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#1
Uninstalled drivers with DDU, now Windows won't boot
I previously posted several months ago on the forum after a ton of Blue Screens of Death and crashes/restarts, and eventually everything was solved.
Recently I started having problems again. I got steady and frequent crashes while gaming (Elite: Dangerous, World of Warcraft, and 7 Days to Die, mostly). So I decided to uninstall my AMD drivers (16.4.2) with Display Driver Uninstaller and try a newer set. I used DDU and uninstalled the AMD drivers in Safe Mode, restarted, the ASUS boot screen came up, the dots started spinning, and after a few seconds it froze (kind of like this pic I found online).
After a lot of trial and error I established that the computer won't boot up to the Windows login screen if my Radeon HD 7970 is installed. If I remove the card and plug the HDMI back into the onboard video, everything's fine and I have a functioning computer...but not one I can game with.
I've tried:
- Uninstalling/re-installing the same AMD drivers I used before.
- Installing more current AMD drivers.
- Installing AMD drivers before installing the card.
- Installing the card before installing the AMD drivers.
- Reinstalling Windows 10 ("reset this PC" option).
- Updating chipset, VGA, USB, and onboard video drivers available via my motherboard manufacturer's website.
Things I noticed:
- This started shortly after a Windows 10 update.
- Windows Updates continued to redownload/install the 16.4.2 drivers after I would uninstall them; it kept doing it even after I uninstalled the card.
- The card had zero issues up until I uninstalled the drivers, outside of frequent crashes while gaming (which I figured might just be a software or driver issue), and now it's like it isn't being recognized during the boot process which causes my computer to freeze.
I have yet to try:
- Reinstalling or flashing the BIOS. I already know I have the most recent BIOS, and messing with the BIOS is a last resort for me.
- Formatting the SSD and reinstalling Windows 7 or Windows 10. I'm getting tempted to try this, especially with Windows 7; Windows 10 has been kind of a mess for me ever since I upgraded to it.
Any help or advice would be hugely appreciated.
(Edited for detail and clarification.)
Last edited by Jaffo; 08 Oct 2016 at 18:03.