Envy 15 - NVIDIA GT 740M not usable?

[NewJerseyCoderM]

Hello HP.

Recently I have been trying to make use of the NVIDIA GT 740M graphics card included in my pc. (There is even a sticker for it), but I've found that I can't use it. In the device manager there are only two display adapters, one from the Intel integrated graphics, and one from my VNC software. All the unknown devices in the manager I've found to be other things by googling the hardware IDs, like the card reader and the figerprint scanner. (I installed their respective drivers)

Note that the laptop originally was running Windows 8.1 from the factory, but I installed Windows 7. I am not sure this is the issue.

[Huffer]

Do a hard reset...remove battery, hold down power button 20 seconds...attach AC power up...hit esc and then F10 to enter BIOS...exit BIOS and set to default.

Now reboot and see if the dedicated video comes up. The video is switchable which means it has both an Intel chip and a GeForce chip which can work at the same time, switching back and forth as needed. You have to use a driver designed for 

switchable graphics and that means the HP driver from this page. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @NewJerseyCoderM 

I have read several posts like yours, where you are led to believe that there is an nVidia graphics adapter in your notebook because there is a sticker indicating that there is.

Unfortunately, this is often not the case.  Merely that someone placed a nVidia sticker on the wrong notebook.

Because the 15t-j100 is a configured to order model, there are no specs listed.

So, if you would please post the product number of your notebook, I will look it up in the parts list to see what motherboard that specific product number has.  The motherboard will list what graphics adapter(s) it comes with.

The product number can be found on the same sticker as the serial number.

[NewJerseyCoderM]

The product number is E1P04AV

Thanks

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

You're very welcome.

As I suspected, someone at the assembly plant put a nVidia graphics sticker on a model that doesn't come with the nVidia graphics.

If you enter the product number for your notebook in the box at the link below, you will get the parts list for your notebook.

http://partsurfer.hp.com/search.aspx

Under the PC Board section, you will see the list of the only motherboards supplied for the product number your notebook has.  The UMA stands for Unified Memory Architecture (Intel HD Graphics only), and the only differentiation is if the notebook comes without Windows, Windows Standard, or Windows Professional.  The Windows product key is in the BIOS of the motherboard, hence the different part numbers.

So, your specific notebook does not have the nVidia/Intel switchable graphics adapters.

			720565-001	MOTHERBOARD UMA HM87				COMPLY_2.04
			720565-501	MOTHERBOARD UMA HM87 W8STD				COMPLY_2.04
			720565-601	MOTHERBOARD UMA HM87 W8PRO				COMPLY_2.04