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    How to Install Onboard/Integrated Intel HD Graphics Driver

    Discussion in 'Alienware 18 and M18x' started by tepp, Feb 14, 2015.

  1. tepp

    tepp Notebook Enthusiast

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    When installing a fresh Windows system (Win 7 for me, don't know if this applies to Win 8 or not), there's no installation notes provided by Dell for how to install the Intel HD Graphics Driver. So hopefully this will save someone out there some time:

    You have to install the OSD first. Once you do that, you have to reboot once and then you can press FN + F5 which is how you switch to onboard graphics mode. You can verify which mode you're in by entering BIOS, looking at the graphics adapter detection results on the first tab, near the middle of the page.

    Once in onboard/integrated graphics mode, only then can you install this driver.

    Thanks a lot (not), Dell, for giving not even the slightest hint about this. :vbmad: :mad: :rolleyes: That's nothing short of pathetic. Instead, thanks to the great members of this forum such as @Ferris23 and @Mr. Fox for doing the leg-work and sharing their work with the rest of us. :vbthumbsup:
     
    Last edited: Feb 21, 2015
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  2. Spartan@HIDevolution

    Spartan@HIDevolution Company Representative

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    yup, as I told you, when you buy an Alienware, you're on your own.

    Just to show you how messed up they are, look at this page:

    http://www.dell.com/support/article/us/en/19/SLN85460/EN

    Then scroll down to the Alienware 18 section of the install order, you will notice, they say to install the Intel Graphics first then the nVIDIA Graphics, which is correct, but why did they say to install the OSD app at the end?? how is one supposed to switch from the nVIDIA Graphics to the Intel Graphics without the OSD application? that is a mystery yet to be solved.

    You can switch from the Intel Graphics to the nVIDIA graphics manually through the BIOS by simply "loading optimized defaults" then saving and exiting, that will activate the nVIDIA Graphics, but not vice versa

    I emailed this tip to one of Dell's manager and he forwarded it to the drivers team to update the FAQ, but to no surprise, nothing changed
     
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  3. Alienware-L_Porras

    Alienware-L_Porras Company Representative

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    I'll submit your feedback to the team in charge. It does seem like it may be missing but it may seem like common sense to some people that the device needs to appear in the device manager (after pressing Fn F5) for Windows to be able to see it and install it. That may be why it hasn't been included on all tutorials yet.