Latitude e6540 and 8970m problem

Hi NWmedapplicant,

I’d like you to check if you find the Discrete AMD video card and the Intel HD 4600 listed in the device manager under ‘Display adapters’ section.

If you don’t find the discrete video card on the system then I would suggest that you run the diagnostics on the computer by following the steps mentioned below and check if there is any issue with the hardware on your system.

1. Turn on or restart the computer.
2. Immediately at the Dell logo screen, starting tapping the key once a second until the One Time Boot menu appears (if the computer boots to Windows turn the computer off and try again).
3. At the One Time Boot menu, press the arrow key to highlight Diagnostics, PSA+ or Enter ePSA, then press to begin the hardware Diagnostics.
4. Write down any error codes listed. Reply to us with the error codes.

Hi Ravi,  Yes I see both devices listed in the device manager.  But for some reason - the discrete card is not being switched to?

Hi NWmedapplicant,

I would suggest you to uninstall the AMD video card driver on the system. Please follow the steps mentioned below to uninstall the video card.

1. Click on Start button.
2. Start typing devmgmt.msc and then press enter.
3. Select the both graphics card device under display adapters and right click on it
4. Now select properties.
5. In the properties window, under Driver tab, click on Uninstall button.
6. Check “Delete the driver software for this device.”
7. You want to delete the driver click OK.
8. After the uninstall finishes restart the system. Then reinstall the video card driver on the system from Dell support site. Please enter your service tag # on the link below, select the OS, then download the video card driver from Video section onto the system and install it.

           http://dell.to/ZaQuel

Please let me know if this helps.

This issue seems to remain unresolved.  I am experiencing the same problem.   I have tried uninstall and re-installing every possible driver, from the Dell driver to the beta drivers listed on http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/mobile?os=Windows%208.1%20-%2064

I have 2 latitude 6540's and both have the same problem.   I had a Dell technician come out to replace the motherboards (2 weeks ago) and he had never seen this machine before, but I have worked with that same technician for years on my other systems.   His best guess was that there is a conflict in the drivers for the AMD card and since the 6540 doesn't seem to be popular (can't even browse to it at Dell.com) nobody has noticed.   

They are great machines in every way, except for the video problem.   I am assuming Dell is not interested in the fix, due to the low volume on these machines.   That's unfortunate. 

If anyone finds a fix, please post.   Thanks!

...and also we have very big problems with docking stations. Very often E6540 only shows blank screen on startup.

E6430 and E6230 works just fine, but they have only intel 4000 graphics.

Yep,

same problems with our E6540 Latitudes... We have istalled operating systems again many times, but ATI graphic card is totally useless, and takes only lot of battery.

And absolute idiotism that we cant disable ATI card by BIOS, or take that card away....

Just got my E6540 in Denmark yesterday. I can confirm this problem persists! I literally spent all day trying different driver combinations of AMD - because the two on the Dell support website only worked ONCE (and this caused extreme scanlines on external monitors). So I decided to get rid of the scanlines by trying different drivers and now Windows reports the video card is not working (Device Manager) even with official OEM drivers !

Info:

SERVICE-TAG: Service tag removed as per privacy policy>

I appear to have an identical issue here.  

The machine is a new E6540.

1) I cannot detect external monitor on HDMI port (this monitor is recognised fine by other computers)

Using external monitors is essential for me and earlier Dell laptops (e.g. Inspiron N5110, with NVIDIA GT 525M) had no problem doing this.

2) in devices, both Intel and 8970 devices are registered

3) disabling either results in the machine adopting very low screen resolution

4) updating drivers does not resolve the issue

Is it really possible that this is generic problem with all E6540 machines?  If so, they are not fit for purpose.

It would be good if Dell could get back to us on this.  All advice is welcome.

There are two ways to implement hybrid video - one, at the hardware level with two multiplex circuits.  That design allows for hardware control of the hybrid video (and would include a BIOS control).

The other way is by a MUX-less design that is entirely software controlled - which is how your Dell system appears to be designed.  In that design, the Intel video is the only one wired to the display device - ALL video information passes through it on its way to the screen, even if it has been processed by the AMD GPU.  You cannot disable the Intel video in this design.  For at least a while, Dell shipped this design only with consumer-grade notebooks (Inspiron, XPS, Vostro) -- it would appear that the Latitude is now designed this way as well.

I cannot understand how this kind of issue has not been detected prior to machine shipment.

At least 4 users are reporting the same thing, and as far as we can tell, this is a deterministic problem present in the default configuration shipped.

Do we know whether Dell monitors this forum, and whether we can expect any kind of response?

We have a support contract with Dell and I will raise this issue with them cross referencing this thread; does anyone else have experience of Dell's customer service response to this problem?

There actually is a way - run the WIndows Experience Index tool using the AMD video chip (choose it from the AMD Catalyst control panel).

It IS true that the Intel video will always show as the active GPU under Windows - that is the way the system is designed to operate.
  The AMD GPU is NOT a true discrete video chip - it is a graphics co-processor.  So too is the nVidia chip in Optimus-equipped systems.  True discrete graphics are the domain of high-end workstation and gaming systems - just about everything else on the market now has a GPU coprocessor, not a discrete video chip.