Acer Laptop: Switchable Graphics using i7 & AMD Radeon

[joooeeel]

Hi guys,

I have an Acer Aspire 7750g with an AMD Radeon HD 7670M card and had the same problem with the switchable graphics. I found a solution on another forum.

What I did was to download and install a modded bios from Bios Mods Tools; - [http://www.bios-mods.com/BIOS]
Insyde -> A_A_7750_P5WE0117_UlkMenus_ByCamiloml.exe

Go into BIOS -> Advanced -> Video Configuration -> Pci Express Graphic -> Always Enable PEG [Enabled]

Go into BIOS -> Advanced -> Video Configuration -> Pci Express Graphic -> PowerXpress Setting [Muxed Fixed Scheme]

Restart

Now I can select which display card I want to use in Catalyst Control center -> Start -> Power -> Switchable Graphics

 

[RocketsFan]

Hi guys,

I have an Acer Aspire 7750g with an AMD Radeon HD 7670M card and had the same problem with the switchable graphics. I found a solution on another forum.

What I did was to download and install a modded bios from Bios Mods Tools; - [http://www.bios-mods.com/BIOS]
Insyde -> A_A_7750_P5WE0117_UlkMenus_ByCamiloml.exe

Go into BIOS -> Advanced -> Video Configuration -> Pci Express Graphic -> Always Enable PEG [Enabled]

Go into BIOS -> Advanced -> Video Configuration -> Pci Express Graphic -> PowerXpress Setting [Muxed Fixed Scheme]

Restart

Now I can select which display card I want to use in Catalyst Control center -> Start -> Power -> Switchable Graphics

How safe is it to download and use a modded BIOS? Also, can you link to the forum you discovered this as I have searched numerous places and have not seen this recommendation anywhere.

 

[popeye1953]

Hi guys,

I have an Acer Aspire 7750g with an AMD Radeon HD 7670M card and had the same problem with the switchable graphics. I found a solution on another forum.

What I did was to download and install a modded bios from Bios Mods Tools; - [http://www.bios-mods.com/BIOS]
Insyde -> A_A_7750_P5WE0117_UlkMenus_ByCamiloml.exe

Go into BIOS -> Advanced -> Video Configuration -> Pci Express Graphic -> Always Enable PEG [Enabled]

Go into BIOS -> Advanced -> Video Configuration -> Pci Express Graphic -> PowerXpress Setting [Muxed Fixed Scheme]

Restart

Now I can select which display card I want to use in Catalyst Control center -> Start -> Power -> Switchable Graphics

How safe is it to download and use a modded BIOS? Also, can you link to the forum you discovered this as I have searched numerous places and have not seen this recommendation anywhere.

A bit concerned myself, never used a modded bios. Does everything work normally like fan speeds and temperatures? I'd like to try this but sure would love to hear a few more success stories or a review first.

And why won't Acer make this an official release if it works? They'd make a lot of people very happy.

 

[hexatic]

Hey guys, I posted awhile back saying I would call acer and get their thoughts along with the rest of the guys who called, it was fruitless. So instead I took the plunge and tried Joeels solution.

I was really, really uncomfortable with it but my wife being unable to play the games she wants is a lot scarier than a brick. And after looking up a recovery method in the event I brick it, I installed the modded BIOs previously mentioned on my wifes Aspire 7750g.

I went into the BIOs and changed the options shown in the above threads and BAM I could set it as the main card inside Catalyst and I'm pumping 40-50 STEADY frames in Minecraft at default settings and way more if I turn it down, compared to the choppy unplayable mess it was before.

If anyone wants the links to the Brick recovery or some screenshot I'll be happy to throw them up.

Thank you Jooeel(Sp?) you have made my wife a lot less angry with me about our laptop pick.

 

[RocketsFan]

Hey guys, I posted awhile back saying I would call acer and get their thoughts along with the rest of the guys who called, it was fruitless. So instead I took the plunge and tried Joeels solution.

I was really, really uncomfortable with it but my wife being unable to play the games she wants is a lot scarier than a brick. And after looking up a recovery method in the event I brick it, I installed the modded BIOs previously mentioned on my wifes Aspire 7750g.

I went into the BIOs and changed the options shown in the above threads and BAM I could set it as the main card inside Catalyst and I'm pumping 40-50 STEADY frames in Minecraft at default settings and way more if I turn it down, compared to the choppy unplayable mess it was before.

If anyone wants the links to the Brick recovery or some screenshot I'll be happy to throw them up.

Thank you Jooeel(Sp?) you have made my wife a lot less angry with me about our laptop pick.

Hexatic thank you very much for your reply! If you can, please do provide SS's and links. I'm sure others here would greatly appreciate that as well.

 

[hexatic]

Sure, waiting for my tablet to charge up (Only thing with a decent camera so I can get some shots of the BIOs) and I'll post up shots of the BIOs running and some screens of Catalyst.

Recovering From A Bad Insyde Bios Flash

That's the link to the bad flash recovery I intended to use had it gone to hell. I cannot attest to it's rate of success as I didn't have to use it.



Heres a shot showing the changes to catalyst after I did the modded BIOs, the line in the registry showing my BIOs version (Shows the modded one) and my catalyst version.


WARNING!
WARNING!
WARNING!


In an attempt to view other info I installed AMD overdrive, the system proceeded to bluescreen left and right either during windows start(while loading services and such) or during GPU usage (Games) until I did a rollback (Wouldn't let me uninstall it).

I have not had sufficent time to test this BIOs for long durations so I cannot predict other strange behavior or conflicts with different system utilities. So far it's running great as long as I don't have Overdrive installed, this may also effect other AMD/Ati tools. I will post if any other issues arise and I'll throw up shots of the BIOs asap.

 

[popeye1953]

hexatic,
I believe you must have an AMD CPU and chipset for Overdrive, probably why you had the problems.
Thanks for your input on the modded Bios, I think I will give it a try. Can always go back to 1.20 as long as I don't end up with boat anchor.

 

[hexatic]

Ahh, I figured I could atleast view GPU related stuff. Thanks for the input.

 

[popeye1953]

OMG! It works! Thanks so much for this joooeeel and hexatic for convincing me to try it. Will test to see how it goes. I'm using latest leshcat drivers btw and they are working also with this. Yahoo!

Hexatic, you can use GPU-Z to see what your graphics is doing.

I feel like donating a couple bucks to the guy that did this!

 

[osyris]

I need help guys please.. I installed that and now it doesnt wants to go in windows.. When the windows logo shows and it starts loading, suddenly blue screen appears for a second and computer restart.. What should i do now?

 

[popeye1953]

I need help guys please.. I installed that and now it doesnt wants to go in windows.. When the windows logo shows and it starts loading, suddenly blue screen appears for a second and computer restart.. What should i do now?

Sounds like your Windows install or Graphics driver is not the best.
Can you get Safe Mode to work?
You did set the Bios settings as described?

 

[osyris]

No, cant get through safe mode. Also i was trying to repair and restore.. And it doesnt works neither.. I did the biost settings as described.

 

[osyris]

Ok i managed to fix it now. In bios i changed SATA from AHCI to IDE.. But i still think it doesnt works as it should.. hmm.. any suggestions ?

Edit: i just compared in World of Warcraft, with Intel graphic (power saving) i have 60FPS and with AMD graphic (high performance) i have 28 fps on the same place.. Im really confused whats going on with my computer :/

 

[RocketsFan]

Ok i managed to fix it now. In bios i changed SATA from AHCI to IDE.. But i still think it doesnt works as it should.. hmm.. any suggestions ?

This is why I was wary of trying this "modded" BIOS. Anyone else have success with it? I'm still skeptical. I just bought this machine... I don't want to brick it already.

 

[popeye1953]

Ok i managed to fix it now. In bios i changed SATA from AHCI to IDE.. But i still think it doesnt works as it should.. hmm.. any suggestions ?

Edit: i just compared in World of Warcraft, with Intel graphic (power saving) i have 60FPS and with AMD graphic (high performance) i have 28 fps on the same place.. Im really confused whats going on with my computer

I'm having none of those problems. If it is not working for you then just flash back to the latest official Bios.

 

[hexatic]

Osyris, what model of laptop do you have if I may ask?


And as far as this riskyness of this goes, I think anyone who feels wary or uncertain about it should probably wait, theres a silver lining in this even for them as we know it's possible for Acer to unlock this option in an official BIOs release, just a matter of when and if they will.

 

[popeye1953]

Osyris, what model of laptop do you have if I may ask?


And as far as this riskyness of this goes, I think anyone who feels wary or uncertain about it should probably wait, theres a silver lining in this even for them as we know it's possible for Acer to unlock this option in an official BIOs release, just a matter of when and if they will.

Agreed. I've been working with computers for 25+ years and not much scares me except hardware failures. When you posted the brick recovery procedures I was good to go.

I don't have much faith in Acer though when it comes to this. I hope they prove me wrong.

 

[osyris]

Osyris, what model of laptop do you have if I may ask?


And as far as this riskyness of this goes, I think anyone who feels wary or uncertain about it should probably wait, theres a silver lining in this even for them as we know it's possible for Acer to unlock this option in an official BIOs release, just a matter of when and if they will.

I have Acer aspire 7750G.. There must be something wrong with my laptop.. I dont have any other explanation.. Because i found drivers that detects amd radeon graphic card.. But today i tryed to instal leshcat drivers.. And they didnt work because they didnt detect my graphic card.. Like i dont have it in computer.. Im really confused and dont know what to do. I know for sure im never buying acer again..

 

[popeye1953]

Osyris, what model of laptop do you have if I may ask?


And as far as this riskyness of this goes, I think anyone who feels wary or uncertain about it should probably wait, theres a silver lining in this even for them as we know it's possible for Acer to unlock this option in an official BIOs release, just a matter of when and if they will.

I have Acer aspire 7750G.. There must be something wrong with my laptop.. I dont have any other explanation.. Because i found drivers that detects amd radeon graphic card.. But today i tryed to instal leshcat drivers.. And they didnt work because they didnt detect my graphic card.. Like i dont have it in computer.. Im really confused and dont know what to do. I know for sure im never buying acer again..

There are many variants of the 7750G, mine is the 7750G-6669 with i5-2430m and 6650m graphics card.

You have me confused as to which Bios you are using now. Did you go back to the Acer Bios located here: Acer Support: Downloads & Support Documents - Notebook / Aspire / Aspire 7750G

With that Bios installed and set to switchable you should see two display adapters in device manager. One Intel and one ATI/AMD.

 

[osyris]

I have AMD Radeon HD 7670M 1GB.. Atm im using that modded bios. I managed to fix the problem. In bios i changed SATA something from AHCI to IDE..
This how in catalyst looks like:

And here you can see which model it is:

And the problem is when i have on high performance i have lower fps in game then when i have on power saving..

lp