HP Envy h8-1420t desktop PC display adapter driver issue Windows 10

[BigBear91]

I have an Envy h8-1420t since 2012 and I have upgraded it to Win10 for a year or two now. 

It has been running just well until a few weeks ago. In the middle of browsing online, it suddenly went black screen. Subsequently I have had trouble to boot it up, after the HP logo it always goes to black screen. I tried all kinds of recovery options. The best I can do was booting up in safe mode, copying my data out and reinstall the system. 

The system has the AMD Radeon 7670 graphics card. After reinstalling the system, I have trouble to update the latest windows update, it will go to black screen and after hard reset, it will showing undo the changes. Also, whenever I tried to install the latest driver I can find (released Aug 2015) on AMD site for the graphics card, the same black screen will happen and installation would fail. After a couple times, now my monitor is showing broad vertical red bars on the display. 

I am getting to the point that I would like to give up the attempt to fix it via software since all the symptoms points to some issue with this old 7670 graphics card. I would like to upgrade/replace it.  My questions now what are some of the available graphics card on the market that I can choose for this desktop platform? I have looked at this site, I couldn't find a compatibility list. 

Lastly, if there is any pointer how to fix the driver issue to avoid hardware replacement, I would very much like to listen as well.

Thank you very much

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

This is most likely what the problem is.

Your PC's Radeon HD 7670 is a proprietary card, and only the drivers on the support page will work.

So the only suggestion I can offer regarding trying to fix the graphics driver problem without replacing the card, would be to try this:

Download and save, but do not run the Windows 8 AMD graphics driver from your PC's support page.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp61001-61500/sp61321.exe

Download and install this free file utility.  The 2nd file at the top of the page is for 64 bit.

https://www.7-zip.org/

After you install 7-Zip, right click on the AMD graphics driver file you saved.

Select 7-Zip from the list of items on the menu.

Have 7-Zip Extract to:  and let it extract the file into its folder name (sp61321).

Once that is done, go to the device manager.

Click to expand the Display Adapters device manager category.

Click on the AMD Radeon HD 7670 graphics adapter.

Click on the driver tab.  Click on Update driver.

Select the Browse my computer for driver software option, and browse to the driver folder that 7-Zip created.

Make sure the Include Subfolders box is checked and see if the driver installs that way.

Then restart the PC.

If the graphics still isn't working right afterward, you will have to replace the graphics card.

Your PC has a version 8.xx BIOS, so you should be able to update the graphics card with a non-proprietary model.

Before installing a non-HP video card, you have to first go into the BIOS, enable legacy mode and disable secure boot.

See this link for the settings to change...

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03653200/

I am not familiar with the supported graphics cards for HP consumer desktop PC's.

I am asking @wb2001 to weigh in with suggestions for a suitable graphics card replacement  if the graphics driver trick doesn't work.

He has a much more extensive background on upgrading consumer desktop video cards than I have.

[wb2001]

@Paul_Tikkanen 

Thank you for the glowing comment.

@BigBear91,

If the suggestion by Paul does not work, you should evaluate your system.

Does you unit support motherboard graphics, ie, does it have a VGA port. If so, remove the graphic card, and test the system with this program. .  Please understand that although you unit is Nov 2012, all the graphic cards were pre-Sept 2012.   All these cards are BIOS, not the newer standard called UEFIvBIOS. 

What is the Boot environment? is it BIOS or UEFI.  I ask this cause your unit did have BIOS version 8.20 or 8.21.

The h8-1420t was a CTO (configure to order). The PSU could be 300W  460W, or 600W. This would determine the advice I would offer.  The HD 7670 is a 66W card.

                                                                    Card W              PSU

• GeForce GT 620 (1 GB)
• GeForce GT 630 (2 GB)
• GeForce GT 640 (3 GB)
• GeForce GTX 660 (1.5 GB)        140W               450    (1) PCIE 6 pin
• GeForce GTX 680 (2 GB)            195W               550    (2) PCIE 6 pin
• Radeon HD 7570 (1 GB)
• Radeon HD 7570 (2 GB)
• Radeon HD 7670 (1 GB)                66W        your PSU ??
• Radeon HD 7770 (2 GB)
• Radeon HD 7950 (3 GB)             200W             600W   (2) PCIE 6 pin

If you have the 600W PSU, comparing the higher end NVidia vs AMD cards

[BigBear91]

Thanks @Paul_Tikkanen for the prompt reply.

I tried your solution and unfortunately it didn't work for me, the system went restart into a black screen in the middle of installing the driver program.

So I guess it is time to think about replacing the card.

[BigBear91]

 Thanks @Wb2001

 I will look into this as I am not in front of the home PC right now. 

 A couple thingsI noticed:

1) It is running BIOS v8.10 when I checked the system info in BIOS. Would this work or I need to upgrade BIOS?

2) In the BIOS, I did see the option to enable "integrated graphics card" (and I did try, and it shows up in the device manager) but from the back of the PC, I don't see any VGA port. I haven't opened up the PC yet. It sounds like there is one IGC in there I can use while I am exploring upgrading/replacing the discrete graphics card.

 Thanks again. 

[wb2001 · Accepted solution]

@BigBear91,

Were you able to run it within Safe mode? If so, did you run the program I sent to verify boot environment? Lets not be concerned about the BIOS, for now. It needs to be stable.  Your unit has DVI-I: 1 and DVI-D: 1, shown here.

My most humble apology.

[BigBear91]

 @Wb2001,

 Finally,  as you have shown me, my system does have an integrated graphics card and DVI port. Only it was by default covered up with a rubber cover with the warning "Do Not Remove".

 So what I did was removing the cover, connected the IGC's DVI port to my monitor, in the BIOS, enable the integrated graphics card, make it the primary boot VGA option, boot the system, reinstall the system.

 So far so good, the system is stable for a couple hours now.  I will think about how to deal with the discrete graphics card later, at least I got my system back for now.

 For your question, I did verify my boot environment is EFI.

 Thanks again for all the help.

[BigBear91]

@Wb2001,

I have been running on the IGC for my system for a while. It works but I still intended to upgrade the graphic card if possible.

My PSU is 300w, you have any suggest on the newer graphic card I can pop in there in this system?

Lastly, I still think the problem has been a driver issue for the AMD Radeon 7670 in windows 10. As in my experience, every time I reinstall the system, I have a window of 20 to 30 min the system functions just fine. Until the system tried to update devices etc, it breaks down. Anyway, I am giving up figuring out the problem, if replacing a new graphic card will solve this problem once for all. I am willing to do it.

Thanks for all the help.

[BigBear91]

Hi,

I bought a Geforce GT 1030 and boot it up (disable the secure boot first). It works great. So indeed it seems like the old AMD 7670 card is too old to keep up with the system, and time to upgrade a new graphics card.

The lesson here has been "uncover" the integrated graphics card on this platform while the discrete graphics card went down.

Thanks for all the help, @Wb2001 @Paul_Tikkanen