Graphics driver issues

Windows 10
So, I picked up this HP 15-rb 031 laptop about 15 months ago.
The thing is, the screen brightness—and even the windows themselves—looks all dim and washed out, almost like someone turned the lights down low.
A buddy of mine told me it’s probably just because the Graphics driver isn't installed properly, so he suggested I go grab the driver for it.
I headed over to their official website and downloaded the Graphics driver
just like he said. But here's the kicker: after I installed it and rebooted, the brightness looks awesome, but now the screen keeps cutting out! It just goes black, throws some random error message, and keeps flickering on and off constantly.
Once I uninstalled that driver, the screen stopped cutting out, but yeah... we're back to that super dim brightness again.
Does anyone have any clue how to fix this mess?

So, how’d you grab those drivers from the HP site? Did you hunt them down manually or just let the site auto-detect everything for you?
I ask because under the Graphics driver section, there’s a whole bunch of different versions depending on your exact processor and which specific flavor of Windows 10 you're running.
From what I can tell, your HP is rocking an AMD Dual-Core A9120 Apa, which belongs to the Stoney Ridge family (an older architecture), so you really want to make sure you're hunting down the absolute latest driver available for it...

Windows 10 Home
So, I started by running the automatic driver detection, and it basically told me everything was fine—no upgrades or installs needed, right?
But then, I decided to manually grab the first driver on the list, and man, things went south fast. Now my screen keeps cutting out—just constant black screens or those annoying blue error screens.
Everything else seems to be running smooth, but there's this one huge headache: the screen brightness is super dim, and it’s happening to all my windows too.
The weird part is, if I roll back to that specific driver, the brightness goes back to being perfect and it's actually a blast to use.
I’m just totally stumped because we have three other laptops at home that are way older than this one, and every single time we reinstall Windows on them, the OS just handles all the drivers automatically without any drama.

That’s exactly why I mentioned your processor generation. Since you're running Stoney Ridge, the first one isn't going to cut it for you. Bristol Ridge is actually the second generation, and it lists the specific generation right next to each one...
Maybe give the fifth one on the list a shot? It's the 2020 edition, so it looks like the freshest option available...

Dammit, I just tried installing that fifth one from the list (2020) and right in the middle of the setup, I get hit with "The driver is not supported on this OS version (10.0.10240)."

Man, AMD always does this thing where they patch together support for older GPUs... and then they "recommend" some basic Windows 10 driver that barely works. It’s like, sure, you get an image on the screen, but that's about it. Nothing else.

Maybe give the AMD driver
another shot?

By any chance, have you checked to see if there isn't some weirdly specific profile set to that range? Like, maybe it’s just some standard default setting or something?

It’s like there isn't even a profile set up at all
I tried a full wipe and reinstalled Windows from scratch, but honestly? It didn't fix a damn thing.

Since you were running Windows 10 Build 10240—basically the old 1507 version—installing the latest drivers was never an option for you anyway.

Now you’re claiming you did a clean install of Windows.
Which version exactly?
If you aren't sure, there is a simple way to check:
Hit Win+R, type winver, and hit enter.

If you're on version 21H1, just grab 26.20.11008.1007 Rev.A from the site dated Feb 13, 2020.

Let me clear things up a bit. I picked up this laptop about 15 months ago and everything was smooth sailing until I did my first Windows reinstall (Windows 10 Home)
Ever since that reinstall, the screen brightness feels like it dropped by about 20%, making it a total pain to actually work on
So, we went ahead and tried five different versions of the Graphics driver, straight from their official site
The weird thing is, right after installing any of them, the brightness looks perfect, but then every five minutes, I get hit with a blue screen that says:
Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We're just collecting some error info, and then well restart for you

It’s driving us absolutely crazy because we can't seem to get a hold of the manufacturer via email to explain what's going on
Every time we try, some automated virtual chat just loops us in circles asking stuff like, "Did our response resolve your issue?"

Honestly, I'm at my wits' end here

It's a 100% hardware issue. That's probably why the last guy who had this laptop didn't even bother installing the drivers properly.

Noah Miller6 said:Since you were running Windows 10 Build 10240—basically the old 1507 version—installing the latest drivers was never an option for you anyway.

Now you’re claiming you did a clean install of Windows.
Which version exactly?
If you aren't sure, there is a simple way to check:
Hit Win+R, type winver, and hit enter.

If you're on version 21H1, just grab 26.20.11008.1007 Rev.A from the site dated Feb 13, 2020.

That’s exactly it—he’s essentially trying to force modern drivers onto an ancient version of Windows, which rarely goes smoothly since newer drivers are specifically optimized for more recent releases. As for the brightness issue, he should just head into the PC settings under system and display and slide that bar all the way up.

So, this is what I'm seeing
Microsoft Windows Version 10.0 (Build 10240}

A buddy of mine says he's running:
Windows 10 Home X64 19H2 OEM ESD en-US
Version 1909 Build 18363.592

Do you think having that specific setup would actually help me get this installed?!

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/soft...d/windows10ISO

So, this is basically for updating my current version

You can also grab it from here:

https://tb.rg-adguard.net/public.php

👍

Alright, just tell me which version I should grab from this list here

Windows Final / 21H1 / Windows 10 / English / x64.iso

Nailed it!
So I just finished installing this "Windows Final / 21H1 / Windows 10 / English / x64.iso" and man, everything is running smooth as silk now—even the screen brightness looks spot on.
The best part? This version went ahead and grabbed the right Graphics driver for me automatically.
Thanks to All

Glad I could be of some help; I actually happen to be running that exact same version myself. 😁