Playing games with ATI Graphics card Windows 10

[Brendon95]

Hello

I have a hp Pavilion dv6-3131tx with switchable graphics (Intel HD Graphics card and AMD Mobility Radeon HD 5000 series card) and after upgrading to Windows 10 all my games were running slow. I figured it was due to HDD space so I did a disk cleanup (including system files as I decided I wasn't going back to Windows 7). After doing this I decided to fiddle around with my graphics options (on both cards) to maximise performance.

However, now most of my games now open with sound in the background but its a completely black screen. It sounds like everything is working fine in the background (even the mouse pointer is working and is in the shape of the games mouse pointer) but its just a complete black screen. This seems to only happen with demanding games like a racing game or a sim like Truck Sim or train sim. Other games such as spintires and hotline miami work fine. I could find literally nothing similar to this problem anywhere online and I really hope there is a fix for this!

I should also mention I tried to disable my Intel HD graphics card in device manager when I was trying to work out how I can make my ATI card my default card because I am pretty sure all my games were running on the Intel card as they all seemed very slow compared to when I played them on Windows 7. After I disabled it my screen was almost completely black, but I could just, only just, make out what I was doing and was successful in re-enabling the card. This almost completely black screen also happened when I did it the other way around.

Update: it seems when I set these games to use power saving (the Intel card) the games I have trouble with work fine (minus the lag due to it being power saving of course) so it's a issue with the ATI card.

thanks and I hope there is a fix for this

Brendon

[WAWood]

Brendon95

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the situation is that you should not have done the Win10 Upgrade.  Their Upgrade tool does a really poor job of detecting switchable graphics prior to the upgrade, and as a result, folks like you end up with machines that are no longer fully functional.  Same thing happened to me.

With switchable graphics, the only working drivers come from the OEMs that make the machines, because the hardware is customized, so too have to be the drivers.  MS does not supply these drivers.

So, without HP Win10 drivers for your PC, you're stuck with only two outcomes:
1) Keep Win10 and struggle with the graphics problem
2) Return your PC to the original OS.

I chose the second because I prefer a PC with an older OS where everything worked, to a PC with a new OS, where some things do not work.

[Brendon95]

Hmm that sucks but thanks. I'll probably revert back too because of that plus the hdmi port doesn't work either. But because I cleared Win 7 from my system because it was eating disk space how can I get back to 7?

thanks for the help

Brendon

[WAWood · Accepted solution]

Brendon95

I, too, had a PC trashed by the Win10 Upgrade -- because the upgrade tool did not detect the switchable graphics in advance and prevent the upgrade.  The good news is that MS has finally stopped pushing folks to do the Win10 Upgrade.

Ordinarily, I would recommend using HP Recovery Media to restore your PC to its original condition. That would erase the entire drive, format the drive, and install the OS, the drivers, and the HP utilities.

Unfortunately, there is no HP Recovery Media linked to the HP Product Page for your PC. This could be an oversight by HP, or it could also mean that HP no longer stocks the recovery media for your PC. They no long stock recovery media for the older PCs.

You can try contacting HP Customer Support directly, using the links below, to see if you can order if from them:

If you live in the US or Canada, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/phone-assist.html#section1

If you live elsewhere, contact information is on this page: http://www8.hp.com/us/en/contact-hp/ww-contact-us.html

NOTE: After you get through, stay on the line until you are finally able to talk to some one -- it can take a while!

---------------------------------------
However, HP Customer Support is generally not available on the weekends, so you might have to wait until Monday to contact them.
---------------------------------------

Since HP no longer provides Recovery Media for your model, a couple of other sites you should check are: http://www.computersurgeons.com/ and http://www.restoredisks.com/

Good Luck