Pavilion dm4t-2100 Entertainment PC lost HD partition and recovery DVDs not installing OS

[YJK]

Thank you very much for your kind info. with details. I'll try and report. 

[YJK]

So, I reinstalled the 64-bit Windows 7 Pro using the USB drive with the image, and installed the recommended drivers in the order instructed, but got the same result:

The Intel HD Graphics Family driver is causing the PC to crash (blue screen) and I get only VGA resolution after deleting the driver (the Radeon HD driver doesn't seem to affect even it is installed - it just doesn't work. I only get Standard VGA adapter working).  When I install SP54122 (AMD) driver, I get to choose to overwrite the old files.  I'm installing this from first time to a clean OS, so it looks like SP54125 (Intel Chipset) installed it earlier.  - Just checking if this is expected.  

I also get an error message saying: "The Catalyst Contro Center is not supported by the driver version of your enabled graphics adapter. Please update your AMD graphics driver, or enable your AMD adapter using the Displays Manager. " in line with the problem. 

Apparently, the GPU chip(s) are gone bad - although those were just fine before when I unsuccessfully created a Flash USB boot disk before all this happened (with the Os upgrad box checked (I had Windows 10 automatically upgraded). I must have done something strange while doing this, which damaged hardware.  

A dumb question is, what if I install Windows 10? Bad graphics card wouldn't be resurrected, but just double checking.

I have a brand new Windows 10 Dell PC for my home use and my plan was to use dm4 as a dedicated multimedia PC connected to my entertainment system, so without the graphics card working, there is no use.

Anyway, thank you all so much for your help. Although it wasn't a complete success, I appreciate your time and effort to help me.

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

I don't quite understand what you mean by the 'The Intel HD Graphics Family driver is causing the PC to crash,' statement.

Do you mean when you install sp54122, the Intel graphics part of the driver causes the PC to crash, or you trying to also install the Intel graphics driver from the support page, as well as sp54122?

Because the only graphics driver you should install is sp54122 and not any other.

If the only graphics driver you installed is sp54122, then apparently there is a hardware issue of some kind, because that driver should install both the AMD and Intel GPU's, and not cause any issues.

If you reinstall W10, I expect the graphics won't work any better.

[YJK]

Thanks for the reply.

I meant the former, i.e., sp54122 from the link you forwarded installs both Intel and AMD display drivers, but the Intel part causes my PC to crash when restarted.  So, as you diagnosed, the hardware seems to be bad and there is nothing else to do with it.

On the other hand, I remembered I had a usb graphics adapter for an old macbook that I used at my old work to drive one of the two external monitors via HDMI and/or miniDP.  I'm not sure if it'll be good for windows, but I can check (at work).

Is it theoretically possible - even with a bad internal graphics chip - to use an external usb graphics driver to drive an external monitor (HD TV) through HDMI? 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

So, you did everything right and it is the Intel GPU that is the culprit.

With either GPU being bad, you wouldn't be able to adjust the screen resolution, etc.

So, I am pretty sure your notebook has a hardware problem, not a software one.

As far as external GPU's are concerned unfortunately, I don't know a thing about them or what their capabilities are.

I would think if it has to use the HDMI port to work, it won't work because the HDMI port probably won't get a video signal without both GPU's being installed and functioning properly.

[YJK]

Thanks again for your help. At least I can access the internet.

Regarding the external USB graphics card idea, it's not using the built-in HDMI port, but using the HDMI port on the USB adapter, i.e., the external adapter plugs into a USB port and the HDMI cable plugs into the HDMI port on the other side of the adapter.

I'm going to check if my old USB-HDMI adpater is compatible.  If not, I may or may not try to find one that works.

Thanks. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Anytime.

Sounds like that would work then.

It's only using a working USB port, so I don't see why it wouldn't work, as long as it works with Windows.