IGP & Drivers Question

Hi guys,

As we all know, the switchable graphics feature on the alienware laptops is a pain when it comes to installing new graphics drivers.

I have the R3 with a 6990m and have always had issues installing drivers.

If i were to disable to the IGP, would this allow me to install any drivers for the 6990m without any issues or blue screens etc?

i only ask because im still running the 12.3 cats but do not want try to update as last time i tried, it somehow killed my card and i had to have my 6990m replaced.

If this would work, how do i disable switchable graphics and/or my IGP?

Im running the modded A08 bios if that helps.

Thanks.

 

Most of the AMD Catalyst packages won't install properly on notebooks with switchable graphics...they actually state that on the bottom of each Catalyst's download page. I checked the AMD 12.8 thread in this forum and people are reporting "If you are running 6900's card, they wont install at all". Seems AMD is not being very considerate to the 6900m owners.

 

Thanks for the reply.

Wouldn't disabling the IGP disable switchable graphics? Therefore the drivers should install ok?

 

You'd think that right? Disabling the IGP in the BIOS would leave only the discrete card and therefore the AMD drivers SHOULD install to the 6990m without interference from the IGP or switchable graphics. Apparently that isn't the case. The newer drivers are just not playng nicely with the 6900m series even though the release notes state they should work with those GPUs.

 

To enable/disable iGPU use [Fn]+[F7] while on Windows.

If you want to re install video drivers, follow this guide on how to do a Video Driver Clean Installation.

As Radji says, I have also read a lot of threads about people stating that the 12.8 catalyst won't work with the 6990m, however if it crashes you can always use the steps in the guide to roll back to another version.

Make sure the video card you're installing is enabled before installing the drivers (iGPU when installing the Intel HD graphics, and AMD 6990m when installing the catalyst)

GL!