How to enable switchable graphics after clean reload of Vista

I have installed Vista x64 on my t400 and installed the ATI and Intel drivers from the swtools directory. I then went to the website for lenovo and downloaded the power manager software and installed it but I cannot seem to find the option to swap graphic adapters. Does anyone have any ideas why? Thanks

 

Well I just logged on to post this, however, I have the powermanager software installed but when I select the option to switch, nothing happens. I get the dialog box saying some programs might have problems with this, yada yada, but after I hit OK, nothing happens, no 2 seconds of black and no switch.

The option is in the left-click menu, at the bottom. Left-click on the little black power plug in the system tray (not the windows plug, the lenovo plug). It should say switchable graphics. Then select Energy Saving or High Performance. Please let me know if they do indeed switch for you. I installed the Intel, ATI, and Powermanager drivers/program but I can't switch.

I did a clean install of Vista x64 as well.

I installed:

Intel Graphics
Powermanager
ATI (only way to get vista to see ATI was to go into bios and select discrete only, then switback back to 'switchable' after installing the Catalyst drivers).

With this sequence, the cards work individually, but are not switchable in windows, only in the BIOS.

 

what is the purpose of clean reload of vista? for deleting unnecessary softwares? If so, do you have to reinstall the vista or there is an easy way to do it? thanks,

 

For me I could get a 64 bit OS for less then the lenovo upgrade price (MSDN Subscription) so I opted for the lowest Vista available and just upgraded my system when it showed up. (4 GB of memory so 64 bit was needed)

As far as why other people reload, normally its to strip away the junk installed from the factory, this is my first Lenovo and in general it seems their extra stuff loaded was pretty minimal

 

Had any luck? I'm going back and trying to reinstall the 2 drivers and powermanager in varying sequences and bios settings but no luck so far

 

Not a specific answer, but usually if you try to right-click on a shortcut and "run as admin", a lot of Vista mysterious will be solved.

 

BTW, even if you are an admin type user, you are not an admin as far as Vista security is concerned. You can rename "Administrator" account to your likings and be a "true" admin with many potential risks though.

 

Ok, I think I got it. Just tested and it seems to work. Now I've installed and uninstalled all of these so many times on this build (install) of Vista that I'm going to wipe and start over to confirm but here goes....

Reboot after EACH of these steps....

1. Go into BIOS, set Display to Discrete and the OS discoverable option to disabled.
2. Install Vista
3. Install SP1
4. Install Intel Chipset drivers
5. Install Intel Matrix Storage Manager
6. Install ACPI driver
7. Install Lenovo Power Manager
8. Install ATI, Reboot twice
9. Go into BIOS, change from Discrete to Integrated, leave OS Discoverable option disabled
10. Install Intel Graphics Driver, Reboot twice
11. Go into BIOS, change from Integrated to Switchable, change OS Discoverable to Enabled.
12. Boot into Vista and try switching GPUs with Power Manager (left-click on the little black Lenovo Plug in the system tray). Your screen should flicker black and the graphics card programs in the system tray should switch (from the blue INTEL box to the red ATI box, or vice versa).

Starting over now with fresh install to confirm these steps work...

 

Thanks, but this sounds like a nightmare. What’s with all the rebooting twice too?

 

Thanks janko10, I am @ work right now and left the laptop @ home to avoid temptation of playing with it I will try your suggestion as soon as I get home and post back

 

I think reboot twice because:
ATI Driver Install
Reboot (#1)
Let ATI Driver finish installing/setting up
Reboot(#2)
Go to BIOS

 

Correct. Some of the driver installs require 2 reboots. I'm finishing testing now. I also added the Lenovo System Inferface Driver but I can't confirm if this is necessary or not.

 

Ok, I'm going to make some revisions to this and post a new thread. You do NOT need to separately install the Intel graphics driver (it's a separate step, but not a separate driver. It's integrated with the ATI driver. When you look at the Intel card in device manager, it's powered by an ATI driver, not a Intel one. The Intel driver on the Lenovo webpage is ONLY for the T400's that only have integrated graphics, no discrete).

 

Thats good news, thanks for helping out...I am sure alot of people are having a hard time figuring this out. I know I will when I get mine next week

 

I think what really screwed me up the first time was trying to install the Intel dedicated graphics driver first. You may not need so many steps, I'm gonna post a reworked guide and if someone can try and it and see if it works (it should) it should have fewer steps.