Did I ruin my graphics card with Win10 upgrade?

I was running win7 service pack 1 and upgraded to win10. I have a 5850m graphics card. I guess the video driver was unstable and was getting messages that it stopped working and recovered a few times. So using the amd upgrade utility, I switched my drivers to the latest beta driver for win10.

My laptop then would no longer boot into windows, so I reverted back to win7. The laptop functioned normally for a day, then would no longer load windows. I tried rolling back the driver for the 5850m , but no luck. Windows won't load normally.

Computer runs fine in safe mode. So, did I brick my 5850m or can I get it to work again? Would this be a good time to upgrade my graphics card? If so what would be the easiest upgrade path? I'm not very savvy with this stuff, but can follow directions. Any and all advice appreciated.

Tom

 

You could just have a thoroughly corrupted driver. Try using DDU from guru3d http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html to remove every trace of all driver whilst in safe mode. Then install latest non-beta driver 15.9 or 15.8 I think.

 

Did you rollback or reinstall Windows 7 manually ?

 

I rolled back, I didn't reinstall win7 manually. Fatboy, thanks for the advice. I tried several times in safe mode to wipe the video drivers, but upon reinstallation of video drivers, the laptop won't boot into windows. I tried the drivers from amd's site, as well as from dell's site.

Where do the drivers for the video card reside, on the hard drive or on the graphics card itself? If I get another 5850m, will I have this same problem? Based on the sequence of events I do feel it's a corrupted driver issue, but if the drivers are on the hard drive, as I suspect, then a new video card probably won't make a difference.

 

I'd recommend you to reinstall Windows manually. The drivers are stored on the HDD, the vBIOS is what resides in the VC.

 

Thanks, I was trying to avoid that, but at least it will save me the cost of a new video card!

Tom

 

Is it advisable or even possible to do a clean install of win 10?
If I cannot, when I install win 7 should I do it from a file I download on the internet, or should I use the win7 disk included with my laptop?

 

It is advisable and can be done from the control panel. Search for Refresh Windows.

 

So I formatted and reinstalled win 7 twice, the video card is bricked. I guess I somehow broke it on the win 10 install. I just ordered a 5850m from ebay, along with some thermal pads. I hope after my install it solves my problem. Do I uninstall the ATI drivers , or since it's the same card can I just leave them installed? Thanks.

Tom

 

Why would you stick with the same old card? The 7970M is already old and has more than twice the performance of that card!

 

Would this be a good upgrade? Any issues with compatibility?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Geforce-GTX...341376?hash=item1ea6e987c0:g:W0IAAOSwAYtWJqvJ

 

Just to wrap this thread up, I got a 5850m from ebay for $65, installed it last night and everything is working perfectly. Maybe it was just a coincidence that my video card broke after installing win 10.

Tom

 

Hi,
I'm having the exact same problem, after i formatted my drive and installed win7, it just restarted after the win logo appears.
however i'm seeking advice on whether this can be a hardware problem or not, because the laptop worked fine right before my last restart, I did get the blackscreen from time to time, but either a restart or going into safe mode fixed it. also i can currently run safe mode or a fresh win 8.1/10 64bit installation and watch youtube vids with no problems. the blackscreen only happens after i install the AMD driver(with or without catalyst).
I'm not an expert in hardware so can someone confirm if this is actually a hardware issue?