t400 switchable graphics resume from sleep problem Win7

[zhuge0859]

T400 running Windows 7 x64

I've noticed that when I'm using switchable graphics, and then sleep and resume my t400, the power usage becomes very high (15W+). A couple searches on the web suggested that both cards run after a resume. It seems to only happen in Windows 7, yet there are no resources as to a possible fix. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

[Colonel O'Neill]

I used to have this problem too... but somehow, the current set of drivers don't seem to have the same issue. Try completely uninstalling the switchable drivers, then use Lenovo System Update to grab the latest drivers. This seemed to remedy it on my machine.

[aeschylus]

Replying to the original poster, I've hard this exact same issues since I installed windows 7 on my t400. The only surefire method I've found to avoid the high power usage after resume is to disable switchable graphics in the bios. I'm going to attempt uninstalling switchable graphics and reinstalling with the latest drivers I will report here if the problem is solved.

[zhuge0859]

Thanks for the reply!
I did have the newest drivers already, but did try uninstall and reinstall yet the problem still persists. So far I have been using the BIOS to switch each card on and off, but its obviously not the ideal solution. O'Neill do you remember if you made any other changes? If you have it working there's still hope!

[Colonel O'Neill]

Actually... I think I was getting Standby confused with Hibernate; I'm still used to the Win98-era terminology.
So yeah... Both cards still power-on after resuming from standby. I can tell because TPFanControl starts reporting a temperature for GPU, which it only does when the ATI is powered on.

But I remedy this issue by using Power Manager to switch back and forth from Integrated -> Discrete -> Integrated, which powers off the ATI card.

[aeschylus]

The problem also persisted after I uninstalled my display drivers (I had already had the most up to date version) and reinstalled them using system update. The method Colonel O'Neill refers to is the only solution I know of that works without having to go into the bios. It is, of course, not ideal but it is better. There has been a thread in the official Lenovo T400/T500 forums since windows 7 came out that has pointed out this issue but Lenovo (or maybe Microsoft, ATI, or Intel) have not been very quick in trying to solve this issue.

[ryan1212]

This is not a fix, but since I do not use the AMD GPU, I just disabled switchable in BIOS and detection (After uninstalling the ATI Software) and I just solely use the intel. The power usage still stays low after a standby now, but I cannot use the ATI GPU at all.

[spf_player]

I have exactly the same problem on mt T400 2767-RE1, Win7 x64

with switchable graphics enabled, I always got both two graphics power on after resume from standby, which makes my keyboard hot. And I have to set to fixed intel graphics in BIOS to prevent the ATI power on.

does anyone have a solution?

[LegendaryKA8]

I have exactly the same problem on mt T400 2767-RE1, Win7 x64

with switchable graphics enabled, I always got both two graphics power on after resume from standby, which makes my keyboard hot. And I have to set to fixed intel graphics in BIOS to prevent the ATI power on.

does anyone have a solution?

Uninstall the current drivers on your system, then reinstall using the latest ones form Lenovo. There was a fix for this about a year ago, IIRC.

[aeschylus]

I suffered from this same problem for about a year or so after I installed windows 7 and I ended up just disabling the switchable graphics from the bios. Recently, I had to reinstall windows 7 due to an impending hard drive failure (less than 2 weeks ago). To my surprise, after I finished installing W7 and all of the drivers provided my thinkvantage update, switchable graphics worked as it had originally back when Vista was installed! I can now resume from sleep mode without both graphics adapters powering on. I understand a reinstallation of windows may not be preferable but it worked for me for what it's worth.