Could someone please explain to me the switchable graphics

[Wendy]

now that I've updated all my utilities for Windows 7. In the readme file for the switchable graphics driver for RTM, it states to switch between high performance and energy savings mode, left click the battery gauge and a popup window will open. Mouse over "switchable graphics" There is NO switchable graphics selection...it says power options. Is my understanding correct that there really is no "switchable graphics" any more and that every thing is now controlled by the power manager? Or am I just crazy

[bobones]

Right click on the Lenovo Power Manager battery gauge and there should be a menu option for switchable graphics. If there isn't or it doesn't work, make sure it is enabled in the BIOS and that you have all the latest Windows 7 drivers for System Interface, Hotkeys, Power Management Driver, Power Manager and Switchable Graphics.

[Wendy]

Right click on the Lenovo Power Manager battery gauge and there should be a menu option for switchable graphics. If there isn't or it doesn't work, make sure it is enabled in the BIOS and that you have all the latest Windows 7 drivers for System Interface, Hotkeys, Power Management Driver, Power Manager and Switchable Graphics.

I do...all of the above...and it doesn't which prompted my question....yes to bios...recently upgraded that, installed Thinkvantage update 4.0 for Win7 let it update everything possible, downloaded latest switchable graphics driver which in reality installed the ATI software again and it doesn't say "switchable graphics". It will switch between high performance, balanced and power saver, supposedly, but it doesn't say "switchable" only "more power options"...and its a left mouse click to bring up the context menu. Right click gives only Power Options, Mobility Center and turn off system icons.....picture below:

[cppcompiler]

I had a similar experience, but it's now fixed for me. Let me explain:

Thinkpad T400 Vista Basic. Did a clean install of windows 7 Home Premium, installed System Update 4, it downloaded & installed a bunch of updates. At this point, I was still running on the Intel graphics. And like you, at this point, I did NOT have the "switchable graphics" option in Power Manager's battery icon.

Couple nights later, ran System Update 4 again, this time, the switchanble graphics drivers showed up. Install, reboot, etc... and now my system is pretty much back to a fully working state like how it was on Vista. And yes, the "Switchable graphics" option magically showed up for Power Manager.

Thing to note: At no point did I ever manually download/install any driver. System Update 4.0 did all the work.

HTH

[Wendy]

It never occurred to me to run System Update multiple times. I guess I thought that all the updates would install the first time around since it didn't prompt me to reboot more than once. Went through System Update again and it prompted me to reboot twice and as you can see from the screen shot, it installed a multitude of updates. Looks like it installed the power management driver last night and then the power manager app this time...and I do have the switchable graphics option.
Thanks for the hint. Looks like all is well now.

[Colonel O'Neill]

System Update 4 didn't get a bunch of updates I thought it would have picked up, although I think the program gets confused if it looks like there is the driver installed already (especially for those who had installed the earlier versions of the switchable driver files I think). It never offered to install any graphics driver, even when I completely uninstalled all of the existing ATI driver stuff.

I also had to run System Update once or twice, although the only new updates were for Active Protection System, Wifi, but no graphics stuff.

Also, does anyone notice that OpenGL doesn't work on the integrated card? For example, the Really Slick Screensavers presents a LoadLibrary error.

[Wendy]

Is your bios up to date? That's all I can think might be different. I updated mine to 3.01

[Colonel O'Neill]

Yep, I upgraded to the October 16, 2009 BIOS, which says 3.09/3.10.

I'm thinking that completely reinstalling and starting with proper RTM drivers would reduce a lot of headaches...