On hybrid graphics laptops that are rebooted improperly

Apr 26, 2010 11:29 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft has informed customers running the latest iteration of its Windows client that, in specific scenarios, their laptops may crash when deploying graphics drivers. According to the Redmond company, issues have been reported involving the installation of a third-party driver in a hybrid graphics laptop running Windows 7. The software giant explained that customers could see either blue screen errors or have the machine become unresponsive, displaying only a black screen.

Apparently, the problems can be generated by improper restarts to the systems during the integration process of the graphics driver. “A bugcheck 3B could result while installing a third party graphics driver on a hybrid graphics system under some circumstances if the system isn't rebooted when required,” Microsoft said.

The software giant is advising customers to follow the instructions presented to them by the driver’s installation wizard. Skipping critical steps, including reboots, could cause both black and blue screen error. “While uninstalling and reinstalling third party graphics drivers on hybrid graphics systems, be sure to reboot the system when prompted to do so. Doing this will avoid putting the system in an unstable state which could lead the system to bugcheck,” the company stated.

According to Microsoft, all copies of Windows 7 can be affected by this issue. Neither is any solution currently available, nor has the Redmond giant indicated that a fix will be offered to customers. Users need to simply pay more attention to the graphics driver install instructions.

“Specifically, to avoid a bugcheck: for users who uninstall third party graphics drivers, they will need to REBOOT after the drivers are uninstalled. Upon restarting, PnP installs VGA which will then require another REBOOT. Then the updated third party driver can be installed as normal,” Microsoft added.

Microsoft Windows 7 90-Day Eval VHD is available for download here.
Another Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.