laptop has intel hd graphics as default instead of NVIDIA

[Olly_001]

I have this laptop, I reinstalled windows and all the up-to-date drivers, everything works great but there is one issue 

the laptop uses Intel HD graphics 4600 instead of the dedicated NVIDIA  GT 740M

I already looked up on google and forums what could be a suitable solution, here's what I found:

- set the NVIDIA GPU as default on the NVIDIA control panel / doesn't work

(still not using the correct GPU, I can tell by the windows advanced screen settings saying that the display is connected to the intel one and not NVIDIA)

-trying to set the default GPU from the advanced settings in the BIOS (inspyre H2O F.66)

(unfortunately, these settings are locked and require advanced BIOS modding to unlock them, I don't want to risk bricking the laptop since I am not knowledgeable on this topic)

I'm desperate, help

[Huffer]

HP did not issue Windows 10 drivers for this model laptop and this is a common issue when it is upgraded from 8.1 to 10. However, all of the old threads on that topic are archived. Perhaps @Paul_Tikkanen can recall how to resolve this. 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi, @Olly_001 

The only suggestion I can offer is this...

The W10 graphics drivers on your notebook's support page are really 'rebadged' W8.1 drivers.

If you look at the release dates of these drivers, they are from 2013--two years before W10 was released to market.

The 15t-j100 model series which has virtually the same hardware as yours, actually has 'real' W10 drivers for the graphics.

I recommend you install these drivers....

Intel:  Install and restart the PC.

10.18.15.4248

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp72001-72500/sp72370.exe 

Nvidia:  Install and restart the PC.

10.18.13.5324 

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softpaq/sp71501-72000/sp71979.exe

Then see if you can use the Nvidia software to set the Nvidia graphic adapter as the default adapter.

HP PCs - NVIDIA Optimus Graphics with Integrated Intel Graphics (Windows 10, 8, 7) | HP® Customer Su...

[Olly_001]

the NVIDIA driver installed fine but with the intel one the installation stopped with an error: "the driver you are installing has not been validated for your computer" and won't let me install it

by clicking yes I was brought to intel.com for troubleshooting  and found solutions only for 6th and 5th generation processors 

mine is 4th 

[Paul_Tikkanen]

Hi:

Not sure why the Intel driver didn't install, since it has support for the Intel HD 4xxx graphics adapters.

See if you can manually install the driver as follows...

Go to the device manager.

Click to expand the Display adapters device manager category.

Click on the Intel HD graphics adapter listed there.

Click on the driver tab.

Click on Update driver.

Select the 'Browse my computer for drivers' option, and then at the bottom of that window, select the 'Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer.'

Click on Have Disk, and browse to: C:\SWSetup\sp72370\Graphics\igdlh64 (setup information file), click Next and the driver should install.

After the installation is complete, restart the PC.

[Olly_001]

when I entered the file path it gave me an error "the specified path does not exist or is unreachable" even though I checked and the igdlh64 file is present in the folder

then I noticed that the driver version is 10.18.15.4248 of 06/29/2015

exactly the one you advised me to install,

so I assume that despite giving an error the driver was installed 

but unfortunately, it still did not work and the display continues to prefer the integrated graphics card

[Paul_Tikkanen · Accepted solution]

Sorry, that using the W10 drivers didn't work.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other ideas you can try.

[Olly_001]

I thank you so much for your time, you gave me a hand and your advice was very useful

[Paul_Tikkanen]

You're very welcome.

Sorry that I wasn't able to help you get the Nvidia graphics adapter to work as the default GPU.

[tonyfrompetone]

I have an HP Probook fitted with an Nvidia 930 graphics GPU, and came to the conclusion that the processor would only be used by games or graphics packages that could access it. I must say I did not bother to try and find out anything to the contrary. Seems a bit pointless to fit a fancy GPU if the PC doesn't use it when asked to.

Ho-hum....