"That's one small step
for man, a giant leap for mankind" - Neil Armstrong
The above sentence
sums up the basis of the hundreds of forums and communities dedicated to
resolving computer problems every day. How many days have passed since you find
yourself searching the internet for another geeky solution?
Computers now run
everything from mobiles to cars to rockets. It is natural nowadays to look for
quick solutions. The internet is your friend. While the dreaded visit to your
repair technician is a fallback. The objective of this post is to support the community.
This is my contribution for the hundreds of times I have received help from the
geeks.
There are few
credible laptop manufacturers who can seal a deal with the corporates. With
this thousands of employees worldwide are stuck with one manufacturer. One they
have to endure the rest of their lives in that corporate. I too face the same
issue and it is only luck on which I can depend on.
Recently I faced the
issue of the well-known switchable graphics card issue. I had the integrated
Intel graphics card and the dedicated Nvidia vying (or not) for my attention.
Guess who won every time? I have no grudges with Intel, as it is definitely a decent
graphics card. However, by no means should it play the bully and lock me and
Nvidia out while running the PC. Not one to give up, I traced and tried many
available solutions on the Internet and finally managed to resolve my problem.
I am putting it up here as a trial method for anyone facing this problem and are at
their wits end. Hope it helps.
Prerequisites: You have one or more integrated
graphic cards and at least one dedicated graphics card (installed separately
either by you or the manufacturer but definitely not part of the motherboard).
How to Check: Open
device manager and under the node of display drivers.
Issue: The laptop (DELL, LENOVO, HP etc.) uses
the integrated graphics card for -
- Desktop / Monitors
- Games
- Other programs having high graphics requirements
How to check: Simply
put, there is a lag while playing your games and using the high graphics
programs including your windows tasks.
Easy quick fixes: Before you actually press the
panic button, try out the below quick fixes.
- Uninstall the device drivers for your integrated and dedicated graphics cards and install them again. The dedicated graphics card drivers must be installed the last
- Update the device drivers for both the integrated and dedicated graphics cards to the latest ones (Check official websites of your graphics card and download it from there. Get model number from device manager)
- For dedicated graphics cards like Nvidia, use it's utility to assign all graphics hungry programs and dwm.exe (desktop windows manager) to use the dedicated graphics card
Do not disable the integrated graphics cards
anytime. There might be many programs it is running and will play havoc with
your laptop if you disable it before your issue is fixed, e.g.: blackout of
laptop screen, weird display resolutions etc.
Last resort: If the quick fixes do not work,
then you have only one try left. Do this at your own risk and research to
understand what you are actually doing.
- Restart your computer and enter the BIOS setup (usually by repeatedly pressing F1 or F5 or F12 keys depending on your manufacturer. You will see this info while the laptop starts up)
- Navigate to the graphics node (if you see one) or look for the Graphics option
- Disable the switchable graphics option if it is enabled
- Save and exit BIOS configuration
- Restart your laptop once more to be 100% sure of the changes made
You should now see
less or no lag for your games and desktop depending on the power of your
dedicated graphics card.
