Solved Win 8 AMD Switchable Graphics FAQ

[rictrejos]

Perfect alphastar! Thanks for your help!

The last weekend i had to format the HD and reinstall the Windows 8; after, i installed the Catalyst of windows 7 version (with compatibility mode) and the intel driver that come with the last version of Catalyst Beta, and the switchable mode work with some little issues!

1.- With the AMD card across of HDMI dont work the audio, i can see video in my TV but the audio listen in the laptop.
2.- With the Intel card, i can see and listen across of HDMI in my TV, but after a few minutes, the performance is low and more low.

I understood how this works. I will follow your instructions one by one. Thank you very much for all your support, I really appreciate a lot! And, could not be solving this without your help.

Sorry for my low english lavel! Saludos!

 

[BFG]

I have tried using that sp59850 to change the Intel driver with the have disk method but it fails saying my system is not supported. Why is that happening. I Have windows 8 pro x64

Current Intel driver is 10/9/2012 8.15.10.2858 PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0046&SUBSYS_163D103C

 

[jeremy33662]

HP Envy 17 3002ea Switchable Graphics Windows 8

Hi there, everyone.
I am new to this forum but I have been an avid follower for some time. You all seem to be very knowledgeable so I thought it time I signed up and got involved.

I would like to ask a question to you all and see what you think:
As the subject line suggests, I have an HP Envy 17 3002ea laptop currently running Windows 7 Professional 64 Bit.
This machine also has the switchable graphics that we have all been discussing:
1) INTEL HD GRAPHICS FAMILY running driver "8.882.2.4000" released on 28/11/2011.
2) AMD RADEON HD 7690M XT running driver "8.882.2.4000" released on 28/11/2011.

As it stands, this all worked perfectly and switches automatically on battery power etc.

I had installed Windows 8 on this machine a few weeks ago and found that the switchable graphics didn't work. (I assumed this wouldn't as HP hadn't yet released drivers for it but I tried anyway).
I rolled back to an image backup I did and all was fine!

Then a few weeks ago, HP released drivers that would supposedly work for my configuration:
AMD High-Definition (HD) Graphics Driver - HP ENVY 17-3002ea Notebook PC | HP® Support
It mentions on this site that you should update the BIOS to F.08 before this so I did.
I reinstalled Windows 8. Sadly I still had the issue of switchable graphics not being available and my system only recognising 1 graphics card. I played around with it and eventually got to the "Booting to a black screen" issue.

I rolled back to my image backup again, and all is ok..

THEN!
I came across this post:
HP Envy 17 3002ea Update to Bios f.08 breaks Intel HD Graphi... - HP Support Forum - 2398427
It mentions that the BIOS update screws with the INTEL drivers so I was tempted to roll back the BIOS and then try again, BUT THEN...I see that, as of TODAY, HP America have released BIOS F.09!!
HP ENVY 17-3000 Notebook PC series -  HP Notebook System BIOS Update - HP Business Support Center
Now my questions are:

1) Has anyone managed to get Windows 8 Switchable Graphics working on the HP Envy 17 3002ea? If so, how?

2) Has anyone tested this F.09 BIOS? ( I doubt it so soon). There is no mention of it fixing any issues with regard to graphics drivers in the enhancements section.. :/
I am SO tempted to test it myself but really don't have the time now to reimage AGAIN and then roll back AGAIN should it fail.

Sorry for the incredibly long post!!
Really hope you guys have some wise words for me! Would very much appreciate it.
(Of course, I am hoping you don't say "Test it yourself and report back")

Hope to speak to you soon,
Jeremy

 

[alphastar]

@jeremy33662

HP has also updated your (ENVY-17 3002ea) Windows 8 video driver to SP60115 that I mentioned in my previous post. The good news is, unless you have some reason to believe that HP Support is wrong, I'm pretty sure that the F.09 BIOS with SP60115 Switchable Graphics driver will work just as well as your Windows 7 install.

As for black screen issues, the newer Windows 8 WHQL Intel drivers (included in SP60115) have fixed that issue (according to Intel's changelogs for the various HD Graphics driver releases).


@BFG

I recommended trying SP60115 (link above) in combination with latest AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta driver (now 13.2 Beta6), as explained in this previous post. However, both SP59850 and SP60115 are designed to support specific HP-branded Radeon cards (more details on how to figure out which cards are supported here).

In short, I think that the card that is "not supported" is the AMD Radeon, NOT the Intel HD Graphics that you listed in your post. That said, if you provide your HP notebook model as well as your AMD Hardware IDs (you only included the Intel Hardware IDs above), we can check compatibility against either of the HP SPs to find the right combination for your Switchable Graphics setup.

FYI: The AMD Catalyst Beta supports a wider range of cards than the HP SoftPaq releases, so installing the Beta on top of an HP SoftPaq may allow you to get Switchable Graphics working, even if the SoftPaq does NOT support your specific hardware (i.e. you can run the SoftPaq AMD-provided Intel driver, together with the AMD-provided Catalyst Beta Radeon driver to get a working Switchable Graphics installation).


@rictrejos

No worries on the English.

Likely, your issue is related to Windows 8 compatibility with the (older) Windows 7 drivers, based on you using the Compatibility Mode install...they work, but just barely. Also, there are NEWER HDMI drivers included with almost every AMD Catalyst release, so you might try installing the latest AMD Catalyst Beta on top of your current setup to see if it helps.

 

[alphastar]

Oh and thanks to ALL for the kind words and support...MUCH appreciated.

 

[jeremy33662]

@alphastar
Thanks for your input, but sadly I can report that it still doesn't work!
I couldn't stop myself from doing yet another image backup and testing it all. I updated to BIOS F.09 and installed Windows 8 with the new HP video card driver SP60115 but once it is installed the system still only recognises the AMD card and not the Intel one. Also the "Configure Switchable Graphics" option has gone, and device manager only recognises 1 display adaptor.
I think I may just resign myself to only ever using Windows 7 on this machine!
Once again, thanks for your input anyway!
Jeremy

 

[BFG]

Hi I have the HP dv7-4269.

The AMD Graphics card is Radeon HD 6370M
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68E4&SUBSYS_163D103C

I tried all 3 windows 8 HP softpaqs and none of them worked. (All said the driver didn't support my system)
I decided to install the windows 7 drivers in compatibility mode and that worked.
Then I installed the AMD beta driver but lost my brightness control.
So I rolled back to the latest AMD stable and it also didn't have brightness.
So I tried to roll back to windows 7 and my pc crashed but when it restarted I was still on AMD stable but got brightness control, so not sure how that happened. However I'm getting the amd cannot be started messages.

So that's where I'm at now

 

[alphastar]

@jeremy33662,

Your situation is different, because your notebook (HP ENVY 17-3002ea) is actually supported by HP on Windows 8; you should contact HP Support by phone to determine if you are experiencing some type of hardware issue. I say this because the Intel HD Graphics is actually physically inside your CPU, i.e. internal to the Intel Corei3/i5/i7 processors, so it should be recognized by both (either/or) the Intel HD Graphics and HP SP60155 drivers (and there is no reason I could think of why the SP wouldn't work for the Intel part, since that is the official HP driver for your model).

Alternatively, you should try the latest Intel HD Graphics 3000 drivers for Windows 8 (currently 15.28.12.2932), or use TechPowerUp's GPU-Z to identify/confirm your specific Intel hardware. If you post the PCI Hardware IDs for your Intel card (obviously the same for Win7 or Win8), we could try to identify why the SoftPaq isn't seeing the Intel portion of your setup.


@BFG,

Your issue is the same as Peterdoubt, which I addressed starting at Post #339: HP has limited their driver support to certain HP Radeon 6370Ms (don't ask me why). The workaround would be to install the official HP Windows 7 driver in Win 8 Compatibility Mode. That driver is listed as SP52351 (30-Mar-2011), available here, and is quite old.

Alternatively, you can try installing a newer AMD-signed Intel HD Graphics driver (HP SP or Leshcat) using the Have Disk/Choose method, then installing the latest AMD Catalyst Beta (currently 13.2 Beta7) to get rid of the AMD CCC "cannot be started" error. I believe that the AMD Catalyst drivers from AMD support all Radeon 5000/6000/7000s (or at least, more than the HP SPs do) regardless of manufacturer or PCI Hardware ID.

Again, I can't endorse enough how well this last combination works for me.

P.S. Also, AFAIK the Brightness Control issue is resolved by making edits to the Registry...Adrynalyne has more details on his blog here. Also, I understand that Leshcat's Issue Resolver (internal to his driver) uses the same method to fix this. Intel's changelog for the HD Graphics driver also mentions that later versions of the driver fixes the issue as well.

 

[alphastar]

@BFG,

Further to the above, here is a detailed explanation from Post #382 on the makeup of the Switchable Graphics drivers and why posting the PCI Hardware IDs are so vital for troubleshooting.

Peterdoubt's Radeon 6370 solution was to use Windows 8 compatibility mode install (with official HP Windows 7 drivers), then update them using the latest AMD Catalyst drivers.


FWIW: The only HP-supported (via SoftPaqs,) HP-branded, Radeon 6370s are: PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68E4&SUBSYS_3673103C and SUBSYS_3675103C

 

[giorgoxxi]

@alphastar
Thanks for your input, but sadly I can report that it still doesn't work!
I couldn't stop myself from doing yet another image backup and testing it all. I updated to BIOS F.09 and installed Windows 8 with the new HP video card driver SP60115 but once it is installed the system still only recognises the AMD card and not the Intel one. Also the "Configure Switchable Graphics" option has gone, and device manager only recognises 1 display adaptor.
I think I may just resign myself to only ever using Windows 7 on this machine!
Once again, thanks for your input anyway!
Jeremy

Same laptop, same issue. It is definitely an issue with the BIOS. I think HP couldn't get switchable graphics working for Windows 8 reliably, so they just disabled the Intel card from F.08 on wards I noticed their Windows 8 graphics package DOESN'T contain the Intel drivers, which should be a clue.

 

[BFG]

@alphastar

Thanks for your replies. Everytime I've tried to change the Intel Graphics driver to a new AMD Signed one than the one I have from windows 7 it fails because I suspect the inf file is trying to update the AMD driver at the same time. So perhaps Leshcat has a solution to only change the intel driver. then I can proceed to update my AMD driver with the latest beta and try those registry tweaks if the brightness control doesn't work again.

 

[kyselevajco]

Hi all,
Recently I bought HP ProBook 4740s with graphics Ati HD 7650m and Intel HD 4000 as most of people I had the same problem-switching doesn't work. I read whole topic but didn't achieve any positive effect and it still doesn't work. I tried to combine two drivers SP60116 and Catalyst 13.2 beta 7, but it wasn't installation after format PC, but installation in run. I uninstall previous version of catalyst as it is said in leshcat's and install these two drivers. I don't know where problem can be, maybe SP60116 isn't the right one for my laptop.
Can anyone help me?

My drivers ID's are here:
AMD Radeon

PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&SUBSYS_17F4103C&REV_00
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&SUBSYS_17F4103C
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&CC_0300

Advanced Micro Devices. Inc.
26.2.2013
12.100.17.0
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Intel
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&SUBSYS_17F4103C&REV_09
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&SUBSYS_17F4103C
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&CC_0300

Intel Corporation
12.12.2012
9.17.10.2932
Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility

 

[alphastar]

@giorgoxxi,

You may be right about the BIOS changes; SP60115 does have a file (SP60115\WSSP60115.txt) that states:

ENHANCEMENTS:
For win8 discrete only.

For SP59850 and below, the Intel driver is located at ..\SP59850\Packages\Drivers\Display\W86A_INF\Intel\

My apologies for not being more alert: This means that you cannot install SP60115 by itself for Switchable Graphics - it should only be used to upgrade the pure HP AMD driver from SP59850.

(Also, if you're installing the latest AMD Catalyst Beta after, don't bother with SP60115).

For HP ENVY 17-3002ea owners, may well be that the default option in the BIOS now is to somehow disable the Intel iGPU component...(subject to confirmation). Are you willing to verify this for us? Some TechPowerUp GPU-Z screenshots will do nicely...


@BFG,

Leshcat may be worth a shot if none of the previous solutions work for you (remember: it is 3rd-party, community-supported). Either way, you should try doing a full removal of all existing drivers (Intel + AMD) until you are back to the Windows Update WDM 1.1/1.2 drivers (Leshcat requires this prior to installing his drivers as well).

Then you can try or retry some of the options as necessary. Let us know how it works out.


Again, the latest AMD-signed Intel drivers from HP for the majority of HP Switchable Graphics notebooks (there are some exceptions) are contained in SP59850(AFAIK).

 

[alphastar]

Hi all,
Recently I bought HP ProBook 4740s with graphics Ati HD 7650m and Intel HD 4000 as most of people I had the same problem-switching doesn't work. I read whole topic but didn't achieve any positive effect and it still doesn't work. I tried to combine two drivers SP60116 and Catalyst 13.2 beta 7, but it wasn't installation after format PC, but installation in run. I uninstall previous version of catalyst as it is said in leshcat's and install these two drivers. I don't know where problem can be, maybe SP60116 isn't the right one for my laptop.
Can anyone help me?

My drivers ID's are here:
AMD Radeon

PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&SUBSYS_17F4103C&REV_00
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&SUBSYS_17F4103C
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_6841&CC_0300

Advanced Micro Devices. Inc.
26.2.2013
12.100.17.0
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.

Intel
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&SUBSYS_17F4103C&REV_09
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&SUBSYS_17F4103C
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_0156&CC_0300

Intel Corporation (should say "Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.")
12.12.2012
9.17.10.2932
Microsoft Windows Hardware Compatibility

@kyselevajco,


Sorry about that. Based on the new info in my previous post, try using SP59850 (to get the AMD-provided Intel driver) in combination with the AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta7.

 

[kyselevajco]

@alphastar,

So I uninstalled Intel's driver again, turned off the wi-fi, but allways when I restart PC Intel was installed yet. I tried to block automatic actualizations but didn't help.

If I installed SP59850 over this WDDM 1.2 driver, nothing happened.

edit

So I've tried to install SP59850 manually through the *inf file but when I've chosen in model column Intel(R) HD 4000 and pressed install, it has been written that this version of driver doesn't support my version of windows.

 

[alphastar]

@kyselevajco,

Your model (HP ProBook 4740s) also has Windows 8 drivers from HP here (SP59130 for Intel, SP59143 for AMD).

I would try the following:

1. Remove the ATI/AMD components by running the ATI Catalyst Install Manager in Express Uninstall Mode (i.e. Win+W, Programs and Features, select ATI Catalyst Install Manager, click Change, Express Uninstall ALL AMD...), then reboot.
2. Follow the rest of the Cleanup Instructions from Leshcat's Manual
3. Apply SP59130 and verify the driver Provider.
4. Apply SP59143 (~ Catalyst 12.8+) and test Switchable Graphics.
5. If working, apply AMD Catalyst Beta (optional).

On a related note, I should also mention that after upgrading to AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta7, my fans went to super-loud (also, ATI CCC CPU usage jumped drastically)...similar to the issue I reported before in Post #383, #389, etc. but without the black screen crashes. Immediately after uninstalling the Beta (in fact, while the Beta was uninstalling) my fans returned to normal. I am reverting to AMD Catalyst 13.2 Beta6 as we speak...

 

[jeremy33662]

Hello again, all!
Thanks once again for your continued support on the matter.
I have made a Screen Cast that shows the issue I am having.
This can be seen here... Windows 8 Switchable Graphics HP Envy 17 3002ea problems - HELP! - YouTube (A bit boring but shows the issues).

@giorgoxxi - Sorry to say, but I am glad to hear that it isn't just me. I was beginning to think I had lost all my computing knowledge!
Interestingly, I spoke to HP Support this morning and they told me that they are aware their drivers don't work and that I shouls use the ATI ones directly from their website. I did this today but still had the same issue as before so once again I am back on Windows 7!
If the new HP Bios disabled the Intel card, then how come it works under Windows 7? I am so confused now!

Any more input from the team here would be delightful. HP are a dead loss.

 

[alphastar]

@jeremy33662,

Just looked at your YouTube video...what are the PCI Hardware IDs for the "Unknown Device" that you now have in Windows 8?

If they say VEN_8086, then that means that they correspond to an Intel component...most likely the Intel HD Graphics card.

Also, what happens when you run SP59850 on your Windows 8 config that is missing the Intel HD Graphics?

 

[arpit]

i have got hp dv6 6119tx with switchable graphic,AMD HD 6490M ddr5 and i switched my os from windows 7 to windows 8 but my AMD graphic card is not working please help wha to do???

 

[alphastar]

i have got hp dv6 6119tx with switchable graphic,AMD HD 6490M ddr5 and i switched my os from windows 7 to windows 8 but my AMD graphic card is not working please help wha to do???

Hi arpit,

You can start by reading the first post, or by posting your PCI Hardware IDs.