AMD Radeon Mobility 5xxx and Windows 10 just NOT working with me !

First I would suggest to install TeamViewer and set it for unattended access (fixed password). This is to be able to control the laptop remotely from another computer connected to the same network. Now that you can see the screen properly with TeamViewer, you can try some drivers until you make it work again. Did you keep the working driver before the disk died? In most AMD devices, if there are two versions Catalyst and Crimson, I have better compatibility with Crimson. So go and download latest Crimson instead of Catalyst and try that.

Doesn't seem to help even with extra display. You can change settings even when it's black, I have edited registry values too while it was black, it's just a bit difficult.

I have tried about 6 different drivers from 7, 8.1 to 10 drivers, crimson included, and all work 100% until I reboot, which is when I only get a dark screen and no brightness controls work. Registry fixes or installing old key control aTK drivers don't help.

I suspect that Windows Update messes with your drivers and installs something else. So when you restart you get problems. Install latest Crimson and then use the Show/Hide tool to hide any suspicious driver updates so they won't install. Also try changing the resolution to something compatible with your screen. Maybe after restart Windows try to use an unsupported mode.

The driver is correct, it doesn't get changed...and they all work Ok other than the brightness gets zeroed when changed, and at boot time it changes. But any other change I try to make does the same.

Ie.if I disable the Radeon from device manager and it reverts to MS generic pnp driver, the lights come back, then when I install any other driver for it, it works fine as long as I don't change brightness or any other value. Often simply opening the catalyst control center is enough and it goes black.

Sometimes it boots to windows fine except really dark and I can try changing registry values etc.but often it freezes at boot and shows a black screen - but with backlight! Only, then it crashes windows completely. At best there is a mouse pointer, nothing else. Only rolling back to basic ms drivers makes it work.

I'm actually starting to think the real reason the machine kept freezing and stuttering was not the hard drive I replaced after all but the display card has gone bad.

Well I went back to w7 and original drivers and win7 home...we'll see if it tries to force 10 upgrade on it again. Have to decline it then. In 7 everything works real well again.

Well, you can go to Control Panel, change to Large icons to see all controls. Now find Power Options, click on Change Plan Settings for current power plan and make sure the brightness is set to maximum for both battery and power supply before restarting. If you again have a problem, you should consider repairing the VGA. It cost less than replacing the whole motherboard and if it is a good laptop (not too old) its worth it.

Yes, none of the brightness or power settings whether via registry or control panel or catalyst settings had any effect other than at best completely crash the display driver.

I guess there was only one really w10 compatible driver for the card back in the day but no longer available.

There are a few 5xxx series drivers from ati for w10 but if you look at compatibility list this particular 5470 model isn't listed.

Oh well changing the card would be too much of a difficulty and not sure if even possible on this, at least to anything surely better or more compatible. As far as I can see the CPU and display card share the same housing / cooler complex and looks like it'd be pretty challenging to change it.

I will just settle to using w7 and never update it. Can't win them all, right? It's just one machine with not a lot of use. We have 5 other laptops anyhow.

Don't download latest AMD driver, go to Drivers + Support -> Drivers + Download Center and then scroll down to the MANUAL selection. Then select notebook graphics, HD 5000 series, Windows 10 32-bit or 64-bit and you should see this link: Legacy Try the Crimson driver first. I have installed this driver on a couple of notebooks with AMD Mobility HD 5000 series graphics and never had any problems. Of course I always set brightness to maximum since I don't like dimmed screens. Maybe that is the reason.