Need a favor from the 7710 owners

Hi all, I recently updated my 7710 to the 1.15.4 BIOS update and it completely disabled my internal video. I believe this is happening because the update sets the BIOS back to default config, which enables this option in the Video > Switchable Graphics section called “Discrete Graphics Controller Direct Output Mode”. With this enabled and “Enable Switchable Graphics” set to off, the laptop will not route graphics to the internal display, only to an external one.

If I disable Discrete Graphics Controller Direct Output mode or enable Switchable Graphics, the laptop will boot fine.

It appears there is a flaw in the way the Nvidia card talks to the motherboard if you set the laptop to use the Nvidia card for internal and external display.

As an FYI, the last time I updated the BIOS on this (last year) this happened as well and DELL replaced the motherboard, but now I am not sure they needed to do this.

Can someone with a Win 10 7710 with an Nvidia card (preferably a P5000) boot into their BIOS and mimic my BIOS settings in the attached pic, make sure you have no external monitors atttached and see if your laptop boots with video on the built in screen? Basically you'll need to enable switchable graphics, enable discrete direct output, then disable switchable graphics and see if it boots.

Thanks in advance.

 

Was it different when you didn't update your BIOS? Because to be honest this is how the notebook should behave on those settings.

 

You're saying that with discrete output enabled and switchable gfx disabled that its normal for the laptop to have no video going to the internal display?

 

Yes, because the display is connected to the intel graphics card. If you turn it off there should be nothing on your screen. What normally happens when you use optimus is that the NVIDIA card sends its signals to the intel card, which makes the image when you play a game on the NVIDIA card for instance. So turning off the intel graphics in any way would result in a black screen.

That's why I asked if it was different pre BIOS update, which would suprise me.

 

I don't see the difference between disabled switchable gfx with discrete output enabled and disabled switchable gfx with discrete output disabled... they both should result in the same thing by your explanation shouldn't they?
If I disable switchable and disable discrete output it all works fine, even with an external monitor attached. This means that the Nvidia card is driving the external monitor which you say can't happen.

I can show you a screen shot of the laptop driving an ext monitor and the device manager showing no Intel video card present.

 

No. Discrete is your nvdia card. The thing you just described is disabling your nvidia card and running on intel graphics only.

I think you confuse something. The output in your case is refering to hdmi, vga, dvi or whatever port you have on you I/O not the actual eDP port which is connected to the internal screen.

If you disable optimus while forcing discrete graphics then it can only run on the nvidia card and since your intel gpu is connected to the eDP port while being disabled there will be a black screen. However if optimus is on, then intel handles the screen while nvidia handles the other things while sending the signals to the intel card so it can display it.

 

Your explanation is not quite right. The Precisions have a multiplexer installed that allows the internal display to be driven by either the Intel GPU or the NVIDIA GPU. If you disable graphics switching, the Intel GPU is disabled but the laptop display is driven solely by the NVIDIA GPU, as is the case in systems without Optimus/graphics switching. I can confirm this behavior with multiple Precision systems that I have used.

In other words, the internal display should *always* work no matter how you set up the BIOS settings.

 

I have Switchable Graphics disabled and I have Discrete Graphics Controller Direct Output mode disabled and I am running two monitors on the Nvidia card as seen in the screen shots. There is no Intel card present in the system as seen in the device manager and the Nvidia software is controlling resolution (which isn't possible when the Intel card is enabled) and you can see in the desktop right-click menu there is no Intel graphics properties available. See attached image.

 

This is exactly correct, the internal display should work in all configurations. My internal display does not work with Switchable disabled and Discrete Output mode enabled.

 

If this is the case then how is optimus working? I know of systems capable of running either intel or nvidia and being able to switch, however they cannot run both at the same time, meaning optimus shouln't be working. Can you link something so i can read up on this?