Thinkpads Forum

I have a newish T530 with the dual GPU's - an Intel HD Graphics 4000 GPU as well as an NVIDIA NVS5400M GPU.

Apparently, the Intel 4000 handles the laptop's LCD while the additional NVIDIA NVS5400M is in charge of the DisplayPort. I have the DisplayPort cabled to my Sharp LCD TV. My goal was to clone the laptop's LCD to the TV for watching video. Seems simple enough..

All is working well as far as cloning the laptop's LCD onto the TV through the DisplayPort, except for playing commercial DVDs through WinDVD. I can get the picture to display on either the laptop's LCD or the TV, but not both. It seems that by jockeying (through NVIDA Control Panel) which screen is considered primary and which screen is considered clone as to which screen will display the DVD content. The "primary LCD" displays the DVD content while the "clone LCD" just shows a blank where the DVD content would be.

I for years played DVDs through my old A31P cabled to the same TV through the s-video port. The A31P had an ATI FireGL GPU and you could set the overlay parameters to something AMD called "theatre mode" which resolved everything and displayed the WinDVD content on both screens with no problem.

But now, it seems like the T530 has two GPU's controlling the LCD or DP individually and aren't co-operating. Anyone have any idea how to set this, so I can play the WinDVD content on both screens at the same time? Just for info, I am using old WinDVD 5.0 running in Compatability mode (XP) on Windows 7, yet I don't think the operating system or the application is causing the problem... I believe that WinDVD is using DirectX to render the videos, but I don't know a lot more than that.

I am actually having other problems with the dual GPU's. Each one has it's own power scheme in it's interface program: NVIDIA Control Panel and Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel, as well as something called nView Desktop Manager (NVIDIA also) - in addition to the Lenovo Power Manager 6 and Windows 7 itself.

I guess the idea was to let the Intel GPU handle the laptop screen for battery conservation, and only bring the NVIDIA GPU into the picture when the DisplayPort is being used - but I seem to be having sleep problems involving the two GPU's waking up. I am not sure how to set the power mode options between all these interfaces trying to be in control at the same time.

I used to just set the Lenovo Power Manager and let it control everything, but that approach doesn't seem to be working in this case. for instance, when watching streaming videos with the Lenovo Power Manager settings for "turn off display to save power" set to never - the laptop's LCD still blacks out every hour or so right in the middle of playing a video. On my former thinkpads, the activity of a playing video was enough to prevent the screen from blacking out - I am not sure why this is happening.

I am also getting occasional blue screen errors somehow pointing to the NVIDIA NVS5400M with relation to waking up from a sleep state (BSOD system error 9F), even though I have installed the drivers both from Lenovo and the NVIDIA website.

I have not been crazy about this new thinkpad compared to others (my trusty T500 and beloved A31's) I have owned in the past. I am faulting the dual GPU's as a large part of my frustration. It does not seem possible to turn either of the GPU's off and let the other one handle both of the screen functions (the laptop LCD as well as the DP).

I think now months later I have resolved this problem. I had been under the impression that the configuration I was using was how it was. The NVIDIA Control Panel would show the laptop display being controlled by the Intel HD Graphics 4000, while the DisplayPort would show as being controlled by the NVIDIA NVS5400M.

I was having many issues with BSOD power state errors, intermittant screen black-outs, and inability to watch DVDs on both screens simultaneously.

I started monkeying around with the BIOS settings: CONFIG - Graphics Device. There are three choices listed: (mine was set to 3 before I changed it.)

1. Integrated Graphics mode will achieve longer battery life.
2. Discrete Graphics mode will achieve higher graphics performance.
3. NVIDIA Optimus mode runs as Integrated Graphics mode and Discrete Graphics is enabled on demand. NOTE: NVIDIA Optimus mode should not be used if using Windows XP.

I changed it to 2: Discrete Graphics mode. This seemed to resolve the issue where the laptop screen would wake up from sleep for a few seconds only to black out again for a few seconds and re-appear. I think what was happening was that the NVIDIA Optimus mode had to take a few seconds to figure out what the power state of each of the gpu's were. The change did not resolve other problems.

I changed the BIOS to 1: Integrated Graphics mode. This option totally shuts down the NVIDIA NVS5400M, so there is no ability for a second display at all. The DisplayPort is inoperable and the NVIDIA Control Panel will not launch.

I went back and changed the BIOS back to 2: Discrete Graphics mode for a second time. This time, the NVIDIA Control Panel shows both the laptop display and the DisplayPort display as being under control of the NVIDIA NVS5400M. Suddenly, many issues are resolved. DVD's show up on both displays simultaneously, issues I was having with displays blacking out every 20 minutes while watching video went away.

I am thinking that the split configuration I had initially with two displays each under control of a different GPU was not normal. I do not know how it got that way, but it was causing a whole bunch of issues. I found like ZERO documentation on this problem anywhere. Maybe this will help someone else. To think, I had to change the BIOS three times and shut down the NVIDIA NVS5400M completely (with option 1) for the configuration to correct itself.

Even more on this topic. I ended up re-booting for an unrelated reason and found my display adapter configuration return back to the split scenario with the Intel HD 4000 in charge of the laptop display and the NVIDIA NVS5400M in charge of the display port. I was surprised to see my configuration return back to the undesired configuration that was causing me so many problems.

It turns out there is also a secondary setting within BIOS Config-Graphics Device, right beneath the three choices for the graphics mode I had mentioned before. The setting is called OS Detection for NVIDIA Optimus and it says "If Enabled, System BIOS automatically switches Graphics device setting to NVIDIA Optimus Mode if the OS supports this feaure, and to Discrete Graphics mode if the OS does not support it".

So, my secondary setting had been ENABLED, resulting in my request for Discrete Graphics mode (#2 above) being changed automatically back to NVIDIA Optimus Mode (#3 above) each time I re-boot. I changed this setting to DISABLED, changed the mode back to Discrete Graphics (#2) and have re-booted a few times. It looks like it should stay in Discrete Graphics mode for good, I am hoping.

Just playing around with this BIOS setting a little, I can boil it down to this:

If Integrated Graphics mode is chosen, only the Intel HD4000 gpu is active in Device Manager, the NVIDIA gpu is completely de-activated. With this mode, there is no ability for a second display at all. I suppose the idea here is that you are completely running on battery power and wouldn't have any secondary displays attached anyway.

If Discrete Graphics mode is chosen, only the NVIDIA NVS5400M gpu is active in Device Manager, the Intel HD4000 gpu is completely de-activated. With this mode, there is an ability to have a second display via the Display Port, and the NVIDIA gpu takes charge of both the primary and secondary displays. While it may be the most power consumptive, it works the best for actually viewing video.

If NVIDIA Optimus mode is chosen, both the Intel HD4000 gpu and the NVIDIA NVS5400M gpu are active in device manager. With this mode, each gpu takes charge of one of the displays and must try and communicate with each other with regard to video rules and power consumption (I have found it to be buggy). Also, the switch setting mentioned above indicate that this is the default setting unless you specifically tell it not to be. I add that with the split "double gpu" arrangement, there is a separate control panel that must be manipulated for each of the gpu's. It is very confusing.

I am mostly happy to finally understand what had been happening and it appears that by me putting the T530 into Discrete Graphics mode with both displays being controlled by only one graphics processor, that multiple power state errors, random screen black-outs, and inability to view DVDs correctly were finally corrected after months of mystery. This seems to be a very little documented problem, as I have been searching for the answer for months...
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