Dell Inspirion AMD Radeon update problem

[shotgunneeley]

I have a Windows 10 Dell Inspirion with an AMD Radeon graphic card. Last night I Was prompted to update my AMD Radeon graphic card. Being the naive and trusting fellow that I am, I clicked to update and sent it through it's routine. After it finished, I rebooted the PC and now I'm getting a black screen that reads:

Display connected to a disabled video connector.

Please,
1. Shutdown the computer.
2. Disconnect the display cable and connect it to the add-in graphic card.
3. Turn on the computer.

Sounds simple enough, except the accompanying help image does not look at all like the back of my computer and all ports are in use. There is a blue connector and a black connector running from the only two cable ports on the back of my tower up to my monitor.

Any ideas?

[Brooke]

Various things to try:

-- Make sure monitor is indeed plugged into your graphics card and not into the motherboard graphics port.

-- If that doesn't work, unplug the monitor cable from your PC and plug it back in.  Unplug the monitor cable from the monitor and plug it back in.

-- If that doesn't work, power down your computer.  Unplug the computer's power cord.  Press and hold the power-on switch on the front of the case for a about 10 seconds then release it.  Plug the power cord back in and boot up the computer.

-- If that doesn't work, then more questions:
When the computer is booting up, what does the screen show -- just black then the message, or something else then the message?

[Skuzzy]

Odd, Waffle got the same thing, after an update, on his Windows 10 home system, but it has an Nvidia video card in it.

[shotgunneeley]

Thanks for the help, no luck so far.

Cable connecting the VGA port on the back of the tower (Dell Inspiron 3656, Windows 10) is firmly attached to the VGA port on the back of the monitor (Asus VX228). The cable running from the expansion-card slot on the back of the tower is firmly attached to the HDMI #1 port on the back of the monitor.

The diagram image that displays on the monitor along with the message seems to indicate I should disconnect the VGA cable from the back of the tower and re-attach it to the expansion-card slot also on the back of the monitor, but they are totally different female sizes.

When I boot up, the screen is solid black until the message and image diagram display themselves.

[100Coogn]

Are you able to boot into BIOS?
Maybe something got jacked up in there.   

Coogan

[shotgunneeley]

Nope, it won't let me get into safe mode. When I boot on the computer, the screen is solid black for about 30-40 seconds (no dell logo, no user login), then the display message appears. It's like the intended AMD Radeon software update I ran was incompatible with my  actual AMD Radeon card.

I talked to Dell tech support for about 30 minutes running through some plans. Was in the middle of plan D when we got cut off, going to break for lunch now and will resume later.

[Bizman]

Take the Radeon card off your computer. Plug your monitor into the motherboard video output. You might have to remove a cap but I believe your computer has a built-in video circuit.

You should now be able to boot although the image quality can be poor. Don't bother fixing it, this is temporary.

Once in Windows, restore your system to an earlier state as per this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options/Restore from a system restore point.

After having done the system restore, shut down your computer and put the Radeon card back. Check for updates, don't install the suspected one now if it's offered.

[Brooke]

Cable connecting the VGA port on the back of the tower (Dell Inspiron 3656, Windows 10) is firmly attached to the VGA port on the back of the monitor (Asus VX228). The cable running from the expansion-card slot on the back of the tower is firmly attached to the HDMI #1 port on the back of the monitor.

You don't have both a VGA cable and an HDMI cable connected between your monitor and computer, though, correct?  You have just one cable (HDMI) going from the HDMI port on your video card (not the motherboard) to the HDMI port onyour monitor, correct?

[100Coogn]

Take the Radeon card off your computer. Plug your monitor into the motherboard video output. You might have to remove a cap but I believe your computer has a built-in video circuit.

You should now be able to boot although the image quality can be poor. Don't bother fixing it, this is temporary.

Once in Windows, restore your system to an earlier state as per this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options/Restore from a system restore point.

After having done the system restore, shut down your computer and put the Radeon card back. Check for updates, don't install the suspected one now if it's offered.

I'd try this.  May want to pull the CMOS battery out for about 5 seconds too. 
I had to do this once, when I overclocked my CPU a little too much.

Coogan

[Brooke]

Odd, Waffle got the same thing, after an update, on his Windows 10 home system, but it has an Nvidia video card in it.

What was the solution?

[shotgunneeley]

Take the Radeon card off your computer. Plug your monitor into the motherboard video output. You might have to remove a cap but I believe your computer has a built-in video circuit.

You should now be able to boot although the image quality can be poor. Don't bother fixing it, this is temporary.

Once in Windows, restore your system to an earlier state as per this: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12415/windows-10-recovery-options/Restore from a system restore point.

After having done the system restore, shut down your computer and put the Radeon card back. Check for updates, don't install the suspected one now if it's offered.

Ok, I did your first series of steps and managed to get back into Windows. I conducted the update on October 6th, so I figured the latest system restore point of October 3rd would be sufficient. I uploaded that restore point successfully, shut the computer down to reinstall my graphic card hardware, and booted back up with all wires attached (both VGA and expansion-card slot cables). However, the error message came back up with the same "display connected to a disabled video connector". I repeated the steps and got it successfully restored it back to September 27th settings - same result, same message on boot up.

When I was running in windows to find the system restore without the graphic card, I did not notice any blurry or abnormal video screen conditions. During this, whenever I tried to boot up without the graphic card, the computer had some security feature where I had to keep the power running for 2 hours before I could login. if it ever went to sleep, I'd have to start over - that was annoying and tedious.

So I'm still back to square one. I have all the cables attached that I had been using without problem for almost a year now. Attached is a picture of the error message:

Thanks to all for the support.

[Brooke]

and booted back up with all wires attached (both VGA and expansion-card slot cables).

Do you have two monitors? I'm not sure why is there more than just an HDMI cable from your graphics card to your monitor.

[Bizman]

Just to make sure, you have moved the monitor cable from the internal card back to the Radeon as the image suggests, haven't you? Also, as Brooke suggests, use only one cable for one monitor. Try both versions, one at a time for starters. With some luck that might do the trick. If it doesn't, do the same with the built-in connectors. If you can get an image using the internal card with the Radeon in place it indicates the latter isn't properly seated.

It just might be that the rollback can't fix some changes if Win10 has disabled the Radeon. That might be a trickier one to fix. If the above don't work, remove the Radeon and plug the cable to the internal connector again. Once in Windows, download Display Driver Uninstaller: http://www.wagnardmobile.com/?q=node/103. Reboot into Safe Mode as per https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/12376/windows-10-start-your-pc-in-safe-mode. Unzip and run DDU to get rid of all of your Radeon drivers. Reboot. Check if you have appropriate Radeon drivers in your Downloads folder. If not, download them.

Rebuild your system, connect one monitor cable to the Radeon. If all goes well, you should see a generic VGA image. If that happens, install the Radeon drivers, reboot when prompted.

If that doesn't work, try to plug the Radeon into another computer to see if it works. No need to install any drivers, just check if it boots at all. If it doesn't, Microsoft has broken your card.

[Skuzzy]

What was the solution?

I'll ask him when I see him this morning.  Seems he rolled back to the previous restore point to get it going again, but not sure what he has done to stop the bad update.

[shotgunneeley]

No, just one monitor.

I put the radeon card back in and booted up with only the VGA cable attached - message popped up. Then I booted up with only the expansion-card slot / HDMI cable attached - this time Dell begins operating with a SupportAssist window first checking my machine. Hardware scan completed with no issues, back to the user login screen seemingly OK - except for that silly 2 hour lockout feature again!

I don't understand the problem with both cables attached as i have functioned fine for almost a year with both connected. The software update is what initiated the problem, I hadn't been tinkering around with any hardware.