Discoveries on Vaio SA/SB/SC Switchable Graphics

The following information is only for UPGRADING the graphics drivers for the SA/SB/SC. You cannot use this method with a fresh install. If you are doing a fresh install make sure to install the latest Sony graphics driver for your model notebook and then follow the procedure listed.

drvrup

Switchable Graphics Driver *UPGRADE ONLY* for Vaio SA/SB/SC
Driver Version	OS Version	Download Link(s)	Builder - Modified By
amddrvupAMD/ATI Radeon Mobility 11.9 RCx (8.892)	Windows 7	64bit *Original* Driver	[SIZE="1"]AMD/ATI - Original[/SIZE]
intdrvupIntel HD Graphics 2509 (8.15.10.2509)	Windows 7	64bit *Modified* Driver	Modified by Nautis
Important Information
*Disclaimer & Warning* As always be careful and watch your heat. This method of updating your drivers As far as I know is unsupported by ATI/AMD, Intel, and Sony so dont expect any help from them. The modified Intel driver package seperates the Intel driver from the ATI/AMD package so I am not sure how that might affect uninstalling or any future Sony switchable graphics driver updates (in thoery at least it shouldn't). Use at your own risk. Enjoy. *Issues & Bugs* After upgrading to 11.8 there is a "Configure Switchable Graphics" option under the desktop (right-click) context menu. This option opens an ATI/AMD window that does nothing. It is meant for systems that do not have a SPEED/STAMINA switch but for some reason is not hidden like it should be on the SA/SB/SC. *Unknown if this applies to 11.9 yet. upinstruct*Upgrade Instructions* Note: The key to this process is to keep the Switchable Graphics drivers from Sony installed and to install/upgrade on top of them. A.) Make sure you are switched to SPEED and DO NOT UNINSTALL YOUR EXISITING SWITCHABLE (ATI/AMD) GRAPHICS DRIVERS FROM SONY. B.) For the ATI/AMD Graphics Portion b1.) Download the latest ATI/AMD Mobility drivers (link above). b2.) Run the installer choose upgrade and reboot after they install. C.) For the Intel Graphics Portion c1.) Download the latest modified Intel graphics driver (link above). c2.) Extract and run the installer (setup.exe). If a box pops up with a message "Windows cant verify the publisher of this driver software" click "Install this software anyway" and reboot after they install. Note: Standard Intel drivers will not work, the INF must be modded for use with ATI/AMD switchable graphics. DO NOT try to install standard Intel drivers or you will lose switchable graphics functionality.​ relnotes*Release Notes* AMD/ATI - AMD Catalyst™ Control Center / AMD Vision™ Engine Control Center 11.9 Release Notes. Intel - 2509 - Intel® HD Graphics Driver Release Notes (pdf).

oamdfile Other AMD Files and Updates
- AMD Mobility Media Codec 11.9 - ( More Information)
- Latest AMD Application Profile - ( More Information)
- AMD Hydravision 11.9 - ( More Information)

remcontext Remove Desktop (Right-Click) Context Menu Items
I have put together two registry imports for removing AMD/ATI and Intel desktop (right-click) menu items. I have put them both in a zip file. The AMD/ATI one should also remove the "Configure Switchable Graphics" option. Download, unzip, run the appropriate registry import. It will delete that specific registry key so use at your own risk. (Credit to lazybee and jeremyshaw)
Remove AMD and/or Intel Desktop Context Menu Items

widiup Intel WiDi Update
Make sure to update in the following order:
1.) WIDI Software Update - 2.1.42.0 (w/firmware update)
2.) PROSet/Wireless Software and Drivers - 14.2.0.10
3.) Modified Intel HD Graphics drivers (linked above).

widiwrkand Intel WiDi Hotkey Workaround
I ran into an issue after updating to the latest WiDI software. It seems the path for launching WiDi using the button at the top right may be hardcoded to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation\Intel Wireless Display" after updating the location is changed to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation\Intel WiDi" but nothing ever tells the Sony hotkey application. I fixed this issue by creating a symbolic link for "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation\Intel Wireless Display" which points to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation\WiDI".

Note: An easy to use program for doing this is Symlinker. If UAC is enabled make sure you right click the executable and choose "Run as Administrator" or symlink will not be created. (Credit to analyzer123)
Type: Folder symbolic link
Link Folder: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation\
Name: Intel Wireless Display
Destination: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel Corporation\Intel WiDi
Type of link: Directory Junction?

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OLD POST/INFORMATION OUTDATED:

Recently bought my girlfriend a Vaio SC and figured I would check out the Switchable Graphics implementation ATI/AMD uses. Turns out at least on the driver side the Vaio Zs Nvidia Hybrid Graphics and ATI/AMD Switchable Graphics are similarly implemented.

The bad is you may not be able to use standard Intel or ATI/AMD graphics drivers. The good news is they don't seem horribly difficult to modify.

Switchable Graphics drivers for the SA/SB/SC are ATI/AMD and Intel Graphics drivers packaged to install together in a specific way, with settings specific to Switchable Graphics.

In this thread I will try to give a break down and explanation of how the drivers for Switchable Graphics on the Vaio SA/SB/SC are packaged together, some custom settings, and even some unofficially modified packages including the latest ATI/AMD and Intel graphics drivers.

*Drivers: Let me know if there are any issues with these. These should automatically switch to Stamina on battery and Speed when plugged in. They may create a "Configure Switchable Graphics" entry on right click which has nothing in it (for now). I have not tested these for anything other than switching back and forth from Stamina to Speed and back. I recommend installing using the custom option so you can see and choose waht installs. There are a few extra things from the desktop drivers included in this package like Hydravision and a few other things.

Unofficial Switchable Graphics Drivers for Vaio SA/SB/SC
Driver Version	OS Version	Download Link(s)	Builder
Early Build Radeon 11.7 (8.871) Intel HD 8.15.10.2418 [TEST PACKAGE v0.7]	Windows 7	64bit Driver *Unsigned	Nautis
		32bit Driver
Important Information
*Disclaimer* Unofficial Drivers are put together using information learned from trial and error. If you choose to download and use these drivers you do so at your own risk. Using unofficial drivers can result in unexpected crashes and may cause your notebook to run hotter than normal. Unofficial Drivers do not go through the same testing process as officially released drivers and no warranty of any kind is implied. These drivers are only recommended if you are comfortable with testing and know how to handle any problems that could result from the installation of this software. Driver Signing & Test Mode for Unofficial 64bit Drivers *Required for proper functionality of unsigned drivers* 1.)Download Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider 2.)Disable UAC (Can usually be done by typing MSCONFIG in run and going to the Tools tab. You can re-enable it after installing the same way.) 3.)Run the Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider and choose "enable test mode" 4.)Reboot. (You should see Test Mode at the bottom right corner after reboot.) 5.)Run the Driver Signature Enforcement Overrider again and choose "Sign a System File" 6.)In the box type "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\atikmdag.sys" and click ok (do not include the quotes.) 7.)Click "Sign a System File" again and this time put "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\atikmpag.sys" (do not include the quotes.) 8.)Click "Sign a System File" again and this time put "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\igdkmd64.sys" (do not include the quotes.) 9.)Click "Sign a System File" again and this time put "C:\Windows\System32\drivers\igdpmd64.sys" (do not include the quotes.) 10.)Reboot and all should work. Note: There is a way to remove the "Test Mode" watermark text on the desktop background but I will not link to it because it involves modified windows files. Note: I do not recommend using ReadyDriver Plus as it involves modifying the bootloader. I have had reports of people who have used it and lost data/partitions.

More information on the Radeon/Intel drivers coming soon.

 

I´m with you Nautius =D let me ask you about the possibility of dock/undock video switching?

 

Does this work on both the 6470M and 6630M series of GPU's featured in the SA/SB/SC though?

 

I would assume the dock would work the same way as plugging in or switching to battery. So it should automatically switch. Automatic switching is of course independent from the physical switch at the top of the notebook so its best to keep an eye on the vaio switching status in the taskbar.

It should work with both. The INF file is very similar to the original Sony one so most anything that worked with it should work with these. It is untested of course though except on the SC.

I admittedly don't have as much experience with modding Radeon drivers as much as I do Nvidia. Modding any driver is a pretty similar thing though and I have years experience.

These drivers are for people looking to walk on the bleeding edge with their notebooks. Both sets of drivers being used are the very latest and may have issues of their own. The drivers that can be downloaded at Sony for the SA are pretty new since these notebooks were just released so I don't expect many people to be jumping on these. If the Vaio Z is any indication Community Modded drivers will be important in the future for the SA/SB/SC series as it may be the only the only way of getting updated graphics drivers.

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EDIT: One of my goals is to get as much possible working with the SA/SB/SC switchable graphics so people can use it in the way they prefer. For example a couple of my goals are to get this enabled under that right click "Configure Switchable Graphics" option:

And get this working:

Not sure if either of these are possible with our configuration though.

 

In standard it´s impossible to switch based on AC/Battery. But with your modded drivers it´s possible and active by default, is that right? I don´t have my SA in hands yet.

 

By default the standard drivers do not automatically switch. Any switchable graphics driver for the SA/SB/SC (standard included) can switch automatically if a couple of registry settings are changed. I have changed these registry settings upon install with the drivers I packaged.

For the most part any new features, added to the driver packages I put together, should be able to be added to the standard drivers. I am just activating hidden settings/options.

Hope that makes sense.

 

perfectly sense. Let me just ask you, how the hard switch operates after that registry change? I mean, when I undock I might have the hard switch in speed mode but the notebook will actually be on intel graphics.

 

Thanks so much for working on this! It's pretty likely that, as you said, there will only be a few video driver updates from sony - you'd think they would have just went with the standard AMD switchable graphics implementation, and that would have saved them the extra work :\

 

btw Nautis, I was curious to know how you started the process of understanding how these drivers are packaged. How did you know where to look?

 

The switch should work as it always has. Meaning if it autoswitches to speed and the switch is on stamina you would have to switch to speed and then back to stamina to get to stamina. So basically priority is given to the autoswitch first. You should be able to tell which mode you are in by looking at or clicking on the icon on the taskbar.

Indeed. This is my first time really looking at ATIs approach at switchable graphics so I am not really sure what their standard implementation is compared to the one used on the SA/SB/SC.

I have been modding drivers for an extremely long time. I learned how switchable graphics drivers were put together with the Vaio Z through necessity, years of previous modding and a lot of trial and error.
The drivers for the Z got extremely old and couldn't be updated through standard means. This put me to work using my previous years of modding experience to see what made the switchable graphics on the Vaio Z different (turns out they really arn't.) I have always been a stickler for uncovering hidden features ( early days).

 

Do you have any experience with the packaged intel wifi drivers and Intel HD drivers? The ones on my SC do not allow protected content streaming. Intel has already released the WIDI update, but they are the generic ones and sony hasn't released the updates as yet.

 

So I loaded up these test drivers on my SA290X and tried a few games with my ATI 6630 graphics enabled - Kane and Lynch 2, Portal 2, Borderlands, and Brink. All seemed fine except for Brink, which froze mid-game.

Brink is known to have some issues with ATI graphics drivers, including freezes like that, so I don't know if it's a Brink issue, ATI 11.7 issue, or something specific to this hybrid graphics setup.

Worth noting, however, is that Brink ran just fine with the stock Switchable Sony drivers (ATI 11.2 I believe?) - but again, this could be the result of a bug that was introduced in later ATI drivers :\

 

Oh and one more thing - to remove these drivers and revert to stock (if I want to play Brink), I just uninstall them from the Add/Remove programs list, install stock drivers from the sony site, and then disable test mode, right?

 

I haven't checked out protected content yet. I may compare the two and see if there are any obvious differences.

I was thinking for a bit that no one would try them out. Thanks for reporting back. 11.7 are developer drivers so I wouldn't be surprised that they have issues with brink. I am considering putting together a set that are a bit less on the fringe and use the latest official drivers from ATI & Intel.

Correct and thanks again for reporting in.

 

I tried your drivers too but had to remove them because the autoswitching mode when plugged or unplugged conflicted with the physical switcher (i.e. on battery with switcher on stamina: plug in it switches automatically to speed then back to stamina). Perhaps it's a registry settings issue.
Anyway I really appreciate what you are doing because the tools provided by sony drivers are inadequate IMO.
One feature really missing is overscan: when I plug my SB to a TV via HDMI (intel or ati) the image is always cropped! (the only thing I found is a underscan option in the hd300 control panel but it's pretty uselss) How could I fix it? Or can you integrate this feature in your driver?
And one more: I can't use openGL on intel hd3000.. why??
Thank you!

 

btw, if I decide I do not want the switchable graphics feature and dont want to use the ATI, only Intel - then is it fine if I just download and install Intel's generic drivers? I assume they should be able to atleast detect their own hardware and run?

 

I haven't had it switch back on me. I'll upload a registry export that can be run to turn it off for anyone else what wants to use these without that feature.
I haven't plugged the SC in through HDMI (only used WiDi so far) I will plug it in and see if I can get scaling control working. AFAIK the ATI and Intel overscan settings should look like this (ati) and this (intel). I will take a look at OGL on the HD3000 I may have missed something when updating them. Ill look into these issues.

I haven't tried just installing the Intel drivers on the S. Chances are it will work like the Z meaning the Intel drivers will detect, install and work but the ATI gpu will still show up in device manager with an error. I assume this means the ATI gpu would stay powered up so battery would suffer. Assuming this is the case I wouldn't recommend it.

 

I also just tested the auto-switch to Stamina feature, and it does the same thing analyzer123 mentioned above: if I am in speed mode and unplug, it tries to autochange to stamina but then changes immediately back to speed mode. As mentioned earlier, I have an SA290X with 6630m graphics.

 

Does this happen even if no applications are running? Sometimes if the driver doesn't know the consequences of a switch on a particular app, e.g. Firefox, it doesn't allow the switch.

On a Z1 (nVidia and Intel), Andrew08's feature set 2 exposes a system tray mode-switching utility where it is possible to view alerts regarding this issue, and also to override blocking programs if you know they don't go nuts when the switch happens.

 

Ok, I found the setting in the intel panel but not in the catalyst panel (ati): I don't have "Common display tasks" and "My digital flat-panels" submenus.. so no scaling options.
And for the OGL issue, I have it both with default drivers and yours: I can't play hardware accelerated videos with mpchc or run some games.. perhaps it's just a setting somewhere

I don't think that's the cause of the issue because the switch works: it switches even more times than I request with these registry settings!
Anyway such an app would be useful but don't think essential because very rarely I couldn't use the switch (even if no apps where running). A reboot fixed it but it might happen again

 

I just read a couple other places about other ATI Switchable Graphics users having the same OpenGL issues. There is also this in the INF file: "ATTN: this needs to be changed to the OpenGL proxy when available." This leads me to believe that there may not be proper support in the switchable graphics drivers for Intel OpenGL yet. (I'm just guessing.)

Ill look around and see if I can find how to activate that overscan/underscan panel.

I am going to update first page with slightly updated ATI drivers, autoswitching disabled, event reporting disabled and other changes.

 

Nautis,
Does your modding require writing c/c++ kind of code, or is the magic all in the INF files?

 

No coding. It's advanced INF modding . It's really not all that difficult and as soon as I do the informational write up anyone should be able to. I tend not to modify the binaries as Nvidia and ATI tend to frown upon hacking their work. (Modding seems ok with them for the most part though.)

 

Hey Nautis, is there any way I can manually disable the auto-switching of stamina/speed profiles, with a registry change or something?

 

Hi,

I was wondering, the work you're doing here is mainly to change the way the graphics switches between Intel and AMD right?

But if I want to just update my AMD drivers only, how do I go about it? Can i just replace the driver files with the most updated ones or something like that? What will happen if I go ahead and run the Catalyst 11.6/11.7 setup files? will it disable the intel GPU entirely?

Asking coz I can't play many new games like Dirt 3 since the drivers are only Catalyst 11.2.

Thanks!

 

Thank you Nautis. I joined this forum just because of you. I appreciate you sharing your work.

 

Looks like there is a 11.8 Preview driver out now, with some decent performance increases for the 6000 series: AMD Catalyst 11.8 Preview Driver (8.880.3 July 11) - Guru3D.com Forums

 

Thanks donnieblasko,
I will be posting an updated set with the 11.8 preview. With this set I have disabled autoswitching and event logging. I have also tweaked a few settings, switching is quicker. I am trying to see what other things I can tweak into it.

I am still putting together information on how anyone can go about modding their own set.

 

Nautis, would you think these would work for a C series vaio (also equipped with the 6630M/Intel Graphics hybrid)?

Thanks,
Cassy

 

Hey Nautius, I am having the same trouble other mentioned, ie, the software (AC/BATTERY) switch is not working, it's reverting back to the hard button option?

 

Hey Nautis,

Any ETA on the 11.8 drivers, or at least a way to turn off autoswitching between speed and stamina?

 

is autoswitching software based working for you? Cause I have installed the driver package available in the first post by nautius and autoswitching is not active. It does try to switch but switch back to the hardware button option.

 

Yeah same happens with me - the autoswitch tries to change, but it immediately goes back to the hardware button selection. I'm on an SA here.

 

where is nautis??

 

Looks like there is yet another 11.8 preview driver that just got released: AMD Catalyst 11.8 Preview Driver OpenGL 4.2 (8.88.8 August 8) - Guru3D.com Forums

 

looks like nautius programming is unfortunate not working and that he is not interested in this thread anymore =/

 

Sorry, not abandoned. I have been very very busy.

I might suggest downloading the drivers for the Vaio Z21 as it seems like they should work on the SA/SB/SC and are a bit more up to date (no signing required). They are "05/19/2011, 8.830.7.0000" so only slightly newer than the ones that came with the SA/SB/SC.

I will take a look at the latest preview driver, update the package and upload it. EDIT: Cant seem to get the ATI Control Panel to work correctly with the latest release. Gonna keep at it.

 

glad to hear you´re back nautius =D are those drivers auto-switachable (ac/batt)?

UPDATE: nope, doesn't work, I had to re-do the signature enforcement procedure to get back to nautius driver package in first page, because the vaio Z drivers are not compatible with the hard switching of SA's.

 

11.8 Official WHQL drivers are now out!

 

Package created with AMD 11.8 and Intel 2476. Few issues I am checking out:
- Screen flicker when plugging in or unplugging (same as when switched but it doesn't actually switch).
- Intel options always under desktop right click.
- Configure Switchable Graphics always under desktop right click.
- Configure Switchable Graphics doesn't actually do anything.

Checking out some other various tweaks and settings.

 

Is it possible to use this package on my new z21?

 

yes nautis, basically it´s not working for the initial purpose of software switching. Keep the good work tho.

 

The package may work but I am not sure since the Z2 and SA/SB/SC use different switching mechanisms. Also this package would identify your AMD GPU as AMD Radeon(TM) HD 6730M. I am still investigating what the differences actually are on the driver side. I can easily post up the Z2 package I made if you would like to try it out. It requires all that fun signing/testmode junk and I cant say for certain if or how well it would actually work.

There may be strange issues that happen by using it like we are experiencing with the SA/SB/SC. For the SA/SB/SC using more or less the same INF that came with the official Sony driver, it seems to flicker any time it is plugged in or unplugged (multiplexer switch). It also has the "Configure Switchable Graphics" entry which does nothing. As far as I can tell everything else works fine. The flicker any time its plugged in or unplugged is a bit annoying but everything functionally seems fine.

Seems like it is one of two things. It is either a settings issue where new settings need to be added or old ones need to be removed or changed. It may also be just a driver issue where the newer drivers are not properly setup for the physical switch mechanism and instead are always trying to use software switching.

I seem to be able to get it to stop triggering on the "speed" side of things but not the "stamina" with some settings changes. Hopefully I will have it fixed up soon.

 

Added instuctions to the first post for easy updating to the latest drivers for the SA/SB/SC and possibly Z2.

 

ok, just updated to latest drivers following 1st post instructions. Are you still working in making a software switchable possible nautius? best regards

 

Installed the amd stuff you linked on a new Z2 and it installs fine but after reboot the amd card doesn't work. Exclamation point in device manager "the device cannot start because it has reported problems".

 

Awesome! thanks nautis!

 

I'm still working on the full custom pack. I was hoping to get some of the issues worked out but I guess I can post it since the issues are the same as the upgrade. The difference with custom vs the upgrade is that custom still needs to be signed and windows set to test mode.

Thanks Beaups, SirRobin also mentioned it bluescreened his. I guess I will have to dig deeper on the Z2. I have put together a custom package for the Z2 but it seems to have the same issues.

11.8 is acting a little strange with the SA/SB/SC when it comes to plugging/unplugging and resuming from standby (MUX triggers all over the place causing the screen to flash about 5 times in the process upon resume).

I will up date the first post with these issues.

 

Did you get my PM yesterday on this?

 

Hey Nautis,
With these updates, i was wondering if Sony ever releases future updates to the graphics drivers, can they be installed over these? Will the vaio update detection software be able to identify this update version or will there be a problem with it?

As I understand, the AMD driver is off the shelf right, with the Intel one modified to support the switching? Are the changes you made the same as Sony would have made if they had supplied the driver, or do you have any more or less customizations in it?

Thanks.