Driver 20/15.40.28.4501 causing Blank/Black Screen after reboot on Lenovo X1 2015 (20BS)

[idata]

My Lenovo Carbon X1 (20BS) fails to properly install the Intel HD Graphics 5500 driver, causing a black/blank screen after installation finishes.

I asked this question on the Lenovo Support forum, but they're silent as the grave on this topic.

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Tablet-and/Intel-15-20-40-28-4501-causes-Black-Screen-after-OS-boot-Windows/m-p/3448928# M27239 Intel 15/20.40.28.4501 causes Black Screen after O... - Lenovo Community

Windows Update, the Intel Driver Update Utility and Lenovo Companion are all trying to push the 20.40.28.4501 driver to my system. The Lenovo update site states that it repackages the 15.40.28.4501 driver version. After installation the hardware unplugged/plugged sound of Windows is audible and then the screen turns black. After rebooting this remains. The Lenovo logo appears, the windows 10 spinner appears and then when you'd normally get the logon screen, everything turns black.

I can see by the activation of the fingerprint scanner that Windows seems to be working just fine and I can seemingly log on using it, but I can't get the screen to work. Connecting my external screen to the Mini DisplayPort connector doesn't work either. Connecting a screen to the Lenovo Onelink Pro adapter and the dock doesn't work either.

To revert to the previous driver I'm forced to perform a Safe Mode boot, open the Device Manager and uninstall the Intel driver. Upon reboot the driver reverts to: 20.19.15.4444 which is working as expected.

I've since turned on Defer Updates in Windows Update and unchecked the driver in Lenovo Companion so it won't get applied automatically.

So far I've tried to uninstall the current driver from the Device Manager and from the Programs and features before installing the new driver. I've tried the Lenovo installer as well as the Intel installer, both suffer from the exact same problem.

Any other thoughts on how to make this work again?

[idata · Accepted solution]

Found a solution based on the Windows 10 Redstone KB article published by Lenovo. Though teh steps there didn't apply completely, the turning off of Secure Boot helped me boot into Windows with the driver loaded. Then turning it back on didn't fix the solution, but attaching a second screen did.

Full steps:

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/ThinkPad-X-Series-Tablet-and/Intel-15-20-40-28-4501-causes-Black-Screen-after-OS-boot-Windows/m-p/3452046/highlight/false# M27245 Re: Intel 15/20.40.28.4501 causes Black Screen aft... - Lenovo Community

[idata]

Hello jessehouwing ,

Thank you for taking your valuable time to share this information with us, and I'm glad that your issue has been resolve. I hope you can have a better experience with your unit from now on. Best wishes, Ivan