How to Reset Your Laptop Graphics Card

Most laptops use embedded graphics cards

In general, keeping a laptop's graphics card up to date ensures its compatibility with newer software, and makes the system more stable and reliable. Occasionally, an upgrade encounters an error or an incompatibility with the laptop's system and leaves the card non-functional or error prone. If your laptop's graphics card malfunctions after an upgrade you can reset it to its previous state using a driver rollback, or reset the software by removing it and installing a new copy on the system.

Instructions

Rollback

1. Open the Device Manager. Select "System" from the Control Panel and navigate to the "Hardware" tab. Click the "Device Manager" button. In Windows 7 or Vista, you may open the tool by typing "Device Manager" into the Start menu search bar and pressing "Enter."

2. Expand the "Display adaptors" menu and double click on the graphics card's driver.

3. Click on the "Driver" tab and select "Roll Back Driver." Follow the onscreen instruction and wait for the rollback to finish. This only removes the most recently installed version of the driver, and resets to the previous version.

Re-Install

1. Open the Device Manager in Windows 7 and Windows Vista by typing "Device Manager" into the search bar in the Start menu and pressing "Enter." In Windows XP, open the Control Panel and select "System." Click the "Device Manager" button in the "Hardware" tab.

2. Expand the "Display adaptors" section and double click on the icon for the installed graphics card.

3. Click the "Uninstall" button in the "Driver" tab. Click "OK" to confirm and follow the onscreen instructions to complete the uninstallation.

4. Restart the system. Depending on the laptop's configuration, you may need to restart in Safe Mode to see the interface correctly. If you use Safe Mode, ensure networking is enabled.

5. Open a web browser and download the driver software from the graphics card manufacturer's website. Save the file to your hard drive. Some manufacturer's only offer the newest version of the driver software.

6. Open the file to start the installation process, and follow the onscreen instructions. Restart the laptop when finished to begin using the driver.

References

• Windows: How to Roll Back a Device Driver
• Microsoft Support: How To Configure Devices By Using Device Manager in Windows XP