Intel HD Graphics driver crashes on Windows 8.1 desktop

[DB11]

I originally purchased Dell XPS 8700 desktop in early 2014. I then took out the graphics card that came with it and instead I started using the built-in graphics on the mainboard (which I believe is Intel Z87 chipset,)

I should also say that I also fully re-installed Windows 8 (to remove all Dell crapware) so none of the original video drivers were preserved.

Since then I keep getting constant problems with the video driver. Quite often Windows will show a balloon with an error saying that my video driver has recovered from a crash. This usually happens when I watch a YouTube video in Chrome browser.

I have also been constantly updating the video driver by right-clicking the desktop and picking "Graphics properties":

which would bring this window:

after which I will navigate to the Intel site that will run automated driver detection plug-in and suggest an update, which I will install. (To no avail.)

I believe I must have done this 3 or 4 times for the last year. This somewhat helped with the most obvious crashes, but there's still a bunch of issues remaining.

The most annoying issue now is that when my monitor goes into an energy saving mode (if I don't use computer for about 20 min) Windows makes a noise like if it's installing a new hardware. Then if I wake up screen by moving the mouse, sometimes Windows Explorer windows have strange "black rendering artifacts" in them. And also, most annoying, all of my Google Chrome thumbnails for Windows 8 jumplists will be reset. Here's a screenshot:

I know that it shouldn't work like this (I can compare it to my other computer.)

So I'm asking this at the Intel site -- is it possible for me to download the driver that works??????

[Jose_H_Intel1]

You can try with both the Intel generic driver and the driver provided by DELL*.

Additional suggestions are given in this article: http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/cs-009483.htm Graphics Drivers — Errors Reported By Microsoft*

[DB11]

Thanks for your generic answer. At this point I really don't want to spend the whole weekend installing/checking all that stuff, nor that I want to mess up my system more than it's already messed up. There's no one driver that I can download and install, is there?

(Just as a side note, now I totally understand why people buy & use Mac products.)

As you suggested, I also checked the Dell driver update site and it is as confusing as Intel's. Here's what they offer me:

Does it mean that I have to install all that "cruft"?

[Jose_H_Intel1]

The fact that you are getting such message does not mean it is a driver issue. Actually is it unlikely to get the issue from several different driver versions and particularly due to the behavior you are observing, including the sound issue.

In general terms it is a good idea to install the Intel® Chipset Software and Intel® Management Engine drivers first, and then you can install the Intel® HD Graphics driver. After restarting your system you can install the third party graphics driver if needed or any other driver.

I suggest you asking DELL* which graphics drivers are needed for your system because I do not think you will need all of them showing in the picture. You can certainly ask them if this is an issue they are aware of, since there may be something that we are overlooking, like a BIOS update, power saving software, or a hardware failure.