Green Screen of Death

Twice now I have gotten a green screen that forces me to shut my computer down with the power button. I have Googled the problem and see a couple of things but nothing that seems to do with my computer. (One was a bout a "preview build" and one was about youtube.) It just turns green with no error message or anything. Tonight it happened while I was here at GameBoomers and tried to open an excel spreadsheet. I don't remember what I was doing the other time it happened.

Is this something I should be overly concerned about? Just curious really.

Which computer is this happening on. Have you tried CTRL/ALT/DEL?

I've never seen this before, but it sounds like something to do with your video card.

Check that the monitor cable is plugged in firmly on both ends.
Open the computer case and check that the video card is seated properly in its slot (assuming it's a desktop).

As Draclvr says, it does sound like something to do with the video card. How old is the card?

I couldn't find much out there about the green screen issue. This link talks about it happening when you are playing a video. One of the suggestions is to update your video card drivers. Is this on your Windows 7 or Windows 10 computer? Is it an Nvidia graphics card?

https://www.thewindowsclub.com/green-screen-playing-videos-windows

I found this and PM'd it to oldbroad, earlier :

https://www.howtogeek.com/396895/did-you-know-windows-10-has-a-green-screen-of-death/

It doesn't sound like what's called the green screen of death because even if oldbroad were running a preview build, there are no error messages. From Mad's link



It does sound like it could be a driver-related problem similar to what Draclvr's thewindowsclub.com link is referring to. Even though the "GSOD" happened with an Excel spreadsheet and not a video, it could still be driver-related.

If this is a recent problem, check to see if your video drivers were automatically updated recently. If so, you may want to go back to a previous version of the video drivers -- or possibly re-install the current video drivers (in case they somehow got corrupt).

Yes, the GSOD seems to refer to an insider preview build and contains the same error message as the BSOD. Which doesn't appear to be oldbroad's problem.

Okay, thanks all! This is in my new Windows 10 computer so it had better NOT be an actual problem!!!

And Jenny, correct that there is no message. I just wasn't sure what to call it and that's how I Googled it.

I'll check my monitor cable for sure since I do turn the monitor from time to time to use with my XP computer. I don't know about drivers. I have almost never in all the years of owning computers, updated drivers because I get too confused with it.

If the monitor cables are good, then you may have to bite the bullet and check the driver version. Like Jenny said, it could just as easily be an automatic driver update that has an issue.

I never knew I could check on my driver versions using Task Manager. But I tried it and it worked. I did have to make Task Manager full screen to see it. In TM, click on the Performance tab and then click on GPU on the lower left.

Thank you Draclvr. Got that info and wrote it down. Don't know what to do with it .

You can find your video card driver version.

Yeah, I got that but don't know what to do with it.

I have AMD Radeon RX 5700 Driver Version 26.20.13003.1007 Driver Date 9/10/19

I've been to the AMD Radeon Drivers pages and mass confusion sets in once I'm there.

One thing it states is be sure your operating system is up to date. I don't think I have the latest version of Windows 10 at the moment. Then there are software updates shown (which I haven't done.) Is that the same as updating my drivers? Etc., etc.

This is where I turn and run!

What version is your Windows? Right click on the white WIndows button on the lower right and they select System. You should have Version 1903.

You could try the latest recommended drivers, which are the
Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.2.2 Recommended (WHQL).
https://www.amd.com/en/support/grap...radeon-rx-5700-series/amd-radeon-rx-5700

But yes there is that warning about "latest version of Windows 10"


Do you know which version of Windows 10 you have?


No, software isn't drivers, though drivers can affect software.

If you don't want to update to the "latest version" of Windows 10, there is an alternative if Excel and while web browsing are the only two times you see the green screen -- disabling hardware acceleration in the programs where you see the problem is an alternative to playing video roulette with video drivers.

I found this site, which tells how to disable hardware acceleration in Excel
https://www.solveyourtech.com/how-t...ation-in-microsoft-excel-for-office-365/

That might prevent the green screen in Excel.

And these instructions tell how to disable hardware acceleration in a web browser
https://www.thewindowsclub.com/disable-hardware-acceleration-firefox-chrome

Disabling hardware acceleration in games can make them look uglier, but with Excel and web browsers you probably won't see a difference.

Drac, I have version 1903 but I think the latest version is 1909.

Thanks Jenny, I will take a look at that excel thing. I saw the firefox thing in the earlier link. My office spreadsheets do give me trouble at times but I was thinking that was because some are copied over from Office 2016 into the 2019 version. Sometimes if I have multiple spreadsheets open, one will lock up (can't type anything in it) until I go into a different open sheet and then back to the one that locked up.

I saw that software update but don't actually see a driver update then. That's why I asked if it was the same. I didn't think it was but... This is the correct starting page isn't it: https://www.amd.com/en/support

What about that auto detect option?

Anyway, this green screen doesn't happen all the time so I won't really know if something works or not to stop it.

Or what about under Device Manager - Update Driver? Does that actually work?

You don't see a download button to the right of where it says
Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.2.2 Recommended (WHQL)
on this page?
https://www.amd.com/en/support/grap...radeon-rx-5700-series/amd-radeon-rx-5700

I think this is a direct link to the download
https://drivers.amd.com/drivers/Win10-Radeon-Software-Adrenalin-2020-Edition-20.2.2-Mar5.exe

You can check the Release Notes here
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-20-2-2


If you follow links from there you should be able to get to the page I linked.


You can use that if you want.
I try to avoid remote computer scans myself.


It may work.
It's usually recommended to get drivers directly from the manufacturer website though, in case Microsoft messes up.

I haven't gotten version 1909 of Windows yet. If there are important updates, make sure they are installed

The link Jenny provided takes you directly to the driver for your specific video card. You one released in March 2020 is recommended, while the one just released in April is optional. You can always use the auto-detect. That will install a small piece utility on your computer which will detect your video card and download and install the correct one.

Jenny will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but I "think" using driver update in Device Manager just installs Microsoft drivers. I always get my drivers from the manufacturer website.

Okay, a lot of stuff here.

Jenny, the only download button I see is for the software update (adrenaline 2020 edition) which you're saying is not the driver update. "No, software isn't drivers, though drivers can affect software. "

This is where and how and why I get confused. I do get software notifications through my Radeon Settings but haven't done them.

Draclvr, I know you've always recommended to go to the manufacturer website. In device manager you click on your card, you would think it would look for that particular card. (Just saying.)

I don't disagree! And I might be wrong!

I can definitely see why you would be confused at the Raedon website. They are conflating software and driver updates. But as Jenny says, the "Download" button with download a driver update.

And if you get update notifications from Raedon, that's when you should have been downloading and installing updates.

Well, I only see the download button for the software update, not for a driver update.

As far as I know neither AMD nor Nvidia offer drivers as a separate download from the video card software anymore. The software includes the drivers. This may be because they don't want people using the older software with the newer drivers. You need to update both at once to ensure they are compatible with each other.

When Microsoft has a "software update" that can be for almost anything -- not necessarily anything to do with drivers. Drivers interface between the operating system and the hardware parts of the computer. Software can be 100% application layer (what the end user sees). Or software can can help the end user interface with drivers to tweak video card settings.

So, I am not missing something on that page? It is just that "software" update that I should download?

If you want to update the drivers, that's the download I'd recommend.
I'd also recommend reading the release notes for these drivers/software which is here:
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-20-2-2

The above webpage also has links with instructions for installing and uninstalling ATI video drivers/software, specifically

Uninstalling
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/rsx-uninstall

Installing
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/rsx-install

If the only time you get the green screen is once in a while with Excel or a web browser, you may want to try just turning off hardware acceleration in those programs before trying to change driver versions.

Thank you Jenny. I will check out this info tomorrow when I am more awake than I am now and will try to keep track of all this information for future use if I just go with the hardware acceleration thing. I do know my software version number is different than my driver version number so I'm not sure how that all works.

Do I actually have to uninstall and install? Can't I just update?

I really need a computer guy!!!

I have never uninstalled and then installed a new one. I just update my video card drivers. But I use Nvidia video cards, so maybe AMD Raedons are different? Can't say I've ever heard of uninstalling a video card driver first. If there were no driver, wouldn't the video card stop working? I'm a little puzzled myself, but I'm sure I'm missing something!

Always try the easy way first -- as long as the update is coming from AMD and not Microsoft.
If updating doesn't work, or you end up having worse problems after installing the new driver, be aware there are things you can try to clean up the problem.


I've used both, and both have at some point required a clean sweep of the drivers and starting fresh when having video driver conflicts. That meant uninstalling the drivers, then running a driver uninstaller or driver cleaner program hosted or linked to by the video card company, and finally once every vestige of old drivers was removed, install a fresh version of the drivers.


I'm surprised you've never heard of it. I've definitely had to do it -- both uninstall the old drivers and run the driver cleaner. I haven't had to do it recently, but then I don't play as many games as I used to either, and Microsofts now blocks features of games they used to allow on their older systems (including XP).


No. What you get is Windows default driver when there's no video-card-specific driver included with Windows. Back in the Windows 95/98 days that would mean 640x480 resolution and 16 color graphics if your video card was newer than your version of Windows. If you had an old card, like a Matrox Mystique from 1995, Windows 98 might have a driver for the card and you could even keep using that driver. Now you get much better looking graphics as the Microsoft default, even if Windows 7/8/10 doesn't have drivers for your specific video card.

So, just to update. I never did do that Excel hardware thing (yet). No green screen again (yet).

I did get another notification through my AMD settings app so I did that update and it did update the driver apparently as well as the software program. There is a new driver number and driver date when I look in Task Manager. I did get a scare though.

I was prompted to restart my computer which I did but when I tried to open the app to look at it, it would not open. Also, my Malwarebytes would not open. I tried to remain calm and went into a Match 3 game and while I was in there Malwarebytes popped open. When I got out of the game I did a scan which took twice as long as usual. I still could not open the AMD software app. I tried coming to Gameboomers and it did not want to load properly. I tried to open my Outlook mail. It would not connect and update. So, I restarted my computer again and now all is well! Whew!

Rebooting often solves issues like that. Glad it worked for you!

Those of us who work on computers say about 95% of problems can be solved with a reboot! Glad you are back up and running, oldbroad!

So, I just got this green screen again. This time I was playing the Windows 10 Solitaire. Had to power off and back on again. I see the time is around the same time as when it last happened. Coincidence?

If it only happens twice, it might be coincidence.
If it always happens around the same time, I'd start suspecting scheduled Windows services or scheduled checks for software updates.

I haven't really found a good explanation of what's going on.

Yeah, I'm going to try to monitor it (the time) though I do wish it just wouldn't happen at all! I hope it's not something wrong with my computer.

Hope you get this sorted, oldbroad

Got the green screen again while playing Solitaire just like last time on May 28th. I could hear the cards turning when I clicked my mouse but had to do the hard shut down again. Almost 2 hours earlier this time than the prior times.

I am not real crazy about this computer! I think there's something wrong with it.

I wonder if there's a problem with Windows 10 solitaire that's causing this.
It's not the same as the previous versions of solitaire that were free with Windows 7 and earlier.

That wouldn't explain why it also happened when opening an excel sheet at least one time. I just hope it's not something with the computer. I paid way too much money for it to be defective.

There's a new set of video drivers from July 7, 2020 at

https://www.amd.com/en/support/grap...radeon-rx-5700-series/amd-radeon-rx-5700

Release notes here
https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/release-notes/rn-rad-win-20-7-1

Is there anything listed in Windows Event Viewer that might relate to the green screen crash?
Here's how to use Event Viewer if you forgot or don't know:
https://www.dummies.com/computers/o...0/how-to-use-event-viewer-in-windows-10/

Did you ever do the hardware thing Jenny suggest and that I also found before? I would definitely keep those drivers updated.

Thank you! I'll have to get myself into computer "work" mode (which you know I hate).

I also found a post that said both the video in the CPU and the Nvidia card were enabled. That might be something to check. I can't remember how to do it, but I'll see if I can find it. I think you look at Display Adapters in the Device Manager and see if both your video card and the CPU are listed. The fact that you can still hear sound sure makes it sound like it's video card related.

The only thing the Event View shows right around that time is: User Device Registration 360. I looked it up - don't understand any of it anyway.

I will update my drivers, however, since this only happens once a month or so (thankfully no more often at least at this time) no matter what I do, I'll not really know if it was helpful or not.

Just assure me it doesn't have to do with this: "f you see a green screen of death (GSOD) on your PC, that’s a sign you’re using an Insider Preview build of Windows 10. The problem could just be a bug in the unstable build, although it could also be a deeper problem with your PC’s hardware or drivers. You won’t know for sure until you go back to a stable version of Windows 10." which is talked about in the "How to Geek" link way back in this thread. I don't get any message with the green screen though. (I know you've reassured me of this before but do it again please!)

Edit: Drivers updated!

No, rest your mind that isn't it. The old Insider Builds would never be installed on a PC by a builder. You actually have your disk from eCollegepc from the installation of Windows 10.