My discoveries on Vaio Z’s Hybrid Graphics

This file is actually in NvCplSetupInt.exe now. It is primarily for windows Vista.

 

Got a few things I am testing right now will let everyone know the good news if there is any with these pesky 19x.xx hybrid drivers!

 

This is very very weird I could not get the Dell drivers to work with either card even with editing the device strings and then windows update ran and found both the Intel HD and GT330M and it has installed them both with the following drivers

Intel HD 8.15.10.2104
GT330M 8.17.11.9713

After this it has switched to optimus mode???!??

I also moved all of the windows\inf\oem files to a safe folder to prevent it picking up older device files.

Further Testing. (All of the below was with the switch left to Auto)

1. Used Revo uninstaller to remove all device drivers for nvidia and intel
2. Deleted all oem*.* files under windows\inf
3. Rebooted
4. Ran Windows Update which found the missing hardware
5. Windows Update installed the drivers for the Intel HD and GT330M without issue
6. Rebooted
7. This time the drivers report as Intel HD 8.15.10.2082 and GT330M 8.17.11.9713
8. Intel Graphic properties working fine
9. Nvidia Control Panel working fine
10. Boot up time much faster!

LOL windows update saves the day hahaha

** Further Testing **

1. Confirmed the optimus demostration is still there
2. Installed 3dmark 06
3. Right click context menu for the display chooser does not work for 3dmark
3. 3dmark still only see's the Intel HD and seemingly ignores the settings set in the nvidia control panel

 

If you can work that one out let me know I am totally stuck!

 

I am downloading those drivers now to look at em. Can you email me an export of the following registry areas:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\NVIDIA Corporation
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}


To nautis1100 ]{at}[ gmail.com.. I think that may be all I need for now.

 

Done Nautis you should have an email from me now with the exported reg keys.

 

Ah ha... Hmm.. Mmm... Already noticing some stuff.
EDIT: one last one if you can:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\nvlddmkm

 

Anything good we can work with I hope!

 

You should have that reg key now

 

Did you say switching is working? Because this looks like it is setup for Optimus.

 

The lights where you get to say which mode it is in are not working and I can get into both the Intel and Nvidia display properties at the same time.

When I pull out my power lead it gives me about 3 hours remaining on the battery which I am assuming is because both cards are active.

I am beginning to think getting optimus working properly is going to be easier than getting these hybrid drivers working.

Unless of course Sony release new ones!

 

Confirmed switching function on 197.41.
Nautis, you are Amazing!!!!!

 

Does it show the Nvidia confidential BS when in the nv control panel or running a hd video or 3d?

 

I told you we would get it

I almost smacked myself when it worked. I tested about 30 times back and forth. I should have gotten this sooner as it is one of the only new hybrid entries since 191.

Now I am somewhat obsessed with getting these 2000 series Intels working for us and the New Z users. I am almost finished with the 197.45 package, sorry it is taking so long everyone I am trying to make sure it supports as many HG notebooks as possible.

 

Yeah it does which sucks and my battery life went from 3 down to 2 to almost 1 hour in no time at as well.

 

You cracked it for the VPC-Z11 or the older Z? and you are so right this modding business is pretty addictive!!

 

No no older Z sorry. Got the latest nvidia drivers working on most other hybrid graphics notebooks other than the new z.

The trick to most other Hybrid Graphics notebooks right now is using Intel drivers that do not have the new Intel control panel GUI. (what I consider the 2000 series since it was pretty much introduced with it.) Currently the lastest without the new intel GUI is 1994. 1994 however does not support the new Intel GPU that the new Z has. So we have our conundrum.


Hey what happens when you change this to 0:
"PreferCoprocOverHybrid"=dword:00000001
or delete it completely, it is located
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\nvlddmkm]
*make sure to reboot after making this change.

 

Also as a side note done some tweaking to the power settings for the Intel HD and got the battery to 3 hours 30 mins.

 

Do you want me to revert back to the hybrid ones or give this a go with the current 'optimus' ones?

 

Try with the optimus first. I am thinking about you possibly trying some of these coproc settings with the HG config.

 

Giving that a go now and after that will get some zzzz as it is getting on for 11pm at night.

Interesting after setting that key to 0 I have lost the ability to define which graphics card to use as the default under the nvidia control panel.

Can still get into both properties of the intel and nvidia though

 

Good stuff.. and good work today. We will get it. It will just take time.

 

I am sure we will and something tells me when we do it will be something very simple!

 

Yeah.. I am sure its just a setting or settings. We almost have it.

--
For Non-new Z11 Vaio Z users:
197.45|1994 64bit test package
enjoy updated drivers.

This is a test package like my other. I will be revamping it for a full release (possibly with a new installer) on LV2G. Looking forward to feedback on these. And again THESE DO NOT WORK FOR Z11 VAIO Z USERS! We will figure it out and have some working for you.

 

The 197.45 drivers for the old z are working with switching. But the brightness setting in speed mode still doesn't work.

Great work Nautis!

 

Bah... yeah lemme try fixing that real quick.

EDIT: Seems like it is working through power options. Not sure why the keyboard shortcut is broken.

EDIT2: Seems to work after adding EnableBrightnessControl to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E968-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0000 or 0001 (the one for the nvidia geforce)
with a value of 1
Keyboard shortcut seems to work only after switching back to stamina and then to speed. Odd bug. I will add this setting to the next version.

 

Hmm... it seems I have missed all the fun here

@Nautis/daleski75: may I ask what's the current status of the HG for the new Z? TIA

 

Still pretty much the same. Bunch of false positives today. Apparently drivers installed through Windows Update enable Optimus (with possibly the same issues my optimus stuff had).

Brightness Control Fix for 197.45
Registry Import for those who downloaded the above drivers. I have reuploaded the 197.45 test package (same link as above) with the enablebrightnesscontrol change.

EDIT: Son of a... 197.55 coming soon?!

 

Hello, I have a strange thing here. I have tried to install these drivers(197.47 test) and after finishing installation and rebooting I found that only the Intel's part is installed and Nvidia part was marked as unknown device in device manager. I uninstalled it and tried to install it two or three times more changing stamina/speed slider but with the same result. At the end I thought that may be something broken in my computer and installed previews version of drivers 191.97. Now I have totally working drivers with working switching and working brightness control. These drivers are much better than the sony's old stock drivers but I would prefer to install the latest if all functions are available in them. Does somebody have the same issue with the new drivers?

I have checked the keys for brightness and switching in registry and have not found them.

P.s. Before today I have used only the sony's old stock drivers.

 

EDIT: Brightness control issues through the Fn keys seem to be semi dependent on the drivers being used. I have tested 197.44/.45/.55 and they all seem to be slightly different with their fn+brightness issues. I have seen other Hybrid Graphics users report similar problems with brightness control so it may be due to a bug in the drivers. Switching to stamina and back seems to fix it though.

I assume you are trying this on an older VGN-Z model notebook. The test drivers need to be signed and windows set to testmode before they will work. If you have a VGN-Z and have done that then the only thing I can think of is that something didnt get removed in the driver uninstall before using the test drivers.

 

Yes, I am trying it on an older vgn-z. Before installing the latest drivers I switched to test mode and after installation I've signed the drivers. When I sow that only intel card is working I thought that the nvidia driver(nvlddmkm.sys) was not signed correctly so I made it one more time. And after the second installation I definitely signed both of them.
Now I am staying on the older release because all works perfectly, switching, brightness controll, DXVA, Cuda and go on and I don't want to broke it. I think I wait the next release and try to install it.

And thank you for the great job you did to make this drivers work

 

Doing some more testing will post the results later if it is good news

 

Well installing these was tough for me as well. I spend nearly 30 minutes figuring out how to install them properly, as they behave completely differently on my Z then others.

First what I did was uninstalling and cleaning system with my overkilled method

After that manually updated driver for the Nvidia. Restarted. Manually updated driver for Intel (everything in Speed mode). Restarted. Signed drivers. Restarted. And voilà it works.

It's for the first time for me, when the Nvidia side didn't work at all until I manually updated the Intel side. Maybe these have to be installed through Intel card?

They works very well now. Subjectively I feel surprisingly more FPS in games. Temps are the same. The bug with brightness, when in Speed mode I can't lower brightness for more than one step is still there.

BTW, what temperatures are critical for GPU? I'm getting 108C max while OCed and that feels a bit dangerous already. CPU remain calm though.

 

Note to self the Dell 197.12 Intel drivers do not work well with stock Nvidia 197.44 ones... constant bluescreens!
Stock 197.44 drivers with the Intel 2104 drivers is a no go too.

 

Ok new method to help figure this out.
With the VPCZ11 Model Vaio Z and stock 188.80 drivers:

Download install and run Process Monitor

I suggest only Capturing right before switching to each mode and then disabling capturing after so the log isn't too huge. If you can then save the log and email it to me (pml file is fine) it would be much appreciated. nautis1100 ]}at{[ gmail.com

No filters are fine but if you want to use them for your own testing add:
Process Name =
svchost.exe
vesmgr.exe
vesmgrsub.exe
nvvsvc.exe
igfxsvc.exe
igfxpers.exe

This will tell us what exactly is happening behind the scenes when the switch occurs. Hopefully there will be something there.

 

Rebuilding my laptop at the moment I think all these drivers finally killed the poor thing, should be back up and running pretty soon

 

Whats wrong with it?

---
DRIVERS WILL NO LONGER INSTALL - FIX

If for whatever reason drivers you could install before will not install or you get a "system has not been modified" error try the following.

Follow the instructions on this site for removing plug n play drivers from the driver store. (works with windows 7 also)

Note: If you want to do it a more generic but more complete way, you can also just skip to step 6 and at the command prompt type pnputil -d. This will pull up a list of plugnplay drivers. Look for any with driver package provider NVIDIA make sure to note the oem##.inf and then type pnputil -d oem##.inf for each .

And/or try this...

Open C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository and delete any folders that may correspond to the driver you are trying to install. Note: You may need to Take Ownership of the folder first.

So for example if you are having a problem installing Nvidia or Hybrid Graphics drivers then you want to look for folders starting with nv_disp.inf_, nvmvsz.inf_, etc.. (Nvidia infs traditionally start with "nv" and so will these folders.)

 

Quite a few blue screens and then no display drivers would install... once it's back I will this time make a backup using backup and restore

 

HI Nautis, hope you got my mail. I'm sending you the process monitor output from switching between modes on my VPCZ11 with stock 188.80 drivers.

Hopefully this helps... let me know if I can do anything else to help here!

 

Sorry that happened daleski. Posted instructions back a few posts just in case you run into any thing like that again.

I did get them. Very large files indeed. Thanks. I will study them now.

 

Got the laptop back up and running, surprising how long it takes to put back on all your software.

Did you find anything out from the process outputs?

 

There is a ton to comb through on it. Nothing too new yet. What I have figured out is that contrary to what I said before it seems that the Intel part is not running correctly or outputting correctly to the VGA port. Or at least with what I have installed now. What seems to happen is that the led on the switch changes and then the output only goes through VGA. I haven't done enough testing yet to figure out if it is Intel or Nvidia that is doing the output. Both parts show in my device manager though with this config. (Note: this may all be different on yours and may just be the result of my current driver config.)

I am still on a hunch that it is something to do with the nvidia drivers that is causing the issue. I was really hoping that the new M11x drivers would give us more of a clue.

 

I am doing a bit of testing using some very slightly more recent Asus N82J drivers with the stock Intel ones to see what results this gives.

Made a full image backup of my pc too so I can go back to that too

 

I think you are on the right path as any older Intel drivers continue to work fine with the 188.80 Nvidia ones which kind of proves that the Nvidia ones are interfering some how either with the switching process or knocking the Intel one out somehow.

If we can find one set of Nvidia drivers to continue working with the stock Intel ones then I think that will help loads with the more recent ones.

 

Quick update with the Asus N82J ones the modified drivers install fine but upon a reboot it loses the GT330M and switches to stamina mode with only the Intel HD seen from device manager

Further updates

1. Dell 197.12 M11x drivers with the Sony Intel ones boot up in stamina mode with a display
2. Switch to speed/stamina with the above drivers and you get a display
3. Switch back to auto and stays on speed with a display
4. Pull the power and it switches to stamina with no display
5. Connected on stamina to VGA and get no display???!

 

So close....

 

Can you link me or give me the version of the Intel driver? <-Nevermind :EDIT

 

I am fast running out of ideas

 

I get a similar result to yours with the 197.12 (Dell) / 2021 (Sony) drivers. Mine are a bit different though. It seems with 2021 from Sony I can bring up the new Intel control panel under VGA. Need to do some more testing but I am sure this is the result I saw before. The great thing about this is it brings us back to it just being a laptop display issue.