Windows 8 drivers for HP notebooks with switchable graphics.

[berlen]

Hello everybody! I need an advice.
Recently I updated my hp dv6 3122sl to win8. Now, obviously the drivers provided by microsoft didn't work, so I installed the softpaq by hp in this order
1. sp52351 for intel hd graphics (1st gen)
2. sp50640 for my ati radeon 5470 (it's important to set compatibility with windows 7 for this one)
and now the switching is working fine.
However there's a big big problem. The screen flickers 3-4 times at startup and shutdown if I enable fastboot from the control panel, and it's so annoying that I disabled it, sadly.
I tried to update drivers, using custom drivers by leshcat and later official drivers by ati (13.1 for example, which I installed over the hp ones), and the they -more or less- worked, because I could use the fastboot smoothly... but my pc had several thermal shutdowns since I installed other drivers!
So I switched back to the old sp52351 and sp50640.

There it is my question: Does anyone of you (maybe with intel+ati 5470) have flickers at startup and shutdowns?
If yes, is there a solution or any way to update drivers without make my laptop blow up?

[samjambo]

Hello Berlen.

I think i know what your problem is. You don't need  to install the two sofpaqs. If your computer has a discrete graphics card(ATI RADEON 5470) and switching capabilities(switchable graphics), you only install the ATI radeon softpaq(sp50640). It will install both the ATI and Intel component.

The other softpaq (sp52351) is for models that have Integrated graphics only.

[berlen]

samjambo thank you very much for your answer. It's a good idea! I unistalled all my current drivers and installed only sp50640, but when I enable fastboot the screen still flickers at startup.
Is there anything wrong in the way I uninstall them? here's what I did: from the control panel (programs and applications) I uninstalled ati catalyst control center (anyhow i noticed that intel hd graphics remains, should I uninstall it too?), and then I used driver fusion to delete remaining files of ati and intel. I was referring to http://leshcatlabs.net/manual/
Is this a correct way to perform a clean installation of drivers?

[samjambo]

Uninstall all display drivers both intel and ATI using Driver fusion(follow leshcat's instruction on how to completely remove the drivers using driver fusion). The only display adapter driver that should be there is the Intel HD Graphics driver by Microsoft(Intel(R) HD Graphics (Microsoft Corporation - WDDM 1.1)). Then reinstall the ATI softpaq using compatibility mode. 

If that fails then try to restore the system to a point where you had not installed the two softpaqs or refresh the computer(this should be your last option).

Flickering does happen at start-up. It can happen due to the switchable graphics or when you have a dual boot. If you have a dual boot and Windows 8 is the default OS, the system sometimes bypasses the prompt screen where you select which OS you want . In this case the system will boot straight to Windows 8 and the screen does flicker a few times after which the Windows 8 lock screen appears. I've noticed also that Windows 8 is not consistent at which stage the switching will occur. Sometimes the switching occurrs after complete start-up.

[berlen]

I think this time I cleaned up very well: I unistalled ati and intel drivers from programs and features (control panel), I used driver fusion, and deleted manually all files that required a premium account, then I rebooted, and used ccleaned twice to remove the remeining registry keys. At this point from device menager, ati and intel were both without drivers (there was a little exclamation mark in a yellow triangle).

So I installed sp50640. But the screen still flickers!!

However I don't have any other os on my pc. And I will refresh if I were sure that I will solve the problem, and in this period I've no time to reinstall all the programs I have, maybe the next week. Until then I will desperately search a solution, while I enjoy the flickering!

Any other ideas?

Thanks again

---

@samjambo wrote:

Flickering does happen at start-up. It can happen due to the switchable graphics or when you have a dual boot. If you have a dual boot and Windows 8 is the default OS, the system sometimes bypasses the prompt screen where you select which OS you want . In this case the system will boot straight to Windows 8 and the screen does flicker a few times after which the Windows 8 lock screen appears. I've noticed also that Windows 8 is not consistent at which stage the switching will occur. Sometimes the switching occurrs after complete start-up.

---

PS samjambo, following your argument, if I enable the intel graphics HD, windows will not switch the graphic card at startup and shutdown, because it is the first graphic card it recognizes?

[samjambo]

My system has a Intel Core i5 460m + ATI Radeon 6370m. Its almost similar to what you have(Am going by the spec sheet on Hp).  I faced the same problem after i uninstalled the Leshcat Driver and i couldn't install the ATI Softpaq properly. I had to refresh the computer. This is the only way i could ensure that the ATI package would be installed properly.

By the way,does the flickering only occur at start up or when you're using the computer? Does the system try to revert to the default Intel Driver provided by MS?

Another thing, how did you update to Windows 8? Did you wipe out the previous OS or you just upgraded from that OS to Windows 8?

[berlen]

The flickering occurs at startup and shutdown: the screen flashes 3-4 times, apparently because windows is not able to decide which graphic card to use.

When I use the pc, after the boot, the graphic card works smoothly, I've never encoutered an issue till now.

I upgraded to Windows 8 with a clean installation, formatting the hard drive, because I read about several issues that would otherwise occurr.

My laptop has the same processor i5 460m.

[samjambo]

Can you get a screen shot of the display adapters from the device manager. Make sure you're running the ATI Card. If everything was installed properly, it should look like this. Also provide the Intel HD Graphics properties screen shot(Driver tab)

[berlen]

Here they are.

Anyhow thank you for your efforts!

[Skynetz]

Hi I have an HP pavilion dv7-6020ev, this model:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareCategory?os=4063&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&sw_lang=&product=5063...

There is no official driver for Windows 8 and for Windows 7 the latest driver is from 2011.

I now have the drivers for hp pavilion g4-1226nr, but from 2012, here are the screens:

Switchable graphics are working as they should, but games don't work ok. SOmetimes the graphics driver just crashes in windows, but games are the biggest problem. CoH2 beta told me that I have outdated drivers and the game didn't run smooth, but today I played the CoH2 final all seemed ok, but today I can't play. The game opens, than the driver crashes and the game closes.

What can I do ? Are there an better drivers out there ?

Thanks for the help:)