Windows 8 Consumer Build

Has anyone gotten this working on their Envy?

I tried an earlier build of Windows 8 and none of the current drivers were compatible.

 

I screwed around with it a bit. Glanced at the drivers, but didn't do anything with them. Will probably goof around a bit more in the next few days.

I did see that AMD posted a video driver for it, just google AMD windows 8 consumer preview driver.

 

I downloaded the Consumer Preview earlier and installed it over Windows 7 (I'm crazy; I know). It actually works pretty awesomely on my 14, and, although there were sound issues at first, I fixed them with a driver. Only major problem is that Catalyst won't work as of now, even with the new driver that was released today. Looks like I'll just be on Intel graphics for a bit, even though Windows 8 is detecting both graphics cards.

 

Installed it on my Envy 15 3000 CTO. The OS itself seems to be just fine, but I can't install graphics driver, neither the one from HP nor the one from Windows Update. After the fresh install, the computer got really hot and the fans went like crazy inside, even without being functional.

 

Did you download the one from AMD's website?

 

i have radeon 6470M and intel hd 3000 in my laptop. All available AMD and INTEL drivers don't work (even yesterday's new RADEON driver for windows 8, when i install it, it shows me that i have radeon 7400M, but card still doesnt work).
Now i work with intel card with microsoft default driver (WDDm 1.2 - without any controll center and another extras - it suck!). Somebody know, when any TRUE drivers for this card will be available? Sorry for my english.

 

Nope. I was about to download the 12.2 Catalyst one (~150MB in size) and suddenly decided to quit. Went back to Windows 7. It doesn't worth it.

 

Tried it over my Win 7 build yesterday and couldn't get switchable graphics working so I did a clean wipe and went back to Win 7 again.

Even for the few hours I had Win 8 for, I wasn't very pleased. The missing start orb really is a much bigger change than I had anticipated. I couldn't use it without that.

 

I tried to install Win8 CP from a DVD but it is telling me to indicate the location of my DVD drive drivers, which seems odd considering it's currently reading the DVD out of the DVD drive, that and I have no idea where to tell it these DVD drivers are...

 

There is a W8 ATI driver over Guru3d , you guys may want to check that out. I'm making a bootable W8 USB just to see if it "revolutionize" how we use computer lol..

 

I'v done both a fresh install and a win7 upgrade on envy 14. Both worked out well but there is a problem with the graphics drivers (used the Catalyst win 8 CP preview). I had to disable the intel driver to get the AMD card to work and then also it crashes on me regularly.

Standy did work in the beginning but now I can't find the option anymore to standby. So either power on or shut off completely.

Too many annoyances for me so think I'll go back to my win7 image again.

 

Mine worked, but I had some issues if I tried messing witht he graphics drivers. I essentially had to disable the AMD card or else it think I have two monitors. Also I think it still ran because that area was always hot and battery life was trash.

 

This driver is definitely not compatible with my model. Once it installed my screen went black and I had to disable it in "safe mode" to get it back again.

 

After a lot of search using Google, and messing up my Win 8 CP installation twice, I was able to install video drivers with the switchable functionality working. I own an Envy 15t-3000CTO with Intel and AMD gpu.

I tried different sets of drivers from HP and other sites, but they didn't work.
I always had a yellow exclamation sign for the AMD gpu in device manager.

The problem is that the inf used by drivers for Win 7 have a version check within the file:

Code:

[Manufacturer]
%ATI% = ATI.Mfg, NTamd64.6.1, NTamd64.6.2

[ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1]
"%AMD68F2.1%" = ati2mtag_VancouverC_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68F2
"%AMD9519.1%" = ati2mtag_VancouverC_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9519
"%AMD9452.1%" = ati2mtag_VancouverC_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9452
... more hardware id's listed

If you try to use the "Have disk" method in device manager, you will likely encounter a message telling that there is no software driver for your Win 8 version.

So in order to make the inf work for Win 8, we need to change [ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1] to [ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.2] (Windows 8 is version 6.2)

But usually AMD drivers have a "cat" file in the same folder than the "inf". The purpose of this file is to have a catalog of the hashes of all the files that compose the driver package to enforce driver signing and prevent
So after modifying the inf file, the hash for the inf file will be modified and it will not correspond to the value stored in the catalog. So a new catalog needs to be made.
Usually those catalogs are signed by certificates that are acquired from Microsoft, but there is a way to self-sign with our own certificates, as if we were testing drivers.

Below are the steps that I did in order to make switchable graphics to work. By no means is exhaustive, and the reason I post it is to provide advice to other persons. I cannot guarantee that it will work in all cases, it did for me though.


Note: Requires knowledge to sign your own drivers, disable signing enforcement at boot and modding some inf files.
I am not responsible for any damage that may arise. This guide is not exhaustive.

Requirements:

• .NET Framework 3.5 -- Can be enabled within Windows 8, in "Turn Windows features on or off"
• Windows Driver Kit (WDK) -- Can be downloaded from here
• Configure Windows Update to only "Download updates but let me choose wether to install them", and hide both Intel and AMD updates. This is to prevent our driver be updated by Windows.

This is what I did in order to make it work:

In theory it may work with HP drivers, but I didn't try that.

1. Download the latest switchable graphics drivers from this site: leshcat blog IT Tips & Tricks: Catalyst 12.3 Pre-WHQL UnifL for Switchable Graphics

2. Run the installer that will extract the contents of the file, by default it will ask you to disable "Signing enforcement of Windows", you will know that it is working after rebooting because a "Test Mode" watermark is added to the desktop, above "Windows 8 Consumer Preview".

3. At this moment, do not run the AMD installer yet. We need to modify some files. By default, the driver will be extracted to " C:\Drivers\Catalyst 12.3 Pre-WHQL UnifL".

4. Go to this directory, and open the following file "Packages\Drivers\Display\W76A_INF\C7133662.inf"

Do the following changes:
In the section [Version] add:

Code:

[Version]
CatalogFile=C7133662.CAT

There is a section that has the listing of all the supported cards. Rename it from "[ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1]" to "[ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.2]"
It should look like this:

Code:

[Manufacturer]
%ATI% = ATI.Mfg, NTamd64.6.1, NTamd64.6.2

[ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.2]
"%AMD68F2.1%" = ati2mtag_VancouverC_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_68F2
"%AMD9519.1%" = ati2mtag_VancouverC_PXAI, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_9519

5. Follow this guide to Test-Sign a Driver Package. (This guide is generic)

6. After the previous step, you should have a Catalog file and the inf file we modified previously.

7. Now proceed to run the AMD installer in "Win 7" Compatibility Mode. It is most likely that the driver install will fail at this stage, but the rest of Catalyst software will be installed.

8. Now install the driver using the "Have disk" method in device manager and your modified INF for both Intel and AMD cards.

9.If you did the test-signing process correctly, the installation will succeed for both cards.

10. Reboot and enjoy your switchable graphics under Win 8.



I still have to figure out how to make brightness controls to work.
BTW sorry for any grammar mistake, I am not a native English speaker.

---

Known issues:
- Sometimes switching may not work, resulting in BSOD.
- When AMD gpu is active, Intel driver context menu options are still available.

Features:
AMD gpu can be turned off, so battery will last longer.

 

I couldnt get your way to work, but I did get this way to get me to a working computer with working drivers but no switching. Battery life is seemingly better than the AMD was on 7 too.

Follow this guide to ignore the signature checking (This is the only way that worked well for me) and then extract the HP supplied graphic driver package to somewhere, run the setup in Windows 7 compatibility mode, and then you should have the righ switchable graphics drivers but CCC might not work. Not a big deal for me though because it just means Im stuck in the high perf. card. I might keep trying to get the switchable graphics working but Ive tried a few things and its giving me trouble.

Brightness control works

I updated to the AMD Windows 8 Consumer Preview drivers by manually doing it through device manager afterwards I believe after extracting the files and using the INF.

Screenshots of my drivers
http://imgur.com/a/2M2ei

I manually disabled the AMD graphics card through device manager. Ill see how it works.

Edit: Im getting about 3 hours battery after disabling AMD while streaming a video to another computer and viewing PDFs at a low brightness. Laptop is staying cool and fans aren't spinning up so I say it works well.

 

Does anyone know how to get CoolSense working in Windows 8? My fan is running all the time, and it's pretty embarrassing in quiet public places. I tried downloading the HP Software Framework, HP Support Assistant, and HP CoolSense from the website, but the CoolSense settings didn't seem to affect the fan. Also, the battery life kind of sucks, as I've found.

 

Its most likely messed up video drivers

 

Windows 8 was fun but I'm not sure I really like it. The dashboard is too much fluff for me.

 

Can't get this to work. Setup hangs on "Enumerating something something". I kind of hated Windows 8 at the beginning but it's starting to grow on me.

 

I had that happen too; I think from playing with the INFs and stuff before hand. I actually reinstalled Windows 8 and rextracted and installed the drivers. It only takes like 10 minutes to do, but hopefully you didnt load up Windows 8 too much. There might be another way though.

Ive turned Windows 8 into my daily driver now after fixing the driver issues.

I think the key to Win8 running well is to just get the right HP supplied Intel drivers on there.

 

I played around with the video drives some more and figured some things out (At least for the Envy 14 1xxx).

I have worked out how to get Switchable graphics, the preview AMD drivers, and brightness working.

I also sorted out fixing the "Enumerating..." install error

What you need:
Stock HP supplied .771 AMD/Intel driver installer
AMD Windows 8 CP driver.

First off you need to disable the signature checking I think.
Follow this guide Disable Driver Signing in Windows 7

Next, open the .exe files of the stock HP drivers, but dont install, just let them extract to C:\swsetup\...

Navigate to the files and set the setup.exe to run in Windows 7 mode. Custom install ONLY THE DRIVERS and whatever they make you. Dont install CCC.

This will get you to working drivers, but Switchable graphics wont work. Running on the High performance card works well though.

If you are having the enumerating error, kill the installer with task manager, then navigate to C:\SwSetup\SP50656\Packages\Apps\CIM\Win64 and run ATICatalystInstallManager.msi.
After you install the installer, run it again and have it express uninstall all ati software.
After that finishes go back and run setup.exe again and it should hopefully work.

If you dont get any errors: Now, install the CP AMD drivers which dont need to be run in Win7 mode. Let that install CCC and the new drivers.

You should now have everything working!

DO NOT INSTALL ANY VIDEO DRIVERS FROM WINDOWS UPDATE AFTER THIS

If you do, just rollback the AMD card's driver though.

 

Unfortunately, this did not work for me, but at least I don't have the enumerating error anymore, so thanks for that. Does your envy have a 6630m? Could send the link to the driver you used, can't really find it on the hp site. Thanks

 

I have the first gen with the 5650 so my stock drivers are different than yours I believe. What issue did you run into?

I would think you extract this one and run the setup.exe in Windows 7 mode first
ftp://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp54501-55000/sp54917.exe

I have no way of testing though

 

I solved the enumerating error by selecting compatibility troubleshooting (or whatever it's called).

I've also noticed that the trackpad is way better under the Windows 8. Not quite Macbook good but really good. I really hope that MS implements trackpad gestures for both desktop and metro modes.

 

Hi, i have the same laptop (2070nr) and the same problem! do you have the solution?

 

I have the same laptop (2070nr) and the same problem! do you have the solution? Thanks!

 

The answer to that problem was futzing in the AMD control center. I dont have the issue now when I install the drivers, but I have the 1xxx model.

I now just install Leshcatlabs 12.9 drivers