AMD Catalyst drivers just not working

[sordup]

Not sure where to begin. It has been a solid week of trying to figure this out with no success. This will be long and specific for someone with patience!

I am on a Windows 7, 64bit HP Envy 15 Laptop with onboard Intel graphics and a second AMD Radeon HD7690M GPU for high performance graphics (also came with the laptop). I cannot get this AMD card to work at all.
The scenario that lead to my current situation is somewhat thus:
I just obtained a large, flat panel Samsung monitor/HDMI TV screen that I hooked up to the laptop along with a USB mouse and keyboard to use "desktop" fashion. At first, no issues. Both screens worked from the get go. I set the laptop to "do nothing" when the lid was closed (its screen turned off, of course) and I maintained connection on the big screen and tucked the laptop under the desk and used my machine with the big screen and remote keyboard/mouse.
Eventually, though, after playing with some settings in CCC as well as the Intel graphics settings (I was unaware until just after this point that I even had two graphics cards) I could no longer get an image on the laptop screen, with or without the HDMI monitor connected. I tried putting the settings back to the way they were but with no success. Big screen yes; laptop screen, no.
This began a long spiral of graphics discovery and issues. I:

- downloaded the AMD system monitor and discovered my graphics intense 3D and Open GL programs weren't even using the AMD card (i.e. the AMD Radeon usage in the monitor always showed 0%), despite setting them for "High Performance" in CCC.

- set the "Switchable Graphics" setting in my BIOS to "Fixed" in order to overcome the above. This disabled both screens! I set it back.

- attempted to update my Catalyst driver package several times, using the
AMD uninstall utility between every time and had different issues with the install. First, the "Autodetect" function on the AMD site shows my card as a HD6xxx series. It is not. If I choose it to download, it says "ATI Catalyst Mobility cannot be downloaded due to incompatible hardware", etc.
If I manually download the correct Catalyst package it has variously installed with errors - a couple times failing the "Microsoft Visual C++" install, once failing the graphic driver install saying the .inf file could not be found.
Although these installs ultimately "installed" the driver and CCC (eventually), I could still not get any indication that the AMD card was being used, nor could I get my primary display (laptop screen) working again. In attempts to do this, I found no entries in the CCC for managing multiple displays (in the "Desktop management" tab, I believe) as mentioned online and in the Help regarding same. The entries just weren't there.

- I updated the driver on my Intel graphics from Intel then got a message from Catalyst saying I needed to update my AMD card. I made more attempts like above. Still no laptop screen. All AMD update downloads were from the AMD site. All installs done with security software off.

- I updated my BIOS from HP. Nothing fixed.

- I uninstalled AMD again and then installed the BETA driver. Nothing. But this time, after I uninstalled with the utility, I got my laptop screen back!

It is this state that I am in currently. Both screens working, thankfully, but no AMD drivers installed and therefor no use of that card - which I would very much like to have for 3D and video apps and for this new big screen, not to mention - it should work: it came with the damn machine!

Needless to say - What do I do now!!!

You are VERY appreciated if you have read all this and more so for any response!

 

[Martell1977]

Have you tried getting the driver from HP?
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/drivers.html

Switchable graphics are sometimes limited to the vendor custom driver. Try HP's and although it may seem outdated, it may be your only option.

 

[sordup]

Have you tried getting the driver from HP?
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/drivers.html

Switchable graphics are sometimes limited to the vendor custom driver. Try HP's and although it may seem outdated, it may be your only option.

OK. Well, I did this (installed drivers from HP). During installation there was an exclamation mark triangle stating "Current Version not Installed" (of course - that's why I was installing it!). Then after, there were errors reporting "Application Install: install package failure" for Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable. Drivers and CCC installed, though. I also noticed that this install "rolled back" my Intel HD Graphics driver to a vers. 8.882.2.3000 which is older than the updated driver I had installed directly from Intel. The AMD Radeon driver ALSO now reads as vers.8.882.2.3000! I find this very strange: two separate drivers from two different companies with the same version # ?!
However, both monitors now work, and I was able to go into the BIOS setup and choose "Fixed" for the Switchable Graphics setting. That appears to have worked.
This is all good. I do wonder, though, why I don't have any options in CCC for configuring multiple monitors (or ANY monitor configs for that matter). There is no "creating and arranging desktops" option, for example, nor do I see other tabs that are mentioned by others using CCC and a very similar setup to mine. I do have these options with the Intel Graphics Control Panel and they all have an effect when changed, even though I am now in "Fixed" mode and should be only using the AMD Radeon card while plugged in.
For sure there is much that I don't understand here, and I would love to be educated on it. I am glad that things seem to be working, though...

 

[Martell1977]

The version number is the same because they are both part of the same custom driver package. Sadly, unless things change, you will have to only check the HP site for GPU driver updates, and they don't tend to update often.

I would go to Microsoft and download the C++2010 package and try to manually install. The error you go was because it was trying to install it but failed. Also, manually run Windows Update and get all the updates you can and set it to get updates for "Windows and other Microsoft products"

As for what GPU is driving the external display, it sounds like they limited it to the Intel GPU only, which is odd, but not unheard of. Maybe after getting C++2010 in that will change. Might take a driver reinstall though...

 

[Immaculate]

What is the laptop model number.

 

[sordup]

What is the laptop model number.

it's an HP Envy-15 3040nr
Product number: A9P60UA#ABA

 

[sordup]

The version number is the same because they are both part of the same custom driver package. Sadly, unless things change, you will have to only check the HP site for GPU driver updates, and they don't tend to update often.

I would go to Microsoft and download the C++2010 package and try to manually install. The error you go was because it was trying to install it but failed. Also, manually run Windows Update and get all the updates you can and set it to get updates for "Windows and other Microsoft products"

As for what GPU is driving the external display, it sounds like they limited it to the Intel GPU only, which is odd, but not unheard of. Maybe after getting C++2010 in that will change. Might take a driver reinstall though...

The C++ 2010 is weird and always confuses me, because it seems to get installed with almost everything over and over, besides the fact that I have C++ 2012 already installed! So what does that mean?
I do the manual Windows Update regularly already.
And how am I to know which card is being used for the big monitor? I am under the impression that I am now running off the AMD because I set my BIOS for "Fixed" under Switchable Graphics and have chosen the AMD "High Performance" setting in CCC. When I check when running an Open GL 3D program, for instance, SketchUp, it indicates that it is operating off the AMD whereas it indicated the Intel before. WHy do you say it sounds like it's running off the Intel still?

 

[Martell1977]

The C++ versions are not all inclusive, I have 2005, 2008, and 2010 atm. Like .Net frameworks, the new versions don't include the older version with enhancements, its an all different package. The reason you see it trying to install over and over is likely because its not successfully installing. If you do a Bing search and go to Microsoft, you can download the install package. Sadly Windows Update and program installers don't tell you what is wrong when an install like that fails. Using the actual download should tell you what is going on. It will either go in or fail, failures usually give an error indicating why.

As for the switchable graphics, it is odd that the Intel software gives you display options when Catalyst doesn't. If this has changed, that is good, but I would think that the software for the running GPU would control display settings. Are you seeing the AMD GPU active when using a external display? If so, that is good, wasn't sure if the Intel was the only one able to run the external display, which i have seen that kind of limitation before.

 

[sordup]

The C++ versions are not all inclusive, I have 2005, 2008, and 2010 atm. Like .Net frameworks, the new versions don't include the older version with enhancements, its an all different package. The reason you see it trying to install over and over is likely because its not successfully installing. If you do a Bing search and go to Microsoft, you can download the install package. Sadly Windows Update and program installers don't tell you what is wrong when an install like that fails. Using the actual download should tell you what is going on. It will either go in or fail, failures usually give an error indicating why.

As for the switchable graphics, it is odd that the Intel software gives you display options when Catalyst doesn't. If this has changed, that is good, but I would think that the software for the running GPU would control display settings. Are you seeing the AMD GPU active when using a external display? If so, that is good, wasn't sure if the Intel was the only one able to run the external display, which i have seen that kind of limitation before.

I too have several versions of C++ of 2005, 2008, 2010 and 2012 installed on my machine. Nevertheless, in attempting to take your advice to download and install the 2010 vers. (again) from Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=5555) I received this error:

Setup has detected that this computer does not meet the requirements to install this software.

A newer version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Redistributable has been detected on the machine.


This, of course, is confusing to me - how could I already have a version that is newer than what Microsoft themselves are serving on their downloads page! Isn't having a newer version preferable?

And on the "Switchable" tip: I have tested with and without the large monitor, and whether I'm using it or just the laptop screen or both, the effects are the same. The AMD System Monitor shows the the AMD Radeon card is being used. I can make changes with the Intel Graphics control panel AND the AMD CCC panel. The only options available to me on the CCC panel, however, are "Video Settings"(and only some of these have any effect) , "3D Application Setting", power and information settings. I do not have tabs under "Desktop Management" for choosing/controlling monitors as I have seen others talk about (and seen screenshots of) online. This is, of course, what I would most like to access. Why is mine different than others with the same card? In my research I have read that, in a dual GPU scenario, you should use only one control for the card you are using. I have access to both control panels. I can change the resolution, duplicate or extend displays with the Intel panel, but the options to Extend, Disable, Rotate display in addition to "Set Desktop Area to" (the last two being what I would very much like to access for my large screen) are grayed out in the CCC controls - some video and 3D options (which I don't even understand) are available, however, as I said.
This piecemeal orientation - part in one, part in another and none of it adding up to all of the options - is very confusing to me. After all, these are the cards that came with the machine from HP, out of the box!

So you see, there continue to be points of great confusion here, although things are working better than they were. I do not know why, though, and I would like to avoid future problems and to know how to do so and, if possible, gain the control over my large monitor with rotation and desktop area that I desire.

I do greatly appreciate your time and responses!

 

[Martell1977]

C++: The newer version is preferable and is why when a program tries to install, that error stops it, but is never shown to you until you dd the manual install. I'm not surprised that the download isn't the latest version, its kind of same as with many of the games out there, they don't want to take the time and money to make a new installation package so they leave it as is and patch it up after installation. I am glad t hear that its not a problem code that would have required more troubleshooting.


Switchable graphics: At this point I'd have attribute it to bad design on HP's part, very strange that they have the software controls split like that. It might be because they intended the Intel GPU to be used the most so gave it the most control, but that is speculation. The fact that it works and you do have those controls at some level is good. I've always hated when OEM's insist on making their own custom drivers, it's not like they do a good job keeping them updated.

Things are working better now because you are using HP's custom drivers and set the AMD GPU as primary/fixed. To gain that extra functionality you will have to wait for a driver update from HP and see if they allow more user controls.

What a pain the in neck just to increase battery life a little...

 

[sordup]

C++: The newer version is preferable and is why when a program tries to install, that error stops it, but is never shown to you until you dd the manual install. I'm not surprised that the download isn't the latest version, its kind of same as with many of the games out there, they don't want to take the time and money to make a new installation package so they leave it as is and patch it up after installation. I am glad t hear that its not a problem code that would have required more troubleshooting.


Switchable graphics: At this point I'd have attribute it to bad design on HP's part, very strange that they have the software controls split like that. It might be because they intended the Intel GPU to be used the most so gave it the most control, but that is speculation. The fact that it works and you do have those controls at some level is good. I've always hated when OEM's insist on making their own custom drivers, it's not like they do a good job keeping them updated.

Things are working better now because you are using HP's custom drivers and set the AMD GPU as primary/fixed. To gain that extra functionality you will have to wait for a driver update from HP and see if they allow more user controls.

What a pain the in neck just to increase battery life a little...

Pain in the neck - agreed! So I will keep the newer version of C++ 2010 and NOT downgrade with the Microsoft offered one, cut my "theoretical" losses and live with what I got - which is much better than what I had when my laptop screen stopped working! I just wish I knew what caused that so as to avoid it happening again! I imagined it was the using of the two control panels, but it seems that is what is intended...