Solved 7870 Tahiti LE seen as "microsoft basic diplay adapter"

The solution, in my case, with my setup, is in post three. I am leaving the other posts up as I know from searching the symptoms will be familiar to some. Hope it helps someone.

Hi there, first post, well and truly stuck. In a seperate but but related issue, I did a windows refresh install to sort out a problem and it solved the problem but metro apps like Mail stopped working, I assume a permissions/connection problem, I couldn't work it out. So, I did a fresh windows install on another hard drive, installed all the windows updates and then the latest catatlyst beta (which works on the original win 8 SSD, though I've also tried the non beta) but no matter how many clean reinstalls I do, I can't get the graphics card seen and Catalyst cc won't open. My bios settings haven't changed between removing the damaged-windows SSD and putting in the new one, so I don't think it's a bios issue. I have even installed the graphics driver for i5 3570K's HD4000, as well, on a suggestion. I have tried removing the graphics card, booting up, shutting down, replacing the graphics card. Any other suggestions at this point very welcome! Thanks.

I uninstalled the CCC beta, ran CCleaner's registry cleaner, putting ticks in only the AMD entries, selected the backup option. In Device Manager I Clicked on the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter and uinstalled the driver there, causing the entry to vanish, clicked on Display adapters Scan for hardware changes, returning me to Microsoft Basic Display Adapter. This time, I used AMD's Catalyst AutoDetect tool, something I hadn't tried before. It suggested the best driver for this device is 14-4, so I let it download that (the ones on the drop page are 14.12 ( Driver ver. 14.501.1003) as the stable and 15.5 as the beta. I let it insall and... Device manager is showing it correctly as AMD Radeon HD 7800 Series. I will reboot and see if I can upgrade it to the 15.5 beta.

No joy over-installing or clean installing 15.5 or 14.12 (14-4, according to CCC/Information is 14.10.1006) I went back to AMD's Catalyst AutoDetect tool, let it install 14-4 (14.10.1006), went to Software Update where it says Available Version 14.201.1008, tried to get it to install that but after installing and rebooting, it says I'm still on 14.10.1006 and 14.201.1008 is still there as 'Available Version'. At least I have a working CCC but I'm still no closer to getting 14.12 or 15.5beta to install on this hard drive, where it's working fine on my old install hard drive.

Any workarounds, out there?

I'm told the updater on 14-4/14.10.1006 doesn't work, it appears, as far as I can see, to just download and install 14-4/14.10.1006 again. Still trying to find a workaround.

The short-sh version and solution, in my case:-

I did a clean install of Windows 8, for once setting windows update to automatically update. I forgot to go to the app store for the Windows 8.1 update. More on that in a moment but if you have installed Windows 8 and it's update and tried to install CCC 14.12 Omega or CCC 15.5 and find that neither turn Microsoft Basic Display Adapter into, in my case, "HD 7800", do a clean uninstall of CCC, then head over to AMD for this tool which will scan your setup for the best match driver, which for some reason came up as 14-4, which is 14.10.1006. It installs cleanly. Joy. I tried then, with no success, to update to 14.12 omega (14.201.1008) and 15.5 beta. Whether I overwrote the existing setup or did a clean uninstall and reinstall, no joy, stuck with an older CCC but at least it worked.

AMD Driver Autodetect

Another day, another try. Checking through my windows update list, I noticed it hadn't updated to Windows 8.1, I had forgotten you do that through the app store. I did so. I then found that 14.12 omega and 15.5 beta work. In the end, I did a clean uninstall and install of 15.5 beta.

Or in two sentences. If on Windows 8, download the tool below and have it install 14-4. I could find no way at that point to get Windows 8 to register my graphics card as anything but Microsoft Basic Display Adapter if I tried to a clean uninstall and install of 14.2 omega or 15.5 beta.

Once I had installed Windows 8.1 update, I was able to clean uninstall/install beta 15.5. To the best of my memory, the frequent times I did a fresh install of Windows 8 through to Windows 8.1, I had no luck getting 14.2 omega or 15.5 beta to take. I hadn't at that stage used the AMD hardware scanning tool.

I hope this long series of posts help someone. There appeared to be a lot of people out there with that problem and the above is how I got to where I am, now.

I always find it a bad idea to let windows auto install updates when installing it because it installs wu drivers that you really do not want. Like audio/video/intel. Better to disable when installing, hiding drivers you want to install the latest yourself, like audio/video/chipset and then re-enabling it after things have settled down.
At this point, I would unistall everything amd and give ddu a try in safe mode. Basically uninstall, run ddu in safe mode and then installing the amd drivers as an admin (right click and run as admin even if you are one)
ddu: Display Driver Uninstaller Download version 15.3.0.2

Thanks for your thoughts , much appreciated, but that made no difference in my case, I had fresh installed Windows 8 half a dozen times without windows update drivers, it was only on the last attempt that I let Windows update auto install. Everything resolved in post 3. I did a further install on a hard drive last night to confirm the steps.

In recap. If you have a Windows 8 install DVD (I have a windows 8.1 DVD downloaded from MS since, but CCC 14.2 and CCC 15.5 wouldn't work for me with it, my graphics card remained identified as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter), install windows 8, install windows updates without driver updates, though that made no difference in my case. At that point, use AMD Driver Autodetect to to install (in my case) CCC 14-4. Then and only then, in my case, install Windows 8.1 update from the app store and then, and this is the only way it works for me on my setup, at least, you can install 14.2 Omega or 15.5 beta, even if you fully uninstall CCC 14-4 and cleanly remove all traces of it that the AMD uninstaller doesn't remove. I removed the remnants manually from a long crib sheet. I don't know if DDU would remove some additional element that 14-4 adds but I would suggest to people go the DDU route for time saved and safety, it's not a good idea to mess around with the registry if you're tired and using a crib sheet. As I say, no matter what I did, I couldn't just go straight to 14.2 or 15.5 beta, either with a straight Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 install, with or without Windows updates. I had to follow the procedure above.

I have resisted the temptation to edit the above to a few simple steps because I want to let others, who might have been through the same, know how I got to a working setup, in my case.