Computer won't use dedicated GPU... Tried almost anything

[StoreB]

Cant choose Nvidia GPU in Nvidia Contol Panel

Laptop: Lenovo Z50-70
Integrated GPU: Intel HD 4400
Dedicated GPU: GeForce 840M

My Lenovo laptop has been working for about 3 years now with a few minor errors along the way. But yesterday i came home from school (laptop worked perfectly at school) and was about to play a game of CS:GO. I usually get about 140-160 fps, but now I got about 20-30 fps. I checked the Nvidia Control Panel to see what GPU my computer was using, and although it was set to use GeForce 840M it still uses Intel IGPU...
I downloaded the GPU-Z to check if it used the Nvidia GPU at all, and yes it surprisingly did, but only when I ran "Valley Benchmark". It won't use the Nvidia GPU even though I disable the Intel HD 4400.

When i check dxdiag it says that the screen uses Intel HD Graphics Family and under reproduce it says it uses Nvidia GeForce 840M, not exactly sure if this gives you lads some hints about my issue, but it might be worth telling.

What I've tried so far:

NVIDIA Control Panel:
-Set the global preferred GPU to High Performance NVIDIA GPU
-Set the power management to High Performance

Intel Graphics Control Panel:
-Set 3d to Performance
-Set power management to High Performance

Windows Control Panel:
-Set power management to High Performance

Software Installation:
-Installed Lenovo outdated Intel and NVIDIA drivers
-Uninstalled and Reinstalled Current Versions Intel and NVIDIA Graphics Software

If it helps by showing some pictures from Nvidia CP, GPU-Z or just anything I could throw those in a comment.

I realy appreciate it if someone would be so kind and give me some help here!

Thank you in advance

 

[eidairaman1]

Gripe at Nvidia, Lenovo. They are the ones that manufature that potato

 

[Boatvan]

Silly question as I am not well versed in video cards: What does it say about it in the BIOS?

 

[natr0n]

Reboot

 

[StoreB]

Silly question as I am not well versed in video cards: What does it say about it in the BIOS?

I haven't gone far into BIOS, but I didn't find any way to change the settings for which card to use. It only had an option between Intel and some other fancy thing, so I didn't find any solutions there.
The Lenovo BIOS doesn't come with a lot of options and is pretty weak imo, but i'll have a look around and write it down!

 

[jboydgolfer]

Generally there's a setting under primary graphics adapter or something to that effect which will have selections like PCI E , and I GPU

That's what you're looking for and you want to set it to PCI E, or similar. Don't be afraid to look around in your bios it's yours you own it, then you should be worried about is changing things without knowing what they do but looking won't hurt

 

[Boatvan]

I haven't gone far into BIOS, but I didn't find any way to change the settings for which card to use. It only had an option between Intel and some other fancy thing, so I didn't find any solutions there.
I'm not that familiar with the Lenovo BIOS.

Hmmm...I still have a funny feeling on the BIOS side. Can you list the options under the Graphics tab in BIOS to better help us understand?

 

[StoreB]

Generally there's a setting under primary graphics adapter or something to that effect which will have selections like PCI E , and I GPU
That's what you're looking for and you want to set it to PCI E, or similar. Don't be afraid to look around in your bios it's yours you own it, then you should be worried about is changing things without knowing what they do but looking won't hurt

Aight, thanks. I'll check that out. But last time I checked i saw no such options. But I'll have a look again

 

[StoreB]

Hmmm...I still have a funny feeling on the BIOS side. Can you list the options under the Graphics tab in BIOS to better help us understand?

Well... Under Graphic Device I have only two options: Discrete and UMA only. Discrete means that it will use the IGPU and GPU, and UMA only means that it will ONLY use the IGPU. And the setting is set to discrete

 

[Boatvan]

Well... Under Graphic Device I have only two options: Discrete and UMA only. Discrete means that it will use the IGPU and GPU, and UMA only means that it will ONLY use the IGPU. And the setting is set to discrete

I guess I was wrong. My next suggestion (which you already did) would be to tweak the settings in the NVIDIA control panel. Strike two for me I suppose. The driver situation seems like a dead end too. This is a shot in the dark, but if you run a utility like GPU-Z, I believe it should show the integrated and standalone GPU's? If you run that, does it show both? I think there is a drop down menu near the bottom of all available cards.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-gpu-z/

Perhaps someone with more know-how can chime in too?

 

[StoreB]

I guess I was wrong. My next suggestion (which you already did) would be to tweak the settings in the NVIDIA control panel. Strike two for me I suppose. The driver situation seems like a dead end too. This is a shot in the dark, but if you run a utility like GPU-Z, I believe it should show the integrated and standalone GPU's? If you run that, does it show both? I think there is a drop down menu near the bottom of all available cards.

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-gpu-z/

Perhaps someone with more know-how can chime in too?

Tweaking the Nvidia CP doesn't help. I can choose between the two GPU's, but it doesn't change anything for some reason.
And the GPU-Z shows both GPU's in the drop down menu. It shows that the IGPU runs. But the Nvidia GPU doens't run, only for 1 second at a time each 3-4 seconds

 

[Boatvan]

Then the latter part of my last post applies. I'm bone dry on ideas here. Anyone else? Perhaps it is indeed a hardware issue?

 

[jboydgolfer]

Have you tried resetting the bios on this thing? Or maybe even a bios update? Because unfortunately if it's showing the Nvidia control panel, and it's showing that it sent to discrete GPU the only option is it's not being read correctly by the PC or a video card is dead or malfunctioning it some way.I suppose I would look into bios resetting and or bios updating if it was me

I don't know how comfortable you are with opening up a laptop, it's not that serious but some people just aren't comfortable. The other choice without opening it is to update the bios or possibly there's a setting inside the bios to reset it back to default

EDIT****
assuming his is Yout bios, it looks like the laptop Chooses when it will use the dGPU, or iGPU based on scenario, maybe theres an issue with its detedtion of said scenarios?

 

[EarthDog]

Jboydgolfer is on to something. Reset the bios and make sure it's the latest. Are you certain you aren't using the discrete gpu when it's needed? Sometimes they use the he igpu to save power on idle/2d, but when gaming the discrete card kicks in.

What does gpuz show you?

 

[Boatvan]

Have you tried resetting the bios on this thing? Or maybe even a bios update? Because unfortunately if it's showing the Nvidia control panel, and it's showing that it sent to discrete GPU the only option is it's not being read correctly by the PC or a video card is dead or malfunctioning it some way.I suppose I would look into bios resetting and or bios updating if it was me

That's a good idea. You stated it ran fine for 3+ years? Try a reset of the BIOS. If that doesn't work, the updated BIOS for the Z50-70 here: http://support.lenovo.com/us/en/pro...ries-laptops/lenovo-z50-70/downloads/ds100528
This update is from 2015.

What OS are you running?

 

[jboydgolfer]

according to this other thread, it WONT use the dGPU until it is needed, like after starting a game, unil then it wont show as used..

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo...my-nvidia-840m-graphic-card-with/td-p/1700395

very common issue with these Lappy's, just Download GPUz, and leave it open in the background while running a game, see if it shows nvidia gpu activity.

GPUz

u shouldnt be able to install nvidia drivers w/o a nvidia gpu being recognized no?

 

[Boatvan]

according to this other thread, it WONT use the dGPU until it is needed, like after starting a game, unil then it wont show as used..

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo...my-nvidia-840m-graphic-card-with/td-p/1700395

I vaguely remember this concept on my old laptop. The performance drop is still suspect though. Try the BIOS stuff and see where that gets us.

 

[EarthDog]

according to this other thread, it WONT use the dGPU until it is needed, like after starting a game, unil then it wont show as used..

https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo...my-nvidia-840m-graphic-card-with/td-p/1700395

very common issue with these Lappy's, just Download GPUz, and leave it open in the background while running a game, see if it shows nvidia gpu activity.

GPUz

u shouldnt be able to install nvidia drivers w/o a nvidia gpu being recognized no?

Jboydgolfer is on to something. Reset the bios and make sure it's the latest. Are you certain you aren't using the discrete gpu when it's needed? Sometimes they use the he igpu to save power on idle/2d, but when gaming the discrete card kicks in.

What does gpuz show you?

 

[Halo3Addict]

You can try disabling the Intel Graphics in Device Manager

 

[jboydgolfer]

You can try disabling the Intel Graphics in Device Manager

View attachment 83601

i dunno if thats a good idea, my thinking is the lappy uses a mix of Both, never one or the other except when set to iGPU, that may be a problem starter, unless it resets if he gets black screened out. i just wouldnt want the OP to be SOL with NO display

if it wont stay after reboot, then i would try it

 

[Halo3Addict]

i dunno if thats a good idea, my thinking is the lappy uses a mix of Both, never one or the other except when set to iGPU, that may be a problem starter, unless it resets if he gets black screened out. i just wouldnt want the OP to be SOL with NO display

if it wont stay after reboot, then i would try it

He mentioned it worked but only in select applications, but I agree making sure everything is up to date is the easiest and safest way to fix a problem.

 

[SKBARON]

Try a system restore to an earlier date, see if that fixes the issue. He did change the settings to max performance, which should in turn mandate that the dedicated GPU is used.

See if you can restore the system to an earlier date and if that helps, if not, BIOS reset and update as the others have suggested.

Also, try to remember if there were any updates done by windows or any program, sometimes they eff up the system.

 

[StefanM]

What I've tried so far:

NVIDIA Control Panel:
-Set the global preferred GPU to High Performance NVIDIA GPU

Add a profile under program settings and force NVIDIA there also.
(On my Optimus rig this is mandatory for Firefox' plugin-container.exe)

 

[eidairaman1]

Did the game just get updated by steam when you launched it?

 

[StoreB]

Jboydgolfer is on to something. Reset the bios and make sure it's the latest. Are you certain you aren't using the discrete gpu when it's needed? Sometimes they use the he igpu to save power on idle/2d, but when gaming the discrete card kicks in.

What does gpuz show you?

Screenshots:
https://gyazo.com/20bf9f274ca50970ef850cfcc3cce993
https://gyazo.com/30536242e85088143c89f8e3e79d58f9
https://gyazo.com/8754a85ea0382e4d0a252d18512b20a1
https://gyazo.com/9678ad2d679704c88ebe923f2ea3a6cc