A few games now fail to launch with the message: "This program requires a graphics card and video driver which support OpenGL 2.1 or ES." The problem started shortly after downloading and playing Balatro through a game launcher. I have AMD graphics drivers and tried updating them several times, but the installation finishes with a message saying something went wrong or that Windows could not complete the update. I'm not very comfortable troubleshooting computers, so I'm unsure whether this is a hardware problem or a software and driver issue. What should I try next?
3 Answers
This is usually a graphics-driver problem rather than the game itself. Since the AMD update is failing, check which graphics card Windows detects first, then download the matching driver directly from AMD’s support site. During installation, choose the clean or factory-reset option if it’s available. Restart the computer afterward and test the game again.
Windows may be interfering with the AMD installer. Run Windows Update, including any optional driver updates, and reboot before trying the AMD installer again. If that still fails, remove the existing AMD display driver with a driver-cleanup utility in Safe Mode, then install the correct driver for your exact graphics-card model. Make sure you download the driver for the actual GPU and not just the computer’s motherboard or processor.
First confirm that your monitor is connected to the graphics card rather than an unused motherboard video port, if your computer has both. Also open Device Manager and check under Display adapters for the AMD model and any warning icon. If the AMD card is missing or shows an error, the issue is probably the driver installation; if the computer only has very old integrated graphics, it may not support the OpenGL version required by these games.
I’ve tried updating the drivers several times, but Windows reports that the installation did not finish correctly. I’m not sure how to do a clean installation.