BLACK screen - every time Windows patches/updates

[ellford]

My son has a Dell XPS tower and he’s upgraded the video card to an MSI Radeon Armor 570. Ever since then, whenever Windows updates itself, he gets a black screen and there’s “no way” to recover it or boot into safe mode, etc. The ONLY way to fix this, is to rip the card out of the PC and plug the HDMI cord into the Video slot on the back of the motherboard.

It then boots, Windows patches/updates itself and we can then shut it down, re-install the card and everything is good again – till the next patch. It’s clearly a video driver issue, but the drivers we run are always the latest release drivers from AMD Radeon.

System Summary:

• OS Name: Windows 10 Pro
• Version: 10.0.18362
• System Type: x64 based PC
• System SKU: Dell XPS 8700
• Processor: i5-4400 @ 3.1Ghz
• Installed Physical RAM: 8 GB

Components > Sound Device

• Name: USB Audio Device (he uses a Corsair Hyper X headset)

Components > Display

• Name: MSI Radeon Armor 570
• Adaptor RAM: 1GB
• Driver: 19.5.2 (I see that 19.9.2 is available, so I could update to that, but this has been an issue now for quite some time, regardless of with driver we’re running it seems)

Any help with this would be greatly appreciated as I'm at my wits end over this.

 

[Regedit32]

Can you clarify something please.

When you've installed the update, and the computer reboots to the black screen:

• Have you tried pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys together, then clicked the power icon to restart computer?
  
  
• If you have tried the above with no positive result, another thing you can try is a hotkey combination to restart the display drivers:
  
  • Press the Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B together, to restart the graphics driver.

 

[BigFeet]

Ummmm, is it reading that the video card has 1gb of vram???? That's incorrect. Was this happening with the other video card? What card was in there? Have you attempted to connect via DVI when it black screens?

 

[davehc]

If you google for info, on that particular graphics card, you will find a mass of complaints and problems that users are experiencing.
If it were I, and your son is able to, I would return the card and try another manufacturer.

 

[ellford]

Can you clarify something please.

When you've installed the update, and the computer reboots to the black screen:

• Have you tried pressing Ctrl + Alt + Delete keys together, then clicked the power icon to restart computer?
  
  
• If you have tried the above with no positive result, another thing you can try is a hotkey combination to restart the display drivers:
  • Press the Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B together, to restart the graphics driver.

Thanks for the reply Regedit32.

When Windows updates, it's usually (always) in the middle of the night, so we wake up and see a black screen on his PC.

I've tried doing CTRL + Alt + Delete and restarting the PC, but it just boots to the black screen.

I'll give the Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B a try when it happens again - out of curiosity, I'm assuming I do this at the black screen, but if nothing happens, do I do this and then power it off/turn it back on? Or?

 

[ellford]

Ummmm, is it reading that the video card has 1gb of vram???? That's incorrect. Was this happening with the other video card? What card was in there? Have you attempted to connect via DVI when it black screens?

Thanks for the reply Bigfeet.

Sorry I must have hit the wrong key(s) - The card has 8 gigs of DDR5 VRAM on it.

The card that was in there was an old diamond card - a Radeon R7-200 card that I think had 1-2 Gigs of RAM on it. I haven't tried connecting a different type of cable to the monitor when this happens. I do have plenty of spare VGA cables, but not sure if I have a DVI kicking around. Do you think the issue is with it being an HDMI connection? If so I'll switch it out fast...

 

[ellford]

If you google for info, on that particular graphics card, you will find a mass of complaints and problems that users are experiencing.
If it were I, and your son is able to, I would return the card and try another manufacturer.

Thanks for the reply Davehc. Unfortunately he bought the card with his Christmas cash last year, so there's no way to return it and try another. I have the exact same card, but mine is a 580 and I have zero problems with it. For him, this card as been a problem ever since he got it with these black screens after every Windows update. If it weren't for the Windows updates, the card is rock-stable.

 

[BigFeet]

Thanks for the reply Bigfeet.

Sorry I must have hit the wrong key(s) - The card has 8 gigs of DDR5 VRAM on it.

The card that was in there was an old diamond card - a Radeon R7-200 card that I think had 1-2 Gigs of RAM on it. I haven't tried connecting a different type of cable to the monitor when this happens. I do have plenty of spare VGA cables, but not sure if I have a DVI kicking around. Do you think the issue is with it being an HDMI connection? If so I'll switch it out fast...

It's was kind of a hunch. I was going to say, if you were connecting to a tv via hdmi, and windows update was replacing your video drivers, I've had issues with the tv not receiving a signal because it was resetting the resolution to something the tv didn't recognize. But that was an old hdtv too. If windows updates is replacing the video drivers, and you have windows 10 pro, there's a pretty easy way to stop it. If you have the home version it's a little more difficult (I'd only recommend doing if you are comfortable editing the registry). https://www.windowscentral.com/how-disable-automatic-driver-updates-windows-10

If the driver being replaced isn't the issue, then I'm with davehc. There's obviously an issue with the card. That's not normal behavior.

 

[Regedit32]

I'll give the Windows key + Ctrl + Shift + B a try when it happens again - out of curiosity, I'm assuming I do this at the black screen, but if nothing happens, do I do this and then power it off/turn it back on? Or?

It should reload the driver automatically, without the need to reboot.

If that does not work, then you'll have to continue with your current method of resolving issues, until someone else has an idea that will work for your case.