black screen after drivers install / windows update fail

hi, i am having real trouble getting this card installed again on a new install (win 7 64)

when i install the AMD drivers and restart, it gets past the bios ok, the windows logo loads ok - then blank/black screen.

the card is a radeon HD 6450. i have tried custom install and unticked everything unnecessary (just installing the display driver), have tried driver fusion and ccleaner multiple times, over multiple reboots, and multiple graphic driver re-installs.

my board is an intel DQ45CB if it matters (crappy board)

i go to windows update and see an important update for my radeon card - great! surely that's the fix... of course, i download it, and it FAILS when installing!! re-tried installing this a good few times, with multiple reboots.

whenever i uninstall the graphic drivers (from safe mode) and reboot, windows starts up no problem again. i tried booting up low rez mode from safe mode, still gets to the last stage of loading, then the screen just goes black.

i went to bios and changed it from auto to PEG PCIe. no difference.

i had this problem before, but i got it working by using ccleaner/driver fusion... but this time it has not worked after many attempts.

it doesn't seem to like the drivers for some reason - and the windows update, which looked like a solution, will not install. typical!

does anyone have any ideas about either the graphics card?

or why windows update is failing to install the update? i downloaded 35 important updates, and the graphics card one was the only one to fail - and the only one i actually needed!

thanks.

thanks, but the last time i had this problem was about a year ago, so i must have used drivers that were a year old... these 'older' drivers only go back one month!

so the year-old drivers didn't work, and the brand new ones don't work...

any idea on windows update? why that is failing? is there a manual way i could install the update? it's already downloaded, but the computer refuses to install it.