R400/T400/T500/W500: Switchable graphics - NEW issues with 8.752.4 video drivers - crashes on In

[ColonelONeill]

@RealStranger

Which driver version does it list in Device Manager? I've regressed to 8.752 again.

[mrthefter]

I understand that the "beta" tag is why your customer service has to report it as unsupported...

but these are core technologies that are going to be pushed out in under a few months. They aren't going to change, because they're being implemented properly. The root cause is in the outdated driver.

Both Microsoft and Mozilla will refuse to support any browser crashes that happen on this platform as long as the drivers are outdated or the relevant KB hotfixes are not installed. The fact that these KB have to be uninstalled for these specific driver versions is indicative of faulty drivers.

Worse yet, if the issue is not resolved by the time these browsers go official, Microsoft and Mozilla will be receiving a lot of flak for their browsers not performing up to par. While MS may have the manpower to respond to these, Mozilla's team is not as well equipped, and when either company responds, the blame is going to come back to Lenovo to update the drivers.

This will increase customer frustration and create further rifts between software companies and hardware vendors. Already, you see many complaints by users, testers, and developers alike about the sorry state of laptop driver support.

If engineering needs more proof that it's the drivers, I can direct them to this Mozilla bug report: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=590373

You can even see at the end of this bug report that Mozilla plans to blacklist computers with switchable graphics because the drivers aren't keeping up.

Final words:
I don't mean to come off as a hard-ass, but as I do FF4 testing, this really throws a wrench in my laptop use patterns. Can't rollback driver due to power-management issues, but can't stay on the current driver because I can't switch to the low-power card. I'm pretty much chained to a power outlet. I can only hope to see that engineering can provide the upgraded driver soon.

[ColonelONeill]

Yeah I've probably sent in a boatload of FF4 crash reports myself for that issue.

[RealStranger]

Hi,

my driver is listed to be version 8.812.0.0 from 1/4/2011. Works like a charm except that the CCC does not recognize the switchable graphics.

Greetz!
M.T.

[shinigami7th]

Mine works well, just that CCC doesn't recognize switchable, and it crashes during switching... I uninstalled CCC, and just rely on the Lenovo utilities for switching. So far no issues...

[JameZ]

@mrthefter,

Noted on your comment.

@jerhardt,

Am doing a full wipe of the T400 now. WIll update once its back up.

//JameZ

[jerhardt]

@JameZ

Any updates would be appreciated.  Thanks!

[JameZ · Accepted solution]

@jerhardt,

The status just show that the device is working properly and I do have 2 display card shown in the display area.

@All,

Engineering has commented that due to the fact that IE9 and FF4 are not supported as they are in beta stage. For those who are suffering from crashes, do uninstall the 3 KBs which came with the IE9 package. If crashes still happens after uninstalling those 3 KBs, do format your laptop with a Lenovo recovery media or a retail Win 7. Once it is done, do not installed IE9 or FF4.

//JameZ

[Edbert]

@JameZ,

And what happens when Microsoft rolls those updates out when IE9/Win 7 SP1 are released? Are we going to resurrect this thread again and wait a year until new drivers are released?

[jerhardt]

@JameZ

Thanks for the update. That is what I was suspecting.

So, Win7 x64 installed both default drivers (the ones included with the OS), correct?

My T500 is off getting it's 2nd motherboard - hoping for a better result this time.