Dell Laptop Doesn't Boot unless I uninstall graphics drivers

[Matron73]

As the title says, I have a Dell Inspiron 5748, that, more often than not, will not boot properly unless I uninstall the graphics drivers. Whenever I start the laptop (or try to bring it out of sleep mode after being inactive for a bit), I'll see the Dell boot screen, then the Starting Windows screen, and then it either goes totally black, like no power at all, or it turns grey, like it's trying to start, but never goes any further. It'll boot into safe mode, and I can then uninstall the graphics drivers, and it'll start normally, and it reinstalls the graphics drivers. Works fine until I reboot again, rinse, repeat, every day.

I've tried running Windows repair, and it says there are no problems. I've tried updating to the latest graphics drivers via Windows update, via Dell.com, and even hunted down an older driver, and they all give me the same issue.I've scanned for viruses. I've ran all the startup tests, memory, hard drive, video, etc, and they all pass. I even reformatted my laptop, using the factory repair setting that you get to by hitting F8, and the problem persists.

It's just a standard laptop, so no dedicated graphics, and I just don't know what else to try. There's no video card to replace.

I've looked all over the net for help with my problem, most solutions say it's a driver issue, which it seems to be, since it boots into safe mode, but it never fixes the issue.

One more strange issue that cropped up at the same time is, under device manager, it says there are no drivers installed for my ethernet controller, which I thought was what ran my wifi, but that's working just fine. Don't know if it's related, but it is odd that it popped up around the same time.

 

[ffg7]

what windows?

 

[Matron73]

what windows?

Windows 7. I've fiddled with this thing all weekend, and can't get it right. It's been formatted, run windows repair, chckdsk, taken apart, put back together, everything but had new parts or been taken to a pro. The reformat did take care of the suddenly "missing" ethernet controller driver.

It'll be working fine, but as soon as it tries to update the graphics driver, it gets wonky again. I've decided to just leave the drivers as is, and deal with the bright screen (can't seem to dim it with the stock driver).

 

[ffg7]

did you load the motherboard drivers which include the chipset?

 

[Matron73]

I did the Dell Factory Image restore direct from the F8 menu once, and I did it again from the flash drive the laptop had me make when I got it. I've also gone to Dell.com, had it scan my laptop for drivers that need updated, and the only one it mentions needing is the graphics one, which, again, always messes me up.

 

[Matron73]

Update: I downloaded Driver Booster, to check my drivers. It found 15 outdated drivers, including the video driver, chipset driver, and a bunch of others. I let it run, and when it restarted, once again, I got to the Starting Windows screen, before going grey and going no further. I did a rollback, let it install everything but the graphics driver, and it started back up just fine. So it's either the driver or the graphics chip, and I have no idea if it's something that can be replaced.

 

[Matron73]

Bumping this back up, just to see if someone else might see and have any ideas. I still can't update video drivers at all, if I do, the laptop won't start. It runs ok as is, I just can't make any adjustments to the display, it's at the highest brightness setting, all the time. I even tried that flux program, but it didn't do anything at all, either. The display NEVER dims, it just goes into sleep mode when left idle. There's not even a setting under power options.