W Series ThinkPad Laptops

[#1]

Hi,

Did a clean install Windows 7 Ultimate (64-bit) on my Thinkpad W500 (4062-3CG).

Having problem with "ThinkPad Switchable Graphics Driver for Windows 7".

ATI driver won't load, so default Intel chipset is used with poor graphics as a result.

I have also tried "Windows 7 BETA Drivers and Utilities" with no luck.

Yesterday the graphics worked for a short period of time, that was after remoting my Thinkpad with RDP? very strange. But after reboot graphics was back to non functional again.

Any ideas?

TIA

Johan

[#2]

Thanks for posting this...my W500 has the same issue and I have tried the same steps as you to fix it - no luck.  Looks like another Windows release that wasn't ready for prime time.  Come on Lenovo, theres no reason not to provide W500 users with a working video driver!  The cheap Lenovo G550s I bought for my daughters run Windows 7 just fine but no such luck with my $2000.00 W500 - pitiful.

[#3]

Odd, works fine on my W500. No issues whatsoever. Has your BIOS the graphics set to switchable?

[#4]

Works fine on mine, do the bios update

[#5]

Which BIOS version are you using?

[#6]

I finally got it to work...had to install the latest BIOS, reboot and select discrete graphics instead of switchable.  The display looks fine now and the video card is listed as a FireGL V5700.

[#7]

Did you apply Lenovo driver packages in any specific order? Don't really understand what I missed?

My plan was to do a "clean" W7/64 install and after that run ThinkVantage System Update 4.0 for latest drivers.

In my case ThinkVantage System Update 4.0 could not start without Access Help for Windows 7 installed, that was the first dependency problem.

However, after that ThinkVantage System Update 4.0 run successfully and everything works fine but the ThinkPad Switchable Graphics Driver for Windows 7.

The ThinkVantage System Update 4.0 applied latest updates for everything including the BIOS. When I try to run BIOS update separately for getting around the graphics problem it says BIOS version is OK and no update needed.

Tried to disable Switchable Graphics in BIOS-setup using Discrete but that does not fix my problem?

[#8]

I flashed the BIOS, then re-installed the Vista 64 driver for the ATI card, then rebooted and entered the BIOS and selected discrete graphics.  The system came up with the correct gaphics card installed.

Good Luck...

[#9]

Update...I have to enter the BIOS and select discrete graphics everytime I reboot.  It's kind of funny...billions of dollars were probably spent to produce the current laptops and operating systems that we use in 2009....and yet the same old driver issues from 1995 still plague us:-(

[#10]

My W500 (4062-4JU) works flawlessly with the bios set to switchable graphics. The W7 X64 OS does the rest ...