My wife and I are new to using PCs, and after about four or five months of normal use, the computer began showing an AMD Crash Defender message during startup saying that the display driver could not load and asking us to send an error report. Device Manager also shows the graphics card with a yellow warning triangle. The computer still seems to work normally for gaming and everyday use, so we're unsure whether this is a driver problem or a failing graphics card. What steps should we try to fix it?
2 Answers
Since the PC is still functioning, the warning doesn’t automatically mean the graphics card has failed. Open the device’s Properties in Device Manager and check the error code under the General tab. That code can help identify whether the issue is a driver conflict, a failed update, or a hardware problem. Also make sure Windows and the AMD software are fully updated, and check that the graphics card is seated properly if the problem continues.
This usually means the graphics driver installation is damaged or Windows is having trouble loading it. You can try uninstalling the graphics device and its driver in Device Manager, restart the computer, and then install the latest driver directly from AMD. If the normal reinstall doesn’t work, using AMD’s cleanup utility or Display Driver Uninstaller in Safe Mode can remove the old driver before installing a fresh copy.
So I probably don’t need to replace the graphics card right away? I should try uninstalling and reinstalling the driver first? Everything still works normally, including games.