PC issues/troubleshooting help needed

Hey there everyone!
I feel like I’ve started this exact same thread on countless different forums already, but I'm back again because I'm at my wit's end
I'm dealing with a really frustrating issue where my PC keeps throwing solid colored screens at me—mostly green, but today, for the first time ever, I got hit with a bright yellow screen.
The green screen usually pops up while I'm mid-game, but today that yellow one appeared out of nowhere without a single error message or warning... just a solid wall of color, followed by the audio glitching out completely, leaving me with no choice but to force a hard reset on the system.
It’s not constant, though; occasionally, it even happens during basic tasks when I'm not even gaming...
I swear I have tried absolutely everything under the sun. I've reinstalled Windows more times than I can actually count—maybe three or four times, maybe even more—and I've run tests on my RAM and both my M.2 SSD and my secondary SSD. I've reset the BIOS, updated the BIOS, and I think I've cycled through about 15 different versions of GPU drivers, ranging from ancient legacy ones to the absolute latest releases. What's truly baffling is that I ran simultaneous stress tests on both my CPU and GPU for over an hour using various tools like FurMark and the Superposition benchmark, and the system performed flawlessly... no overheating, no driver crashes, no errors, and definitely no weird colored screens... I've even swapped out about ten different cables and tried various slots on both the GPU and the monitor, switching between HDMI and DisplayPort...
The only thing I haven't attempted yet is plugging in a different monitor to see if that changes anything, though I find it hard to believe a monitor could cause a total driver collapse, especially since the system handles heavy stress testing perfectly fine for over an hour...
Honestly, I am just losing my mind here, so any help, insight, or advice you could possibly offer would be so incredibly appreciated...
My specs are:
CPU: Ryzen 5 2600 (stock, no overclocking applied)
GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT red Devil
M.2 SSD: Adata XPG SX8200 Pro
SSD: Samsung 860 QVO 1Tb
RAM: G.Skill F4-3200C16Q-16GVKB (4x4 gb)
Motherboard: Asus Strix B450F-Gaming
PSU: Antec 650w 80+ gold

Best regards,

I suspect you might be running into some trouble with your graphics card and those AMD drivers. Maybe you could try just installing the driver by itself, without all the extra bloatware, though if that doesn't do the trick, you might just have to swap out the card entirely. Honestly, I'd probably suggest picking up an Nvidia instead, because in my experience, dealing with AMD can be such a massive headache.

I’ve actually already given that a shot, just by updating the drivers, but honestly, it ended up being the exact same issue...

boldraven11 said:I’ve already given that a shot—just swapping out the drivers—but it’s the exact same story.

I realize this might sound a bit unconventional—perhaps even a little eccentric—but you should consider installing a Linux distribution for a few days just to test the waters. It is my understanding that the Radeon drivers for Linux are often more stable than their counterparts on Windows. If everything runs smoothly during those couple of days, then we can be 99.99% certain that we are dealing with nothing more than poorly optimized Windows drivers.

Honestly, I’d much rather just roll back to an older driver version than deal with the headache of wiping the entire hard drive just to install Linux

Larry Ortiz5 said:—well, he’d certainly rather roll back to an older driver version than deal with the sheer headache of wiping his entire drive just to install Linux.

He’s running a 1 TB SSD, so there is plenty of room to carve out maybe 30 or 40 GB for a Linux dual-boot setup. That is, assuming his entire SSD isn't one giant system partition—because if it is, resizing those partitions can become quite a messy ordeal.

Is there anything actually useful in the Event Viewer, maybe a hint as to why it crashed?

Did you grab the latest firmware updates for the SSDs using their specific toolbox software?

Have you loaded the XMP profile for the RAM, or if you have, maybe try dialing the speed back a bit?

If you've got a TV with an HDMI port, you could always try plugging it into that...

It seems like there's some sort of recurring issue specifically with ATI cards; if you search for "ATI green screen," you'll find millions of results because so many people are complaining about that exact same thing on those specific models. From what I've gathered just by glancing through some forums, I guess some folks manage to fix it by tinkering heavily with their drivers, though it doesn't seem to help most people at all.

Back when I was first getting into hardware about twenty years ago, I told myself I’d never touch an ATI card again, but then a few years back, I went ahead and bought one anyway—and wouldn't you know it, the screen started acting up immediately with flickering, horizontal lines, that dreaded green screen, and all sorts of other nonsense. It turns out, if I recall correctly, that ATI messed up the 2D clock speeds, and once I finally took the plunge and overclocked it, everything actually started running reasonably well. I definitely learned my lesson, though; I think I'll just stick with Nvidia from now on.

ATI actually held their own back in the day—until AMD bought them out, and then the quality just tanked. Right now, I’m stuck wrestling with these Adrenalin drivers because my system won't even switch from integrated graphics to the dedicated GPU while I'm gaming. Also, someone mentioned Linux drivers earlier; honestly, the situation there is even messier than it is on Windows (we're talking constant firmware errors and whatnot). Long story short, I am officially done with AMD—my next laptop will definitely be an Nvidia build. And don't even get me started on their legacy policy, where they just declare a card obsolete and stop releasing new drivers for it entirely. It's absolute garbage.

Between the pandemic, being bored out of my mind, and all that other crap, I figured I’d hop on Steam and grab a game just to have something to do... you know, just to kill some time..

And get this, I buy Medal of Honor Airborne, right? It's from 2007. I know my laptop isn't exactly a beast, but hey, if I bought it back in 2016, it should be able to handle stuff from 2007, right? Surely.

Anyway, no way in hell. Drivers are installed. Tried updating them, but it says everything is up to date and I'm good to go.

I can't even launch the damn game. It stutters so hard I can barely move my mouse... it's insane. There is zero chance of actually playing this.

So I'm asking you guys, is this normal?

Here's what I'm working with:

Dell Inspiron 5795 laptop

Intel Core i5 6200u CPU
8.00GB RAM
64-bit OS

Intel HD Graphics 520 and AMD Radeon M5 335

Someone please tell me—are these graphics cards seriously such total garbage that I can't play anything... like, absolutely nothing... I've mentioned this before when I tried hooking my phone up to the TV via HDMI... the cursor lags on the TV screen too... but whatever, forget the TV... the point is I can't play anything at all...

F1 2015? Same story. No chance. Stutters like crazy, drives me nuts... and so on. Look, I don't really know much about this stuff, maybe the laptop is just straight-up trash and can't handle anything, but I honestly thought it should at least run some old games without breaking a sweat..

Is this normal... does anyone have any advice?? Maybe someone could jump on TeamViewer and fix something or I don't even know...

Please?

You might want to double-check if your laptop is actually utilizing that dedicated graphics card you have installed. It’s entirely possible that everything is just running on the integrated graphics instead.

Frank Smith10 said:I'm currently having a bit of a struggle with these AMD Adrenalin drivers, because it seems like the system just won't switch over from the integrated chip to the dedicated GPU while I'm playing games.

So, how am I supposed to check that?

placidtiger142 said:How on earth would I go about checking that?

To be honest, I haven't the slightest clue, since I've never actually owned a laptop with integrated graphics—I tend to steer clear of those things like the plague! 😁

Maybe you could try a quick Google search, or perhaps someone here with a bit more expertise might chime in with some helpful advice.

If I were forced to take a wild guess, I suppose you might try disabling the integrated chip through the BIOS or via the Device Manager, then uninstalling its drivers and seeing what happens.

Take a moment to actually read what’s printed on the packaging; there is a distinct possibility it isn't compatible with a 64-bit architecture. On paper, this laptop should handle the task without any significant friction. I suggest you consult the resources provided here and install whatever is necessary to bridge the gap.

https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Me...onor:_Airborne

Maybe just right-click the game and look for that option to run with external graphics? That should force it to use the Radeon instead of the integrated one.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot

placidtiger142 said:between dealing with the pandemic, boredom, and all that other stuff, I figured I'd head over to Steam and pick up a game just to have something to do to kill some time..

So get this, I ended up buying Medal of Honor Airborne, which came out back in 2007. Since I know my laptop isn't exactly a powerhouse, I figured if I bought it in 2016, it should be able to handle games from 2007 without much trouble.

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 5795
Intel Core i5-6200u CPU
8.00GB RAM
64-bit operating system
Intel HD Graphics 520 and AMD Radeon M5 335

Could you guys please tell me if those graphics cards are really such garbage that I won't be able to play anything at all... like, absolutely nothing..

Please?

MOHAAA haha, man, I love that game, it’s just so much fun. I usually stick to playing those kinds of titles exclusively on a Windows XP OS and never run into any issues.

By the way, that laptop is actually way too powerful for those old games, so I’d honestly suggest looking for a weaker one for that purpose, maybe something with up to 4GB of RAM on a 32-bit system. Though, if you really can't play anything at all... hmm, it might be a situation where the RAM vs HDD setup is causing a bottleneck.

I know it sounds like a pretty silly explanation, but since I'm a huge fan of games that are about 20 years old, they usually only run smoothly on hardware from that specific era without crashing. I have no idea why, and honestly, I don't even care enough to dig into it anymore. I suspect it has something to do with how DirectX communicates with the graphics cards.

For example, when I was looking for stuff like 2D Commandos, Lula Wet, or FIFA 99, I spent ages hunting for a computer that could install Windows 98SE without any problems, so it wouldn't crash right when things were getting interesting.

If you can't get it working, just shoot me a private message.