New Intel HD3000 Lenovo Drivers

In case you missed it, there are new x220 intel hd3000 drivers on the lenovo forums. They supposedly get rid of the 60->50 Hz bug.
Re: X220 uncontrollably switches to 50Hz refresh r... - Page 3 - Lenovo Community

 

These were actually released in almost 2 months ago by Intel. Here is link Intel Download Center

 

It's true that Intel released these drivers a while back, but only now has Lenovo released this manufacturer sanctioned version. In other words, you can simply install these drivers rather than having to use the device manager workaround for the stock Intel drivers others have mentioned.

 

Also the Lenovo drivers have customized brightness levels. For example, using default intel drivers on the x220 makes the screen too bright even with brightness set to 0, and thus reduces battery life.

 

Isn't that a BIOS issue rather say drivers? Since you can dim the LCD before Windows is even loaded? I don't see any difference on the Thinkpad T410s (Intel HD) using the Lenovo drivers or the Intel ones. I don't even think there's a difference to tell you the truth. I've checked before to see what files are changed and nothing. This was long ago with the older machines so i can't say it holds true for today's machines however.

 

If you install the generic intel drivers, the brightness levels will indeed be brighter. This has been confirmed by numerous forum members already.

 

Eh.. they dropped my WEI from 5.9 to 4.4

 

Installed these drivers and it still didn't stop the refresh rate from dropping to 50hz.

I had to do the registry hack as advised by Sniper_sung.

Cheers!

 

same here..

 

There is a setup (probably the exact same one) in the Intel drivers that install them for you. No need for device manager workaround.

 

The inf file in the Lenovo version is slightly tweaked from the Intel generic versions. It has a different file name and about 4-5 changes. The one that jumps out at me is DCPowerPolicyVersion and PwrCons_ILK_AddSwSettings / PwrCons_SNB_AddSwSettings which have a setting of 0xF900 in Lenovo and 0xF800 in Intel. The Lenovo one also disables CRTHotPlugDefaultVrefVoltage_AddSwSettings which I imagine is something relating to hot pluging external monitor. Maybe due to DP instead of DVI? I will have to check performance tomorrow.

 

I just tested and with 2361 I got 4.8 / 6.2 for the two graphics score. With 2418 I got 4.7 / 6.2. What version are you guys running (info in Intel properties)?

 

The problem is the Intel drivers (from Intel not lenovo) won't readily overwrite Lenovo's. So for most of us when we try to install them we get an error message. So you have to use the zip file version and do the work around.

With any drivers from Lenovo, you don't have to.

With 2361 from Intel = 4.8

With 2342 from Lenovo = 4.7

I haven't tried the newest Lenovo, probably won't but I assume it would leave me with 4.7.

 

Wait what? Where are you downloading your Intel drivers from? If they are from Station-Drivers then ok, but if it's from Intel they are all digital signed (WHQL) so something would be wrong with your setup there.

Thanks for the correction also, I generally use Intel drivers but sometimes i test Lenovo ones to see if there's a difference.

 

I would check your source on drivers if you have unsigned Intel drivers. I haven't seen unsigned ones from Intel in years. I use them with deployment tools that won't accept unsigned drivers by default.

I always use Intel generic since I use the same drivers across Toshiba / Dell / Lenovo and don't want to have more drivers than I have to.

 

Yah didn't mean unsigned... that was a mistake. The ones I'm getting are signed, they are from Intel.com.

Meant that unless the graphics drivers came from Lenovo you can't just readily install the exe version of graphics drivers off Intel's site. On a clean install it is no problem. But if you already had Lenovo graphics drivers installed, it won't let you overwrite them with Intel's. Therefore you have to do the workaround by DLing the zip off Intel's site rather than the exe.

 

My wei with new driver

 

I just manually updated the HD drivers on my i5 x220. WEI increased from 5.7 to 5.9, but the increased brightness on the lower end of the scale is worrisome, because I often use my machine in either semi-darkened or completely darkened environments (kids' bedrooms, for instance). Are there any third-party utilities that can further reduce brightnes? If not, I'll probably roll back to the Lenovo-specific drivers and wait for the next "official" update.


A.