Updating drivers causes PC to output display via MoBo only

[RovakX]

Hi,

I've got some weird stuff going on concerning AMD's GPU drivers...

I've tried looking on the forums, there are some similar problems with the RX480, but I've found nothing that solved this particular case.

I'll try to be as complete as possible.

Now, I'm not a complete novice, but I'm no PC wizard either. So, any tips are welcome.

 

First the build:

CPU: A8-7600 APU with Radeon R7 integrated graphics @ 3.1 GHz (no OC)

GPU: Gigabyte RX480 4G @ 1290MHz with current driver: 17.11.1 Crimson (no OC)

RAM: 8 GB Hyper X Fury DDR3

MoBo: Gigabyte GA-F2A68HM-H

PSU: 650W from Be quiet! 

Storage: 2x Sandisk Plus 250GB SSD + 2x 500GB HDD from Hitachi, but also Apple branded!?

Sidenote: Both the SSD's have windows 10 installed on it. The problems persist on both versions.

Case: Gigabyte GZ-X1

Windows 10 x64

Displays: LG-freesync screen connected via HDMI and some ancient square Acer monitor, connected via a Display port to DVI adapter. (This config might be relevant? I don't know)

The story of how these parts came together to form this machine, has long been lost in history; idek myself, but it exists!

Did I miss anything?

 

So, what is going on with it? 

The current graphics driver installed is version 17.11.1

When updating the drivers, to anything since Adrenalin (version 18.xx.xx), at first everything seems fine, games run fine, nothing unusual. I tried the latest driver at the time 18.12.2 but also one of the first Adrenalin drivers released, with the same result.

Untill the system reboots, then everything goes wrong. When it reboots, the windows logo shows up (On the Acer screen, not even the LG one) the dual boot menu passes, then windows logo again, and then a black screen. No login window, not even a cursor. Windows didn't seem to think the system failed to boot. 

Explaining everything I tried at this point, would take ages, so let me skip ahead to where it gets interesting:

I learned that the black screen is not a black output, there is no output beyond the windows flag. I tried a lot of things, and it took me a while to figure this out: but the display signal doesn't stop, it jumps from the GPU to the unused output on the motherboard. So at this point, the PC is kind of useable, it's just running on the APU's graphics prowess! Which is horrible in comparison to an RX480 ofc.

At this point, only installing drivers older then Adrenalin with DDU seem to get the RX480 going again.

 

So here's the question: Why does the APU hijack the systems output, when there is an RX480 available and the latest drivers are installed? Do I need to tell the system to use the RX480 in some way? Is my RX480 simply no longer compatible with these drivers? If sow, why does AMD's software recommend me to update? 

 

TL;DR: With any driver since Adrenalin edititon, PC uses APU's graphics instead of the dedicated GPU.

 

 

[PineyCreek]

Is there an option in your BIOS to set the discrete GPU to primary and/or disable integrated graphics?

[RovakX]

Not that I could find. This Mobo is dirt cheap, so not many options in there at all.

[RovakX]

So, I retried this with the new 19.1.1 driver. It's a little different now, the whole "I'll work fine for 1 boot cycle" thingy is gone. When the drivers install midway the installation the screen goes black. The only way I can find to get any image is by connecting the screen to the onboard graphix output. From there I did DDU again, and just tried installing the 19.1.1 again.

 

It get's better, I was randomly browsing around the install files from anything AMD (After DDU'ing) to see if anything remained. Well, a whole bunch of files were still there. Then I came across AMDCleanupUtility.exe, so I ran it and then installed 19.1.1 again: And now my only display output is the crappy Acer display! Neither HDMI ports give any output. And I'm stuck there. 19.1.1 is installed and my GPU only outputs via display port, nothing over HDMI.