Dell Inspiron 15r 5520 FORGOTTEN?!

Question

Hello,
At some point last year I purchased from a retailer in Romania, this Dell Inspiron 15r 5520 laptop for the not so small price of 3000 lei, local currency, which at today's exchange rate equals $760.
The laptop worked OK-ish and I was pretty happy with it until recently.
You see, I don't use this laptop all the time as I have a workstation at home so I just tend to use it once in a while. I decided to wipe the laptop's memory clean and do a fresh instal of Windows 7 64 bit and all the drivers about 3 weeks ago. Since then, I've been having A LOT OF ISSUES due to the fact that the drivers on this machine ar so old that they don't really work any more with ANY GAME! Mind you, I had not played games on this machine that much before but when I did, I did encounter huge issues with AMD Switchable graphics not working properly and the game ending up running on the blasted Intel HD4000.
Now this is the end of my patience though! I am tired of having to MAKE DO with something I HAVE PAID A LOT OF MONEY FOR just because DELL WON'T BOTHER TO UPDATE THE BLASTED DRIVERS!
I am tired of having issues every tine I try to play a game on this machine, that hardware wise can more than deal with that game. The only game that I am trying to play is EVE Online.
I have tried downloading the latest Intel HD4000 Drivers and AMD Drivers for the AMD 7670M Graphics Card that I have in the machine. I have tried to install them but they didn't work properly because of the way DELL BUILDS AND ISSUES THEIR DRIVERS!
Does DELL HAVE ANY FIX ON THIS? Any indications on how to use the latest drivers without the whole thing crashing? OR DO I JUST THROW THIS OUT THE WINDOW AND GO WITH A MORE SERIOUS MANUFACTURER?
I am serious disappointed with DELLs services and drivers so far.
Please assist.
Thank you!

Answer 1

ejn63
First, you do not have a system with a dedicated video card.  You have a hybrid AMD-Intel MUX-less system - software controlled hybrid video.
The AMD GPU is simply a co-processor - only the Intel GPU has a physical connection to the display panel, so ALL video data, even if it is processed through the AMD GPU, passes through the Intel GPU on its way to the screen.  The Intel GPU will always show active, and primary in the system.
Does the Catalyst Control Panel allow the selection of the AMD GPU?  If it does, the system is working properly (though note that Windows will still see the Intel GPU as primary, as will most diagnostic test  utilities).  Second thing:  not all games support hybrid video, and even among those that do, there are often settings that need to be changed.
Finally, you must temper your expectations of the video chip in the system - it is not a gaming GPU or system of any caliber.  It's now about 3-4 years old, and the GPU wasn't cutting edge even when it was new.  It's a low- to mid-range system with a low- to mid-range GPU for its time.
As for drives, you can source them from Intel and AMD (but note that updating one demands you update the other, as they must work in tandem).  The hardware in the system cannot control the GPUs -- that's done by the software (drivers).
That's the thing. I CANNOT UPDATE THEM AT ALL. And both Intel and AMD pointed out to Dell saying that because of the way Dell delivers the drivers the up to date drivers will NEVER EVER work when I e-mailed them for support.
If I update both drivers, which I have tried FYI, as I HAVE MENTIONED IN MY ORIGINAL POST,  the AMD GPU will NOT WORK ANY MORE.
The CCC allows me to select which GPU gets used for whatever program I want but the problem is that since the drivers haven't been updated by Dell in such a long time, none of the current programs/games know how to use this old system of switching graphics software any more and they take the Intel HD4000 as default whatever you do.
LE: And also, please keep in mind that I'm not expecting to be able to play at MAX Details and things like that. I have no high expectations for this system. But what I do expect is to at least be able to RUN the bloody thing.