Solved Win 8 AMD Switchable Graphics FAQ

[alphastar]

Hi guys,
<...>

Finally I tried the AMD beta 12.11_beta4 ones; these drivers install, but I still dont get control over the switchable graphics panel. I am sure, as someone mentioned earlier, it's because the AMD beta drivers don't match the signature/version of the INTEL ones.


So my problem is... given the above, where do I find a matching AMD / INTEL driver? I saw someone mentioning an HP machine with my same graphics config, would that work or are there potential pitfalls?

I dont really mind if the driver is the latest and greatest, as long as I get back control over switcheable graphics and brightness. Hopefully it will also improve my battery life, it's been cut in half since updating to Win 8, but might be faulty power management settings. Damn lenovo....


thanks in advance, any help would be really precious!

Hey bellavez83,

I think you can try SoftPaq 58788, as it does support the 6470M as well. You may also want to run DriverFusion first to remove any existing drivers you have installed.

After that, you can update via the AMD Catalyst 12.10 or 12.11 Beta.

Cheers!

 

[Kefeng]

@bellavez83 : in my case, Leshcat's ones work only if I set Fixed mode in my BIOS. Try that and then reinstall Leshcat's drivers.

 

[bellavez83]

thanks @Alphastar and @Kefeng for the replies, much apprieciated..
so after various other attempts i eventually got Leshcat's drivers to work by disabling the windows update automatic driver installation behaviour, as it kept installing some generic intel drivers, even as soon as I closed DriverFusion. After that, Lehscat installed ok, and I was able to get control over the switcheable graphics AND (and this had never happened before) even get OpenGL programs to use the AMD card for hardware acceleration (I don't have a BIOS fixed mode, so was never able to achieve it on my Win 7 official Lenovo drivers). That's the good news.

Now for the bad news... 1) card is still seen as a HD7400 series 2) brightness is still stuck at maximum 3) battery life is still half of Win 7 days

I will try later today the HP drivers Alphastar posted, let's see if I get lucky! I tried another set of HPs yesterday, supposedly also compatible with the same graphics config, but the Catalyst setup wouldn't even offer to install the drivers (just all the other minor stuff). I suppose it has a way to detect the laptop manufacturer string? Is there a way past this that anybody knows?

 

[OMG]

Hi Everyone,

I just got off the phone with HP's support department 10/29/2012 about whether they plan to release a driver update to support switchable graphics on my Pavilion DV6t-6100 Quad Edition entertainment PC model laptop to support Windows 8. I was told that HP has not intention of releasing a cost free fix for this issue. The HP support technician told me, "I would need to pay $200 for the new driver, which their technical support department would need to apply. Needless to say, I am livid over this. My Laptop is less than 1year old and should be covered under warranty. The HP Agent told me this was a software issue. Therefore, it is not covered under warranty and I would be charged $200 for the update to fix any issues with my laptop's switchable graphics.

I just purchased and applied the Windows 8 upgrade in pace of the original Windows 7 OS that came installed on my laptop. I looks like every HP Pavilion DV6t-6100 model notebook owner, including myself, is on our own with this. It's the last time I every pay $1200 for an HP product. They've gone from being one of the best PC manufacturers to the absolute worse!!! Ever DV6t owner should avoid this shady profit-drive company like the plague in the future.

 

[aleseba77]

can u help me? i dont know what to do, i have ati radeon hd 7690m xt, and i want to install windows 8, what do i have to do, for windows 8 recognize my graphic card??? thanks

 

[Jersey Tom]

So far I've tentatively had success by installing the latest reference drivers (Catalyst 12.11 beta), then installing Windows 8. In my case I also had Intel HD Graphics as an adapter... disabled that, and seem to be OK thus far.

Still testing it out though.

 

[OMG]

Removed

 

[OMG]

can u help me? i dont know what to do, i have ati radeon hd 7690m xt, and i want to install windows 8, what do i have to do, for windows 8 recognize my graphic card??? thanks

I'm not really sure what you can do to correct the issue, aside from waiting on HP to post updated Windows 8 compatible drivers for your particular model PC. I've heard of some people have had success using third-party Beta drivers to correct the compatibility issue that exists between Windows 8 and Switchable graphics.

Note: Installing Beta Software and/or Hardware can void some PC manufacturer's product warranty. You should only install authorized software and hardware to avoid voiding your product's warranty

The problem is that I was told today that HP apparently has no plans to provide free support for the issue. However, you do have the option to pay HP to apply a work around for you. I do not know what that work around might be. I was only told it might take several hours for a technician to get your switchable graphics to work under the Windows 8 OS platform, and it will cost $200 USD for them to provide support to fix the issue.

I'm just going to wait and see if maybe HP will change there minds about leaving so many of their customers in the lurch without any way of actually being able to use one of their two GPU's. Ironically, having the ability to switch between two Graphic Cards to maximize efficiency was actually a selling point for buying HP, rather than going with Dell or some other manufacturer. There is really not much else we can do without being willing to void the warranty we also paid for when we purchased our systems.

 

[OMG]

Hi guys,
<...>

Finally I tried the AMD beta 12.11_beta4 ones; these drivers install, but I still dont get control over the switchable graphics panel. I am sure, as someone mentioned earlier, it's because the AMD beta drivers don't match the signature/version of the INTEL ones.


So my problem is... given the above, where do I find a matching AMD / INTEL driver? I saw someone mentioning an HP machine with my same graphics config, would that work or are there potential pitfalls?

I dont really mind if the driver is the latest and greatest, as long as I get back control over switcheable graphics and brightness. Hopefully it will also improve my battery life, it's been cut in half since updating to Win 8, but might be faulty power management settings. Damn lenovo....


thanks in advance, any help would be really precious!

Hey bellavez83,

I think you can try SoftPaq 58788, as it does support the 6470M as well. You may also want to run DriverFusion first to remove any existing drivers you have installed.

After that, you can update via the AMD Catalyst 12.10 or 12.11 Beta.

Cheers!

You may want to make sure that you run Driver Fusion, that was mentioned by Kefeng, while under Safe Mode to ensure that all previous AMD drivers are actually deleted from your system before you install the Leshacat Beta driver.

 

[OMG]

So far I've tentatively had success by installing the latest reference drivers (Catalyst 12.11 beta), then installing Windows 8. In my case I also had Intel HD Graphics as an adapter... disabled that, and seem to be OK thus far.

Still testing it out though.

Hi Tom,


Thanks for the input, but I've tried a few things short of the Leshcat fix, which I've heard some people have actually seen some success with. I do not want to void my warranty by installing Beta drivers. Besides, I've heard that the Leshcat fix caused a Test Mode watermark, in the Windows 8 Pre-Release version, to appear for some users upon installing the driver package.

However, everything I've tried so far does seem to initially work for brief a moment after install, but as soon as my system is restarted, my device manager still shows the AMD drive is still not working. I'm also unable to successfully install the ATI Catalyst Control Center, without which no graphics switching can take place, even if the driver did install without failing again shortly thereafter.

 

[alphastar]

Another mix-and-match solution:

See this comment on Leshcat's Blog.

 

[Jersey Tom]

Alright, I'm back after some experimenting.

The good news - Seems I can consistently run Windows 8 now. This was done by installing the latest Intel HD drivers and Catalyst 12.11 drivers before installing Windows 8.
The bad news - I am stuck with this damn phantom monitor, which I think is what caused a lot of my issues to begin with. At the moment it is just reduced to being an annoyance.

Now that I think about it after having chased my tail so long, I'm presuming the issue here is that there is still no graphics switching occurring Instead, both adapters (Intel HD graphics and Radeon) are engaged simultaneously - resulting in this non-existent display being read by Windows. I would be content if I just had Radeon 24/7, but try as I may I can't seem to get rid of the Intel display for good. I uninstalled the drivers and blew them away with Driver Fusion... and Windows just finds its own generic Intel HD display driver to use. If I try to disable that, it seems to find some totally generic display adapter. Also uninstalled Intel WiDi just in case that was an issue.

I can't launch Catalyst Control Center from the device manager (even though there is a button for it somewhere in that display adapter). Doesn't appear in Control Panel under installed programs.. maybe I don't have it! Not sure where it would have went. If CCC is a requisite for switchable graphics working.. then that would be an issue.

Ideal world HP would/will release a package specific to the HP Envy 3070nr. Whether or not that will be the case is TBD. In the interim, my objective tomorrow will be to re-run that Catalyst installer package (wonder if I should download the one that's advertised as having .NET 4 support?) and see if I can get CCC installed.

 

[bellavez83]

@alphastar: thanks for posting the new min-n-match solution, will give it a go tomorrow as I suspect the latest intel are probably my best hope at regaining control on screen brightness.. I'll report how I get on as soon as I get around installing (it's also my work machine, so not always free to tinker)

@Jersey Tom: when you mentioned about your "phantom" display, I just realized I might be having the same issue... when I go on Devices (charm) from the desktop, I get options to project to a second screen. Now I hadnt thought much about it, as I assumed it was just my HDMI port, but then again I guess the correct Win 8 behaviour would be for the option to only show up if a screen is connected, correct? I tried projecting to the phantom secondary display, and sure enough I get a basic 4:3 output coming out on my laptop's screen, with vertical letterboxes..

so now I'm thinking you're really onto something about both graphics cards being on at the same time. It would explain:
- getting half the battery life
- getting OpenGL to work on programs (Sketchup) where it had never worked before (and worked instead for laptops with a manual BIOS "fixed mode" option, that Lenovo doesnt give)

The only thing that does not add up so far is that I've installed the AMD system monitor app, and while it does record heavy usage when running Sketchup, it drops back to zero during normal desktop activity. But I suppose it could still keep the display on or even when its GPU is in a low power state...

I will try test this tomorrow by disabling or removing the AMD card in device manager and report my findings. Tonight I still need Sketchup to work well though...

 

[Jersey Tom]

Yeah the "Second screen" appearing in my devices list from the charm bar was a telltale sign, for sure. Alternatively if you access the Screen Resolution settings (by right clicking on desktop or whatever) both displays appear. If you look at the properties of each, one of mine was the Radeon adapter and the other the Intel HD adapter.

Trying to disable the Radeon one is worth investigating I suppose... though I'd suspect it will be the same result as when I tried to disable Intel (i.e. that Windows will find a generic adapter to drive it).

I'm about to get ready for work.. but let us know if you have any success with that aspect, or getting Catalyst Control Center working.

 

[aleseba77]

thanks to everybody, for the responses. Actually i have an HP dv6t QE, 8gb, ati radeon hd 7690m xt (and intel graph), but like someone said, i think i will wait for HP to realease a driver for the 7690. If HP didn't release new drivers for this graphic card, what should i do? i really want to install windows 8

 

[Jersey Tom]

If HP were not to release updated drivers (and this contingency may be model specific), you can install and run Windows 8. My gut feeling is you'd be in the same position I am, where you can use it just fine but have the annoyance of a phantom extra "monitor."

 

[alphastar]

AMD System Monitor or GPU-Z will tell you which cards are active (look at the sensors for temps, gpu utilization) - good for when you hear your fan on go-fast!

As for the Intel driver thing, I noticed that you CANNOT uninstall the driver completely since it is included with the O/S now (and also, it is always active - you can't uninstall your processor - ). Also, in More Info (related posts) and in this post explain that the Intel card is always active, because the framebuffer (output to the display) is shared by both GPUs.

About the ONLY thing you CAN do is force which Intel HD Graphics driver version is being used, by modifying the tab in Device Manager or running the Intel (or other) Setup.exe.


(On a separate note, I've confirmed that there is some idle issue with IE10 overutilization and the Intel HD Graphics driver...nothing scientific, but it definitely crashes with escalating fan usage when it should be going to sleep.)


@Bellavez83, Jersey Tom:

Word is, we should see a new Leshcat driver soon. I wouldn't count on a new HP driver just yet though...

@alesaba77:

There is already a 7690M solution - have a look at HOODY and adrynalyne's posts on Page 5, Rosterbyte and Zetlin on Page 6, and also Leshcat's Blog comments.

 

[Jersey Tom]

Ok, let me pose this question then... as I'm not entirely familiar with what this Leshcat business is all about. Does it control the switchable graphics on its own, i.e. without the need of CCC? Or does it take the place of the actual Intel and AMD display drivers?

Currently my issue is that both of my display adapters work TOO well... i.e. that they both seemingly are on at the same time. If I can actually install the Catalyst Control Center executable then perhaps I'll be up and running. Otherwise something needs to handle the switching (or just turn one off permanently - would be fine by me).

 

[OMG]

Leshcat has created a work around solution to the issue that exists between the Windows 8 operating system environment and the AMD/Intel switchable graphics driver. The switchable graphics driver makes it possible for Windows 7 to act as a bridge between both the AMD and Intel GPU's. It allows both the user and/or the Windows 7 OS to decide which of the two installed GPU's [AMD/Intel] on there system should be used and when they should be used to better provide performance or efficiency.

Leshcat has created a work around solution to the issue that exists between the Windows 8 operating system environment and the AMD/Intel switchable graphics driver. The switchable graphics driver makes it possible for Windows 7 to act as a bridge between both the AMD and Intel GPU's. It allows both the user and/or the Windows 7 OS to decide which of the two installed GPU's [AMD/Intel] on their system should be used, and when it should be used to better provide performance or efficiency.

While this drivers was designed specifically to run in a Windows 7 environment, it does not work as intended in a Windows 8 environment. Windows 8 automatically installs a driver for both the integrated Intel based graphics, and a completely separate driver for the discrete AMD based GPU. The two under Windows 8 are not unified in anyway without the presences of the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) software, without which the two GPU’s will not work in tandem or be unified.

Users can choose between either the Intel graphics or the AMD graphics, but not without sacrificing either performance or efficiency. Users, without the Leshcat Beta driver, will also lose the ability to install the AMD Catalyst Control Center, which is essentially a Graphical User interface or GUI that allows users and the OS to actually control and switch between the two graphics cards as necessary.

Leshcat now provides a unified version of the two drivers, which restores the ability to install the AMD Catalyst Control Center (AMD CCC) in a Windows 8 environment. However, there are still quite a few bugs that yet have to be worked out with the Leshcat driver set. It's still in the Beta stage of its development. It should be considered an acceptable work around, but it cannot be considered as a fix to the AMD/Intel switchable graphics issue at this point.

It will, at best, allow users switch between their AMD and Intel GPU, but not in the same way as with the original HP authorized driver that worked under Windows 7, which does it more efficiently. Users of the Beta driver may experience excessive power consumption or conflicts with other installed software or even the Windows 8 OS, itself. Many users who have installed the Leshcat driver, in a Windows 8 Pre-release version environment, have found that in order to get everything to install properly, there had to be some changes made to the system's registry, which caused the OS to begin to run in Test Mode.

 

[OMG]

Ok, let me pose this question then... as I'm not entirely familiar with what this Leshcat business is all about. Does it control the switchable graphics on its own, i.e. without the need of CCC? Or does it take the place of the actual Intel and AMD display drivers?

Currently my issue is that both of my display adapters work TOO well... i.e. that they both seemingly are on at the same time. If I can actually install the Catalyst Control Center executable then perhaps I'll be up and running. Otherwise something needs to handle the switching (or just turn one off permanently - would be fine by me).

No! The AMD Catalyst Control Center controls switching between your system's integrated and discrete GPU. Leshcat restores your ability to successfully install and use the Catalyst Control Center in a Windows 8 environment is all.