How to (and should I) reverse driver update

My boss has a Samsung 22" SyncMaster 2233BW monitor on his Windows 10 machine. He is currently out of town. Last Friday I backed up his system to our NAS. Nothing was unusual.

Yesterday (Wednesday), I fired up his PC and saw that the screen resolution was no longer at 1600 x 900. In fact, that option was no longer available. 1280 x 960 was the best that was offered.

First thought - Get new, upgraded driver. I searched Samsung's site but couldn't find one. I even called and was told their site no longer offers a driver for this monitor.

Second thought - google. I found a number of sites offering a driver for this monitor like DriverScape and DriverGuide. I also found mention that they tend to install garbage if not malware. I steered clear.

Third thought - Windows update. I looked at the update history and found that a driver update was indeed done last Friday. It's called "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc - Display - 7/25/2017" and was "successfully installed" that Friday.

I'm wondering if (1) could that update have screwed up Samsung's monitor driver and (2) how do I roll back that specific update?

Any thoughts.

Thanks in advance,

Terry

Yes, that update is likely the cause. Monitors do not generally need any drivers, the resolution is controlled by the video adapter driver.

How to uninstall and prevent reinstall of unwanted driver updates in Windows 10:

https://www.howtogeek.com/223864/how...on-windows-10/

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/d...-on-windows-10

thanks jdc.

i followed the how-to-geek link and their directions. unfortunately, that advanced micro device update does not appear in the uninstallable list.

:(

You could try a System Restore to a date prior to the date when the update occurred.

Alternatively, if the update number showed when you viewed the installed updates, you could try manually uninstalling it.

Links:

https://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?t=1217819

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...(v=vs.85).aspx

The following command line should work (replace the xxxxxxxxxx with the actual update KB number):

wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:xxxxxxxxxx /quiet /norestart

You should also make sure to exclude the monitor and the video adapter drivers from future updates using one of the links below:

https://www.howtogeek.com/302595/how...dware-drivers/

https://www.howtogeek.com/263851/how...cific-drivers/

https://www.laptopmag.com/articles/d...-on-windows-10

I did a system restore to last Friday. Monitor back to 1680 x 1050 actually.

There is no KB number next to the driver update as there is with all the non-driver "quality" updates so I followed the how-to-geek and created a registry key to prohibit future driver updates. There are no other peripherals connected to this PC except printers and if needed I can always to to the manufacturers' sites to update those.

Thanks again, JDC. I'm crossing my fingers hoping this stays fixed ;)

Terry

Glad you got it fixed (before the boss discovered it).

Gotta love Microsoft's helpful "updates".

Sorry for my late reply to this thread. For any kinds of driver updates I use this source https://windowsmaximizer.com/driver/updates/ I found lots of drivers in one place. And I am happy because I don't have to pay anything. All of them for free. LOL!