dv6t-61XX / dv7t-61XX Switchable Graphics Discussion

yeah i'm actually curious about that as well - how did you manage to get the 6100 driver with dynamic switch on a 6000 driver? you sure you weren't dreaming 0_o???

as far as i know, the only place you can find a 6100 version of the driver is in your swsetup folder if you have a 6100 version laptop. it's not even on the hp website.

 

I used driversweeper 3.1.0 just fine on my 6100. If you plan on clearing out drivers in this fashion you have to do it in this way:

Uninstall the ATI Catalyst install manager and let it uninstall everything associated to it

Uninstall the Intel Management Driver

Boot to safe mode

Run Driver Sweeper

Open your device manager, uninstall both of your video card drivers, select to delete the drivers

Reboot (normal mode this time. The ATI driver will not install from safe mode because it cant find the video card)

It will come up with unknown standard vga as the driver.

From that point I've installed every mix of packages from the 6000 in my attempts to enable manual switching. I managed to get the Intel HD 3000 working on its own at one point even with the ATI drivers installed because I used the Intel drivers from the Intel site. When installing the base 6000 drivers it still defaulted me to a dynamic setup.

From what reading I have done it seem that there is an application profile that is hidden in the drivers that makes it do manual or dynamic, but I've been unable to find it. People that mentioned that in what I've seen seem to lose it and are unable to restore it, thus breaking their manual or dynamic switching. Forcing them to do a restore.


DISCLAIMER: I hold no responsibility if you FUBAR your system with this procedure. It worked for me, but may not for you. I recommend setting a restore point before proceeding so you can revert to a known working drivers state.

 

I did the same thing up to here, however right after that I tried to install 1) the 6000 HP driver - doesn't recognize hardware, and 2) 6100 HP driver - doesn't recognize hardware.

so i thought i seriously f'ed it up. and then from device manager, and pressed scan for new hardware, and it automatically installed drivers for intel and ati from 3/15, but without CCC - yet dynamic switchable graphics is still working.

i really think that the dynamic switching is done at the hardware level or bios level. it doesn't seem to be a drivers thing as same drivers on 2 different computers produce completely different results (i was doing the same things on 6000 and 6100 side by side)

 

I tried the same thing, but when they didnt install, I actually copied the INF file and anything missing OVER TOP of the 6000 series driver (out of my swsetup folder). I did not replace any files except for the INF so I did actually manage to install the ATI 6000 driver (I did this after singly copying over the INF file from the 6100 swsetup because it kept telling me file missing errors, it just ended up being minor files, the main part of the driver was still from the 6000). Needless to say I was actually quite surprised when it successfully installed with my weird version.

The Intel 6000 driver I had to do manually from the device manager (right click, update driver, have disk, pointed it to the ATI 6000 driver location Packages\Drivers\Display\Win76F (dont quote me on that, but its near enough))

 

K, definitely you have must used windows update, windows should not able to find a driver and install automatically without user approving the search outside. Unfortunately, I don't have a procedure to removing it that down low.

@Beradon, you should just added the entries instead of overriding. You might mess up a few important offsets by blindly overwriting.

 

which one is the 6100 driver? i have installed too many versions while trying to get it again.

including;

SP51585
SP52929
AMD Catalyst 11.5
AMD Catalyst 11.5b

i havent installed anything else. when i get the dynamic scheme, i have installed SP52929. after the installing applications profile cap2 from guru3d website, i have saw the "dynamic scheme-fixed scheme" selection page on ccc. so i have selected dynamic scheme and select games for high performance. but then i have installed 11.5b and after the restart, i have saw there is no selection page anymore.

 

The 6100 driver is located in your swsetup\drivers\video folder, unfortunately HP hasnt seen fit to post a downloadable base version for the 6100 driver yet...

 

i did install a set of drivers from windows update, but that was dated 4/12 - not the set of 3/15 that it was reverting to. i dont know... this entire thing is just so messy and unintuitive. all i can conclude from all of this is that this is a new system and old methods don't necessarily work on them. on the plus side, i dont see anything wrong with the dynamic switching except for emulators.

 

You tried to install a dv4 driver with product ids 0x1646, 0x1647 (SP52929)
and the dv6/dv7 6000 driver (SP51585) <- that's 11.2

That because you updated over which causes Windows to keep a history so it can fall back on. The problem is I don't remember how to edit roll back, haven't used it in a long time.

 

Aye, I know, I wasnt terribly concerned through. I was fully prepared to restore or even run a recovery if I screwed something up.

 

That or getting the software to work

 

Yes, only issue I am having is emulators as well. A little annoying, but hopefully the emulators get updated to work with dynamic switching

 

So after reading though all 27 pages my routine when I get a new laptop won't change. I get my D7 next week. I'll start from scratch and do a clean install with W7 Ultimate. Go to AMD and install the latest drivers for the 6770 then go back to HP and install all the other drivers. In looking at the support page for my model there is no AMD driver listed under Graphics anyway just the intel. The only piece of software from HP I liked was cool sense but I can live without it since I can't find a download for it.

 

The Coolsense software is under HP support assistant, found here: HP Support Assistant HP Pavilion dv6t-6100 CTO Quad Edition Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

See I have an DM1 netbook and when I installed Support Assistant it didn't put Coolsense back on...weird. I'll try it though thanks!

 

I have kind of a crazy idea for trying to get the manual switching on the dynamic machine involving some heavy registry editing. Gonna try it when I have some time, might be somewhat involved though.

 

Not to be pessimistic, or doubt your skills, but I think you'll find that's not going to work. Having said that, I SINCERELY wish you the best of luck. really.

 

what is the difference of doing a clean install or just uninstalling all the bloatwares you don't need??

i am getting my laptop in a week and i don't if i should reinstall windows

 

I did the uninstall bloatware option because there were pieces I still wanted, and I know what the other stuff does. Plus, for now at least, I want to keep the recovery partition on there, and the minimized install removes it.

 

if you are talking about the minimal system recovery from HP, it doesn't remove the recovery partition nor the hp_tools partition.

 

Maybe I misspoke, which install option makes it so you can no longer make the recovery dvd?

 

I just did some gaming tests with my new Dv6t 6100.

Even with Neverwinter Nights 2 I cannot select max settings if I want to keep FPS around 30. Can't turn on Anti Ali either. That game is a little old by now.

Shogun 2 I run high textures, but no anti al and have to knock shadows down and a couple other options to maintain high 20's zoomed in on a big battle.

One thing I find interesting tho, why does HWINFO64 show the radeon at 725 clock and 217mb of ram. These numbers do not fluctuate unless I tab out of the game, or the game hits a loading screen. At which point they drop to a level that it is obvious the card is not being used.

The intel card on the other hand is about 600-650 both card and ram and fluctuates pretty hard i a tight range while I am playing.

Shogun so far I have to play in window mode. It flickers when I don't.

 

all the HP restores (system, factory, minimal system) keep the recovery partition. unless you remove it yourself it's always there.

 

ATI Radeon? Video Card Drivers

11.6 catalyst just released! now trying...

 

The following notebooks are not compatible with this release:

Any notebook launched after this driver release
Switchable Graphics enabled notebooks using Intel® chipsets.
Toshiba® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
Sony® VAIO® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)
Panasonic® notebooks (please contact the notebook OEM for driver support for these notebooks)

 

You been blindly installing AMD drivers, and you just noticed that?

Anyways, it's like the bridge out ahead sign, you can choose to ignore it.
Feel free to try it. Beradon noticed some poor performance with 11.6 with some of this older games.

 

dv6tqe-6100
I just installed 11.6 and tried a couple things. The order in which I installed was stock > windows update 6770m driver > 11.6. My windows index scores for my gpu pre 11.6 were -
Graphics - 5.3
Gaming Graphics - 6.6

Unfortunately I didn't get 3dmark scores on that driver because it would always crash. My scores after 11.6 are -
Graphics - 6.7
Gaming Graphics - 6.7

My 3dmark score with 11.6 is P6485
Gpu score - 5362
Cpu score - 17420

On the result sheet it also doesn't mention the fact that I am using a 6770m at all, just the intel graphics.

On a side note, has anyone been able to get Minecraft to work on the 6100's? In gpuz it shows it is using the 6770m but the clocks stay solid at 100mhz and 27mhz.

**Edit - Also to anyone testing/benchmarking, having your coolsense set to "Coolest" will tamper with your results. I noticed by enabling this it disables turbo boost on the cpu and the max it can get to is 2ghz(if you have 2630qm). I don't know if it changes anything else, just giving a heads up.

 

i couldnt install the 11.6 driver.

 

This thread is all over the place, and im not that great with computers? I spent $1300 ordering my Dv6t Quad Edition (6100 Series) and am getting worried before my laptop arrives that my laptop will have a problem with its 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6770M Graphics [HDMI, VGA].

How do i test my laptop if the switchable graphics card works? I want a very easy way with/without a game.

Whats 11.5b, should i install it, is there a chance it can mess up the computer, and does it work?

Does system restore actually fix the switchable graphics issue? How is that possible? Is there any risks applying system restore?

Do ALL laptops have the switchable graphics card issue with the Radeon 6770M graphics card, or do some work fine upon arrival? Can it switch fine, and suddenly stop switching, or once it switches you've got nothing to worry about?


Should i make a recovery disk before i use any of these tests?

ANY Input is highly appreciated guys. I have no knowledge regarding the HP dv6t quad edition (6100 Series), i just know its a great machine that gives you value for the price, but im really getting worried since i spent $1300 For 8gb Ram, Full 1920x1080 HD, i7 w/ 2.2 ghz turbo bost 3.3 ghz, Blue ray reader/Writer.

 

Hi all, I've been following this post for a while now since I too have the dv6t (specifically the dv6-6105tx) and I'm unsatisfied with the switchable graphics feature.

Although I can see how it is a hindrance to not have some kind of global setting, I can still bear with configuring my applications manually. However it appears that OpenGL based applications are not getting hardware acceleration from the dGPU.

Minecraft performs at 10-25fps, and the Unigine Heaven benchmark for OpenGL pulls a mere 8 fps (more than 20 fps slower then the DirectX 9 benchmark).

A piece of news too, it appears that HP has added the AMD driver for my model, you may want to check if its also been released for the other 6100s. (The link appears to be broken on my side)

 

Right-click on desktop and select switchable graphics. If it lets you choose between the Intel GMA and the 6770m, you have the manual switchable graphics, if you get the choice to select "High Performance" or "Power Saver" on a per application basis, you have the dynamic switchable graphics.

All this depends on the model number of your laptop. If its a dv6t-6000 series you'll have the manual switching, if its the dv6t-6100 you'll have the muxless crap that some of us have.

Muxless technology really isn't that bad, but at this point of time I fail to see how it is consumer friendly. Even half of the HP techs don't know it's there.

 

i have the 6100 series, seeing as i bought this one day ago. How do i test my switchable graphics card to see if it works/switches? I want an easy way with/without a game.

 

This thread is all over the place, and im not that great with computers? I spent $1300 ordering my Dv6t Quad Edition (6100 Series) and am getting worried before my laptop arrives that my laptop will have a problem with its 1GB GDDR5 Radeon(TM) HD 6770M Graphics [HDMI, VGA].

How do i test my laptop if the switchable graphics card works? I want a very easy way with/without a game.

Whats 11.5b, should i install it, is there a chance it can mess up the computer, and does it work?

Does system restore actually fix the switchable graphics issue? How is that possible? Is there any risks applying system restore?

Do ALL laptops have the switchable graphics card issue with the Radeon 6770M graphics card, or do some work fine upon arrival? Can it switch fine, and suddenly stop switching, or once it switches you've got nothing to worry about?


Should i make a recovery disk before i use any of these tests?

ANY Input is highly appreciated guys. I have no knowledge regarding the HP dv6t quad edition (6100 Series), i just know its a great machine that gives you value for the price, but im really getting worried since i spent $1300 For 8gb Ram, Full 1920x1080 HD, i7 w/ 2.2 ghz turbo bost 3.3 ghz, Blue ray reader/Writer.

 

You can use the unigine heaven benchmark for this (google it). If you can start it in DirectX 11 mode, your graphics card is working fine. (The standard Intel HD Graphics 3000 has no DX11 support I think)

Its the latest drivers from AMD. It appears to work but it does not allow you to switch graphics cards manually. I'm not sure if there is a performance improvement but it won't mess up your computer.

I have yet to see a thread that proves this. But either way you must have had the manual switching graphics to begin with.

No. The manufacturer decides to enable this in the system. As I mentioned before the 6000 series has the same hardware but allows manual switching.

All HP laptops come with a recovery partition, press escape at the bios screen to access it. Unless you intend to completely repartition your hard disk you shouldn't really need a recovery disk (Although hp recommends it).

Anyway the download link for the 6100's new amd drivers is up.. Gonna download it and see if it fixes the OpenGL problems I'm facing.

 

The only way you can tell if you have the 6770m running is if you go in-game and check the FPS (frames per second) of the game you're running. Say for example, I play Starcraft 2. With the Intel IGP i can only run at 25 FPS at medium settings. With the 6770m I can hit above 105 - 110. So you know the 6770m is at work if you get these kinds of frame rates. You can see FPS in-game in SC2. For other games you may have to use a program called FRAPS to check. Google it.

The reason why there's no easy way to check which card it's using is because the switching technology is still new and the software is buggy. We have to basically wait till ATI/HP iron out the kinks before it's fully intuitive. Until then its annoying. But at least the ATI card does work for most games. Some games it just refuses to kick in. But that's another story and another problem ATI/HP have to sort out.

Not all laptops have dynamic switching but yours certainly will as its a new 6100.

Always make recovery disk regardless of what youre doing.

System restore has nothing to do with the switchable graphic issue as its a problem between the drivers, the hardware and HP.

11.5b is a revision/version of the ATI drivers. You need to upgrade from stock drivers - > 11.5b or 11.6 when you have your laptop. But up to you really as you can also use your stock drivers. Newer drivers in theory should give better performance but its not always the case, especially with some older games.

Hope this helps.

 

If your Radeon 6770M Graphics card switches by itself perfectly and you dont have this problem. Can it experience the problem of not switching automatically later on? (Once you tested your graphics card and see it switches by itself without problems, also i will use your method to test it.)


And Thank you for your time!

 

Thank you! How do i make a recovery disk? Doesn't it come already inside the computer by pressing escape at the bios screen?

 

So far, the only games I have problems getting the card to kick in are OpenGL Applications. Setting the profile to "High Performance" seems to work fine for DirectX applications.

According to these leaked slides about PowerXPress 4.0 (The new dynamic switchable graphics): BACO_°Ù¶ÈÎÄ¿â (pg 12)

Apparently the dGPU is only activated on the creation of a d3d context and application profile setting. So from what I'm guessing this is probably the reason why OpenGL games fail to receive the graphics boost from the dGPU.

 

This is pretty interesting. Is there anything in those documents that say whether OpenGL may be implemented?

I assume this means that anything running on OS X would not work with the dynamic switching as it is as OS X does not use directx but OpenGL. I may be wrong but that's what I remembered from my days of using Macs.

Seems like a huge thing to miss out by ATI.

Apparently things like Flight Simulator X wont work...I'll check if thats directx or OpenGL

 

Flight Simulator X is definitely directx without even looking. Why would Microsoft use anything else?

 

....actually what am I talking about. Its a microsoft game so of course it uses directx but its DX9. Maybe the switching is buggy with DX9 and OpenGL?

 

Hmm, not sure about FSX. But so far every OpenGL application I've tested runs on the iGPU. This includes: Unigine Heaven, Brink, Minecraft and some of my own OpenGL projects.

Looking at the slides I posted earlier theres actually a diagram that shows that OpenGL application run on the iGPU (pg 17 i think?).

Why on earth would AMD design the drivers to work this way. Maybe they're trying to phase OpenGL out completely. lol.

On a side note, not all Dx9 Applications are broken. The unigine heaven dx9 benchmark appears to be performing correctly (10-15fps on power saving and 30-40 on high performance). Also with regards to OS X, apple engineers usually author the drivers with support from AMD (as HP themselves are probably doing now) so they probably have control over the whole OpenGL on which GPU thing.

Bleh if only I had the source for the drivers, bet I could fix it in a second.

 

Yeah I saw that too. Seems bizarre as in that slide only the IGPU is attributed to OpenGL.

Only DirectX11 has dGPU support. It seems DirectX9 - 10.1 are all at the mercy of messy switchable nonsense.

But one bit of hope is the slide on Juliet 1.0 where CCC will have the ability for us to switch from manual selection to dynamic. I'm sure the software is already there as you can see the timelines are for DEC 10. Its up to HP now to package an OEM driver release that makes things work and gives us a choice of manual or dynamic, once and for all.

By the way wow the slides are awful on the eyes. That's gotta be the worst slide scheme I have ever seen!

 

AMD's OpenGL support is always been fishy since the x1000 series.


I hope that AMD eventually figured out how to switch on abstract drivers so that the consumer no longer have to depend on OEM for graphic updates. <- This should be first before the manual switch implementation. Just in case, HP decide to forget the 6000/6100 like they did to their previous generation.

 

I thought perhaps the reason AMD cant do this is because of licensing issues with packaging the Intel drivers in theirs? They are, afterall, chipset rivals in this game. That's why I have more hope of them implementing switching choice before being able to release universal drivers.

 

Just got off the phone with another clueless HP employee saying that it was hardware issues. After insisting to talk with a software engineer I gave them my number. Currently waiting for them to call back.

Hopefully the software engineer can provide some insight about this issue. (Though somehow I'm guessing they'd be as clueless as the others)

It amazes me how they can sell a product with so little support for it. I mean someone at hp must have build the base drivers to begin with. :\

 

Good luck bransay I hope you get some sense out of them. Youre right, someone must know what's going on. I cant really ring support as I bought my DV6 in China. If you do get some sense out of them let us know. I think one thing that would be great to know is an ETA for the updated driver!

 

Hi, is it possible to lose the ability to switch manually by updating drivers when I have dv7 6050? Thanks!

 

Actually, I played FSX on my first DV6 using DX10. there is an option (IF the Radeon is DETECTED) in FSX graphics options, to run either DX 9 or DX 10. If that option is MISSING, it's easy to know that the Radeon ISN'T ACTIVE, which was my problem and is why I sent the second DV6 back for a refund.

 

I've been waiting for weeks for an answer. Good luck with that. ( I also emailed the "email the CEO" email addy. No response from that entity, either. Besides what can they say for themselves? "ah, Dave we are sorry but we have no clue what we are doing at this point, so all we can suggest is that you return your laptop if you aren't happy with it". which is what I already did... )