Unknown problem with graphics card

[Filip Becaver]

Hi, my problem started about 2-3 weeks ago. It was a normal day, everything worked normally. My laptop downloaded windows updates and requiered restart. I restarted it in the evening because i had nothing to do. But then, i ran a game, and after a few minutes, it started to lag. My fps dropped from 50 to 30. I checked the driver, and everything was set as it was supposed to. So i restarted laptop again. I ran the game, worked fine for a few minutes and then again. I thought, that it might be something wrong with updates, so i did a system restore to a point before the updates. No change, problem occured. I had really no idea what happend. I have a Lenovo ThinkPad E520 with two graphics cards, Intel HD Graphics 3000 and AMD HD Radeon 6630m. That AMD is 2gb. I was checking with lenovo toolbox for a problem. And i found out, that with the INTEL card, there was a line saying that it has 2gb, and no such thing was written with AMD card. So a thought crossed my mind, that what if, somehow, the amd card transfered those 2gb to that INTEL card. I dont know, and i really doubt that something like that is possible but it would make sense, because that intel card was stronger than before. For exampe, when i played CS:GO on intel card, i had around 30-40 fps. After this thing that happend, i had around 50. And with AMD i had around 30. Ofc, graphic in game looked worse with intel card. So i tried to reinstall my windows ( i have 7 -64 bit), but after installing the driver for 2 hours, i gave it up. I restored the system to the point before reinstalling. I dont think it has something to do with the graphic card itself, because when i restart the computer, everything works fine for a few minutes. But then FPS drops and it stays down until next restart. And its not only with games, also programs demanding better graphic card have a problem. So now i am not able to play any game, and cant properly use programs like Autocad. This problem happed for no reason really, all of a sudden, one minute everything works fine, and the other everything is screwed up. I have no idea what to do, so i will appreciate every advice. Im really desperate, please someone help me. I have all drivers up to date. And im not very good in computer terminology so please respect that and write like i was a noob and knew nothing about computers.
My specs: Intel Core i5-2430M 2,40 GHz
Ram: 8 GB
Windows: windows 7 home premium 64 bit
Graphics cards: Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD HD Radeon 6630m

 

[1LiquidPC]

I'm hopeful that's it just a software problem. A complete re-install of Windows should be able to answer this problem once and for all. I'll keep checking back here for your reply.

 

[Filip Becaver]

After a long time i'm posting here again. I was lazy and afraid to do windows fresh reinstall because i didn't want to lose all of my files. Yesterday i wanted to install Windows 10. I was hoping that this would solve my problem. Unfortunetely, it didn't. I tried every option there was but with no results. I even did a clean fresh reinstall, so i would start with a clean pc, without any files. That didn't help either. I've been messing with it the whole day today, but nothing. I'm really pissed, i have no idea what to do. I think that there are only 2 options left, what could be wrong.
1. option: for some reason, those two graphic cards decided to not to cooperate with each other anymore. So i have an idea, that if i uninstalled Intel driver, and then installed AMD driver, it might work. It's unlikely i know, but there is really nothing else i could try.
2. option: AMD card itself is damaged, somehow, and whenever i try to install any driver, the data just can't get through and stick on the card or something. I know it sounds crazy and that it doesn't make any sense, but these are the only 2 things i can think off that may be the problem.
I thought that it wasn't working because there were some corrupted files or something, and that after complete windows reinstall it should work, but it just doesn't.

 

[1LiquidPC]

It's been awhile since last posting on here. Could you perhaps go over the problem again. Since Windows didn't change anything, it's unlikely software. What are yours temps like? Fan speed good for CPU?

 

[Filip Becaver]

The problem is, that one day i got BSOD while playing. Since then, i can't install any AMD driver, because i always get BSOD either while installing or after restart. Fan speed is slower, not that hot air coming out and it's quiter. The temp is around 55°C, sometimes 60. One other strange thing happend though. Before, when i right-clicked on desktop, there was an option to open AMD catalyst center, but whenever i clicked on it, a little error box showed up saying that there is no amd graphic card available or something like that. Yesterday, after i finally got in to win10, when i clicked that catalyst control center option, it did open up. There was nothing in there, but it opened up. So i tried to uninstall it properly, then install newest driver again - got bsod. So i recovered the system to an earlier point, but when i click catalyst control center now, it doesn't do anything.

 

[Filip Becaver]

That temp 55-60 is while not playing or doing much. When the fan speeds up, the temp is around 80.

 

[1LiquidPC]

It's starting to sound like the AMD card may be bad. It's BSODing when you try to install drivers for it. Are there any BIOS options to force AMD as primary graphics output?, or was there a setting used to switch from AMD to Intel before when gaming?

 

[Filip Becaver]

No, there is no option in BIOS to force any of the cards as primary. There is only option whether to use switchable graphics or not, which i don't really understand because when i tried to enable/disable it, nothing happend. And yes, when i had older AMD driver, long ago, i had an option in catalyst control center to switch between those two graphics. After incorrectly installed new driver, i was unable to switch graphics by myself, and some games were using INTEL, like CS:GO, and it was just unplayable. After correctly installing that same driver, i was able to choose graphics directly for each app. Since the Intel card is pretty useless and it's only good for saving the battery life when unplugged, i was primary using AMD.

 

[1LiquidPC]

Any ideas as to the version of AMD Catalyst drivers you were using?

 

[Filip Becaver]

It was before the Omega driver, which was 14.12 i believe, so those working drivers were 14.something, don't remember the correct number. And i was actually using that Omega driver and it worked fine until it f***** up.

 

[1LiquidPC]

You could try sites like this http/www.oldapps.com/ati.php?system=Windows_7 to try older drivers than omega. If these don't work, and temps are fine, it could be a hardware problem. Doesn't seem like software after multiple windows installs using same drivers for other notebook components.

 

[Filip Becaver]

Will these drivers work on win10?

 

[Filip Becaver]

So i tried one of those older drivers, but no luck. Looks like it's a hardware problem. Guess i should take to servis and let them take a look at it.

 

[1LiquidPC]

It may have come to that, it just doesn't seem to want to recognize the AMD card anymore.

 

[Filip Becaver]

Hi guys, i was thinking about this problem of mine today, and i came up with an idea what might be actually happening, though no idea why or how. So, as you all know, i have two graphics cards in my lap. AMD and Intel. I can't install any driver for AMD card for some reason, but it is visible in device manager, like it was partly installed or what. But since using it causes BSOD, i have it forbidden, so i'm only using Intel. Now, that Intel card is considerably worse than AMD. Now comes the strange thing. When AMD was working properly, i could play Fifa 14 on certain settings on 120 fps. If i switched to Intel, i wouldn't get even 60. So , technically, when i have AMD disabled now and only using Intel, i shouldn't be able to play anything smoothly. But, when i play a game, it runs like this: every minute or so i get fps drop. For example: before, i was able to play fifa 14 on 120 fps the whole time while playing. Now, i play on 120fps, but every minute it drops on less than 50. What i'm trying to say, is that i can play games with the same fps like before, when the AMD was working properly, only now i get fps drop every minute, in any game. And this brought me to this idea - that AMD card is working, but not on 100%. So, whenever i play a game, it switches between AMD and Intel that every minute - which means, that when i have those 120 fps for example, that's the time when the AMD is on. And when i get fps drop, Intel is on. I know it sounds insane, and i don't think it's possible, but if you think about it, it kinda makes sense. Because if only Intel was working, i wouldn't get fps drops. I would constantly have low fps, because that Intel card is just for power saving, when laptop is unplugged.

 

[mauxie]

have you checked to see how much ram u r using before and then while gaming?
have you checked in task manager to see what processes are there that might
not have been there before the update? much that you are describing can be
malware. run some boilerplate diagnostics. malwarebytes?

 

[Filip Becaver]

I don't know if you read the whole thread, i did a factory install of win 10, so there was nothing installed, no programes, documents, nothing and it didn't work so i don't think it's a malware. I haven't checked ram, but i will next time i will be playing. As for the processes, like i mentioned, i did a fresh windows install, factory settings so i don't think that any basic windows processes might be doing this. And about thse boilerplate diagnostics, i have no idea what that is so you could describe it or maybe a link if it's done by a programe or something.

 

[mauxie]

I don't know if you read the whole thread, i did a factory install of win 10, so there was nothing installed, no programes, documents, nothing and it didn't work so i don't think it's a malware. I haven't checked ram, but i will next time i will be playing. As for the processes, like i mentioned, i did a fresh windows install, factory settings so i don't think that any basic windows processes might be doing this. And about thse boilerplate diagnostics, i have no idea what that is so you could describe it or maybe a link if it's done by a programe or something.

imho windows is not above providing bloatware. so the assertion that it cannot be system
isn't particularly valid. for example I have seen many laptops choke on windows media center.
as for boilerplate diagnostics, I did say malwarebytes.

https/www.malwarebytes.org/

also, it's good to check what services are running
start>run services.msc

again check startup configuration
start>run msconfig.exe

examine as many configuration permutations as possible.

 

[Filip Becaver]

I don't know if you read the whole thread, i did a factory install of win 10, so there was nothing installed, no programes, documents, nothing and it didn't work so i don't think it's a malware. I haven't checked ram, but i will next time i will be playing. As for the processes, like i mentioned, i did a fresh windows install, factory settings so i don't think that any basic windows processes might be doing this. And about thse boilerplate diagnostics, i have no idea what that is so you could describe it or maybe a link if it's done by a programe or something.

imho windows is not above providing bloatware. so the assertion that it cannot be system
isn't particularly valid. for example I have seen many laptops choke on windows media center.
as for boilerplate diagnostics, I did say malwarebytes.

https/www.malwarebytes.org/

also, it's good to check what services are running
start>run services.msc

again check startup configuration
start>run msconfig.exe

examine as many configuration permutations as possible.

So i did malware check, there were 10 threats, i deleted them all. I also checked services, and i found something. There is a service called Hyper-V Remote Desktop Virtualization Service. Its description says: ''Provides a platform for communication between the virtual machine and the operating system running on the physical computer.'' It's not running though.
I also checked startup config, but there is nothing suspicious.

 

[mauxie]

the point of checking msconfig is to determine the ram burden on startup.
basically by the time you are using 50% of available ram most people
will notice performance issues. another possible cause of system
stutter is a service called superfetch. this service has an ai function
that loads process into unused memory based on your usage of
the computer(smart aleck secretary). if your hard drive is defragged,
the secretary will load stuff constantly and there is no interrupt for
a hardware read. the drive controller only returns control to the nt
kernel when the drive encounters an eor(end of record) or an
eof(end of file). to check for interference from superfetch
open services.msc, start your game, if you have performance
issues pause the game, go to services and click on superfetch.
when the individual service gui comes up click on stop and then
check game performance.

 

[Filip Becaver]

I don't have superfetch in my services.