AMD Drivers Not Showing Up

Currently using a P150EM with a 7970m. While I was gaming, the computer crashed and after rebooting amd catalyst control disappeared and everything ran on intel graphics. Not only could I not switch the graphics options, catalyst control was completely gone. I see the files and the exe in the bootdrive, but it just won't boot. Afterwards I removed the amd suite completely from control panel and installed 13.4 instead but nothing shows up. Can anyone explain how to fix this or what even caused this?

Thanks,

 

There's a possibility the card has gone bad, but naturally (and hopefully), you want to rule that out.

Does the card show up in Device Manager? You may need to thoroughly uninstall the AMD driver and affiliated, leftover data in order to do a clean reinstallation. You can try Driver Sweeper for that, but there are some reported issues and conflicting arguments as to whether Driver Sweeper is as practical as it's advertised. There's also Revo Uninstaller.

You can also remove everything yourself and avoid Driver Sweeper altogether, which - in itself - is safer, but only if you don't accidentally delete something you shouldn't: how to properly uninstall ATI/AMD Software Drivers for Graphics Cards.

If you try out the steps in that link, I recommend backing up your registry first. You may want to even create a system restore point before trying any of it.

Whichever route you go, once you're done uninstalling, try reinstalling CCC.

 

I have the same laptop with the same hardware as you. You didn't say if you were running Windows 7 or Windows 8. Can you please let us know this and I'll offer some tips that I've learned over the course of time owning this computer?

In the mean time, you can try removing your backplate, removing and reseating your video card with some fresh thermal compound. Clean the dust bunnies out of the radiators while you're in there. I doubt this is the issue but it's one thing to try.

If it ends up you're on Windows 7 I can offer a lot more advise.

 

Thanks for the fast replies, I'm currently running windows 7 64-bit. After failing a couple of times yesterday, I did a full system restore of the laptop. Apparently the 7970m doesn't even show up in the device manager after the system restore. I tried searching for it but it I couldn't really find much even in the registry.

 

That doesn't sound good. So you only see one video card listed in the Device Manager? There's not a second one, even if it's disable or has a problem?

 

Yeah, all I see is the Intel Graphics HD 4000 and nothing else. I tried what you said and reseated and reapplied thermal compound to the graphics card but nothing appears. Does this mean the card is dead?

 

Seems like it to me. I don't supposed you have another same-format video card, regardless of chip or manufacturer, that you can stick in there temporarily to see if it shows up?

 

You can try going into the BIOS and resetting it to defaults and see if that helps. You can also unplug it, take out the battery and also disconnect the motherboard battery for a while. Then turn it back on and see if anything happens. I don't think it will help but it's something I would do just to not leave anything unchecked.

 

I'll try to get one from a friends old laptop and see if that works out, will report back soon.

 

Just took out the 7970m and just wanted to ask if there are any specific markings or anything physical that would indicate the gpu is fried or anything. As far as I can see there's heavy browning around one of the transistors on the card but other than that it looks normal. Also, I got a buddy whose going ot let me borrow his 675m to test if its a card problem or an even worse situation...

 

Any way you can post a picture of the browning? That sounds like either a burn mark or liquid damage, although it could be nothing.