asus N56DP laptop with amd a10-4600m with Radeon HD 7730m.. I CANNOT figure this out

static10101

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Apr 25, 2017
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510
Hi, sorry if this is posted in the wrong place and please be patient with my lack of expertise:

At some point in the past year my laptop encountered troubles which seemed to result from a Windows update (or moving to Win10) in which my display was totally screwed up. I have read so, so many posts on this in the past couple weeks, and tried damn near everything mentioned, however I have hit a few roadblocks:

Drivers that I am to assume are for my product either cause it to crash when installing, or display incorrectly in device manager (ex: 7660G instead of 7660G+7670M or 7700M series alongside that, or not (Microsoft Basic Display adapter is usually there). I have either not found the correct combination or I am doing this incorrectly. At one point, the driver disc that came with this let me install AMD UMD and I thought I was making progress.. eventually that was undone, and even by reinstalling Windows than this (the AMD installer on the disc that came with laptop) crashes whenever the second display is being set up. The catalyst 16.2.1 drivers seem to work, in both installing and not crashing my system, but I cannot get crossfire working (no options in CCC.. radeon setting usually errors that no AMD hardware exists).

My BIOS has hardly any options (Aptio). The ASUS support that I talked to was not helpful at all when I mentioned that resetting everything to default and reinstalling windows was something I had literally just done a couple hours before calling. I did it anyway, and at 30% installing he told me that this would fix everything, have a nice day, goodbye. From what I gather, I need to change an INIT DISPLAY option that I do not have.. I have no graphics options at all. Turning on the csm option gave me another option to enable Legacy PCEx oprom (which I enabled as well as disabled secure boot).. if I set administrator password in security, will this open more options? Asus support refused to discuss any of this with me.

I should note that I have both Windows 10 and 8.1 installed and have tried under both systems.

All of the guides I have read include something that screws up for my combination of hardware.. install "x" package will crash windows, etc. The crash always seems to happen when the second display driver is trying to setup. Of note, if I uninstall them and start the amd installer before they reappear, the installer seems to load better, but it needs those display adapters present or it doesn't include the option to install new display/radeon settings. Also, about guides.. the links are typically outdated, the most promising of which wanted me to install a set of ccc version 12 drivers (one of which was referred to as CAP 3) and I cannot find these.. other sites with them tend to link to amd website, which does not have them anymore (nothing earlier than 13).

I have a monitor nearby that I have tried plugging into the laptop, as though I really know what I am doing here :p Could someone please help me out.. I could be doing the wrong drivers altogether I suppose, or am really not understanding how to properly "overlap" different driver packages. I am unclear as to whether or not, or when, I need to use the monitor port on my laptop for setting up dual graphics, or if this is something I am even supposed to be doing at all?

Another thing.. when everything is wiped with DDU, should one of the ms display adapter be having errors? (error 31: The driver trying to start is not the same as the driver for the POSTed display adapter.)

Annnd: The drivers that crash Windows show up correctly in safe mode in device manager.

ALSO - I did put this in the shop about a week or two ago, and they "fixed" it, Windows unfixed it, they "fixed" it again and it reverted right there at pickup in front of them. Instead of saying "lets try again", they did not charge me for the second attempt and told me that it was probably broken??? I cannot afford to take it somewhere else or buy another system right now, and unfortunately I am way out of my league in knowing whether I am trying to fix something that is broken, or something that just has to be setup in an exact nature that conflicts with locked BIOS's and Windows driver control (which I have set to not let it install devices and have windows update turned off). Help me, I beg of you.

Laptop model: N56DP
AMD A10-4600m 2.3Ghz with Radeon HD 7730m
8GB memory
Windows 10 or Windows 8.1 (partitioned)
 

Calvin7

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Feb 19, 2013
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All drivers should come from Asus support.
https://www.asus.com/us/Notebooks/N56DP/HelpDesk_Download/
Windows 10 is not a supported operating system on that model.

On Microsoft update you can right click on updates you don't want to install to deselect them.
 

static10101

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Apr 25, 2017
5
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510
Thanks for replying. :)
I did try those. Also in Windows 8.1. Crashing during installation, then bsod, but they do appear correct in safe mode. I HAVE gotten them to work on both OS at some point.. it seems like I am doing something duing the courses of my trials that is changing something in Windows, such that microsoft display adapter just keeps trying to override. It makes me wonder about it being damaged, however I have gotten it to work before (and clearly the service shop was able to twice.. each time Windows undid their work.. I think if they had set windows update and the driver settings for me than this would not have happened? I am having a hard time recreating whatever it is that I did in the past to fix this, and at this point I have tried SO many things that I am beyond confused.

I just need to get it back to where it will even let me use the ones you mention.

Lets say I reset everything right now to defaults (bios and reset Windows 8.1).. I would turn off windows update and the driver installation option. Now, do I need to go into bios and somehow let it know that I have 2 adapters to set up? Does plugging into the monitor port on the laptop force this, and if so, how do I utilize this to install a driver specifically to it? And not overwrite that when I shutdown, unplug it, restart it, and try to install the next adapter? Are both supposed to just autodetect with everything set to default? I thought that was the issue myself and everyone was having with this particular combination..

My problem is that I do not know if I am even following the directions in guides right, I guess. It says Install 12.6, then 12.6 embedded, then CAP 3, or whatever.. so am I just doing this in windows, on the laptop's display, never using the port on the side for an actual monitor? Just install, reboot (or not, depending on the instructions or that guide), install next, etc? I don't need to be doing any of this with certain bios settings set or anything? Also, I cannot find those particular drivers anyway. But yeah, even being able to use the asus ones on their site or from my device disc that came with the laptop would be nice.
 

static10101

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Apr 25, 2017
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I can get it to say that 7760G is working or 7700M series is working, but not together, unless in safe mode, then 7760 changes to display how it should, but Windows will not load. This is with asus drivers force installed through device manager. That asus driver is the only one that seems to call it 7730m, but only 1 adapter is being installed, and I cannot find anything that will work alongside it besides ms default display adapter.

Another thing.. if I uninstall the ms adapters and load autodetect (or any new (version 17+) driver sets) REALLY fast, before they reload, the installation program seems to want to be working right.. no hardware config errors, etc.. detects current driver, gives me options for update. Doing the above removes my option to install a display driver though. Just pointing this out, since it appears as progress to someone like me who doesn't really know what they are doing (and on that note, I decided to try and force ms display adapter from reloading by temporarily renaming it just to do the installation.. which kind of works, until VGA adapter jumps up to display and takes over for microsoft display adapter.. and then the installation seems okay, but rebooting blue screens and I have to go into my other OS to rename ms display back.. I know this was stupid, but I also know I am going to keep trying things and reinstalling Windows if I have to until I get this working).

To me, it looks like in Windows 10 I can get 1 half of the card working or not, and in Windows 8 I can get the other or not. So it doesn't really seem like it is broken? SEEMS is the keyword.. I dunno if the OS mattered or not.. the theme seems to be I can either get 1 device working or the other. Just not together, and not how radeon settings or CCC would like so I can see all of the options in them (like crossfire, etc).

UPDATE: I tried windows update again, and it froze up on me.. coming back into windows, it said one device was working, the other not.. I removed the not working one, and device manager did some stuff, then told me that hardware had changed and needs restart. This is what it did back when it messed up in the first place.. before I click okay, I want to post what I saw.. four monitors showed up under monitors.. both display devices say amd products and that they are working, but only one actually is once you look at the properties (one says drivers are not installed). Screen flashed again and now it just says 1 monitor. Guess I will click okay and hope I don't get into a bigger mess than I am right now..
 

static10101

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Apr 25, 2017
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So here is what I have done:
Ran DDU and tried each of the three chipset drivers offered by Asus, running DDU between each and trying with and without compatibility mode for both Windows 7 and 8. It crashes during install everytime. Something to note tho.. running the installer in compatibility mode gives me a TON more options with the oldest, the one I think matches the version on my driver disc from Asus. I unchecked display driver and let it install everything else, which were things I have never seen present on the AMD installer at all up to this point (amd media foundation encoders, amd steady video plug in, smbus usb 3.0 host controller, smbus usb 3.0 hub, usb filter, quick stream, VISION, AMD APP SDK, CATALYST Installer, SATA Controller, HDMI, and Display being the full list of options, the first 5 things not showing up in the other versions of Asus chipsets).

Next I installed crimson 16.2.1 and device manager shows AMD Radeon HD 7660G with a caution sign and Microsoft Basic Display Adapter with a caution sign as well.

UPDATE: I really do not think that legacy drivers work with my product, at least not for the 7700m (the Desktop 7700 series has 7700m drivers that work anyway). So I put on 15.11 chipset and crimson and I have a working 7700m with a working Microsoft Display Adapter. Now I must find a version with 7660G that matches this? (embedded drivers give me a working 7660G and working Microsoft Display). Am I at least on the right track here?
Also, windows update might have sorta worked? I thought it fixed it (everything displayed as it should and said it was working.. for about two minutes.. then i think it did ANOTHER amd update and broke it.. I am going to try to let it do the first update and block the second). Also, everything that I have tried doing in Windows 10 so far, I have also tried doing in Windows 8.1.
 

static10101

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Apr 25, 2017
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510
I wiped the system entirely, removing both Win10 and 8.1 and installed Windows 7.

First thing I did was install the Asus chipset drivers and everything seemed to be working great!
Problem is, I can only keep things stable for a little while, or if I do anything at all "intensive" then I get a blue screen error about Windows trying to reset graphics driver. Disabling the 7660G device has at least prevented the crashes, but now I am pretty much back to where I was at on the other OS. Going to to try updating Windows a little bit at a time, as well as the AMD drivers (this worries me, but I really would like for this thing to function as close to fullest as possible.. if that turns out to not be possible, let it be known to anyone else with this very same configuration that I am having the best results by far in Windows 7.. at least I can change the resolution and use the HDMI port).