HP envy X360 freezes randomly with different coloured screen each time.

[Jessicajil]

Ever since I got it a year ago, the laptop has randomly frozen with a coloured screen (different colour each time). This has got steadily worse. I have all the things which have been suggested for laptop freezing (drivers, cleared cookies, prefecth, temp files, run HP diagnostics etc. etc., and, each time, I think it's going to be OK, but after a bit, it starts again. I got a local computer chap to have a look at it and he thought it was a faulty graphics card, but I thought it might be software clash because it's so random. The thing most likely to set it off is to try to open an .avi file, but it happens in the middle of all kinds of different software running (Word, Power Point, or Explorer) I decided to copy everything off it to do a re-instal, but it even crashed when copying my pictures off.

If I leave it running for any time, I will find it has done a restart when I get back to it.

I bought it on the 25th May last year, so I don't have much time to get this sorted before I agree with the computer chappie,  give up and return it.

[Huffer]

Did the "chappie" run any diagnostics on it? There is a built in app for testing the video card. Tap esc as you power up then F2 then component tests and run the ones for hard drive, memory and video at least. 

[Jessicajil]

No he didn't, I got the impression that the 'chappie' didn't know much more than I do? Which is why I didn't trust his solution? But I have already done as you suggested, and everything 'passed' even when I did the extensive testing?

[Jessicajil]

The reason I suspect the graphics card is that it most often happens when I using a program involving images like Photo, or Corel Paint Shop Pro, or videos (although it can happen totally randomly). Also I don't get a blank screen but a coloured one, sometimes it looks like the one you get when the diagnostics are checking the card with random coloured dots all over, otherwise it's one of the primary colours usually (possibly always) and never a black screen.

[Huffer]

The diagnostic test would pick up bad video memory or any other hardware fault with the graphics chip so I would venture to say what you have is a driver issue. Can we have the exact model number so we can know exactly what hardware you have? 

[Jessicajil]

Im not quite sure which is the model number? Is it 15-bq1xx I am attaching a photo of the screen I got when I did the  f10 solution suggested elsewhere on this forum. I also re-installed the graphics card driver. 

[Huffer]

It will take a while for the picture to get past the review by the moderators. So now what does device manager show for the "display adapter"? We need to get you to install the correct HP video driver. 

[Jessicajil]

It says AMD Radeon(TM) Vega 8 Mobile Graphics 

[Huffer]

Ryzen/Vega AMD systems have been having some video issues:

https://www.dirtriverdesign.com/how-to-improve-hp-envy-x360-stability-amd-ryzen-2500u-vega-8-graphic...

Look at the article above. Follow the steps for browser settings and driver updates. You also did not say whether you have updated the BIOS which is something you should definitely do:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/swdetails/hp-envy-15-bq100-x360-convertible-pc/1685...

[Jessicajil]

I have found one strange thing, and it's possible it is the cause from what I have found on the internet. Under sound video and game controllers there was one called WsAudio_Device with a yellow warning triangle. I looked to see what it said under driver which was 'Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52).'  I tried updating the driver but it said the one I had was the most uptodate. After reading what it said on the internet that it might contain trojans and is not part of Windows, I deleted the driver and the item disappeared from the Device Manager. I re-started and it hasn't re-appeared.  I hope I haven't deleted something I shouldn't have.