M18X R1 upgraded to 7970M from 6990M but now cannot switch to integrated graphics

fn+f7 no longer switches graphics mode. I am stuck with discrete graphics. I use the integrated graphics for battery life during work. when pressing fn+f7 it will give the msg of "binary GFX key press detected" and if I select yes it will power cycle the computer but will not switch to integrated graphics.

the 6990M cards died about 6 months ago and I ordered a 7970M from ebay. the 7970M card is detected in bios and works. it runs games much faster than the 6990M. it is the blue-colored card so I know that it should be a real card and not some hack off someone.

I am on the stock mobo bios A05.

I also upgraded the cpu to the 2920XM and a pair of ssd's in raid 1. the laptop is as fast as it can be now and I really appreciate the speed. everything flies. but the switchable graphics issue got me by surprise as I have an oem battery on the way to replace the original dead one. when I upgraded the cpu to the xm series I was on integrated graphics (because the gpu's were dead) so I know it is not a cpu issue. the cpu is oem and not the engineering sample.

also, besides the switchable graphics problem, the computer now will not wake up from sleep. it will turn on to a blank screen and have to hard boot it back online. if this is because of 7970M it is not a big deal but just curious.

 

M18x R1 uses fixed switching scheme, since it came with 6990M. AMD has since done away with that, and gone to dynamic switching aka enduro. It won't work with fn-f7 any longer the way it used to. You can flash unlocked A05 and switch your GPU to igfx if you need intel to save power, otherwise leave it on PEG.

From what I remember the M18x R1 did this even with the 6990M for me.....incompatibility with newer AMD drivers since they now use dynamic scheme power management and breaks compatibility with S3/S4/S5 resume function in the BIOS. Not fixable except for switching to an Nvidia card I'm afraid. I do have a spare 680M if you want to return the 7970M and go that route.

 

thanks for the clarification. reason I went with 7970M was because I thought it was plug and play without having to mod dpu drivers or bios mods. I would be willing to do the Ao5 unlocked bios but cannot seem to find it freely without making more forum accounts.

 

can you send me the unlocked bios?

 

Think I had to go to techinferno since they dont want it posted on other forums, you cant find it on here. i ended up having to pay a few bucks for the premium membership to skip the post limit part. worth it though.

 

what is the post limit count?

 

I can confirm that the unlock A05 bios works perfectly for 7970M. to switch to integrated graphics go under the advanced menu and under the vide > PEG switch it to igfx for integrated. system will reboot and once in windows then you can press fn+f7 to switch back to discrete graphics. It is switching from discrete back to the integrated that requires going into the bios itself.