[Rand Kocher]

I use a laptop as part of my home theater system connected through its HDMI port and always have ever since I bought it a few years ago. But since the last Windows 10 upgrade (the November upgrade to version 1511) several of the Windows apps have stopped working. Now it seems Windows has the behavior of attempting to display several of its apps on a monitor that doesn't exist. A momentary crash occurs possibly because a program thread is attempting to get system resources and paint to a surface that isn't there.

If I disconnect the computer from the theater system or change the Windows display settings for "Multiple displays" to "Duplicate these displays"... rather than (how I have it and how it should be) "Show only on 2", all of the apps work fine. With the "Duplicate these displays" setting, not only do I have to have the laptop's monitor powered up when I'm not using it but even worse, I have to drop the graphics quality of my home theater TV down to the laptop monitor's capability.

Am I overlooking something or do I have to wait for an update for this?

 

[spunk.funk]

What is the make and model# of your laptop?
Go to the manufacturers support/download drivers site and type in your make and model# or service tag #, choose your Version of Windows 10 (eg) 32 bit or 64 bit, and download the Video driver for your model.

 

[Rand Kocher]

It's an Asus U56E that originally came with a 64bit Win 7 OS
I upgraded to 8 when you could then to 10 (64 bit home edition)
The Intel HD Graphics 3000 adapter has an Intel driver dated 5/27/2015, which Windows says is best driver available.

Like I said, everything was fine until I did the Nov upgrade then Win apps like File Explorer, Control Panel and several others momentarily, for about 30 seconds, crash windows until I guess it discontinues that thread. The screen goes black for a second then everything is back to normal but the app never launches.

I've done the SFC scan which didn't find any integrity violations. Doing a DISM check doesn't seem necessary since the system has no update problems. According to the Microsoft Security scan and an Eset scan there's no virus or malware problem.

It really is as I describe if I unplug the hdmi cable, everything is fine and if I plug it in and set Windows to use monitor 2 it crashes when I try to launch File Explorer or several other built in apps.

My home theater system, as far as the computer is concerned, is a Denon receiver and a Sony TV, both of which seem to be perfectly recognized and accounted for in devices

 

[spunk.funk]

The driver that is loaded is a driver that came from Windows Update, the previous driver may be more compatible for the laptop, since it was specifically written for the laptop video chip.
In the Device Manager, Expand Display, Right click the Intel Graphics driver/Properties/Driver/Roll Back Driver. (you can always roll it back to the present if that doesn't work) See if that works better.
If not, try downloading the original Windows 7 64 bit VGA driver from 2011 from the Asus Drivers site. U56E | Notebooks | ASUS Global
You can also try to find a more updated driver by learning http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f19/how-to-find-drivers-419050.html

 

[Rand Kocher]

spunk.funk, Thanks a lot for your help! I think you're right about the graphics driver being the problem. I don't have a roll back option for some reason, but I did download the original from Asus I just didn't try it yet.
I was on an Intel support site and as people posted their problems with Win 10 and the Intel adapter, the Intel rep kept repeating that Intel has no plans of supporting Win 10 with that adapter.
I'll post back with what luck I have with the old driver.

 

[spunk.funk]

Installing the older drive should help, if it doesn't work, it will just say that this driver is not supported by this Operating System.