zBook 15u G2 graphics card replacement

[svtigerbeetle]

The graphics card (AMD FirePro M4170, according to the manual) in my zBook 15u G2 has died, the machine is used as part of the navigation suite on my sailboat - to that end the graphics card is fairly important for cartography display, and I also use the machine for sometimes watching a movie. The on-board Intel HD5500 graphics display adapter is insufficient to handle those two tasks well, and I have been unable to locate a replacement M4170 card.

I went through several days of troubleshooting the card and associated drivers with HP Support, who finally suggested I take the machine to the local service center (ubreakifix here), they tell me the card is dead and they could not source a replacement card.

I do not know if there are any other cards that could be used in that machine. Would anyone happen to know if there's anything out there that I could swap in for the dead card?

I also read with interest the idea of an 'external' graphics card, I've never heard of that in conjunction with a laptop. Is there a card that would work for that purpose on my machine?

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

Here is the Service Manual which is the basis of the observations to follow:

Manual 

You have switchable discrete video. That means the video is a chip on the motherboard, soldered in place. There is also an Intel video chip that works more closely with the processor. There is not going to be a replacement M4170 card in other words. I would be interested in trying a bit more troubleshhoting on the video as theoretically it is not really possible for the switchable discrete video to "die" and the laptop to still work with the integrated Intel video. The two are so tightly interconnected the death of one should mean the death of the other. 

You have no viable external GPU option as your laptop is too old to have a Thunderbolt port and therefore there is no real way to have a competent external video card. Anything you would try to connect to a USB port would be weaker than the Intel card. 

So if the dedicated video is really non-functional I am afraid you are looking at a motherboard replacement if you must have dedicated video. Frankly the Intel HD5500 ought to be good enough for cartography and watching movies so something else is going on here if you cannot do either thing. 

Post back with any questions. 

[svtigerbeetle]

I'm keen to trouble shoot the issue if you have the time.  I have retrieved the zBook from the service center, I can see the AMD FirePro M4170 as a display adapter (Win 7 -> device manager), with the note "Windows has stopped this device because it has reported problems. (Code 43)."  The driver is AMD 22.19.176.1025 dated 9/20/2017.

The other driver is Intel HD 5500, Intel driver 20.19.15.5063 dated 10/29/2018.

If you're right that it's either both or none, that would be most interesting.  What I have gleaned so far from the published trouble shooting is that the display adapter drivers are synchronized in some way such that my machine needs both drivers to be correct for the switching between GPUs to work.  But - I have not found anything indicating which drivers are required to work together (leads me to think the 'matching drivers' issue is not correct).

I ran dxdiag on the zbook and it only shows the Intel HD 5500 as a Display -> Device.  No mention of the AMD card.

If you have thoughts on how I might learn more about what's going on, please let me know!

[Huffer]

So right now the machine is running Windows 7? 

[svtigerbeetle]

The machine is running Win 7 Pro 64 bit with SP 1 installed.

[svtigerbeetle]

Huffer - you pointed me in exactly the correct direction and the AMD M4170 graphics card/chip is working now.  The key point you mentioned is that if one graphics chip is dead the other shouldn't work - they should be intertwined.  That convinced me that the AMD M4170 chip, even if soldered onto the motherboard, must still be good in some fashion because the Intel HD 5500 was still working - and I went digging that direction.

The answer is that the HP Support Assistant software told me I needed to install an AMD drive update - and that broke everything, in as much as that update made Win 7 unable to communicate with the AMD chip, and the update also removed/replaced the AMD Catalyst Control Center withj software that could not control the switchable graphics model.  i went digging at AMD's site, found reference to what should be the correct driver, went back to HP's site and found that update, installed it, updated the BIOS again just for good measure, and then Win 7 recognized the AMD chip without throwing a Code 43 error (a Codd 43 error is entirely unhelpful, at best).

The last detail was configuring the 'new' AMD Settings program that installed on the macihne in order to fool the Settings program into using the AMD graphics when I wanted it to.  Right-clicking on the Win 7 desktop invites me to 'Configure Switchable Graphics' - launching this throws error ''Windows cannot find 'cli'. Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.'  So cli.exe is missing but in the Win 7 Start menu I find AMD Settings -> AMD Settings, and this brings up a AMD software that lets me semi-control which applications will use the AMD graphics card .  Only the AMD software won't let me control any application that it already has a profile for (such applications are locked for graphics card configuration purposes).  To fool the AMD software I located the application executable file and imported it into the AMD software s a new program (which presumably has no known profile) , at which point I could set the profile to 'Performance'.

The driver that works is AMD 23.20.15018.1002 dated 2/5/2018.  This is downloadable from HP through HP SoftPaq Download Manager (another large program I needed to install), or through the link below.  Note that the link states it is AMD Video Drivers and Control Panel version 17.60.18.01 F3, which appears to include the 'AMD Radeon Pro and FirePro Settings' software in lieu of Catalyis Control Center.  Oddly, the Win 7 Device Manager -> Display Adapters tells me the AMD driver version is not the same version as the HP-downloaded version.

It looks like the same download can be found at:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-zbook-15u-g2-mobile_workstation/7152802 and look under Drivers -> Graphics, but I did not install from here as I used the HP SoftPaq tool to do the downloads.

Upshot is that after two days of chasing this with HP Support Online Chat where I was told the AMD graphics card must have died, the service center technicians looked at the physical machine and told me the graphics card was dead, you pointed out that it can't be dead, and you were correct!  Never trust a download from HP Support Assistant, and probably not from SoftPaq either.  What I have learned (the painful way) is to only update a machine when absolutely necessary, and run updates one-at-a-time, test, and be prepared to rollback if the result is no good.

Thank you very much for your insightful comments regarding soldered graphics cards and the connection between the Intel HD 5500 onboard graphics and the AMD M4170 graphics.  I do not believe that switchable graphics are a good idea unless the end-user can manually force the switch - automagic switching has no business being in this mix.

[Huffer]

You have pretty much anticipated where I was going to suggest we go. I thought it was likely a driver problem. Yes switchable graphics has not been a success as it is very hard to keep it working right and every OS update seems to break it. But glad you have everything working well again and that you do not have to buy a new laptop.