My discoveries on Vaio Z’s Hybrid Graphics

Just out of morbid curiousity I deleted the oem files again and did a windows update now the Nvidia driver is 197.45 up from 197.13 from only a few days ago!

 

Yeah they removed 197.13. I downloaded 197.45 and they include the nvbridge_int.kmd file even though it is not used. This isn't really all that important except this gives us a complete 197.45 versiond Hybrid Graphics driver.

 

Looking through the nvmvsz_template file has a whole lot more than the inf one... seeing if there is anything in there we can use.

Scrap that looks pretty much the same for reg keys etc.

 

As an experiment I am trying to combine the windows update nvidia and intel drivers into one hybrid package using a modified NVMVSZ inf file.

My hunch is if both of these drivers work together fine in optimus mode what is stopping them from working in hybrid mode?

Or am I over simplifying things?

 

Got them all installed fine but still the same issue with the blank screen when switching from speed to stamina mode

 

Yeah it is. The templates are usually just the nvidia portion of the driver sent to the notebook manufacturer with the drivers to use as a basis.

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The Process Monitor log is looking much better with this version. Intel process starts properly and can bring up control panel. Still output locked to VGA though. I noticed windows initially starts with a black screen before the nvidia service loads and it switches to speed/nvidia. Seems to be back to looking like an Intel driver problem now.

 

That is my big issue also. There are certain situations/configurations where the new Intel drivers work fine. It is really JUST when its in the Hybrid Graphics configuration that things go wonky.

I am doing some more comparisons and tests.

 

Quickly tested VGA and that works fine with these 197.45/2082 drivers

Testing a few more things here too.

 

Seems like the issue we are running into here and the delayed boot/sleep/hibernate with Optimus may be a result of the same issue.

 

I am quietly confident we will crack it and now it is a mission!

 

Here are my finding and thoughts before I call it a night.. 11pm here

I think that the crux of the problem is with the intel drivers either not getting installed properly when the nvidia drivers change or some dll's and/or registry entries are not populated properly.

With both 197.45 and 188.80 drivers everything seems to install ok but the biggest difference I can see is that with the 188.80 drivers when you connect over VGA or anything when you right click you see Graphics Properties which is clearly missing from the custom drivers we have being testing.

Nautis I think you was right first off this seems to be related to the Intel control panel or whatever it is called which was introduced after the 19xx series of Intel drivers.

If we can figure out what files or other stuff is getting missed then that may give us an idea to how to fix it.

Now if we can trace both the installation of 188.80 and any custom 197.xx drivers then maybe we can compare them both and see where the differences are?

 

I have gotten it back to the point where I have "Graphics Properties" under Stamina with VGA plugged in. I can pull up the Intel control panel and everything seems to work well enough. The problem seems to be that the Intel part cannot detect more than just the VGA adapter. I have found the section in process monitor that further proves this ( as seen here). You can see on the right in this image what usually happens with the 188.80 drivers and on the left 197.12. You will notice the left says simulated while the right is the id of the sony display (SNY06).

 

Just a question, in my corners when I move the screen a little bit I can see some screen dooring or distortion, its very subtle but its diagnol lines like when a monitor has refresh issues.

Does anyone else have this, just trying to see if i'm crazy or not.
It doesn't happen anywhere else on the screen but the four corners.

 

That's a very good find shame I have absolutely no idea how to fix that.

Can you let me know how you got the Intel Graphics Properties working so I can get to the same place as well?

 

Which driver are you using? Also, on which display adapters(stamina/speed) is the behavior present? Lastly, what monitor is being used and how is it connected?

edit: fffff

edit2: Don't look so closely at the screen. It's LCD after all, so the above is to be expected.

 

Hi, yeah i'm not too worried about it it just happens when I type or move the screen a little bit. I think the correct description is interlacing.

Anyways i'm using the stock drivers and 1600x900. It occurs on both Stamina and Speed.

Di you see what i mean? If not maximize a browser and you wil see in the top left. Also if you shake it you can also see the windows key interlaces.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if you saw tearing, but I would be surprised if you saw interlacing.

It could simply be that you're not used to to the slow response time of LCD monitors, but I couldn't be sure if it's software or hardware issue.

 

I'm not sure if this is any useful information, but I noticed that using daleski75's drivers (the ones which are Nvidia 197.16, but do not work when you switch from Speed to Stamina, but work when you boot up in Stamina mode) if you put the computer to sleep in Stamina mode, when it resumes from sleep mode, you lose the connection to the LCD again.

I thought that was a little strange.

 

Posted up the 197.12 Z11 drivers that have working Intel Control panel and things through VGA out for me. Check em out and let me know. I have to assume the screen still goes black when switched to stamina with these on the Z11. THESE PROBABLY DO NOT WORK AND WERE POSTED FOR OTHERS TO HELP IN GETTING NEW DRIVERS WORKING ON THE Z11.

 

Installed. Nvidia control center works in Speed mode. However, I don't think the Intel Graphics Control panel is working. When I bring up the Intel Control Center, I can select the icon for the graphics control panel, but nothing comes up. (This is after I boot up in Stamina mode)

As expected, switching from Speed to Stamina results in a blank screen.

 

Thanks for these Nautis will give them a go a bit later on to see what my findings are.

 

Found some time to try out the test 197.12 drivers and vga now says it's an incompatible resolution so I cannot test it.

Will try my laptop tomorrow connected to a proper lcd monitor and not my tv to see if i have any better luck.

 

nTersect Blog - NVIDIA Verde Notebook Drivers ? Redefining the Notebook PC Experience

summing up this news: next driver version 256, still no out-of-the-box support for hybrid graphics.

 

Maybe sony one day will release newer drivers well can live in hope lol

 

maybe sony just waited for the 256 release (i guess this is a 'lol' too).

 

Agreed. I don't think Sony (and several other OEMs) ever release updated drivers for their graphics cards. I can understand why as it probably has to do with warranty, support, testing, etc.

However tossing something up as experimental or unsupported (no warranty) would be helpful. Given that NVIDIA's drivers are cross-GPU this would be a nice benefit to everyone.

 

It was a shame the beta M11x 197.12 drivers did not work as intended as these where pretty much as far as I can see as close to the Sony ones as we can get.

At least the 188.80 ain't too buggy which is good.

 

tried to install the drivers here (not sure what to do with the two extra files)...anyway installed only the exe file...

My issue is that I have no sound via HDMI on my TV (philips). Have to say that it is not issue with tv,no issue with sound card etc... For sure it has to do with the nvidia drivers.

Can you guys help me to update my current drivers (official of sony)..my model is Z11vrn.

in more details my thread is here
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/479679-z11vrn-no-sound-via-hdmi-help.html#post6192588

 

got my notebook back from RMA

Is there anything I should test while I'm still on Vista 32-bit?


edit: re-installed Windows 7 64-bit and tried the 197.45 test package. It seems that the nvidia card does not turn off..

 

I keep hitting a brick wall with getting these drivers working I wonder if Nautis is having any better luck?

 

Hmm.. a bit quiet here. Has Nautis discovered something interesting?

 

Worth to mention that the Z linux guys run into the same black screen problems ( http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/472559-ubuntu-vpcz1.html).

 

When switching graphics modes on my Sony Vaio Z11, I get the following message each time:

"To change the performance setting you must close the following applications"

Microsoft Expression Web 3

If you change the performance setting without closing the open applications, you may lose unsaved data.

I click on "Make Change" anyway and it works fine.

Is there any way to get rid of this annoying message?

PS: EW3 (Microsoft Expression Web) takes a long time to load and I do not want to close it each time. The program is not particularly graphics intensive, so I am surprised it is a "blocking application" that prevents graphics switching from NVIDIA to Intel.

PPS: I have the standard NVIDIA driver version 8.16.11.8880

 

This should work:

 

Hmmm...

Can you help me there. (Screenshot attached)

 

look in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-> SOFTWARE-> NVIDIA Corporation-> Global-> Hybrid

in the screenshot you are looking in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-> SOFTWARE-> NVIDIA Corporation-> Global-> Hybrid-> Current

when you are in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE-> SOFTWARE-> NVIDIA Corporation-> Global-> Hybrid
look for a key called Whitelist with type REG_SZ, if it is there, double click it and add the name of your program to the end of the list follow the pattern of comma space and then the name of the program
eg PWMUIAux.EXE, Access Connections.exe, chrome.exe

If Whitelist is not there, click Edit-> New-> String, and re-name the created string value from New Value #1 to Whitelist.

After that double click it and add the file-name of the program. For example, the filename of the Registry Editor is regedit.exe

 

THANKS NAMAIKI. You are a genius!!!

I did it. I used no \path and no quotes " " etc. (see screenshot).

 

I just rebooted and it is still as before. "Microsoft Expression Web 3" is still blocking the switch.

I must have done something wrong... Attached is the current regedit.
PS: I had to add the WhiteList key. It was not there originally

 

Maybe it's not going to work as on my PC it asks you to close the programs, not just 'Make Change.'

 

Mine displays a message to close the program.

The button on the bottom says "Make Change"

See attached screenshots.

 

That's certainly different to mine.

You put the key in the right place, so maybe they might have changed the location of the whitelist or disabled it. :/

 

It looks like all hope is lost!

Surely if all the thousands of readers of this thread were to pick up a pen and write to Sony they may push on with releasing updated drivers. They appear to have released some new bluetooth drivers etc.

I mean its ridiculous to have their flagship laptop, the best and and most expensive laptop you can buy, crippled by outdated drivers. The users shouldn't have to mod their computer to have the function of NVIDIAs official drivers.

Does anyone have ideas of where to send these letters to? They need to reach the ear of someone who can take action.

 

I've tried customer service/technical support via email and phone, but all they say is either: "download the current drivers from this site" or "we do not support 3rd party software/hardware" and refuse to escalate the issue.

Personally, I doubt I'll buy another Sony computer after seeing this. It might have a nice design and overall be good, but I'd like to actually get some support.

As for who to send the letters to, well you could try sending email to their executive team. One place to start would be Howard Stringer, Chairman, President and Chief Executive, [email protected]

 

Hey,

I read the forum, and 'tried' to make sense of it all =D

I have a VGN-650N which also is supposed to have a hybrid, A nividia 8400M and some intel processor.

Using Windows 7 (Ultimate 32Bit), I am able to use only the Intel Processor, while the NVidia card is non-existent...

Can anyone help me out here, I can find the individual drivers, but the nvidia never installs and working them as a hybrid is a far fetched thing !

Thanks ...

 

This is about Intel GPU, not Intel CPU.

The VGN-SZ650N/C seems to have Hybrid Graphics (Mobile Intel X3100 and NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS). Is this your laptop? Does it have a Stamina/Speed switch?

Try switch to Speed, restart your computer and then install the nVidia drivers.

 

I have to agree with Moo - I do like this laptop and it's great for work but I doubt I will buy one again if this is the support we recieve. The s-series I was looking at was $600 cheaper but I got this one because of the superior GPU. It's therefore very annoying that I can't use the GPU fully due to shoddy driver support.

Well done anyway guys for all your hard work trying to get these going!!

 

What exactly is the issue that you are experiencing?

 

I use the laptop in my spare time for gaming - specifically BF:BC2 at present. I know it's not a gaming machine BUT the 330m is more than capable of playing this game. However the drivers that come with the laptop result in severe artifacting in the game. Apparently this is driver related and has been fixed in a later set of drivers but of course I can't upgrade the drivers. Presumably I will have this same problem with any future game that relies on optimized drivers.

I know the primary function of the z-series is not gaming but as previously stated, were it not for the 330m I would have saved myself $600 and got myself an s-series.

 

What is the exact model of your laptop?

Also, are you using the current Forceware 188.80 driver? You can use GPU-z to check when you are switched to Speed/nVidia card.

edit: there only seems to be the 188.80 driver, so drat.

 

Yes, it is definitely driver related. The 188.80 driver has the problem. If you move to a later set of drivers it fixes the problem completely. However, doing so means that you lose the hybrid feature of the Sony Z since the newer drivers available are hacked versions and do not work fully with the hybrid function.

For Bad Company 2 specifically, you can avoid the artifact problem on the 188.80 drivers by forcing the game to use DirectX 9. mfpeach found the solution here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/sony/478637-sony-z-z11-bad-company-2-graphics-solution.html

Of course, this only fixes this one game, so we'll probably run into this again in the future I highly recommend you call up Sony and make some noise as well about supporting their products. Maybe if enough of us do so, they might actually stand behind their products.