U330 Switchable Graphics Crash

[jfowers]

My IdeaPad U330 boots into integrated graphics mode and whenever I attempt to switch to dedicated graphics the screen goes black and the hard drive light goes on. After a couple minutes the hard drive light goes off but the screen never comes back and there is no way to get the computer working again without completely rebooting it. Keyboard and mouse input appear to work, there just isn't a picture on the screen. After the computer reboots it is in integrated mode again. I tried running the OneKey support utility and while it ran and found "problems with the operating" system, it supposedly fixed them without any impact on graphics switching, good or bad. How do I get this fixed?

[skripatch]

You can hardly assign ATI adapter to be used from BIOS.

[adrianc06]

I have also experience this problem, I used to resolve it by pressing the power button then my computer would go into sleep mode, then press it again and it would work.  By any chance did you run ccleaner because I did and then after I started having problems.  I completly got rid of the problem by reformating my computer to when i first purchased my computer. hope this helps

[Calavera]

I've had the same issue recently.

I don't know how or why it happened, but Vista would no longer switch over to ATI. "Power-saving GPU" would turn off but the "High-performance GPU" would fail to take over, and the screen would remain black.

I tried the sleep-wake up routine, but nothing happened. The system was otherwise running, since I could invoke the command line (tap Windows key -type "cmd") and initiate a shutdown (type "shutdown /f /s").

I then downloaded the "secondary display adapter driver" from Lenovo support (link: http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_282.html ). It did not work, probably because I was installing it in "Power-saving GPU" mode.

So I tried to see what's what, and installed Live Mesh (www.mesh.com, free) which can do the remote desktop thing. Then switched over to ATI, screen went black, accessed the U330 through other Mesh'ed computer, and got to the desktop. I could now see the U330 desktop had the not-too-helpful error message "ATI External Event Utility EXE module stopped working and was closed".

Restarted the U330, uninstalled Mesh, restarted again, went to BIOS and disabled the "switchable graphics". Vista was now forced to boot with ATI.

But it didn't, apparently the driver had went south somewhere. I installed the Lenovo ATI driver again. Restarted, checked ATI was working normally (it was), restarted again, re-enabled switchable graphics in BIOS, and voila! It works again!

In the event somebody has the same issue I'll post my solution here:

- Download the driver at http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_282.html .
- Restart.
- Go into BIOS settings upon power-up (press F2).
- Go into "Advanced" tab, switch "Graphics Device" to "Discrete Graphics". Hit F10 to "Save and Exit"
- Boot into Vista.
- Install the driver.
- Restart
- Wait for Vista to come up, check ATI driver is working.
- Restart
- Go back into BIOS. You know the drill. Re-enable "Switchable Graphics". Hit F10.