Discoveries on Vaio SA/SB/SC Switchable Graphics

hi fscussel,
I want to install leshcat's drivers on my VPC-SC (2011) with win7. I was going thru the website. Could you tell me exactly what steps you did? did you follow each and every step mentioned there to wipe your system clean first?

("I performed a full cleanup of 13.6 beta 2 by running the uninstaller in control panel — restart — running official AMD driver cleanup utility — restart — used driver fusion to wipe out AMD and Intel — restart — ran ccleaner both junk files and registry cleanup — and installed 13.1 v2.1 — restart and everything works perfect now! It solved every single issue I listed above. This is def the most stable release currently for my setup.")

Are you still using those drivers? are they stable?

thanks,

 

^ was there a specific reason you went with Catalyst 13.1 v2.1 as opposed to any other version?

 

good news everybody. apparently, we now can install *official* AMD and Intel drivers and have the hardware switch working. see here for general description, and here for installation order.

make sure your existing GPU drivers (Intel and AMD) are completely and fully uninstalled with the graphics switch set to SPEED, and your system is clean (i used Driver Sweeper in Safe Mode to make sure there are no left overs), so that Display Adapters in Device Manager shows two "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter" with one of them having a yellow exclamation mark. then download AMD's mobility Catalyat 13.11 beta 9.2 ( link) and Intel's latest HD Graphics 3000 drivers ( link).

then install the AMD drivers and without rebooting, install the Intel drivers, then reboot. most probably your brightness function won't work. to fix that, search for FeatureTestControl in the registry (run regedit.exe), and change each and every occurance to 0xF960 (this is a hexadecimal value, so change the default value in the registry from F800 to F960). once that is done, reboot, and you'll gain back the brightness control functions.

these drivers are extremely stable. i used to have LOTS of crasher while playing Battlefield 3, but i never had any since i installed these drivers.

 

Hi,
I tried this on my VAIO VPCSC1AFM but am disappointed with the results. While the whole setup works fine for playing games, its still unstable. details here:
leshcatlabs.net forums • View topic - AMD Enables Legacy Switchable Graphics Support?13.11 9.4 Out

 

I´m not sure about the following thing: the last original driver packages for the integrated intel and nvidia chips all worked fine. the latest intel one gives me a message, my system is not supported. what happend? any changes in driver structure?

For me the SVS1313 was a great device as i´m able to intall the driver packages without modding...but know? nvidia part is working fine with latest driver but intel part...don´t know what happend.

Any hints about that?

Thank you in advance!

 

I'm doing a clean install of my SA. Along with drivers for other hardware, I installed the latest AMD driver followed by the latest Intel HD 3000 driver, and after reboot I installed Sony Firmware Extension Parser, Sony Shared Libraries and Sony Notebook Utilities (which installed VAIO Control, Battery Monitor and Power Management), however I still can't get the switch between GPUs working. Is there something I'm missing?

 

^ my guess is that you should have installed the essential Sony Firmware Extension Parser, Sony Shared Libraries and Sony Notebook Utilities first and then gone ahead with the GPU drivers. like i said, this is just a guess, but that's how i had official AMD+Intel drivers installed and working.

 

I tried uninstalling both GPU drivers and reinstalling them (since the Sony stuff is already installed), but unfortunately get the same result. I also can't find the option to uninstall Sony Firmware Extension Parser so looks like I'll have to try another clean install? I guess I can ensure that everything else is installed correctly by installing the original Sony GPU drivers and seeing if the switch will work with that, but can I do that now since Firmware Extension Parser is already installed?

 

You haven't mentioned which version of Windows you are installing. I always install the GPU drivers first, and although the switch doesn't work then, it starts working after I've installed the Sony stuff. Do you have the VAIO Event Service installed? On my model, this is needed for the switch.

 

Sorry about that, I'm using Windows 7 Pro x64. I can't find the VAIO Event Service on the VAIO ESupport page for the SA model, does it matter which version I use? Will this work fine with the SA?

 

Can you check to see if it is listed in services? Control panel> administrative tools> services. Might have already been installed as part of the utilities.

What is your model number? Please link to the support page for your model on the Sony website.

 

Yeah it's installed, that sucks, one possible fix down :/

My exact model is the VAIO SA3T9E which when input into the US eSupport page, tells me to visit the UK one which is here. However the UK one sucks as it barely has any software. So instead I was using the support page for the VPCSA31FX here which, although it has some different hardware, has the same GPU.

EDIT: Whoa I'm an idiot, I didn't click the "Show all downloads" button in the UK site which has all the software there. Still it should be the same packages as the VPCSA31FX for the things I've installed (Firmware Extension Parser, Shared Libraries and Notebook Utilities) shouldn't it?

 

No, I wouldn't bet money on them being compatible. These notebook utilities, SFEP etc. are highly hardware specific. Strongly recommend you go with the ones designed for your model.

 

Ok thanks, is this something I can completely uninstall and install again, or should I do a clean install? If a clean install then should the order be all drivers except GPU, then SFEP, Shared Libs, Vaio Utilities, then GPU drivers?

 

I would recommend a clean install (but then, I always do. ).

My install order is (as recommended by Sony):
1. Windows
2. Intel Chipset
3. Nvidia Graphics
4. Audio
5. Ethernet
6. MS Card
7. SD Card
8. Pointing Device
9. Sony Firmware Extension
10. Bluetooth
11. Intel ME
12. Intel Wireless
13. Turbo Boost
14. TPM (if needed)
15. Setting Utility Series
16. Sony Shared Library
17. VAIO Event Services
18. VAIO Control Center
19. Battery Checker
20. VAIO Location Utility
21. VAIO Power Management
22. VAIO Smart Network
23. VAIO Update
24. Protector Suite

I leave out things I don't need, and get drivers direct from the manufacturers website where available, e.g. the wifi drivers from Intel.

If you install the graphics driver first, note that the switch will still not work until the SFEP and Event Service are installed, but after they are it will suddenly come alive.

If anything is available in 32bit and 64bit versions, be sure to get the 64bit ones.

 

So I got it to work without needing to reinstall. Basically the post over at leshcatlabs.net linked to the latest beta driver, not the latest mobility driver (which I didn't know existed). Once I installed the driver here it ended up working fine. I may do a reinstall anyways with all the proper drivers for my specific model, but I'm pretty sure it is fine as it is. Thanks for all the help guys

 

To add to the previous post, I fixed the AMD brightness issues by using the value F940 for both Intel and AMD FeatureTestControl registry keys with the brightness fix tool found in the UnifL driver package.

Now another issue I have (and always used to have before my clean install) is that switching between GPUs forces my colour profile to become unused, until I do a system reboot. If there a known fix for this? I don't think there was before, but just wondering if I've missed anything over the last few years.

EDIT: I've read that disabling igfxpers.exe in msconfig may fix the issue, I'll try when I get home tonight.

 

As far as I know, there's no support for Vaio SA in any AMD drivers other than the Sony ones. I've tried MANY different ways and nothing works perfectly. There were the unifl drivers but they had bugs. In the end, I'm using the vaio drivers again. How can you say that 14.4 works? Can you switch stamina speed without a problem? no bugs what-so-ever? because this would be a new, I've tried the prior drivers with NO SUCCESS in the old times.

 

In fact it does work! But i've got a BSOD in the first reboot. Tried another reboot and no BSOD. If it doesn't happens at all, or at least very few time, I believe this is a better solution than the very old sony oficial drivers.

Also for those doing this, use F940 for brightness resolver.

Thanks Tier for this tip.

UPDATE: I knew there was a catch... videos doesn't work on AMD card... you get green playback... so, NO, DON'T install this, still bugged. I've went back to original driver from Sony site... unfortunately.

 

Hi. Can I use the 14.12 Omega instead of 14.4?

UPDATE: I've installed 14.4 from AMD and last Intel Driver. In Stamina mode it's all ok but in Speed mode the brightness is fixed! I've trie a lot of combination with UBR tool without success. Can someone help me?

 

No way! I've tried F960 F940 FB60 F800 F942 ecc...doesn't work!

 

UPDATE: I knew there was a catch... videos doesn't work on AMD card... you get green playback... so, NO, DON'T install this, still bugged. I've went back to original driver from Sony site... unfortunately.

 

Don't go back to the old driver just yet. Try playing around with the renderer settings in the media player that you are using to play videos. Some renderers work better than others. Play a few games as well and see if those work; there might be similar issues lurking there.

 

Hello there !

Interesting post : I have a VAIO SA4C5E on which one I often encounter BSOD or crashes of the Radeon 6630m card...

I just made a fresh install from recovery so I'll give a try on getting Radeon driver up to date

On first page I can't download the Intel HD Graphics 2509 (8.15.10.2509) Windows 7 64bit *Modified* Driver -> is there a mirror ?

Is there any problem to install "amd-catalyst-omega-14.12-with-dotnet45-win7-64bit.exe" ?

Thanks !

 

I need that drivers too!!

 

did you try the new Intel and AMD drivers? fyi, i haven't tried installing anything new on my laptop in about two years or so, so i'm not sure if the Intel/AMD drivers work as of now, but when i installed them last time (directly downloaded from Intel/AMD), they worked perfectly. a few pages back, i posted the way i installed these drivers...i hope it's helpful.

 

could you send me a link? witch version have you installed?

 

I just given a try to this, hard part was finding the files !

Looks like it is working for now, have to bench to validate !

I share the files with you there : http://sd-29685.dedibox.fr/~dough/VAIO SA4C5E/