Anyone else having swichable graphics issue ?

Hi every1 after spending 4 hours trying to fix this issue where my computers graphics card would get stuck on the intel card and the switchable graphics would not work and CCC would not open. i have finally give up this issue has been going on for 1.5 weeks i have tried everything from doing several clean installs of the drivers a complete OS reinstall and so on.

i then contacted Dell support and spent near an hour on the phone with a tech to try an resolve the issue he didnt have a clue what was casuing it so he went and got the head tech and he then told me that there are problems with the drivers and amd where working on it and it should be a few days it has now been 2 weeks

DOES ANYONE HAVE AN ETA ON THE DRIVERS IS ANYONE ELSE HAVING ISSUES LIKE THIS and one thing i have notice one day that the amd card suddenly started working again and did work for 3 days until the computer got stuck on the intel card again SORRY FOR THE LONG POST WAS TRYING TO PUT AS MUCH DETAIL AS POSSIBLE.

 

Which Drivers are you using, have you rolled back to a more stable driver?

 

currently the latest 8.8.51.2 directly from dell released on the 29/07/2012 or 07/29/2012 for Americans JK

amd no longer provides driver downloads there using the 12.6 drivers last time i checked that auto detect but don't work and the program wont run because i have a switchable graphics card

cant seem to find a link to old drivers and wont roll back either

 

Ok, with out teaching you to suck eggs, can you open CCC now? When you try to switch between cards, do you have all programs closed in the background?

One thng you can try, is disabling the Intel GPU in Bios and then booting to see if your GPU works.

Do you have the modded A08 bios? You'll need that to Disable the IGPU.

 

LOL ITS COOL am a pretty techy guy like LOL no ccc wont open only if the amd card is running. yes i have closed all programs and the FN + F7 key does work and brings up that message etc and i click yes and of course nothing happens a big load of nothing i have disabled the intel drivers before but the laptop started using the default windows 7 ones and ccc still wouldnt open am currently running A10 bios i wasnt before i started having these issues so dediced to flash it to see if it fixed the issue but didnt and i dont think theres an option to disable the intergrated card on the A10 bios last time i checked i know there is on the a08 modded though do u think its worth a GO

 

I think its worth a go.

Follow these steps, Firstly get the modded A08 bios from here
ALIENWARE 17XR3 UNLOCKED A08 BIOS.rar

and install it, Disconnect from the internet then uinstall all drivers via Catalyst install manager and restart, then go to device manager and uinstall and delete drivers for IGPU. Both should be labelled as Standard VGA adapter, shut down and reboot in to safe mode, run drive sweeper (found here Guru3D - Driver Sweeper ) select AMD and delete, reboot when prompted and run CC Cleaner (found here: CCleaner - Download ) and select registry clean and fix all issues. Repeat until there are no more issues.

Reboot and enter BIOS. Using the unlocked version of BIOS A08, go to Advanced>Video Configuration, and change Primary Display from SG to PEG, then click on Internal Graphics Device, then IGD again and change from Enabled to Disabled. Save and exit

Please be careful to NOT choose PCI for Primary Display this will most likely brick your bios requiring a blind flash to restore it.

Reboot, you should be on Microsoft standard VGA graphics.

Install this driver (12.7) :

AMD Catalyst

See what happens. If it works and 6990m is ok, uninstal drivers repeat the unistall method from above, go back into BIOS and reverse steps above (PEG back to SG and re enable IGD), save and exit, install Dell drivers from your resource disk which came with the laptop and install 12.7 over the top when done.


OR!!!!! Just to add, you could not bother with disabling the IGPU, it may just be a bad driver install. If you have not uninstalled the drivers as described above when uinstalling your current drivers try that first and install drivers from your Alienware Resource disk, then install 12.7 over the top.

 

will have a go LOL pretty detailed info thanks

LOOKS like a dead link on the AO8 bios download

 

ALIENWARE 17XR3 UNLOCKED A08 BIOS.rar

How about this?

 

YEP works thanks

Ahhh we have a problem lol I flashed the bios and it went to do a restart and it won't shut down I don't know what to do should I force it to shut down never had this problem before flashing a bios

 

Perform a full power drain, see if that fixes your problem.

 

I forced a shutdown worked fine no damaged caused lol

Omg am panicking right this sec I followed all ur steps but my computer is just left with a black screen omg what is wrong

 

Ok calm down, how far did you get?
Worst case, full power drain, unplug CMOS battery and hold power button for 30 seconds. Should return all BIOS to factory settings

 

I was finishing up just change the default display and disabled igpu and saved and esc trust me I followed ur steps the whole way exactly also am getting 7 beeps which I know is a CPU failure

The laptops turned off fit now

 

Ok, no problem, just unplug AC, remove battery, take the cover off and remove the CMOS battery, then, hold power for 30 secs, replace CMOS batter, replace battery and AC and power on.

 

I haven't open it ever I don't know what screw need removed and don't know where the motherboard battery is Jesus christ this is a disaster

 

its not, two screws under the battery. you should see them when you remove the battery. undo the screws and slide the bottom cover away from you. You will see the cmos battery, its a watch battery, just take it out and hold the power for 30 seconds.

Tehn replace it, put the cover back and switch back on.

Remove these two screws:



Slide the cover towards the back of the laptop, so if the battery compartment is close to you, slide it in the opposite direction.

CMOS battery is the silver watch battery above your GPU fan, remove it and hold pwoer button for 30 seconds.

 

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OK am in I see the battery but how do I safety remove it

 

Once you turn back on, go straight into BIOS and check all settings like boot order and obviously make sure IGP is enabled and in SG!!!

If you get 5 Beeps on start up, dont panic, follow these steps!!
Alienware Mobiles - 5 Beeps after turning ON the system | Dell

 

OK I did everything u said took battery out hold the power button for 30 secs then put battery back in and AC but it didn't work I just got 5 beeps this time ???? My laptop i s ed I don't know what's wrong please help

 

No thats normal:

Follows these steps:

Alienware Mobiles - 5 Beeps after turning ON the system | Dell


1. Remove the system battery. (not CMOS)
2. Remove the Ac/adapter.
3. Hold the power button for 30 seconds without any power source.
4. Plug back the Ac/adapter only.
5. Hold the “FN” key and without releasing the key, Power "ON" the computer.
6. After step 5, you will notice the system will try to turn "ON" and after 5 seconds will restart, at this point you can release the “FN” key.
7. The computer will POST and starts loading Windows.
8. Shutdown your computer and plug back the system Battery.

Go into BIOS and make sure all settings are as they shouldbe for example if you had a RAID setup makesure its raid or ACHI make sure its that etc. Make sure you got the right boot order and make sure screen is set to SG and IGP in Enabled.

 

OK am in windows now what should I do reinstall drivers

 

Yep, start with your drivers on your resource disk.

 

Even though the other method didn't work

 

yeh, you wanna go back to the drivers that came with your laptop, then install newer ones over the top (if switching is working again). See if it fixes your switching issues.
A full power drain could have solved it, along with a proper wipe of old drivers.

 

On my resource disc there are Intel HD drivers and amd ones which should I install first my opinion would be amd ones also my grsphics cards drivers are not on the disc only the hd 6870 and 970 ???

 

Install AMD first, go to Dells website and download 6990m from there, then install intel.

Sure they are not on your disk?

 

100% they are defienly not on there but then surely am just using the same bad drivers putting me in the same boat lol thanks a lot for all ur help u have been great will give u good rep dell will be getting a phone call tommorow and not a polite one of that this has gone on for too long I can't even play a basic game like mine craft the HD 3000 struggles even on low settings

 

\yeh thats what i thought. You could try the drivers on your disk. Even if they say 6870. See f the install manager will allow it.

And no problem, sorry if scared you!!! These are expensive machines and i know how it feels to brick your pants when it all goes wrong

 

Lol I have built many computers myself and never worried when something went wrong but when its a 1000 pound laptop that was bought for u as a gift well u urself

 

+rep to you Joe, helluva job helping him remain calm and offering excellent knowledge!

It read like a story for me martin, my BP went up reading this, I know what that feels like.

 

just run with stock drivers once you get up and running. Not worth trying to upgrade to the newer ones as its just to much of a hassle.

 

I agree thanks a lot Joe I already +rep u. Btw am going to become more active on this forum to repay this favour by helping other users

It would be good if I could get a hold of stock drivers there not on my disc dell obviously provided an out of date disc with old gpus on it btw the Intel HD 3000 drivers won't install they bring up some message about not matching my hardware is this because amd latest drivers eg the problemed ones come with Intel drivers as well

 

Thanks guys, appreciate the kind words but the thanks should go to the the legends of this place, people like Slick, Revelator, Geo etc. They know who they are. Without them, my own laptop would be in 2 pieces, smashed up in the corner somewhere. With there help i've upgraded SSD, GPU, WIFI card, RAM etc. Before coming to this place, i had no idea what Thermal paste was, or even that it existed lol.

Martin, keep us updated of how it goes. Would be interested to know what the issue is.

Hi Martin, it was late last night. The 6970 drivers on your disk should work. Also, is that the Intel drivers from your Disk that your having issues with? You could try the Windows update (check for an update) see if it updates your Intel driver for you.

 

Both tried the disk ones and I tried the ones provided by dell on there Website both wouldn't work am currently running the amd one provide by dell on there website eg the problem child ones. I will keep you up to date on progress going to phone dell today to see if they have an eta on a fix but this is not a wide spread issue by the looks of it. And with only 70 days left on the warranty well that's not good because either the CPU or gpu could.
be on there way out .

I agree they have helped me as well before on other issues and accesssory choice am currently waiting on the warentry expiring before I start upgrading going to put a ssd more ram and possibly a new gpu but am waiting to see if users can fix the HDMI issue before proceeding with that one

 

Pretty sure upgrading SSD and RAM doesnt viod warrenty, not sure about GPU. For the M17xR3, the 7970m works fine aslong as you get a Dell card.

 

Oh cool didn't know that. How easy is it to get a hold of a 7970m and sorry to trouble u again am currently experiencing another issue not with the computer its self but with origin and my web browsers orgin seems to think there is no internet but there is same with internet browsers when going through my network devices I notice that there is now a Microsoft virtual miniort adapter next to my really adapter the dell wireless card how do I fix this issue

Lol u will be sending me a bill for all the advice lol

 

7970 is easy to get hold of. Ring Dell UK, and just ask for a cost on the part. You'll want some pads and thermal paste and thermal paste remover that you can get from Maplin or ebay. Theres an awesome guide to replacing it.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/658958-guide-installing-overclocking-amd-mobility-7970-m17x-r3-illustrated-guide.html

As for your internet, i think the virtual adapter is part of the driver you have for your card. is for connecting to printers or creating hotspots, i think!!!

Not really sure how you can get your connection back, perhaps try rebooting, turning you internet off and on too?

 

i got the wireless card fixed just had to disable the windows one via the command prompt. i will definitely look into getting a 7970 btw already looked at the guide lol i don't think i will have a problem putting it in. how would get one off dell would u just ask for one surely they will ask for a service tag.

A bit of an update on the laptop dell said they are unsure when the new drivers will realise but they also informed me that i have another year on my warranty for some reason didn't know that as it only says 67 days on their website. am currently running the amd card now so cant complain just hope it stays like that

 

Oh great so the card is up and running? Good stuff.
I bought mine from a user on here, but i think, i think lol, that you can just buy it from there Spares department.

 

It was lol just tried to install the beta 12.7 driver and i t didn't go to well nothing went wrong but it wouldn't actually install the drivers I got an idea on how to fix it I think am going to try installing the Intel drivers first then amd drivers I think that could be the issue how much if you don't mind me asking ???

Scrap that idea not going to install Intel ones first but I did notice something different this time round when the amd drivers are uninstalled the Intel ones can be installed strange without that error message poping up

oh look what just decided to break again the amd card LOL am no even joking its stuck on the intel one again I give up this is useless

 

How did you get the AMD card running?

 

it broke again 30 mins ago tried to reinstall drivers it wouldnt install them so had to do a sytstem restore and now its stuck on the intel card going to try another reinstall now but this is the last time i try btw it just started working on its own who knows

Now to add more insult to injury the computer is hanging and I had to force it to boot into windows there is something really wrong with this machine I have a feeling the mobo is on its way out