How can I hard disable AMD integrated graphics?

[Dave149]

I want to hard disable AMD integrated graphics in my HP Pavilion 15-N221so.

How can I do it?

I have already gone trough all of the settings in bios, AMD catalyst control center and tried disabling the integrated (AMD Radeon HD8400 / R3 series) graphics adapter in windows device manager - none of that has worked.

I want to be clear: I dont want to assign programs to run either on the integrated or the "descrete" graphics adapter. I Want to Hard disable the integrated adapter and make the regular Radeon HD 8670 the primary graphics adapter so that Everything, Always, by default runs on it.

Thank you

[Dave149]

Can I get an answer maybe? Whats the point of having a support forum if none Hp support staff ever looks at it?

[Huffer]

The tone of your post is a little intimidating and nobody wants to be the messenger who gets shot by saying it is not really possible. 

The Forum is not HP "staff" we are volunteers who are fellow end users. 

[trukntigger]

Have you tried just diabling the device in the device manager so only the descrete card is active IE: intergrated is disabled so everything has no choice but to operate on the other? By this I mean remove the driver and its reinstall source. You have too disconnect from web, try to update and see where the source is installed ( most likely in C:/swsetup or something ) then once that is removed disable and delete driver. When system is rebooted and searches for driver tell it no and leave it off.  Might work. I don't care for AMD cpu's so not a lot of experiance with them.

[Dave149]

I tried your suggestion, everything but removing the source drivers and it did not help. When I updated the driver tru device manager, it did not show where it was taking the driver from or where it would be installed.

When I go to: device manager->display adapters->AMD Radeon HD 8400m /R3 series->right click on it->properties->Driver tab->More information (about the driver), it shows me a thousand places where the drivers that this card uses are supposedly located, including many in system32 and SysWow64 folders. Im not sure its smart to delete all of the windows drivers, so I wont brick my pc.

As to the tone of my first message. Ok, sorry but I was and still am mad at HP for locking me out of my computer's basic functions. This thing lags even in internet browsing and cant keep up with better graphics in games than my old Intel HD 3000 Graphics laptop did. And all because its using the itegrated graphics as a platform for everything else. I went to vacation and bought this thing to play games with while Im away and now I can only barely do that bcause of this "lock". It sucks. This thing goes right back to the store when I get back home. My anger is towards HP and not towards its users.

[trukntigger]

If I understand correctly this system of yours uses a utility program to set which graphics card is used for each program by assignment. Sounds like a hassle but going to have to assign them all or get desperate and reinstall entire OS while getting it to stay off the integrated graphics by doing some deep background work to make it happen.

Picking a different model is a option but I just personally bought a HP450 G1 (i5/8gig/750gigHD/discrete Ati 8750 with win7pro and win8 included) just past weekend. Notebook check says graphics performance class 2 so handles 2013/2014 games but low settings and older maxed out. Thing is best deal for price (got @ Microcenter under 600$) and nearly all these newer laptops that have both integrated and discrete graphics use a utility to change between them for maximized power savings.
On mine I have settings in Bios, in the security sections and windows power settings and the graphics options themselves.
All this said in recent past did OS reinstall of a buddy's system and in process of doing so had skipped the intel graphics driver (I5 gen 3) by mistake and had just the Nvidia graphics card driver installed- he loved it that way seeing was plugged in most the time so can be done. Look into it. Good luck

[Dave149]

No, its not an "external utility". I am forced to assign each program separatly in Catalyst control center (graphics drivers gui) to run either on power savings mode (integrated adapter) or "high power mode" (descrete Radeon 8670 adapter), But the Whole windows platform uses the integrated graphics as a default adapter, Which makes it override the "assigned" settings even if they are assigned to "high power mode". Basically in this "dual graphics mode" the whole system is Alot slower then it would be if HP gave me an option in the Bios (like to you) to HARD disable the integrated graphics, so that my pc would only run on the radeon 8670 adapter. Its F***** up that HP has made "power saving" mandatory now. They are basically locking me out of the hardware I Payed for! Im not sure its even legal.

And no, I wont be able to "opt out" of the integrated graphics if I reinstall windows using the recovery option on this pc, as it will install all the same bloatware as it did when I first started it up.

Thx for trying to help tho trukntigger

[trukntigger]

Has to be raw install, download drivers from hp- no recovery disk. Extract your windows COA if need first. Get windows at digital river dot com. This would start with no bloat ware.

[Dave149]

Now that you mention it, there's no COA sticker with windows cd key on the bottom of this laptop. And I have no idea how I would get a free, full, legal windows download copy from that website even if I had that key.

[trukntigger]

Thinking you may still be stuck. In my case running intel CPU and ati gpu as long as I do not install intel driver for graphics the ati becomes primary. You said amd CPU and ati gpu. Seeing amd uses ati graphics the catalyst package will most likely load drivers for both devices. Just a thought. You may no choice thus different model combo needed

It may be possible to take note of the internal graphics card device ID in the device manager then reinstall raw windows and before installing ati catalyst disable the internal by matching vendor ID to one you wrote down first. Just unsure if windows "plug and pray" would auto reactivate once it saw the correct driver available.