"Switchable Graphics Driver" for Thinkpad ATI / Intel GPUs

[Schadenfroh]

Greetings,

I am using a Thinkpad T500 with an AMD 3650 256mb GPU and an Intel GMA chip. I have switchable graphics disabled in the bios and I use the AMD chip only when I am gaming (which is rare) and the rest of the time I am running the Intel GPU to save battery life (I can switch back and forth in the BIOS).

The problem is that the Lenovo provided "Switchable Graphics Driver" has not been updated in a while and causes artifacts with Aero enabled in Windows 7 x64 Pro, a known issue that has not been resolved with the Intel side of the Switchable Graphics Driver.

The drivers for the Intel GPU from Intel refuse to install (says hardware is not supported). The Lenovo Intel drivers have the same error (only the Switchable driver works).

I am aware of LaptopVideo2Go for nVidia GPUs. Anyway to mod the official Intel drivers to run on my notebook when I have it set to use the Intel chip in the bios? This glitch is rather annoying and the only other option is the just use the AMD chip, which I am afraid might eat battery life alive.

Here is my laptop:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/quickPath.do?quickPathEntry=20828ZU

Thanks

 

[Schadenfroh]

I asked about this on the Lenovo forums and they said that using two identical sticks of RAM in the laptop would fix it. It ships with a 1gb stick and a 2gb stick. Not sure why that would help, maybe it has something to do with the Intel GPU using system memory?

The users acknowledged that it is indeed a driver bug and only a driver update will fix it in the stock configuration of the system. I cannot find a way to contact Lenovo about driver bugs, only hardware failures. Any suggestions on how to proceed if I do not want to purchase more RAM? I would like to be able to fill out some driver bug report with Lenovo.