[Apocsol]

First off, standard newbie apology for not knowing where to ask this and whatnot.

Secondly, please help! I have a Medion Akoya laptop running Windows 7 32 bit. I'm trying to use the switchable graphics, but when I press the button, nothing happens. When I go to the ATI Catalyst Control Center and try to choose High-performance GPU I get:
'switching the graphics processors cannot be performed at this time due to one or more running applications'. I have no idea how to fix this.

I'm also unable to run Windows Update for some reason, if that helps. It tells me it's because 'the service is not running.'

Thanks in advance!

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Dear apocsol,

Welcome to Geeks to Go, please provide more information. Open Device Manager by clicking start, then Right Click on Computer, and then click on Properties. Then click on Device Manager on the upper left corner. When Device Manager opens, expand Display and respond with what graphics you have in your laptop. Are you trying to use an external display on your laptop? Are you holding the Function key while pressing the switch button?

[mgabriel]

Dear apocsol,

Welcome to Geeks to Go, please provide more information. Open Device Manager by clicking start, then Right Click on Computer, and then click on Properties. Then click on Device Manager on the upper left corner. When Device Manager opens, expand Display and respond with what graphics you have in your laptop. Are you trying to use an external display on your laptop? Are you holding the Function key while pressing the switch button?

[Apocsol]

Thanks for the welcome!

'Intel ® Graphics Media Accelerator HD'

However, I'm pretty sure another appears when I've activated the 'High performance GPU' in the past. Hence why the Catalyst control center and ATI stuff is installed.The button itself isn't a normal keyboard key - there's a button for wireless and a button for GPU, both of which have leds to show when they're on, and the wireless one works and lets meswitch wireless on and off, but the GPU one...won't.

Thanks again!

[mgabriel]

What is the laptop manufacturer and model number? Full specs also

[Apocsol]

Medion Akoya P6625

Here's Belarc Advisor's specs - sorry if it's a bit much!

Operating System new – server roles System Model
Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1 (build 7601)
Install Language: English (United States)
System Locale: English (United Kingdom)
Installed: 11/06/2011 20:36:30 Medion P662X 1.0
System Serial Number: 106PE2051705
Enclosure Type: Notebook
Processor a Main Circuit Board b
2.27 gigahertz Intel Core i3 M 350
64 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
3072 kilobyte tertiary memory cache
64-bit ready
Multi-core (2 total)
Hyper-threaded (4 total) Board: H36QM 1.0
Bus Clock: 533 megahertz
BIOS: American Megatrends Inc. 202 04/13/2010
new USB Storage Use in past 30 Days (mouse over last used for details) new Hosted Virtual Machines (mouse over name for details)
Last Used
HTC Android Phone, rev 0000 07/10/2012 11:18:21*
USB Disk, s/n 058F63666433, rev 1.00 03/10/2012 11:33:02*
Kingston DataTraveler 2.0, s/n 899000000000000000000052, rev 1.00 20/09/2012 17:01:37*

* Possibly used again before the reboot following this time.
None discovered
Drives new – drive encryption Memory Modules c,d
318.89 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
190.14 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

TSSTcorp CDDVDW SN-S083C [Optical drive]

Hitachi HTS723232L9A360 [Hard drive] (320.07 GB) -- drive 0, s/n 100317FC14F0NEJW5P9G, rev FC4OC30F, Not SMART 3254 Megabytes Usable Installed Memory

Slot 'DIMM0' has 2048 MB (serial number 1A9595F4)
Slot 'DIMM2' has 2048 MB (serial number 1AA595F4)
Local Drive Volumes new – volume encryption


c: (NTFS on drive 0) * 286.68 GB 174.80 GB free
d: (NTFS on drive 0) 32.21 GB 15.34 GB free

* Operating System is installed on c:
Network Drives
None discovered
Users (mouse over user name for details) Printers
local user accounts last logon
T 14/10/2012 12:50:46 (admin)
local system accounts
Administrator 26/05/2010 20:25:06 (admin)
Guest never
HomeGroupUser$ never

DISABLED Marks a disabled account; LOCKED OUT Marks a locked account

Microsoft Shared Fax Driver on SHRFAX:
Microsoft XPS Document Writer on XPSPort:
Send To Microsoft OneNote Driver on Send To Microsoft OneNote Port:
Controllers Display
Intel® 5 Series 4 Port SATA AHCI Controller Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator HD [Display adapter]
Generic PnP Monitor (15.3"vis, January 2009)
Bus Adapters Multimedia
Intel® 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B34
Intel® 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller - 3B3C Realtek High Definition Audio
Virus Protection [Back to Top] Group Policies
No details available None discovered
Communications new – connection speed & status Other Devices

↓ Atheros AR8131 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller
Status: Cable unplugged
Dhcp Server: none responded
Physical Address: 70:71:BC:56:41:50
↓ EasyTether Network Adapter
Status: Cable unplugged
Dhcp Server: none responded
Physical Address: 02:00:54:74:68:72
Connection Speed: 144 Mbps
Microsoft 6to4 Adapter
Microsoft ISATAP Adapter
↑ Realtek RTL8191SE Wireless LAN 802.11n PCI-E NIC
primary Auto IP Address: 192.168.0.10 / 24
Gateway: 192.168.0.1
Dhcp Server: 192.168.0.1
Physical Address: 1C:4B:D6:EA:C9:A1
Connection Speed: 54 Mbps
Teredo Tunneling Pseudo-Interface

Networking Dns Servers: 8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
192.168.1.254
192.168.0.1
Microsoft AC Adapter
Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery
Microsoft Composite Battery
USB 2.0 UVC 1.3M WebCam
Standard PS/2 Keyboard
Synaptics PS/2 Port TouchPad [Mouse]
Generic USB Hub (2x)
USB Composite Device
USB Root Hub (2x)
Generic volume shadow copy

[P098]

Have you checked your BIOS?, in my BIOS there is an option to change the GPU, I've set it to FIXED mode, with this I have to manually change the GPU i want, there is also DYNAMIC mode in which different GPU can be allotted to every application.

[Apocsol]

I'm usually good at this stuff, but I'm failing miserably on this! I've gone into BIOS, and can't see anything of GPU settings. It's like all evidence of the other GPU (apart from Catalyst control and the physical GPU button on the laptop) has gone! Very upsetting. Could it somehow be unplugged?

[Alzeimer]

Here is the manual instruction:







Hope that helps

[Apocsol]

Thanks Alzeimer, but I'm not sure how that ties in? I've looked at that page, but again, nothing on ATI stuff

[Alzeimer]

Maybe you have to choose the display properties from the Windows Display Properties not the ATI.

[Apocsol]

I've tried that too! It's like it's forgotten it ever had the other GPU! Is there a way to check if the gpu is physically damaged?

[Alzeimer]

I do not think it forgotten you had a GPU or you would not have any video, maybe you external connector is not receiving and video output.

Your laptop screen and the external vga connector and the HDMI connector are all connected to the same GPU

So either your connectors are not working properly or you do not have the proper software installed to use the other connectors.

The vast majority of laptops will have in their BIOS an option to either use only one output or both, yours when checking in your manual I could not see anywhere an option like that, the only place they spoke of dual display is the pages i sent you.

[Apocsol]

But as I have a switchable GPU, I think it only rmembers the Intel one, not the ATI one which is the high-performance one.

It's not a dual display but switchable graphics. So it switches between low power and high power graphics at the touch of a button (or it's meant to). So...that's the trouble.

Really appreciate all your help by the way, chaps and chapesses.