My discoveries on Vaio Z’s Hybrid Graphics

#1 Yes, but it did not help.
#2 No, not before warranty expired. / Or I am told to do so by Sony.

I am here to propperly investigate the Problem and then get back to Sony.

 

For #2, installing new drivers won't invalidate the warranty. I would recommend trying #2, and if it doesn't help, you can reinstall the original sony drivers (which are linked on the first post of this thread). It's very simple to install the driver. If it is a driver problem, it would be better to solve it without having to send the PC back to sony.

 

Have there been any updates to this with newer driver versions than 263.14 (nVidia) and 2881 (Intel) for the VPC-Z1?

I'm particularly interested in updated Intel drivers. The 2881 and prior drivers have this really annoying bug where viewing YouTube videos in full screen mode results in everything being pixelated (no anti-aliasing). Supposedly this is fixed in the newer Intel HD drivers.

 

The only way to get newer drivers right now is by doing the BIOS hack, setting your GPU to static and then using the latest normal drivers. No other way. I've noticed the same problem and it's quite annoying indeed...

 

So is the 263.14 with 2281 Intel still the latest signed divers from the NotebookReview team?

 

Unfortunately it seems to be the latest driver that does not have some strange problem attached to it.

 

Is there another place to download the driver. I am getting this message when trying to download from megaupload "This service is temporarily not available from your service area."

 

I will try to mirror it. since i need to see how many people actually downloaded this driver.

For those asking why 26314 2281 having some strange problem. That is because the inf file inside 2281 is built for VGN Z, but I have never add any VGN Z string.

 

Did anyone hrew an eye to linux hybrid graphic solutions ? would it be source of inspiration for our geniuses here ?
The "asus-switcheroo" solution is indicated as VPCZ12 compatible based on the hardware...

 

Hi, is anyone else having problem installing "Nvidia 26314 - Intel 2281 signed" with the new bios RC3031C3? i have done it previously with the old bios RC3030C3, but now it just won't work. the setup went fine but when it is restarting, there is no change, windows can't use them but it is on the program and feature list. i'm going to try "Nvidia 26314 - Intel 2266 signed" if it can work else i have to go back to the latest sony version because it is the only one working.

PS: in the bios, VGA switching policy should be "dynamic" or "auto"??

thanks a lot!!

Update: well "Nvidia 26314 - Intel 2266" signed doesnt seem to work as well. i don't really know where the problem is but in the usual install process the screen will go black when switching to the other card, but now there is no such thing, no switching, nothing...

 

Andrew08, you mention some work on the Benq S42. Are you able to help me by letting me know the latest hybrid graphics driver that is working with this laptop. Thanks

 

Did you follow all the steps b4 installing 26314?
such as Win7 in test mode?

 

Yup, followed pretty much all of the steps. will try again to run it in test mode, though since 26314 -2281 is signed, i did not have to go test mode when i installed it before with the previous bios

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/625320-switchable-graphics-latest-drivers-r1.html <- any chance something like this might be workable?

 

As some of you allready know, i´ve spent a lot of time contacting sony by email and telephone to communicate the bad driver support on the 2011 z series.

Two days ago my sony contact in germany send me a link to an updated driver package for the 2011 z, mentioned in my new thread New Z GPU driver released!

This package will be pushed through VAIO update in the next days but i´ve tested it and the OpenGL problems are gone, also the ATI driver is a newer version.

Maybe nautis or other modders can use this to see the differences between the older an newer driver package to use it in own packages

 

SirRobin
And i guess of course still nothing new official for old VGN-Z with nvidia 9300mgs?
Well, it's great that you can force them to make it for newer model with ati anyway, greetings)

Hope this will help to resolve problems, coz i'm sick of my laptop laying without any sense of use.

 

that's interesting, I would also like to know this.

 

I doubt there will be any update for VGN-Z. Do you have any problems with current unofficial drivers though? Except for the HDMi bug, I'm quite satisfied with them...

 

hi, i am using sony vaio vgn-z46gd (switchable graphics) with Nvidia 9300M.
Can I use any of these hybrid drivers?

I've tried to use NVIDIA 26308 - Intel 2020 but no matter if I uninstall the official sony driver first or if I overwrite the sony one with the above, it doesn't work.

Can someone point me to the right drivers?

Thanks!

 

Metsn
I have mad random flicker which i'm writing about each time
Nothing seem to help...Disabling powermizer of course help, but still laptop getting hot as hell and very noisy, which i'd highly like to avoid..

 

Hi I dont know if this has beenn answered. I went through the past few pages and did not see it.

I have a Vaio VPCZ122GX I am trying to upgrade to 285.62 for my Nvidia GT 330M

Is this possible?

Thanks!

 

Sorry, It is possible to port it to your notebook but i don't have enough time to do it.

May or may not work. I read of this before, idea sounds crazy, because there is are no proper inf, but i myself have not try this yet. there are another post saying that if you left 1 portion of the file alone, you can upgrade to the latest driver but you may not be able to switch.

yes you can use my 26308 - xxxx hybrid driver but you must read the faq.

the answer is depends, if you bios hack your vaio z to disable intel graphic then it is possible, but if you don't hack your bios you may try the above method, if it does work, then the answer is yes, but if i doesn't the answer is no.

edit1:

See the post below. It is more like a downgrade to your hybrid driver, from gen 2 (in windows switching) to gen 1(in bios switching).

 

Intel 2281 is the latest available.

yes

which one do you want?

can anyone confirm this, mine is still working.

edit1:

it is not strange problem, i mentioned that i used vgn z style inf for 2281 part. that is why i wanted someone to use my 26314 2263's inf file to install with 2281.

edit2:
LOL i just realized i have 3 beta driver dated for more then 5 months in my computer. any beta tested wanted to try? please tell me your interest below.

2 for vpcz1 and 1 for vgnz.

ps: it is bug fixes not new driver.

 

Thanks for replying about the Benq S42 Andrew08. If anyone else has the time it would be much appreciated, otherwise i'll stick with what i've got.
Cheers

 

i had to go the bios hack way courtesy of computercowboys instructions. Works perfect now. Running 285.62 with no issues

 

Andrew08
Wanna try out vgn-z, preferably signed, but ain't so matter)

 

check pm.

10char

 

Andrew08
Ok, so i clean installed win 7 x64 on my VAIO VGN-Z11VRN/b
Installation of drivers was VERY long, screen have turned off, then when i already wanted to switch off pc, it finally appeared and installed.
Everything is pretty good, switching works, temps are not extreme (but not the best though too ~70C)
Problems are:
1. Still flickers on nvnidia card
2. According to GPU-Z there are no OpenCL / CUDA / PhysX
http://i.imgur.com/JDEzK.png

Do you see to get any chances to get this over with?

Other than that - this drivers are not bad at all, though still best temps / noise i got on nautis's 260.63 / 2020

#upd everything is missing only if switched, on 1st win boot everything is ok, except no physx showing

 

thanks for the feedback, are there any delay on switching?
what kind of flickers? maybe a video will help.

 

Andrew08
Well...Nothing unusual with switching, of course there are some delay, but just as usual!
Flickers are very weird...It's like totally random screen switch off on some ms and then turn on, it occurs much more harder if some interraction like keyboard / mouse / touchpad in use.

Powermizer all to max seem to help, but this will ruin temp / noise that i'm running for.
Also i'm sure that as with previous drivers switching from 60hz to 59 will help, but last time i have very major troube with that, as i was writing...Something was really messed, only downgrade bios and upgrade back + clean install helped..

Well, i can try to make video soon.

 

Thanks for the video, flickering occurred on both speed and stamina?
how does powermizer helped stamina mode?

edit1:
mind trying the registry file below?

 

Andrew08
no no, i'm not in test mode,driver is signed..
Well, about my question - i just thought i'd need to delete drivers and than have a cleaning like with driver sweeper...

But just tryed rev.2 as you have said - nothing changed i think, still flicks...
It flicks only on nvidia side.
This time nvcpl also shows 60hz, as always, if it's something you should know about..

I think nvidia powermizer manager helps to improve, but not completly exclude flicker.
If i'll set everything to max perfomance - i'll have much much less flickers, but it still occurs very rarely, and i'm surely not satisfied with temps and fan noise in that way

about physX - my bad, i didn't even notice that you doesn't had it packaged
But still, i'm kinda worry about cuda and openCL

ok...now i'll try your reg file up on rev.2 inf

upd reg file doesn't work, still flicks...\

 

Hello Guys

I have had problems with my laptop for quite some time now.
Also i'd like to say thanks for all the effort you put into this, your helping a lot of people that (including me) don't get the support they should get from their manufacturers.

Notebook specifics:
System Manufacturer: MiTAC
Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU T9600 @ 2.80GHz 2.80GHz
Hybrid SLI:GeForce 9100M G and GeForce 9600M GS (current driver version 197.45)
4,00 GB (RAM)
Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit Operating System)
18,4" Widescreen

I can't update my drivers because the newer Nvidia drivers do not support my Hybrid SLI GPU. As soon as i install the newest drivers, my Hybrid icon in the taskbar dissapears and my screen freezes forcing me to restart. When i get to my logon screen from Windows and i log in, It freezes again, it does continue processing. I can hear sound of skype and other programms running it's just that my GPU crashes. I have tried loads of drivers that come after 197.45 but none of them seem to work. Are there any drivers or different solutions which will allow me to upgrade my drivers? Sorry if there already has been an anwser to this but i have not been able to find it within these 334 pages



Kind regards,

Pjotr Mengedé

 

There is a thread at other forum that discuss hybrid SLI, this thread only discuss VGNZ and VPCZ with NVIDIA.

 

I post this question with great trepidation:

1) I think I've posted it here before, but can't locate it in the thread (more like a rope, lol!) nor in my old post listing.

2) It sounds like I'm a weenie looking for an easy way to do something that's really not that hard (this would all be true )

Have we reached a point, somewhere in this long, glorious history of heroic community driver-builders where one can point me to a driver set that I can simply:

a) uninstall my present nVidia/Intel drivers

b) download and install (without many preparatory steps) something later than the last official Sony drivers, though they need not be the absolute latest and greatest

c) I don't give a hoot about losing "hybrid graphics," but I do not want to lose other useful features and I don't want my Z11 to run hotter.

d) I'd rather not do a BiOS hack, unless that's really a lot easier, less risky than it sounds and provides better results

Thanks. Tomatoes at catcalls ok, just tell me what to do.

 

It is at my signature

 

Thanks. What a breeze! You may have given me that same advice a few months ago and I failed to follow through and couldn't find it in my post log.

I did the 26314-2266 signed and it's working great. Haven't done any benchies yet but the WEI went from 6.3 to 6.5 and that's usually a good sign that the 'needle moved.' One question, other than the caveats noted in your excellent documentation, are there any "gremlins" that sometimes cause a problem with these drivers? Any things I should not do that I used to do?

Just curious, why offer so many alternative ways of getting the most up to date community drivers when this method involves by far the fewest steps? Nothing too hard to do with the detailed instructions you provided for the others, but I don't see the point if you get the same result.

Anyway, thank you very much for all your efforts in putting these together. +1 for your working when Sony would not.

 

Everything should be running smoother so just continue what you used to do.
1 thing you should be aware is your notebook temperature, I set the driver performance to high.

unsigned drivers are for people who like to stay in test mode. It have less problem sometimes.
signed drivers are for people who like simplicity, just double click and run it.

 

Glad you told me that - thought I noticed a change Are we talking just the nVidia, or Intel too?

Well, that explains it, mostly. In what sense are the unsigned drivers sometimes "less problem?" Otherwise, put me in camp #2, and thank you for your great work. (Tried to rep you and it reminded me I had just done so - can't believe you haven't accumulated more pts!)

 

well it seems i'm the only one with the problem. i don't really understand why it doesn't work though. when i updated the bios, the driver was still working, but then i did a full recovery of my pc and that's when i could not get it to work at all. strange! now i'm stuck with the latest sony driver

 

What's the latest official hybrid graphics driver that we know of? Is it still the Forceware 263.08/Intel 1994 from the Alienware M11x R1?

 

where do I make it work on my dell vostro 3500? it's using the same 330M chip but can't do the hack on bios

 

I tried installing the signed driver in the OP according to Andrew08's instructions and it pretty much bricked my Z. It crashed during the installation and subsequently would say that the driver failed and refused to install thereafter. I tried reinstalling the Sony drivers again but have lost graphics switching and I blue screen upon start up. I'm reimaging my entire system disk with Acronis now.

I'm at a loss to understand what I did wrong? :\

 

i got a z138 and want to update it to 285.62 to play NFS The run, is there a way to do it? Could you guys help me out please? thank you in advance.

 

Yes, but unfortunately you will have to switch from hydrid drivers to static with the hacked BIOS. Read this topic.

 

Hi!

"Hybrid graphic driver "Nvidia 26314 - Intel 2281 signed"

Has there never been a later possible update on this?
I just wanna ask before I start trying by myself.

I'm heavily disappointed by Sony for one single reason... you know which one for sure. But hey, one isn't many even though it's big.

 

sounds like you installed it in speed mode or you downloaded unsigned version?

>26315 failed
>2281 also failed

need more knowledge.

 

Is there a problem with installing the 263.14/2266 driver in speed mode? From reading the thread I got a sense that it was only necessary to switch to speed mode to uninstall previous nvidia drivers.

I worked out a few issues like VAIO event service using nvapi.dll and preventing driversweeper from deleting it, but after disabling it and manually deleting nvapi.dll, it still has the same problem.

 

Sorry my mistake...
I was thinking stamina, but I wrote speed.
Try without uninstall just install over.

 

Thanks, installing over worked. I habitually remove old graphics drivers before installing new ones so I didn't think to do it. +1 rep