Recently I've taken it upon myself to update an old Lenovo W500 series laptop...something that I can simply use around the house and even possibly host a few random apps.
Given that context, I attempted to update/upgrade my OS and by doing so came to a really weird issue. When the laptop boots, it will go through the BIOS and proceed to the windows loading icon...but once there the entire screen turns black/dark. Simply put, the video doesn't work. After a few Google searches and a some internal soul searching...I figured it out – my laptop the Lenovo W500 series has two different video cards. In this case, my laptop wants to use and leverage the Nvidia driver but simply can't find it / understand the context – because I didn't provide it with any.
So the solve: PLEASE NOTE THE SETTINGS BEFORE HAND. (write them down!)
Go into the BIOS (press F1 or whichever key the system prompts you with) and go into config, video, and select the integrated video card (use this a default) and turn off your switchable graphics for the moment being. That should do the trick...let the system reboot and you'll be able to navigate the UI to see the desktop.
What do you do after? Install the Nvidia drivers of course! Navigate to the Nvidia website and download the drivers. You should be able to go back to the BIOS and turn back to the default settings.