A client of ours brought in a Samsung laptop that presented a rather unique issue. Even though it was equipped with a brand-new solid state drive and a fresh installation of Windows 10, it was hanging after loading Windows with a black screen for several minutes before reaching the desktop.

The issue was found to be due to a problem with the AMD Radeon graphics Ultra Low Power State (ULPS) settings. In order to fix the issue, the ULPS setting had to be disabled via a registry edit.

What Is ULPS?

Ultra Low Power State is a power-saving feature in AMD graphics drivers that puts the secondary GPU into an extremely low power state when not in use. On some laptop configurations — particularly those with dual graphics setups (Intel integrated + AMD discrete) — ULPS can cause the system to hang during boot while Windows waits for the AMD GPU to respond.

The Fix: Disable ULPS via Registry

If you are experiencing a similar black screen delay on boot and want to try this fix yourself, follow these instructions carefully. Always back up your registry before making changes.

  1. Press Windows key + R to open the Run dialog.
  2. Type regedit and press Enter.
  3. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4d36e968-e325-11ce-bfc1-08002be10318}
  4. Click Edit → Find and search for EnableULPS.
  5. Change the value from 1 to 0 for each instance found.
  6. Restart your computer and check if the black screen delay is gone.
⚠ Warning: Editing the Windows registry incorrectly can cause serious system problems. If you are not comfortable with registry editing, contact Landshark IT — we can resolve this safely via remote support.

This is a known issue affecting laptops with AMD switchable graphics, particularly some Samsung, HP, and Lenovo models. The fix is stable and does not affect graphics performance — ULPS is simply a power-saving idle state that some systems can't exit cleanly during boot.