Graphics Card

[christo095]

Over the past year I have experienced what I am being told is called "artifacting"  My screen freezes and I see a checkerboard pattern of some colors across it.  To get out of it I end up having to power off the machine by pushing and holding the power button and then restarting it.  Sometimes when the machine boots back up it works fine and other times I have to do this process multiple times in a row before the system is stable.

A friend suggested that I get a new graphics card to remedy the situation.  I purchased a MSI Radeon R7 240 card but everytime I have tried to install it I end up with an "Error 182 - AMD Installer cannot properly identify the AMD graphics hardware" screen.  The associate at the store I purchased from suggested that maybe my motherboard would only accept an HP graphics card and not another manufacturer's card.  I know that the machine is not the latest and greatest but it works for what I need so I'm not ready to dismiss it just yet but I'm also not willing to sink a ton of money into it as it is closer to it's twilight.  

[WAWood]

@christo095 

Don't listen to that "associate" because HP does not make graphics cards!  So, it would stand to reason that an HP PC would have to allow other graphics cards!

While it could be the card, it could also be the monitor -- so I would swap in a different monitor and see if the artifacting continues.  IF it does, then it's probably the card.

That card originally came out in 2013 --making it at least 6 years old, and when it came out, it did not have Win10 drivers.  But even so, the PC should boot up with the card installed and even get you to a desktop before having to install drivers for it.

It probably does NOT have good Win10 AMD driver support, so you should check online for drivers from MSI for Win10, instead of going to AMD for drivers.  Here's their webpage where you can get the drivers:  https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/support/R7-240-2GD3-LP

Good Luck

[christo095]

Thank you for your reply WAWood.  I appreciate your idea that it might not be the graphics card, it could possibly be the monitor.  I'll keep that in mind.  I followed the link you provided and that takes me to MSI's website to download the driver.  When I click the download the driver link on their page it takes me to AMD's site to download the driver, which is where I got the Windows10 driver.  This PC does boot up using the onboard graphics card and not recognizing the MSI card as far as I can tell.  After downloading that driver again it still doesn't resolve the problem, I still end up with the same Error 182 window after the driver installs.