Black screen after Windows 10 update, is there a driver issue?

ShadowCodeR · 20 Feb 2019

While this problem might have been resolved a while ago, I'm still not too sure if what I did truly fixed the problem. Here's what happened chronologically:

Around three days ago (18th February), my Asus laptop was working fine without any unusual behavior. I did recall seeing an update before I shut it down at night, so I did the update until it shut itself down.
The next day (19th February), the laptop went black screen after I went through the login screen (automated login), but it somehow resolved when I accessed the safe mode and disabled the automated login.
Yesterday (20th February), the laptop ran just fine until I put it to sleep and it refused to respond at all when I woke it up. This is the time when I had to use the power button to shut it down and turn it back on. The black screen came back, but this time it was before the login screen. When I tried hard-resetting a few times, the laptop could sometimes boot into the desktop but I had to wait for 15-20 minutes to get past that same black screen. When it did boot, the text would sometimes disappear and the whole laptop ran very slowly.

After that last part, here are the things I did to resolve and the results:

I uninstalled one of the display drivers (the Intel one) and restarted, but it resolved nothing at all and I had to hard reset again.
I tried using SFC while booting in safe mode with command prompt, but the scan either failed or found nothing wrong.
I uninstalled the other graphics driver (the NVIDIA one), but the driver didn't came back when I restarted the laptop. This actually caused more issues with the missing text as every pop-up messages and the taskbar text were completely wiped out.
I left the laptop overnight until I checked this morning after a new update came up last night, but the desktop icons were also missing their text labels.
As a last resort, I downloaded the latest NVIDIA driver from my phone and moved it to my laptop so I could install the newest version of the driver. The driver was installed without any issues and the laptop ran the way it used to be when I shut it down and turned it back on again.

After everything is resolved, my conclusion is that the update is causing the issue with the graphics driver. But my question is, is this really the case? I really want this to be the 'permanent' solution because I don't want to go through all that laggy laptop issue anymore.

If needed, my laptop is Asus X450J bought around September 2016, Intel core i7 with 8 GB RAM (originally 4, I added 4 more around 2 years ago). The NVIDIA driver is GeForce 940M version 337 before uninstalled and currently 418. Sorry for the long post, but please let me know if there are any other information needed.

Thanks.

Caledon Ken · 21 Feb 2019

Hi ShadowCodeR. Welcome to the TenForums @ShadowCodeR

What you described and certainly your fix would lead to the conclusion that indeed this was a video driver issue.

Windows and Nvidia both want to keep your drivers up to date and this can lead to unexpected issues in my opinion.

You can disable Nvidia in GForce Experience settings. Windows by following this tutorial Option 4

Enable or Disable Driver Updates in Windows Update in Windows 10

As you read this forum you will see a number of references to DDU which completely remove Video Drivers, registry entries, software etc for all the popular makes.

https://www.wagnardsoft.com/

This does a better job than a manual removal, for sure it is quicker.

I would also suggest you keep copies of the latest nvidia and intel drivers that work. I say this as with each Feature update, like 1809, Windows will load the latest drivers in their libraries. This can lead to issues.

Finally I would recommend you use a tool like Macrium Reflect to make regular System Image backups so you can simply restore after a questionable update. It is Free, reliable and used by a wide range of members.

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

I have my windows and programs in one partition and my data in another. Then I create a full system image Tuesday morning.

Ken

ShadowCodeR · 22 Feb 2019

Thank you for the reply and the warm welcome :)

I was about to mark this problem as solved until I turned it on again a few minutes ago and the laptop gave the signs that the graphics driver reinstall isn't the only problem. I forgot to mention that the laptop also froze randomly for no apparent reason and it happened again that I had to hard reset it again a few times. At the time of writing this post, my laptop had just been hard resetted after it froze exactly at startup and it froze again when I was trying to access this site from Chrome. The screen went black again for a few seconds until it came back to my desktop with the taskbar not responding to anything. It resolved itself after a few seconds, but I have the feeling that the main reason for the issue isn't resolved yet. Especially when some of the text went missing again.

This is seriously driving me crazy for the past few days especially when I have a deadline every weekend. Is there anything else I can do to permanently resolve the problems created by whichever buggy windows update without resetting the whole PC?

EDIT: the freezing comes back every time I use programs which requires rendering 3D stuff, which is a very big problem because I have to work on 3D related projects.

EDIT2: sorry for the number of edits. The freezing sometimes occur and sometimes it doesn't when I use those programs. Not to mention that the program sometimes shows up as a window with nothing but black background, so I had to close and restart them while hoping that they'll work when I reopen them. The problem is so randomized that it's hard to keep track of the actions done to cause those freezing and black window issues.

Caledon Ken · 22 Feb 2019

If you got the new DCH drivers for intel and you manually uninstalled it states this will cause system instability. Not saying you did but just what has been posted on their site.

Since it happens on 3D we are back to video... and possible memory but as this just started more likely video.

I would boot to safe mode and run DDU. Follow their directions. Then install your new nvidia driver. Run for a while. Try one of your #D programs. See what happens. If issue see what reliability history is reporting (click start, type reliability history). Check out errors after you clean installed your nvidia drivers. I'm hoping Intel will install when you reboot.

ShadowCodeR · 23 Feb 2019

Not sure if I want to use a third party app to fix things, but I'll consider it once I'm out of other options beside a clean install (very much avoiding this).

The laptop actually worked fine until I woke it after leaving it to sleep for more than 2 or 3 hours. It ran fine for the first few minutes until everything went extremely slow and the laptop froze once again. I'm trying to see if I can actually login to check the fast boot since it might be the cause for the random working/freezing. I remembered uninstalling intel driver manually and restarted when prompted and the fast boot probably had a role in here that prevented the driver from being installed correctly on restart.

Edit: nothing seems to be working at the moment, but I might have found the problem from the reliability history, dated on 19th. It seems like for some reason the bootres.dll file or something like that is corrupt. This error only pop up at that day only, but the graph was around 1-2 in reliability since then (either caused by the corrupt file or the fact that I got impatient too much when the laptop lags or freezes). I'm going to look for a solution to this and give an update whether it works or not.

ShadowCodeR · 24 Feb 2019

Not sure why I can't edit my previous post, but here's the recent update:

No more blackscreen occured, but instead the laptop becomes very slow on boot that sometimes it'll freeze for 5-10 minutes. When I can check the Task Manager, Chrome is mostly using the disk that its active time reached 100% for a few minutes. As if it wasn't everything, text from various menus started disappearing. The ones I've found were missing text from the Task Manager, right click menus, command prompt, etc. Seriously, I need help to resolve this! This is very annoying!

Caledon Ken · 25 Feb 2019

Make a system image with a tool like Macrium Reflect. Make boot media for Macrium and test.

Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect

This gives you the ability to restore your system to this point. You can use other tools just not Windows Backup or System restore.

Run DDU. Apply your video drivers.

ShadowCodeR · 26 Feb 2019

I'll try that when my laptop can log me into the desktop again normally, assuming the free version won't wipe any of my files or apps.

For now I'll somehow try to boot into safe mode to create a restore point and uninstall the intel driver again, but using DDU this time. If it still doesn't work I'll wait for the October update fix or the next update. With fast boot off, the future update SHOULD be able to install normally and fix this issue, right?

Caledon Ken · 26 Feb 2019

Can't say. The feature update is a replacement but this is Windows and it does seem to have a mind of its own. With each feature update windows does replace drivers so fingers crossed.

Helmut · 26 Feb 2019

You interrupted the update processes, which you should leave until it is done, can be many hours. Many black screens and timers, twirly dots for that, surely you must know by now.

If you interrupt it and fiddle about with video drivers, uninstallers etc you may make it even more difficult, trying to fix non existent problems.

With an Optimus Laptop you need to keep both videos drivers working. Windows updates has done that for 5 years on mine without any problems. The current reliability history has been 9-10 for over a month, in fact better than any time for 5 years.
This on the supposedly bad boy 1809 update.

Neither video driver was updated during that 1809 update. Sometimes there is one during one of those major version updates sometimes in between, however they go by almost unnoticed merely a dark screen for few seconds.