Graphics Switching in Windows 7 - Macbook Pro 2011

Where do you mean to type "lspci"

Currently this is what I have from the first post:

echo Activating Intel GPU

setpci -s 00:00.0 54.b=0b

echo Switch select

outb 0x728 1

echo Switch display

outb 0x710 2

echo Switch DDC

outb 0x740 2

echo Power down discrete graphics

outb 0x750 0

Hi has anyone tried this on an old MacBook Pro 2009 unibody? It would be so sweet 🙂 Apple should losen up that way they can have more people using Macs!

I think metatechbe means for the commands to be typed into the grub2 command line interface.

Once you have confirmed that they work there, by adding/editing the entries in grub.cfg will make the code be automatically executed at boot.

I'm trying this at next reboot.

Type "lspci" and take the PCI ID of the first entry, a "Host Bridge", for instance 8086:0044

FYI, it is a "DRAM Controller", as shown in the output under a Linux terminal :

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Core Processor DRAM Controller [8086:0044] (rev 02)

Adapt and type the following command :

setpci -d 8086:0044 54.b=0b

Type "lspci" again and you should now have 2 "VGA Controller" entries.

I tried the above, but there was no second pci VGA Controller device shown in the last lspci command.

I will investigate further when I get the time, but metatechbe, have you any further ideas, or links to the Intel HD 3000 pci adressing/values?

Thanks for your effort so far.

Deefective wrote:

I will investigate further when I get the time, but metatechbe, have you any further ideas, or links to the Intel HD 3000 pci adressing/values?

Thanks for your effort so far.

You could try to add the command

setpci -s 00:00.0 50.W=2

before

setpci -s 00:00.0 54.b=0b

metatech

so when i hit Grub 4 Dows, before selecting windows is when i would type lspci? its a linux/unix command, there is no alternative on a mac, and for windows you have to build it from source code, which unfortunately i have no idea how.

DimaSD wrote:

so when i hit Grub 4 Dows, before selecting windows is when i would type lspci? its a linux/unix command, there is no alternative on a mac, and for windows you have to build it from source code, which unfortunately i have no idea how.

When you see the Grub menu, type "c" and you will enter a command-line console.

Type the commands you need, and then hit "Esc" when you are finished.

Added the extra line, boot into grub, lspci, adapted the setpci -d command, lspci and no result either.

Thanks for working with us, I think if we get this solved, every Mac owner will love you!!!! Lol

Let me know if there is anything else you want me to try out

I waited only about 10 seconds. I use my MBP for work and I freaked when it didn't want to boot OS X or Windows.

But when it did boot Windows through Grub I saw some familiar behavior: a black screen instead of the Windows login screen. This is the same behaviour I've seen when attempting to turn on the integrated GPU on a EFI Windows installation. I bet if I had used remote desktop I would have been able to log into Windows.

metatechbe wrote:

I also had to reset the PRAM to get my MBP to boot back into ML. The above is not for the average user.

Hi ricky_tang,

That is strange, I would have thought that a cold reboot was enough to reset thoses values (PCI config + IO ports) : shutdown the machine, wait 10-20 secondes, start the machine, then choose directly "Windows" instead of "Grub 2 For Dos".

Did you wait a bit ?

metatech

Hi metatechbe,

When first playing around trying to get the Intel HD 3000 controller working, you could shut the lid while in windows, then when you resumed your windows session windows would detect the HD 3000, but the driver could not initialise as the device was not allocated any resources (presumably EFI is not assigning it any).

So simply enabling the device doesn't allow it to work.

Is there a way to assign/configure the VGA devices resources using grub cli tools? This would allow the driver to work properly.

I will try the extra command

setpci -s 00:00.0 50.W=2

before

setpci -s 00:00.0 54.b=0b

and see how it goes.

Thanks again.

D.

hey,

any working solutions now?

did anyone activated the hd4000/3000 on windows?

isnt it possible to install windows with another bootloader to use the hd4000?

wish you all the best!

I made a discovery. By using gfxcardstatus v2.2.1 and forcing it in integrated graphics mode in mac os x, I was able to boot up into windows(bootcamp) clearly in integrated graphics card mode but there was no display on the screen(I was able to restart the computer "blindly" by using the keyboard).

So it seems that it probably lacks the intel drivers on Windows. However, there is no way to install the drivers, if you can't see anything on the screen, if you know what I meant.

Even if you install the drivers (which you can do while in windows running on the discrete GPU) you will still get the black screen.

The Intel VGA is not given the resources it needs - the EFI not only disables it, it doesn't assign the interrupt, memory an I/O ranges it needs for the driver to initialise properly. Windows would be able to display using standard VGA drivers if it were given resources.

Quite frustrating. Need an ex-apple EFI programmer to sort this out. 😠

For what it's worth, I am currently running Windows 8 in native EFI mode on my MacBook Pro Retina 15", and after a day of fighting it, I think I've got it working with nVidia Optimus automatic graphics switching.

It should be noted that nVidia's solution works differently to Apple's system. Apple's system switches between the Intel GPU and the nVidia GPU on the fly, turning one on and the other off as needed. nVidia's system, on the other hand, keeps both GPUs on all the time, but dynamically allocates graphics tasks to the Intel GPU or the nVidia GPU on an app-by-app basis. If nothing is assigned to the nVidia GPU, it enters a standby state and consumes practically no power.

I'm going to leave my system like this and see how it performs in terms of battery life over the next week or so.

How do you go about enabling nVidia Optimus?

Would installing the latest nVidia drivers take care of this? And, if so, how do I confirm Optimus is enabled on my rMBP Win8 bootcamp install?