New laptop can't run games properly.

Hi,
I've bought a laptop recently, there were some soft (Win 8 and apps) installed. I installed a game and it was running very bad, I couldn't believe such a new device can't run an old game. I've been trying everything, uninstalling drivers, installing drivers from your forum's links (leshcatlabs - I upgraded CCC from 9.0 to 13.0, w/o effect), restarting system (deleting everything that was there and installing brand new copy of windows 8). I don't know where the problem lies, I guess it's a driver thing, but who knows. The laptop doesn't overheat, because I was checking it by a program for that.
The games lag and freeze, League of legends (2009) freezes when there are more action on the screen, the same with Unreal Tournament 2004, FPS number is very low, I could play properly only alone in the game. Dota 2 surprisingly runs on high details but it still lags while in a fight.
Could you help me please, I'm ready to restart Windows again and install the programs you say. It hurts that so much money were spent and I can't enjoy my thing.

My laptop (I hope it'll change the page language when you'll get there): http://www.samsung.com/pl/support/model/NP350E5C-S04PL-techspecs

Welcome to the forum,
Zapraszamy na forum,

The CPU has an internal intel HD Graphics 4000.
There is a Radeon 7670M card as well so you have dual graphics.

I recommend to install official graphics drivers, I don't use Leshcat, they might do the job well but I'm unable to give more details.

The Radeon drivers site:
AMD Graphics Drivers & Software

And the Intel drivers site:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx

Older games might not enable the switch to the better graphic card by default:
Try to right click any game and select run with graphics processor -> Radeon HD 7670 ... or High Performance or something.

EDIT: some of the older games need compatibility mode to the OS where they worked well (eg. XP SP3 or Win7).

I don't know Polish but it's easy to navigate in any language these days. Look at the downloads section and see if any other drivers need to be updated, for instance I had to update some other stuff as well like the chipset which can be found there but also on Intel's site (latest 9.4 at the moment).

I see Samsung made a blunder on the drivers page in saying that the OS is Win XP. :thumb: We know it's Win8 x64 so with any issues there check Intel and AMD for drivers.

Good luck

Hopachi said:

Welcome to the forum,
Zapraszamy na forum,

The CPU has an internal intel HD Graphics 4000.
There is a Radeon 7670M card as well so you have dual graphics.

I recommend to install official graphics drivers, I don't use Leshcat, they might do the job well but I'm unable to give more details.

The Radeon drivers site:
AMD Graphics Drivers & Software

And the Intel drivers site:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx

Older games might not enable the switch to the better graphic card by default:
Try to right click any game and select run with graphics processor -> Radeon HD 7670 ... or High Performance or something.

EDIT: some of the older games need compatibility mode to the OS where they worked well (eg. XP SP3 or Win7).

I don't know Polish but it's easy to navigate in any language these days. Look at the downloads section and see if any other drivers need to be updated, for instance I had to update some other stuff as well like the chipset which can be found there but also on Intel's site (latest 9.4 at the moment).

I see Samsung made a blunder on the drivers page in saying that the OS is Win XP. :thumb: We know it's Win8 x64 so with any issues there check Intel and AMD for drivers.

Good luck

Click to expand...

Thanks for such a warm welcome Hopachi. As I said I tried nearly everything - I'd installed the software from Samsung Update, I couldn't run newer versions of programs from Intel/ATI because it said they won't work properly, since there is software specially for my laptop installed. I changed ATI for running the games and they didn't work properly.

Make sure you're doing a "clean install" of the drivers and not just upgrading them. I'm not sure how to pull that off with your card specifically as I'm an nVidia guy.. But it's an option during the driver installation for nVidia cards.

No worries SpyderBite. I'm a Nvidia guy too. The solution is to use Device Manager: right click on the needed (graphics) driver and check the box "uninstall driver + software".

Kovalsky said:

I couldn't run newer versions of programs from Intel/ATI because it said they won't work properly, since there is software specially for my laptop installed.

Click to expand...

Most likely the older ones (software as well) need to be uninstalled first.
But if you get them from Intel or AMD, they need to be the very specific ones that match the laptop otherwise they are not suited.

I'm going to post some links below.

(I use this Intel as well)
Intel HD 4000:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...&Dwnldid=22842&keyword=Intel+HD+graphics+4000

The ZIP is meant to be extracted to a folder and then manually installed through Device Manager (to make sure the old one gets replaced).

Radeon HD 7670M:
AMD Catalyst

Good luck with this, uninstall the older versions first.

I changed ATI for running the games and they didn't work properly.

Click to expand...

See if compatibility mode gets you somewhere further but make sure you get the drivers from above if possible.
Also run the laptop on High Performance during the games to see if it's better.

Cheers
Hopachi

Hopachi said:

Kovalsky said:

I couldn't run newer versions of programs from Intel/ATI because it said they won't work properly, since there is software specially for my laptop installed.

Click to expand...

Most likely the older ones (software as well) need to be uninstalled first.
But if you get them from Intel or AMD, they need to be the very specific ones that match the laptop otherwise they are not suited.

I'm going to post some links below.

(I use this Intel as well)
Intel HD 4000:
http://downloadcenter.intel.com/con...&Dwnldid=22842&keyword=Intel+HD+graphics+4000

The ZIP is meant to be extracted to a folder and then manually installed through Device Manager (to make sure the old one gets replaced).

Radeon HD 7670M:
AMD Catalyst

Good luck with this, uninstall the older versions first.

I changed ATI for running the games and they didn't work properly.

Click to expand...

See if compatibility mode gets you somewhere further but make sure you get the drivers from above if possible.
Also run the laptop on High Performance during the games to see if it's better.

Cheers
Hopachi

Click to expand...

I installed successfuly the Intel driver and it seems to be more expanded than its predecessor. I cannot install the ATI driver though, I downloaded "AMD Mobility Radeon™ Driver Verification Tool" and it won't install anything, it says "The AMD Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded because there is an invalid hardware (?) or software. You use unsupported version of a graphic card driver. Contact your notebook's manufacturer for updates to your drivers".

An intersting fact is that I unistalled the driver to ATI card in Device Manager but it still shows ATI Catalyst in "Add/Delete" section. After restart of the computer it still shows ATI card in Device Manager even though I'd unistalled it.
Unfortunetely the new Intel driver doesn't seem to have "switch graphics" option. ;_;

Go to system information (type msinfo32 on the start screen).

Show the info from the Components-> Display section.



There, both graphic cards will be shown: the details of the ATI one are important so we can see what drivers to use.

yeah, it's in Polish, if you have a problem with it, I'll translate something

No translation needed because technical names are readable.
Thanks for the info.

It failed for me as well on NVidia: let it reinstall to old one or refresh the drivers list, then re-run the setup/verification tool.

Unfortunetely the new Intel driver doesn't seem to have "switch graphics" option. ;_;

Click to expand...

It's most likely because of the ATI drivers are not complete. Here on my laptop, Intel doesn't add the option to right click menu but NVidia does, being the best card of the two, so in your case if (newer) drivers are installed, ATI or better said AMD Radeon should add that to the list.

An intersting fact is that I unistalled the driver to ATI card in Device Manager (mark checkbox) but it still shows ATI Catalyst in "Add/Delete" section. After restart of the computer it still shows ATI card in Device Manager even though I'd unistalled it.

Click to expand...

The ATI 7670M has to be removed "drivers + software" from Device Manager until it dissapears entirely. Then if you refresh the drivers list, MS BAsic Display Adapter should be shown. If ATI / AMD is shown: also retry verification tool.

There is a chance the AMD drivers failed to detect the card because it was removed and you didn't refreshed. After the reboot, the system reinstalled the older one (now the new driver setup should work, even the verification tool should). Even if the older drivers of 7670M are installed, the new one should detect it and continue from there.

Try the setup again: those are the most recent drivers available and if they work, case closed. The info you provided helps to search details, also on the site below.
If it all above fails: you can browse to MS Update Catalog Site (you need IE browser) and look for drivers there:



As you can see, your gfx card is listed. Get (add to basket) the one matching: x64 Windows 8.

(IE) link:
Microsoft Update Catalog

After this, the Catalyst application profile is recommended to be installed to improve compatibility of some games/programs:
AMD Catalyst
This tool is recommended for any ATI driver installed.

Good luck

Hopachi said:

The ATI 7670M has to be removed "drivers + software" from Device Manager until it dissapears entirely. Then if you refresh the drivers list, MS BAsic Display Adapter should be shown. If ATI / AMD is shown: also retry verification tool.

Click to expand...

I uninstalled with the box checked every time. This time I do the same, then scan for changes in hardware and this arises (MS BAsic Display Adapter?); it is the same after rebooting.:

There are still ATI files in "Add/Delete" though and I can only delete the Profiles:


I am able to go to AMD CCC even though I've unistalled it, there is Switch Graphics option too, although it doesn't work properly, but I won't bother about it now, just saying.
ATI verification tool won't work either. I won't install anything from the MS website now since it seems to be the same driver I have.

Conclusion: I cannot unistall ATI drivers entirely, maybe Windows re-install them automatically. I guess I have to first wipe out the old drivers/re-install them and then start with the newer versions.

I unistalled the WDDM driver for ATI also, and after scanning/rebooting it still stays, although after rebooting I had a yellow triangle by Intel Driver and it was changed to that WDDM version too.

I tried to update them via Device Manager but they wouldn't change from WDDM versions so I installed manually the Intel driver you provided

Hopachi said:

And the Intel drivers site:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/default.aspx

Click to expand...

and Leshcat ATI because it works pretty good for now. I will start all over again with your newer advice.

It's OK, thanks for trying. You did well in Device Manager.
The "Radeon .. WDDM 1.2" is the basic one and you cannot remove it entirely in this case.

I still find it weird that AMD verification tool isn't able to detect or find drivers. Their site also mentions the latest is BETA, maybe not suppoted on the specific laptop, so in this case you can keep the basic WDDM or the Leshcat one, it's a wise move.

The Intel one can use the latest available if it's compatible.

Did you tried this:
AMD Driver Autodetect
Autodetect tool.

They say "use maufacturer drivers if your card is not supported by AMD" however, Samsung doesn't provide these drivers which means you have a few options:
-keep older MS drivers
-go to newer Leshcat ones
-try the AMD one (manually) (extract exe with 7-Zip and install through Device Manager manually from the extracted one).

This is all what I got for graphics drivers.

Either way, one of those that works best should be kept.

Good luck

I'm back because it had been fairly OK for some time and then an error occured and it had to do something with video card, now games freeze again. I was using my laptop, just browsing the web, then I closed the laptop for a moment and when opened it, the laptop didn't start like it was in sleep. I clicked force button and it said that there was an error etc.
Anyway, the MS drivers don't handle the game I'm playing, I can't install ATI drivers because it says the usual.

You'll want to install the driver offered by the laptop manufacturer. Anything else will likely not work with your dual graphics setup. Some manufacturers will change the device ID string so that only their drivers will install. In most cases the manufacturer of the laptop makes custom drivers for that setup so that the laptop can switch on the fly when need be. Installing separate Intel and NVidia drivers just messes that up. My ASUS Laptop has dual graphics. My AMD Vision Engine Control center controls which GPU gets used for what program or game. Its part of the ASUS supplied drivers package.

alphanumeric said:

In most cases the manufacturer of the laptop makes custom drivers for that setup so that the laptop can switch on the fly when need be. Installing separate Intel and NVidia drivers just messes that up.

Click to expand...

That's very unfortunate in a case like this but I do agree with you. Install the drivers from the manufacturer as a first step.

I'm updating to the latest for instance because the laptop manufacturer doesn't keep up with the latest graphics drivers but I'm checking to see if the separate new ones are supported (they usually are). Either way don't rush the updates too often: if you have a decent stable older version that runs, keep it for a while.

Windows update can also find graphics drivers but it may not happen on all computer models or for all cards.

@Kovalsky
If you do know that it's the graphic driver causing that issue then it was probably changed or updated by you or a driver updater more likely. Try to put the good one back and disable the automatic updates. If this isn't the cause, leave the settings as they are. I'm not entirely sure what else can be the cause but some older games do have bad compatibility on Win8 regardless of what graphic driver you have.

@Hopachi, My combo is AMD and AMD so I could probably get away with drivers right from AMD for my laptop. If I had something like Intel, NVidia I'd definitely be going to the laptop manufacturer. I went to ASUS because they should work and be stable. I don't game on my laptop so I don't need the latest and greatest. On my desktop PC's I go right to NVidia or AMD for my add in dedicated cards.

alphanumeric said:

@Hopachi, My combo is AMD and AMD so I could probably get away with drivers right from AMD for my laptop. If I had something like Intel, NVidia I'd definitely be going to the laptop manufacturer. I went to ASUS because they should work and be stable. I don't game on my laptop so I don't need the latest and greatest. On my desktop PC's I go right to NVidia or AMD for my add in dedicated cards.

Click to expand...

Good combo.

My combo is Intel - Nvidia and the separate drivers work fine on 3 laptops. Manufacturers release drivers once or not very often and that makes them pretty outdated in the long run. Once I got a driver with bad colors and I replaced it with one from Nvidia. Luckily they work here. Good drivers should be kept if from manufacturers, I agree.

The manufacturer drivers should be fine in most cases (2 out of 3 ain't bad in my case) but you need to update them if you upgrade OS to newer version.

I also don't run the latest and greatest games anymore but for the older ones, for the OS, browsers and any program using graphic acceleration, the latest drivers are welcome. Of course I'm speaking about those working... WDDM, WHQL, stable releases.

Cheers!