphics driver is installed, or the AMD driver is not functioning properly. Please install the AMD driver appropriate for your AMD hardware."

Now Microsoft actually recognises the card i have in and thinks i have the most up to date drivers installed - which is a plus.
But i still cant start the PC up outside of safe mode 🙁
 
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ohio_buckeye said:
Oh I see.

Did you use ddu in safe mode to remove all drivers? Do that and see if you can start in normal mode. If so maybe go back to safe mode and see if you can install drivers from there.
Click to expand...

I've tried AMD's removal software, DDU (both in safe mode and also installing on a fresh windows install.

Today I also tried resetting my motherboard's bios so I could get the PC as close as I could to how it was when I first had it working.
 
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Ebowla said:
Ok, so i'm still going with this one.

I've bought a real Windows Key etc, so all good on that front.

I'm still faced with whenever i try to install AMD GPU drivers the PC will crash mid-install - sometimes resulting in having to do a system restore, clean windows install or similar.

Recent things i have tried:
Updating motherboard BIOS
Installing AMD chipset drivers
Older GPU drivers (unfortunately there is only two driver options to choose from)
Fresh windows install without network connected
Fully up do date windows
Click to expand...

  1. Reboot to safe mode.
  2. Run DDU (Device Driver Uninstall) or use AMD's cleanup utility. (I personally prefer DDU.)
  3. reboot
  4. Reinstall using 20.x drivers. (I don't think 5600XT drivers are available under 19.x, but I could be wrong)
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/gpu-601
www.guru3d.com

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) download version 18.0.8.9

Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) - Remove AMD/NVIDIA/INTEL Graphics Drivers Cleanly - DDU is a driver removal utility that helps you completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers and packages from your system, leaving no leftovers behind, including registry keys, folders, files...
www.guru3d.com www.guru3d.com

Have you EVER gotten the 5600XT to work at all? Is it possible the 5600XT itself is broken?

During the install the installer when run some basic queries on the hardware in question to determine best how to configure the driver. If you have inadequate power supply or a defective card, I could see how it would crash mid install if the above fails. If you use close to the minimum specs, make sure the hardware you pick out are quality versions of that minimum spec. (That includes your power supply) Voltage sag due to load change can cause many things to go wonky.
 
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When I first did the build I had probably 5-6 hours worth of good gaming.
I think min specs were 450 Watt. My PSU is an EVGA 500W 80plus PSU which I bought close to 4 years ago.
I might try the card in a friend's PC today to test that, but im Not sure how I'll test my PSU
 
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digitalgriffin said:
Okay I would go the DDU route I outlined above. Let us know if that works.

BTW: Min Spec is 550 Watts. You are definitely over your limit, especially for an older supply.

https://www.amd.com/en/products/specifications/graphics/15971+15966?type[]=reference
Click to expand...

I've done the DDU route multiple times with both AMD and the DDU software without any luck.

Given that even i return the 5600XT for a nvidia 2060 i'll still need a 550W minimum PSU i think my next move may be to get a hold of a better PSU and hope the GPU isn't stuffed.

Thanks
 
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