New
#1
Repeated Crashes and Boot Errors Apparently Caused by Driver Updates
(Also posted yesterday on Tom's Hardware--no responses there so far.)
I have an exactly one-year-old Asus notebook (X555DA) running Windows 10. A little more than a month ago my laptop after a restart was slow and certain pages and programs refused to launch, despite nothing abnormal appearing in Task Manager. I also started to have issues with booting. The problem went away after I reinstalled Windows.
Then the other night, while my wife and I were watching Netflix, the machine abruptly froze up. It wasn't totally frozen, but it was functionally unresponsive. Eventually I forced a shutdown. It restarted okay but moved very slowly, much like had happened a month ago. I tried to update the display adapter drivers (AMD Radeon R6), and got an abrupt/quiet restart. Boot-up stuck, and startup repair failed to fix the issue. I was able to do a system restore back a number of days, and despite a slow start I had a lot of functionality back; but there was a bit of stuttering and Google Chrome completely refused to launch. I tried to update the graphics driver again, or uninstall it, and the same thing happened as before. It happened again when I tried to update an audio driver (Conexant), but not several others. Finally I reinstalled Windows. It came up quickly, and for a few minutes everything looked fine. Then presto, I got a black screen, and the cycle was started over again. Naturally, one of the first things Windows did after the reinstall was run drivers updates, so I'm not convinced it's a hardware issue; but I am not very experienced with computer repair, and have exhausted what I know to do.
I did get a BSOD a few days ago (I forget the code), and I followed an online fix that involved making a change to the "Standard SATA AHCI Controller" driver. I have also run virus scans with Malwarebytes and Avast that turned up nothing. My system is currently slow but apparently stable--I seem to have staved off those sudden shutdowns after login by ending the automatic driver installation task and turning off automatic driver updates. It was most recently trying to install "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.3, Graphics Adapter WDDM2.0 - AMD Radeon(TM) R6 Graphics" (failed, because I stopped the process).
I purchased the laptop through Amazon and I think it has a warranty, but I cannot find an expiration on the warranty card, the box, or the machine. If it has not expired, it will very soon. I am also an adjunct professor and have a class starting in a few weeks, so this problem comes at a very inconvenient time, and I'd greatly prefer not to have to buy another computer so soon. I spent all of yesterday working on the issue, and any help would be greatly appreciated.