Non-functional 7730m in Dell Inspiron 15 R SE (7520)

Hi Ziko Mandal,

Updating the BIOS, Chipset and Video driver should fix the issue. The following links will help you download the necessary drivers;

Link for BIOS: http://dell.to/OHd8rj

Please connect the Ac Adapter while updating the BIOS and do not use the system once the update is initiated and until the system restarts completely.

Link for Chipset driver: http://dell.to/QhSAkG

Link for Video driver: http://dell.to/PN9EhH

Once you open the above link, you will see a list of drivers available. Select the driver for the video card model of the system and install the application.

Before installing the Video driver, uninstall the existing Video drivers by going to Start menu> Control Panel> Programs and features. Once the programs window opens, locate the ATI/Intel Video driver(Uninstall both if both are available) and uninstall by right clicking on it.

The drivers have to be installed in the same order as mentioned above and please restart the system after every driver installation.

I hope this helps

Please let us know in case of any queries

Thanks and regards
Harish R
#iworkfordell

Hi Harish,

Just tried that. But still not resolved. Should i claim warranty or wait for some kind of driver update?

Thanks & Regards,

Ziko

Hi Ziko Mandal,

Based on the conversation we have had till now, I can suspect 2 reasons. 1. This might be a ‘Video card’ failure or 2. The Operating system is not recognizing the AMD Mobility Radeon™ Driver Verification Tool due to which you are not able to update the latest Video driver.

You may try running 'Diagnostics' on the 'Video card' to check if the hardware is failing. The following steps will help you in running the 'Diagnostics' on the 'Video card'.

Shut the system down, hold down the 'Fn' key and start the system. This will initiate the 'Diagnostics' and test all of the hardware components. Please make a note of any errors during the ‘Video card’ test and check the error using the link below.

http://bit.ly/ReFEg0

If the Diagnostics pass, then reinstalling Operating system should fix the issue. If the Diagnostics fail, please make a note of any errors during the test and reply to this post so that we can take it further.

Please let me know in case of any queries.

Thanks and regards
Harish R
#iworkfordell

Hi Harish,

Thanks for your reply. The Diagnostics did not find any problems with Video card. See below:

Also did run a through test on the video card, but no errors. Although it did not specify which card it was testing (Intel HD 4000 or AMD Radeon  7730M).

I did re-install Windows 7 x64 again, reinstalled all the drivers after BIOS update. But still does not seem to fix the issue.

I think the Radeon hardware is fine but the Switchable graphics is not working. As I can play max payne 3 with -dx 10 -adapter 1 code. This forces Max Payne to recognize the AMD and shows 2085 MB of VRAM, but it launched directly it only shows 512MB of RAM. Still GPU-Z crashes on start, and gives an error regarding Intel OpenCL driver. Either that or this card does not support DirectX 9.

Am bit tired of trying all the drivers (Beta AMD driver shows the graphics card as 7700M). Think i will wait for another driver release. I wish there was a way to disable the Intel HD card all together (as mine is always plugged to a power source).

Thanks for the help. Let me know if there is any development regarding driver (that works).

Regards,

Ziko

Hi Ziko Mandal,

I had escalated the case to Engineering team and the response as follows:

Inspiron 7520 which with AMD graphic Chelsea Pro are PX5.0 design, it is Muxless hardware design, and it only support dynamic switchable graphic function. That means it cannot Set video card to Integrated GPU or Discrete GPU active only.

Under the dynamic mode, the user does not directly control which graphics device is active. The render-graphics device is determined by application profile settings and the default rule.

• Displays are always exposed to the OS through integrated graphics only (This is the reason why the system shows that the Video memory is 512MB and not shown in DXDIAG).

• Aero desktop always runs on integrated graphics.

• 3D, OpenGL, and video-playback applications run on the integrated GPU or discrete GPU depending on the application profile.

• If an application does not have a profile, the application runs on the default rendering GPU.

• When the last application rendering on the discrete GPU ends, the discrete GPU is fully powered off on PX5.0 designs or "put into BACO mode on PX4.0 designs". There is no BACO design on Inspiron 7520

CCC user interface should be PX4.0 design to activate the Integrated only or Discrete only video card, but PX5.0 does not support this feature and Inspiron 7520 has PX5.0.

Max Payne3 needs high graphics and the AMD Radeon 7730M is an entry level video card. I suggest that you try using different games which has less graphic requirements or reduce the graphic settings on Max Payne3  on your system and check if that works.

GPUZ is not compatible with switchable graphics and we have reports that it crashes.

I hope this helps.

Please let me know in case of any queries.

Thanks and regards
Harish R
#iworkfordell

This is stressful, I might givie this computer back, I had no informations the graphic card was of this type (switchable).  I just wanted to buy this and play some games, and I see this is not possible. Many people having the same problem, none solving them... Irritating.

I'd suggest you return it. I'm having similar problems with my 7730 in a 15R SE and Dell cannot fix the problem; they're just offering me money to keep the computer without a working 7730. You're not alone - there are a lot of us with issues.

I live in Brazil, a guy is coming here to change my motherboard (and the GPUs) and see what happens. But this might not solve the problem, and if not, I will return it. The problem is that I don't know about any notebooks with these settings around with the same or similar price. Do you know any?

Cheers from Brazil, happy new year!

Thanks for giving me some LIGHT. How can we push this BIOS and muxless 4.0 or 5.5 ? Is there a site or something?

The Dell can resolve this making a BIOS and driver get muxless 4.0 tecnology or muxless 5.5. While the Dell not do it, it will have many problems with these models with muxeless 5.0 tecnology

I have the same problem. I bought an Inspiron 15r SE with the 7730M but I haven't been able to use it on Windows 8 neither on Windows 7. It is perfectly installed but all the applications use the 4000 HD and not the dedicated card. 

Could you guys tell me if you're using the preinstalled OS or, on the contrary, you're using different OS?

In my case, I have to use the enterprise version of any Windows and the laptop had the home version. I suspect it is the main problem. 

Am I right? Have you already solved it?

Best!

I'm using 8 Home Premium, with Start8 installed over it to fix the borked UI that MS thinks is the future.

It's possible that your enterprise version may be the problem, albeit in a roundabout way. The video drivers that Windows finds - and automatically updates to if you have that set - are the wrong ones. You need to pull the correct drivers down directly from Dell. That's for the HD4000 and also the 7730m. You also need to completely uninstall both sets of drivers first, then reboot, and only then install your new clean copies. I got my 7730m working perfectly and now I pay very careful attention to updates. So whatever enterprise version you used likely did not incorporate the correct drivers.

Also, someone did release hacked ATI drivers that will work with this laptop, but Dell frowns upon links to hacked drivers, even if Dell themselves should be providing said drivers. This is important since the only Dell drivers available are rehashed versions of ATI drivers that are a few years out of date. They skimp on many new features and enhancements that the GPU is capable of supporting.

Here's a relevant thread - note how very many people have been burned by Dell's garbage implementation followed by their worthless support.

en.community.dell.com/.../20328050.aspx