Display adaptor confusion

[WhiteD3]

I think (hope) this is a "woods for the trees" thing but after many hours of self support and research I'm still lost.

Long story short, Photoshop CS5 64 bit has decided to crash constantly. Its been running fine for 6 months on my Asus N73SV laptop running W7 64 bit. The event log is below.

But that is not my question (although I'll take any suggestions :angel:)

Want I want explained is what graphic driver and adaptor I should be using (seeing). The laptop specs state NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 540M with 2GB DDR3 VRAM.
The device manager shows two adaptors.

https://www.aulro.com/afvb/images/imported/2012/06/628.jpg

I gather the Intel one is on the motherboard and the Nvidia on a separate card.

The display properties (right click on the desktop) shows an Intel HD 3000.

I'm expecting to see the GeForce® GT 540M as the adaptor, not the Intel.

Totally confused. Any enlightenment welcome.



Faulting application name: Photoshop.exe, version: 12.0.4.0, time stamp: 0x4d9d8f8e
Faulting module name: Photoshop.exe, version: 12.0.4.0, time stamp: 0x4d9d8f8e
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000c35752
Faulting process id: 0xef0
Faulting application start time: 0x01cd4b8ae1378908
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS5 (64 Bit)\Photoshop.exe
Report Id: 41bc437d-b77e-11e1-af40-14dae9ad37b3

[Ferret]

These machines 'hot' switch the display adaptor depending upon the application being used. For applications just requiring low graphics grunt it will use the intel graphics chip to save power - hence when you right click on the desktop you see properties for the intel graphics chip.

When you fire up an application which requires serious graphics power the GT540M comes into play at the cost of increased power consumption.

I think it is up to application in use to request which graphics processor it needs to use but there is a setting somewhere which you can change to configure which graphics card to use and when, ie an 'auto' setting and a 'manual' setting. When in 'auto' the application controls which graphics card to use, when in manual you control which graphics card to use ~ something like that.

There should also be a little light on the key board to indicate to you which graphics card is currently active.

CS5 should be using the NVIDA card so if it is crashing maybe the graphics processor is not switching from intel to NVIDA correctly or maybe you have inadvertently disabled the 'hot' switching setting.

My son has one of these machines, I don't regularly use it so I working a bit from memory about how it all hangs together.

[incisor]

you using a Microsoft driver got the gt540 or the amd driver?

there were some buggey version of the driver around that were giving that sort of error.

go here and download the latest

Drivers - GeForce (http://www.geforce.com/drivers)

[dmdigital]

What Inc has said Plus I'd also reset Photoshop's preferences and see if that fixes your other issue.
To do this:
Windows: hold the Ctrl+Alt+Shift keys down and click on Photoshop
Mac: hold Cmd+Opt+Shift keys down and click on Photoshop
You will be prompted about reseting the preferences.

[WhiteD3]

Thanks guys.

Ferret, what you've said make sense. I'll go looking for the "switch".

Dave, I downloaded the latest driver from Asus but when I followed your link and did the auto discover it came up with a different rev driver. I'll install it and see what happens.

Derek, I reset preferences, disabled OpenGL and other things. In the end I did a new install and still have the problem.

[WhiteD3]

Dave, you're a genius. Installed the driver and all is good.

Ferret, I found the GPU light on the keyboard. It's supposed be white for Discrete GPU and blue for On-board GPU. It's permanently off and the manual is gives no other instructions. More searching for me!

[Ferret]

Ferret, what you've said make sense. I'll go looking for the "switch".

I'm pretty sure the 'switch' is on the NVIDA control panel. If CS5 is not using the 540M you may have to manually add it to a list of applications which is supposed to use the 540m when CS5 starts.

Again, I don't have my sons machine in front of me to confirm everything exactly but this is my memory of how things work.

There are many stories on the internet about the operation (or non operation) of the 540M and I do remember there was some initial doubt on my sons machine that the 540M was actually coming into play when it should but after a few hours of trying different things out we were happy all operated as it was supposed to and has been trouble free since we first bought the machine back in Dec2011.

There are also reports on the internet of difficulties of get CS5 to operate with video card acceleration (CUDA etc.) but I'll leave you to follow those up. I don't use photoshop so have no direct experience with it but if you look around google with the words "CS5, CUDA and enable' you will find CS5 supposedly needs some tweaks to take advantage of what the GT540M has to offer - see Video Cards for Adobe Premiere CS6, CS5.5 and CS5 (http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/PremiereCS5-2.htm) for example, and in particular the section titled Special Notes for Laptop Owners (http://www.studio1productions.com/Articles/Nvidia.htm) in this article which will guide you through setup of the 540M.

This maybe why CS5 is not is not automatically making use of the 540M - it does not actually make any requests to use accelerated graphics functions so the 540M never comes into play.

[WhiteD3]

Thanks Ferret.

I added the GPU Gadget to the desktop and assigned it to the Nvidia card. It picks it up, shows the 2 GB, etc but no action.

I did go into the Nvidia settings as you suggest and assign GPU to CS5. Having read the Optimus article I'm pleased to say that I'd already done what they suggest. Not a total dope after all!

I did some research on the CUDA thing when I got the laptop and all is good there.

I also did some research on the GPU indicator specific to this model machine and there's loads of posts on line about it not working. Both my boys have Asus N53 laptops and the GPU light works fine on them.

I'm going to see if I can find a 3D movie or game demo and give it a blast to see if the GPU gadget shows any life.

Thanks for your help. Much appreciated. :)

Mark.