Display Adapter needed?
 

Hey,

I went to uninstall my AMD graphic drivers because it's been giving me errors so I thought I'd reinstall through windows updates, although there's none that I can find. Anyway, as I uninstalled it, I uninstalled the display adapter from my device manager not knowing that I did so. Do I really need it? I know it's better for games but I hardly play games at all. I just watch videos and use the audio for music and videos. I was surprised that I could still watch videos and hear anything. Curious how the videos are still working even without my display adapter. Do I still need it? I'm always having trouble with display drivers so I'd rather not deal with it if I don't need the adapter and I can still watch videos and hear the audio. Is there a situation I might come across where I really need the display adapter other than games like a black screen or something?

Thanks.

Oh, and I have Windows 8.1, not 8.

EDIT: Never mind. Shut down and started up computer and the display adapter came back and my display driver is still there now. I had an error so I was trying to uninstall my AMD driver, not knowing the driver would just reinstall itself. Hopefully I won't get another error. Seem like I always get the same one published in December 2013 (AMD Radeon HD 8400) no matter whenever I uninstall it. I know it's old but that's all my PC has been installing. I find it safer to get the driver that way because the ones from the AMD website just gives me problems. I got this one from windows updates. Shouldn't there be a newer one and installed on its own by windows updates by now?

1st you need a display adapter to see any video or even a screen. Normally it is advisable to install the latest from the manufactures website, instead of windows update. To do so you would need the model of the display adapter, which should be listed in Device Manager, if you click on the adapter then to properties. Post that and we can see if you have the latest.

Ok the issue started again so I'm here. This is the display driver listed in my device manager: AMD Radeon HD 8400. Went to the amd website and used the autodetect utility. I'm told I need to install radeon crimson relive 17.10.2 minimal setup. I looked into that and it tells me on amd's website that it's for windows 7. I have windows 8.1 and checking to see if it's compatible with 8400 series, I don't see 8400 series listed (except on mobile but I'm trying to get this on my desktop). What's up with autodetect now? So I tried the other option by giving the amd website information. Once I got to step 2, I selected Radeon 8xxx Series then step 3, I had no other choices besides autodetect and install, radeon 8500 series or not sure. I tried "not sure" in step 3 then none of the options in step 4 applies to me because I have a windows 8.1. Does AMD no longer support drivers for windows 8.1?

Then I just decided to google AMD Radeon HD 8400 and found it on amd's website! Looks like it's over a year old. Catalyst software suite released in 2015? The radeon software crimson edition beta was released in 2016? Even if I did download one of those, I wouldn't know which to download.

I had thought of uninstalling every trace of the graphics drivers I got so I can start fresh using Display Drivers utility but after googling about that, I'm reluctant to because sounds like the utility can cause more problems than help like deleting system files the DDU wasn't supposed to delete. So I wanted to try and do this without using the utility if possible. I've done this before and always had problems, BSOD and that stuff so I don't know for sure if this is going to work.

EDIT: Oh sorry, forgot to post the info you asked for. Version 13.301.1001.0 and the date was 12/20/13. I found an old thread from the amd community where I had this problem (before I thought the problem finally went away) and they did suggest getting the new update from windows updates which I did later and didn't have any more problems for a long time. They were telling me I probably have problems that has nothing to do with AMD but maybe a malware. I scan for that stuff quite often and never had a problem. Perhaps doing another scan would be worth a shot. At this time, this problem is only happening when I'm using Chrome and on Facebook.

http://www.amd.com/en-us/markets/game/downloads

Latest driver

Your graphics now sits under AMD's "Legacy" support driver. Last updated July 2015
Catalyst Software Suite 286 MB 15.7.1 7/29/2015 DOWNLOAD 64 bit or 32 bit

Options used to locate it are shown in the attached.