dv6z-61XX Unlock Fixed/Dynamic Switchable Graphics

Disclaimer: This is only for the HP dv6z models that have dual graphics and have the F.21 bios as their latest bios from the HP site. Please do this only if you are sure that you know what you are doing. Please consider all risks before attempting, for I am not responsible if something goes wrong. This is what worked for me and it is listed in the order that I did it. I can't guarantee results if you don't follow the guide accordingly. Enjoy.

Before we begin, I guess I owe you some proof before you put the time into this. This should suffice since it is an OpenGL benchmark that would't use the dgpu otherwise -


Step 1 - Download and install the modded unlocked "camolil's BIOS" from HTWingNut's "The Definitive DV6z Llano Overclock and Optimization Guide", found here http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-...-dv6z-llano-overclock-optimization-guide.html

Step 2 - After the computer restarts from the bios install, go to the AMD website and download the 12.1a preview driver. Also download Driver Sweeper if you don't already have it. Install Driver Sweeper.

Step 3 - Set your computer to boot into safe mode through msconfig. Click "exit without restart" on the prompt that comes up after you click ok. Go into Windows control panel and navigate to Add/Remove Programs. Uninstall your AMD driver through here.

Step 4 - After the driver uninstall is complete, restart your computer. You should now be booted into safe mode. Before doing anything go back to msconfig and turn off safe boot, again clicking "exit without restart". Now run Driver Sweeper and clean ONLY the AMD display entry. When it prompts for a restart, click ok.

Step 5 - Now the fun part. When your computer is rebooting and hits the splash screen, hit esc to enter your bios. Navigate to the advanced tab (made available from unlocked bios). Go down to "Video Configuration" and hit enter. If it isn't already, set your Primary Video Adapter to "Int Graphics (IGD)" and Special Features to "PowerExpress". Down a little further is a setting called PX mode, set that to "Mux". Ensure that both PX Fix Mode and PX Dynamic Mode are set to "Enabled"(this allows for both fixed and dynamic setups through the CCC). Lastly, be sure that Discrete GFX Modules is set to "None". Hit F10 to save and exit.

Step 6 - Now that the hard part is out of the way, it is time to install 12.1a. Navigate to where you downloaded 12.1a and install it. When prompted to restart, do so.

Step 7 - After the computer restarts and you log in, right click your desktop and click "Graphics Properties". Once your control center opens, navigate to the "Power" section and click on "Switchable Graphics Method". To enable Fixed mode, click "Select the graphics processor manually or based on power source" and click apply. A prompt will come up asking if you are sure, click the "Change" button. Your screen will flicker for a few seconds, this is normal.

Step 8 - You're done! All you have to do is go to the "Switchable Graphics" section in the CCC or right click your desktop and click "Switchable Graphics". From here you can pick which GPU you want to use. Changing back to Dynamic switching is as easy as going back to "Switchable Graphics Method" and choosing Dynamic, no restart required.

Step 8 1/2 - I almost forgot, 12.1a doesn't supply all the drivers you need (sata, usb3, hdmi). Here are the links to the drivers that you are missing so you don't have to install HP's video driver just to get them.
USB3, Sata, ahci (all included in the ahci download at the bottom) - AMD RAID/SATA Drivers
Hdmi (Download "ATI HDMI Audio Device" from here) - Realtek

Thank you for reading this guide and I wish you much enjoyment out of your new Fixed Graphics. I also want the thank HTWingNut for his wonderful guide, for without it I would never have stumbled onto that bios.

 

Dude that's awesome! Do you have voltage control in MSI Afterburner on fixed? +rep

 

Unfortunately voltage control still doesn't work. I'm not sure why it doesn't work but if I had to guess it might be because Afterburner doesn't recognize the preview driver. If I get bored I might try 11.12 to see if that works, but at this point I'm happy with fixed dgpu at 800/1000.

 

Will this work for the dv6-6188ca?(A8 3510mx, dual radeon graphics 6755g2) Are those OC numbers pretty safe and stable overclocks for the dGPU without a cooling mod?

 

Thanks, Imwithstupid11. Your guide linked from my Definitive Guide! +1

So with this you should be able to freely switch between dedicated and integrated like before using the "configure switchable graphics" option. But now OpenGL is supported on the dedicated card?

 

Is this BIOS mod and fix exclusive to the 6135dx? I have been looking everywhere for this fix for the graphics but I just need to know if it will work on the dv6 6188CA (also uses the F21 Bios and it looks like the sp number matches)Thanks for posting the fix Imwithstupid11 and major thanks to HT WingNut for pioneering an awesome comprehensive guide! If anyone can confirm that the nodded BIOS is compatible with my dV6 6188CA that would be awesome.

 

I don't think it's been tried by anyone here with a 6188CA but if it's a common BIOS shouldn't be an issue.*


*disclaimer: try at your own risk!

 

"If it isn't already, set your Primary Video Adapter to "Int Graphics (IGD)" "

I believe that part is wrong. When I switched it to those settings, it would remove all of the other settings. I also couldn't configure the graphics. I used the other setting (not disabled ). It worked then.

I do have a question: what resolution were you using for the test or does it not matter? I'm using 1440x900 I think and my test came back at 27.73 which is almost ten full points below yours.

 

He's probably overclocking his video card quite a bit.

But it would be good to get clarification on the procedure with the issue you brought up.

 

Sorry that I haven't been around to answer questions. I've been busy trying to get my computer to work. Unfortunately, it looks like my dgpu died. I noticed my temps in the lower to mid 80s for a couple days(usually 71-74) then yesterday my dgpu started acting funny. When I would use dynamic and try to run a game on high performance all I would get was a black screen. So I tried switching to fixed, BSOD with some Pool Read error or something like that. Now today when I started windows I get a different BSOD, "System_Service_Exception" with "atikmpag.sys " on the bottom right after the loading screen. I tried re-installing windows and it boots just fine, as long as I don't install a display driver. When I do that and reboot, same cycle of BSODs. uggghh.

 

Sorry to hear that. Hope you can get it sorted out. Hopefully HP will take care of you.

Do you think it's related to setting the DGPU to fixed or entirely unrelated?

 

I'm not sure if fixed is what caused it, I've had BSODs before I tried fixed. Sometimes while installing or uninstalling drivers I would get BSODs or while playing games my screen would sometimes go black. At first I thought it was the drivers, but now I'm not so sure. This has been happening since I got the laptop. When it happened I was playing a game and it got a BSOD, had to reset my cmos just to boot. After that, all I could get at start up was a BSOD.

 

This modded BIOS is supposed to be based on F.21. I think HP apparently fixed some BSOD issues due to video with F.21, but maybe there's still more. Or just a faulty GPU. If that's the case then HP should replace the motherboard, but that would suck to have to send it away for a couple weeks.

 

I had to do the same when it came do using your fix + camil's BIOS took me a few hours to figure out that this laptop has its CMOS battery out in the wild didn't notice it till I took a closer look.... Definitely not worth the headache . Maybe we'll wait for a more stable patch or something.

 

I've had to reset my CMOS a few times for no apparent reason. I'd do a reboot and caps lock light was flashing. Just removed battery and power cable and held down the power button 30 seconds fixed it. Although I never got BSOD. Only thing I can think of is they are unrelated. BSOD from a crashed driver or something else, and crashed BIOS because modded ones just don't seem as stable for some reason.

 

Exact same thing happened to me, I was trippin' at first...HP Support did nothing, he kept asking if /I/ was a Computer Tech..I'm like no I work at a gas station.

 

The funny thing is, these forums help each other out, for free when the users at HP get paid, usually for offering little to no help. It's an unfair world.

 

To quote one of my fav movies..... "It's an imperfect world, but it's the only one we got"... Obviously his context was some where else but I get what you mean... I just found it too funny to hear his constant reaction... lol on a side note Do you have a modded BIOS thats preforming normal for you without BSODs?

I'd really love to be able to use JUST the 1GB 6750, but like I said I can't get it to stay without everything else NOT working. I played GTA IV for a bit and I could tell the only thing that was giving me issues was that Micro Stuttering I was reading about ...Such a pain in the to be playing the game at 60 FPS~ and have it drop randomly every now and than...

 

Just turn off CrossfireX or "Dual Graphics" as they recently changed the name to in the Catalyst Control Center, make sure to set switchable graphics to "dedicated" and away you go, no microstutter. Performance may drop a little bit, but to me 40fps with no microstutter is a billion times better than 60fps with microstutter. The only thing this BIOS procedure does is basically shuts off the integrated GPU so you can run OpenGL stuff on the 6750m which otherwise defaults to the integrated GPU.

 

I have been trying switch my 6750m for a long time, without success.
Now it´s completely done.
Thank you very much!!!!

 

How does this affect battery life?

I'm pretty happy with the results after undervolting, probably averaging around 14mw draw, maybe a little higher, which would be around 5 hours on my typical usage.

But, if doing the BIOS mod and then tweaking so I can set PowerSaving only via software would reduce power usage even a bit more, say another 2mw, that would be great. Otherwise it's probably not worth messing with as I'll set BF3/rest of my games to high performance and everything else to low and live without the convenience of a toggle between dedicated/integrated in CCC.

I assume this mod doesn't completely disable the 6750m, though?

 

I don't think fixed PowerSaving do much for saving battery . If your game/software works with dynamic then dynamic is more convenient.

When switch to fixed PowerSaving, the 6750m is completely off.

It is not really a "mod" as the option exists, just locked.

 

Ok thanks. I'll probably skip it for now then as I don't think I'll usually need that level of control. It would be more convenient but I don't want to reflash my BIOS right now and mess with popping the CMOS battery in and out, though I found where it's located so it wouldn't be a huge deal.

 

I'd just like to say thanks for all the work put into this. I've recently got into Skyrim and I always wondered why I wasn't getting better FPS (Default is 6620G), so this has been extremely helpful.

The funny thing is... After doing this mod, I realized that my temperatures have been shooting up. I'm not exactly sure if my temps were always that high when I was playing games, but I'm now noticing 90-94C from my CPU and 80-85C from the 6750M. Skyrim tends to start locking up after playing from 45min-1hour. Maybe the mod/temp increase are related?

 

I believe there are two versions of this. One has overclocked GPU (6750M) and the other has GPU at stock clocks. If your original fie had "740_880" in the file name, it's probably the overclocked one, and that could be contributing to the overheating. Just a guess though. I'm new at this too.

 

the 740_880 bios does not work well with fixed mode.

DO NOT USE IT.

Fixed shouldn't change your temp 2 much compare to dynamic though.

 

I'm new to this but for the rise in temperature might be from the driver 12.1/12.1a because usually I idle at around 30 degrees but when I installed the 12.1a my laptop idled at around 40 degrees.

I'm actually not sure if this is possible but that seemed to be the cause for me. It seems to be around the same amount of temp increase for the others though

 

I got the 740_880 BIOS and it clearly overclocked my GPU. Which BIOS mod can I use to remove the overclock but still keep the ability to force the 6750 to be used? I do not want to use the 6620 at all. If I understand correctly, in Dynamic mode I wouldn't be able to force the 6750 but in Fixed I can.

The overclock is locking up my laptop due to heat issues.

I checked the camolil thread and only saw the overclocked BIOS mod. I am probably blind but could someone help?

 

We have a un OC'd one somewhere sink in the owner lounge thread, I will try look it up. You can flash a stock(HP) one to get rid of the OC and stay fixed. Though no advanced options.

Edit : find it ~~ http://www.bios-mods.com/forum/Thread-Unlocked-sp54724-HP-Dv6-6135dx-amd?page=4

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/45117524/bios-mods.com/sp54724_NWL_UlkMenus_Fantrip_ByCamiloml.exe

 

Awesome, thank you baiii!

 

I'm thankful for this mod and everything, but, here's a little warning for all the technotards like me...

After downloading/using Camolil bios and switching all my bios settings to allow switchable graphics, my laptop ran progressively hotter... Not only that, but it'd come to a point where my laptop kept locking up whenever I tried to play graphic intensive games (Skyrim). Stupid as I am, I didn't realize that it was slowly damaging my laptop (or at least I think it was damaing my laptop). One day after playing Skyrim for a few hours, computer locks up, I ignore it and just reboot. Wake up the next morning, laptop totally dies on me. ):

Blank screen. No boot sounds, nothing. Only hear inside components moving around. No external monitor that's plugged in will work, no 'hard reset' fix will work, nothing works.

Talked with HP and they said that it's covered under my warranty so they're currently sending me a box to ship my laptop back, but I'm not so sure if they'll cover the damages...

 

Sorry to hear that. Now when you say allow switchable graphics, did you mean fixed graphics? Switchable graphics is what we get out of the box, no need to use camolil bios.

Also, what temperatures do you mean by too hot?

Also, with blank screen, do you get the flashing caps lock key? If so, remove the power supply, remove the battery, press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Make sure it's fully depressed for that long. Plug everything back in and see if it boots. If that doesn't work, remove the CMOS battery for 30-60 seconds, replace it, then start up again.

Seems any modded BIOS can result in the blinking caps lock issue. Which 99% of the time seems to be fixed by this reset method. If that's what you meant by "hard reset" then not sure what else to say.

 

taking off cmos battery is more reliable and should fix 99% of "brick" from mod bios. If you run on fixd mode, it does run hotter when idle, but shouldn't vary much compare to dynamic in graphic intense situation.

 

Yeah, sorry about that. I meant to say, "After allowing fixed graphics my laptop started running too hot".

At first I thought 80-85 was pretty high, but my laptop CPU managed to hit 93-95 (or even further since it always locked up...) and my GPU maxed out at around 88.

I've tried doing the hard reset with the battery/holdthepowerbuttondownfor30seconds, but I haven't attempted the CMOS battery trick yet. By the way, thanks for the help guys, I really appreciate it.

 

Well, flashing a modded bios is more dangerous then pulling out the cmos battery imo.

 

Hey guys. I read this whole thread and parts of HTWingnut's thread and I couldn't gather a realistic understanding of what the odds are that I'll run into huge problems like some have reported.

I know that most of the people who report back are the ones that have problems, so I guess I'm just looking for some comfort here ;P. How often does the "semi-brick" occur and is there any other fix besides physically removing the CMOS battery? I read a post that said you can take out the battery and hole the power button for 30 seconds... is that true? And if I don't plan on overclocking either the CPU or dGPU then will the laptop and dGPU still run very hot? I didn't understand what people were saying about the temp. Logically, I'm thinking that HP wouldn't have included the dGPU in the laptop it it overheated and had huge risks for failure. Isn't that right?

 

semi brick usually happen after you experienced a BSOD or a window crash, we "think" the BIOS had some mechanism where it brick itself when it feel that.

Pulling out battery+ hold power button does reset the bios, but cmos battery pulling had been more successful for me.

Unless you find some game/program that just cant stand dynamic switch, there is no reason to go to fixed mode.

Running stock bios seem to have lower chance to brick itself. ( actually it shouldn't brick at all)

 

Sounds good so far, being that I don't play on enforcing the static dGPU. Any words on the temperature question though?

 

Ok, so I installed the new BIOS and followed the whole guide. The MANUAL graphics switching works flawlessly. When I boot up Skyrim or Mass Effect, they detect the 6750M without a hitch. However, when I set the Switchable graphics method to dynamic/"select the graphics processor based on application needs", I cant figure out for the life of me how to get my games to detect the better GPU. Any help here? EDIT: It definitely IS working, although the game may tell you otherwise. Running Skyrim on ultra!

EDIT 2: Wait. There's no way to have the dynamic setting WITHOUT using the BIOS that has the OC?

 

next page =>

 

hey guys..

i've been reading about this fix for some time now..

however i've got a dv6-6170br... that's a dv6z right ? cause i read all the specs on the dv6z and it's the same thing i have on my dv6-6170br

Now, will that work for me ? I have the bios F21 installed and running...

i REALLY want to only use the 6750m instead of the 6755g2 to play bf3 cause im getting ty fps on 800x600 everything on LOW

im also afraid of the bios with OC included in it


omg so many doubtssss

and also.. will a catalyst work for me as you guys mentioned in the first page ? ?

i've been using the latest graphic driver, AMD engine center something like that from HP website since AMD doesn't make driver for us switchable graphic's users...

 

ow man it worksssssssss

gee im so happy... bf3 great fps now..

thank you!!

just so you guys know... ive got a dv6-6170br and it worked for me

thanks

 

I have a dv6-6150br, with the same problem.
I tried this solution, but in the bios, video config, Primary Video Adapter was greyed out & set to "auto".
I followed all the instruction, opened the Control center/Power, but the option "Switchable graphics" was not there

Any hope for me ?

 

did you rename/remove the hp_tools partition ?
did you upgrade your bios to f21 ( the original one) ?



try these,

right click on My Computer
Manage computer
then click on Manage Disc, or Discs management, i cant recall

see if there's a hp_tools... if yes, rename it and try flashing the bios again

 

yesterday after using it for a 5-10h my screen went black in the middle of bf3 e the computer shut down... then i got the black screen blinking caps lock, which relates to BIOS problem...

i removed the CMOS battery it went back to original bios

but then i went and flashed the modded bios again and it's working now..

is there anything i could do to prevent this from happening again ? I mean, i know it's a modded bios but is there a way to make it more stable ? Do i have to update anything or change anything else to make it more stable ?

THanks

 

Thanks .Obrigado. Brazilian ?

 

Yeap, that's why bro... you have to update your BIOS to the original F21 available on HP's website, and then you flash the modded one on top

that's how i did it, and it worked for me..

You're welcome, yes 100% proud brazilian...de nada

 

My laptop is NEW, came with the F21 bios. Maybe because it´s a DV6 6150br & not the 61 70br ?

In the modified bio Primary Video Adapter was greyed out & set to "auto", no way to switch to "IGD"

I bought this laptop because of the Radeon 6750 & cannot use it !

EDIT:

FUNFO!

It works !

I had to modify the video setting just after flashing the BIOS, then follow the instructions & after installing the AMD driver my settings were still there !

A VERY BIG thank you to camiloml & anybody else involved!

HP should reward you for doing their job !

 

hey guys, please help me out here...

i flash the modded bios, change to fixed graphics.. everything is great

the thing is, after 2-3hrs of BF3 my system crashes and i get black screen and blinking caps...

i have to remove the CMOS battery to get it working again...

could you guys please help me out ?? i don't know what to do... i dont wanna be flashing the modded bios every 3 hours...

thanks!

 

Were you running any OC and which bios you using?