HD 4600 on Win7 32bit with more than 4GB RAM hangs

[GBata]

Hello co mmunity,

i've got a strange problem on my i7-4700MQ with HD 4600. I use Windows 7 32bit with 16MB RAM. After the small kernel hack windows can utilize the whole RAM amount. Only the Intel HD 4600 hangs the system on boot on driver loading, if i allow windows to see more than 4GB. Either it is a bug in a hardware or it is a bug in a driver that assumes, that Windows 7 32 bit shouldn't have more than 4gb.

My questions is:

Is it possible to configure the driver, to work with more than 4gb? Could Intel correct the driver? How HD 4600 works with windows servers 32 bit with huge ram? Can i disable the HD4600 but use the installed nvidia gt 750m adapter with full featured driver.

Regards,

Gena

[Kevin_M_Intel]

Hi Gena1,

I'm afraid to say that the information in how to modify the driver is not available from our side. If you are a developer, you can get the .INF file and try modifying it from there. You can get the .INF file at this link:

https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&DwnldID=23105&lang=eng&OSVersion=Windows%207%20(32-bit)*&DownloadType=%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09%09Drivers%0A%09%09%09%09%09%09

it is important to say that the operating system is the one that has been configured to set the RAM limitations on 32bit version and not the driver.

If you disable the onboard video all the features from this controller will also be disabled. You can use the discrete but not both resources at the same time.

[GBata]

Hello Kevin,

thank you for the answer, even if i'm not a driver developer, i would try to tweek the INF file.

Windows 7 don't have any problems with more RAM but the driver does. If i purge the driver and system boots with default VGA driver the notebook works just fine excepting all the graphic and energy saving features. If i remap all system memory to the area above the 4GB boundary (bcdedit option nolowmem), Intel driver doesn't start at all and notebook boots with the default vga driver. Is it possible to ask the driver developer, if there could be a work around for this problem, at least until i find a time to reinstall all my software and windows in 64bit version.

I suppose, the system assignes the memory to HD 4600 above the 32bit area but the driver or even the Windows API can not address it. But it would be better to know (also unofficial) opinion of the intel driver developer to this problem.

The descrete video can not be used because it depends on the correctly installed onboard driver (Nvidia Optimus or so). If somebody knows how to force the Nvidia GT 750m to work without HD4600, it would be appreciated. There is no bios option to disable the onboard video.

Regards,

Gena

[Kevin_M_Intel]

Hi Gena1,

What you are saying is not correct. The graphics driver does not limit the RAM capacity that can be used in an operating system.

This limitation is set by the Operating system only. You can check more of this information at the following link:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx# physical_memory_limits_windows_7 http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778%28v=vs.85%29.aspx# physical_memory_limits_windows_7

[GBata]

Hello Kevin,

I have virtualized my old windows 7 32bit and assigned more than 4GB to it. It works very smooth with the virtualbox display driver and (with known kernel hack) can utilize whole memory amount: Windows uses the PAE but limits the utilizable memory amount on 32 bit systems by some flags in kernel. Those flags can be removed via hex editor and all memory amount is available (http://www.raymond.cc/blog/make-windows-7-and-vista-32-bit-x86-support-more-than-4gb-memory/ Make Windows 7, 8 and Vista 32-bit (x86) Support More Than 4GB Memory • Raymond.CC). Only the hd4600 driver striked, so i gave up and moved to ubuntu. Now i can run my legacy windows within the virtual machine with full 4GB or even more ram.

Thank you for your assistance, i now 32 bit is all over, but it was worth trying 😉

Regards,

Gena