how to regain switchable graphics on W500

I have lost the ability to use switchable graphics on my W500 using Vista. Indeed, there is no graphics driver for the FireGL V5700 on my machine, though it was there before. I did not uninstall anything, just update through Lenovo system update. When I run it now it comes up with the need of a switchable graphic update, but it doesn't install on restart. Switchable graphics is enabled in the bios. If I choose dedicated graphics in bios, system boot to using the V570 but with a default VGA driver only. So at the moment I can only use the integrated graphics. If I choose to switch thorough the battery icon switcher nothing happens. I am stuck on "energy savings". How do I have full switchable and/or dedicated gpu working again? I dread phoning Technical support...

 

First try switching in power manager without being docked and without an external monitor attached.

Next step would be to download driver manually, uninstall the driver -- see the instructions in the readme -- and then reinstall the driver from this download.

(I know when System Update started working again June 1, it actually wanted to install the old December driver 8.52 over my currrent 8.563 driver but I think Lenovo fixed that.)

 

I have exactly the same problem with a W500 (4061-2HU): the ATI controller has totally vanished, ther is no trace of its PCI id, only that of the Intel chipset integrated GPU, any switchable graphics package will fail to install the ATI driver because it can't find the hardware.

Initially last week, the switchable graphics worked out-of-the-box, although Vista (32-bit Business edition) did record some sudden driver crashes.

But updating the notebook via Lenovo System Update effectively removed the switchable graphics function. Nor did subsequent reversions to the factory image (via the Rescue and Recovery factory restore image I had created) bring it back; nor did System Update change that.

I very carefully reviewed the information on Lenovo's recommended update to the driver (my Vista SP1 preload was a mid 2008 version) and the update to the bios to the current level. Those two updates did not restore the ATI graphics function.

Setting the graphics to "Discrete" in the bios and disabling the switchable graphics "OS detection" ought to have worked even without any ATI driver, the standard PnP VGA driver would be used. But the LCD went entirely dark: the backlight wasn't turned on, but it was possible to see that it was displaying the Vista logon screen, albeit in the wrong resolution and screen proportions.

I'm awaiting the arrival of some recent Lenovo recovery discs; I'll see if those solve the problem. If they don't, then a system board replacement under warranty will be necessary.

As for Lenovo technical support: I've phoned them 4 or 5 times in the last week. Two people were very good, the rest average. So I'd give them a call, they are not too bad.

This whole saga is really unfortunate: until now I've built my own desktop computers, but I'm using the ThinkPad as a replacement, since I want to untie myself from the desktop. I thought getting this ThinkPad would be an unproblematic choice! The design, manufacturing quality, etc., seemed really excellent. So these problems have been a real letdown.

 

Reinstalling the OS did not fix the problem for me. But Lenovo Tech Support had the solution, and it worked for me. The problem is a failed switchable graphics driver install, . You have to get rid of it manually by way of removing the faulty ati driver and then re-installing the broken driver, and then resetting the ati and intel drivers manually. Steps are:
1) download the switchable graphics driver from lenovo. do a search at the lenovo site for the file 7vd541ww.exe (152MB). save for later use. also print out the text file that accompanies that file (just below it on the web page). read the the instructions carefully!
2) manually uninstall the ati gpu driver, through ati uninstall utility in control panel software removal option. reboot.
3) boot into bios (via F1 in startup) choose config, then display, set "graphics device: switchable graphics” to “discrete graphics” and set “OS detection for switchable graphics” to “disabled”. save; continue. the system will boot into vista running under vga, and will look awful.
4) execute the downloaded driver 7vd541ww.exe. check where it has installed to (see installation text file, mentioned above). go there are run the setup.exe. follow instructions to the letter in the text file. reboot. ati should be up and running.
5) reboot to bios. choose config, then display , set "graphics device: switchable graphics” to “integrated graphics” and leave “OS detection for switchable graphics” “disabled”. save and continue.
6) vista will appear again in vga mode, but will start looking for intel driver. it will eventually install, and will ask for reboot. do so. intel driver will be running.
7) reboot to bios. choose config, then display , set "graphics device: switchable graphics” to “switchable graphics” and reset “OS detection for switchable graphics” to “enabled”. -or set bios to default (ie switchable graphics is default). save and continue.
8) you should now be able to use switchable graphics in vista, as both ati and intel drivers are properly installed properly.
that's as close as i can describe it. after a week of pain, it worked for me. good luck!

 

Antskip,

Your progressive graphics redetection solution sounds excellent, but alas it fails to work for me on the first step: as soon as I change the bios to use the discrete graphics (with or without OS detection setting changes), the ThinkPad reboots into a black screen, i.e. the backlight never switches on. Vista loads right to the logon screen, which can be faintly made out by shining a very bright light on the LCD at an angle--it looks streched to some low screen resolution, probably 800x600, but it's all rather hard to make out.

This backlight problem persists through reboots until I blindly go through the key sequence at boot-up of F1-Enter-F9-Enter-F10-Enter, which resets the bios to default settings.

It's as if the bios is failing to initialize the ATI GPU hardware correctly and enumerate the GPU's PCI Vendor ID numbers--presumably the LCD does not get a signal, so remains dark. In the Vista boot sequence, there is exactly one fraction-of-second flash of the screen--since the ATI drivers are never installed, this must be either the standard VGA driver or the Intel Integrated graphics drivers (if installed) poking some part of the hardware.

A further data point is this: when I boot into the pre-desktop "Rescue and Recovery" environment, choose the advanced options, and run the hardware report in the hardware diagnostics, it reports only one video adapter (this is a 40612HU machine model):

Video Card: Video Controller (VGA Compatible)
PCI Location: PCI bus 0, device 2, function 0
Device Identification
Vendor ID: 32902
Device ID: 10818
Device Class
Class Code: 3
Sub Class Code: 0
Programming Interface: 0
PCI Config Space Fields
PCI Vendor ID: 0x8086
PCI Device ID: 0x2A42
Revison ID: 0x07
Programming Interface: 0x00
Sub Class Register: 0x00
Base Class Register: 0x03
Sub Vendor Id Register: 0x17AA
Subsystem Id Register: 0x2115
PCI Interrupt Line: 0x0B
Interrupt Pin: 0x01
Windows Properties
Windows Hardware IDs: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_211517AA&REV_07, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_211517AA, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&CC_030000, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&CC_0300

Now, can you run the same diagnostics? You can save the results to a USB flash drive and verify if the ATI discrete graphics chip shows up. If found, can you report that part of the results here and your machine model? (Don't attach the full report, since it includes machine serial numbers.)

 

Antskip,

Your progressive graphics redetection solution sounds excellent, but alas it fails to work for me on the first step: as soon as I change the bios to use the discrete graphics (with or without OS detection setting changes), the ThinkPad reboots into a black screen, i.e. the backlight never switches on. Vista loads right to the logon screen, which can be faintly made out by shining a very bright light on the LCD at an angle--it looks streched to some low screen resolution, probably 800x600, but it's all rather hard to make out.

This backlight problem persists through reboots until I blindly go through the key sequence at boot-up of F1-Enter-F9-Enter-F10-Enter, which resets the bios to default settings.

It's as if the bios is failing to initialize the ATI GPU hardware correctly and enumerate the GPU's PCI Vendor ID numbers--presumably the LCD does not get a signal, so remains dark. In the Vista boot sequence, there is exactly one fraction-of-second flash of the screen--since the ATI drivers are never installed, this must be either the standard VGA driver or the Intel Integrated graphics drivers (if installed) poking some part of the hardware.

A further data point is this: when I boot into the pre-desktop "Rescue and Recovery" environment, choose the advanced options, and run the hardware report in the hardware diagnostics, it reports only one video adapter (this is a 40612HU machine model):

Video Card: Video Controller (VGA Compatible)
PCI Location: PCI bus 0, device 2, function 0
Device Identification
Vendor ID: 32902
Device ID: 10818
Device Class
Class Code: 3
Sub Class Code: 0
Programming Interface: 0
PCI Config Space Fields
PCI Vendor ID: 0x8086
PCI Device ID: 0x2A42
Revison ID: 0x07
Programming Interface: 0x00
Sub Class Register: 0x00
Base Class Register: 0x03
Sub Vendor Id Register: 0x17AA
Subsystem Id Register: 0x2115
PCI Interrupt Line: 0x0B
Interrupt Pin: 0x01
Windows Properties
Windows Hardware IDs: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_211517AA&REV_07, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&SUBSYS_211517AA, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&CC_030000, PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2A42&CC_0300

Now, can you run the same diagnostics? You can save the results to a USB flash drive and verify if the ATI discrete graphics chip shows up. If found, can you report that part of the results here and your machine model? (Don't attach the full report, since it includes machine serial numbers.)

 

Well, sorry about the double post above.

Today I received the W500 Vista Business 32-bit preload recovery discs, and after about an hour's worth of completly automated file copying, configuration scripts, and many reboots, the disk was restored to a new preload image--all the boot manager, service and OS partitions completely rewritten.

Unfortunately the non-detection of the ATI graphics chip remains, as does the non-use of the LCD's backlight when forcing the use of the ATI chip through the relevant bios setting. So I have to find out from Lenovo if there's some kind of bios magic I can perform here, or if a trip to the service depot is required.

Sigh. I really wanted this to work, I thought ThinkPads were the Mercedes of Internet surfboards! :-(