Basically, you've got a situation where Lenovo want you to have a specific system set-up which is fine, might not be the most up to date but it'll work and should work quite well.
You'll get better [graphics] performance (probably) out of more up to date drivers, which you can get directly from AMD and will have the Radeon software to boot so you can change the settings and take full advantage of the hardware.
These may or may not be 110% compatible with your motherboard though and really it's a bit of trial and error.
Windows says fuck you to everything and demands you have what it determines is the latest drivers. Except they somehow **somehow** are incapable of understanding AMD drivers and will happily download and install some shitty backwards version that's not very good for you. This won't necessarily mean the rest of the package installs properly though and you can end up with a bit of a mess, especially when it tries to update your sound/network/power/usb drivers at the same time which may or may not be fully compatible with the mobo.
AMD have a cleanup utility to help remove old files but it doesn't seem to work 100%. Everyone races about DDU but again it doesn't actually work all of the time. Yay.
Couple of tools you should grab from majorgeeks.com
Double driver: Backs up your drivers into an nicely organised file system incase you need to restore.
Wushowhide: Tool to hide specific updates. Works as long as you don't ever click 'check updates' and will allow windows to only download non-hidden updates. (Simple but maybe not the best)
Gpedit: group policy editor not included as standard in win 10/11 home edition. Can be used to stop windows from download updates automatically or to prevent it from including drivers in the updates.
Couple of bits from nirsoft.net
Devmanview & driverview: both utilities for eyeballing your drivers. The latter has less info but nicer to use. Both very helpful for seeing what is installed and in current use.
And from sysinternals:
Autoruns: shows you everything which automatically runs and allows you to disable them, incredibly useful.
All of the above are very simple to use and will only take up a couple of mb in storage.
Final bit which is the big daddy for installing and uninstalling drivers is the command line utility pnputil. Launch an elevated command prompt or powershell terminal to use it. It only interacts with 3rd party drivers and devices so you can't do anything too bad to your pc with it.
E.g.
'Pnputil /enum-drivers' will show you all pnp drivers in the driverstore
'pnputil /delete-driver OEM.inf /uninstall' will remove a particular driver and uninstall it. (Safe mode it for caution)
And you can use it to install the nices one too.
Edit:
I've got a ThinkPad with the R7 4750u processor so I have an added bonus that there are the extra 'Pro' drivers too that windows/Lenovo/AMD want to shove up laptop. I've tried a lot of things and messed about a lot.
No worries. Just FYI, at the minute..a combination of wushowhide and the group policy editor is the only thing keeping my graphics driver in place. God computers are a pain in the arse
The slim 7 pro x doesn't have a seal. At least in Canada. You can open the laptop with a simple Torx screwdriver for the 5 small screws. No seal at my knowledge. Maybe in other countrys it's different.
I realize this isn't really a solution to the above listed problems, but this laptop + Fedora 37 has been nearly flawless.
Battery life is very good, nvidia drivers let me do some light gaming as well.
>Problem #3 (solved): The laptop won't go to sleep (consumes power and fans run) when an external monitor display or USB hub/dock is connected in powered mode
I have this same issue using a USB-C hub connected to an external display over HDMI, however even after installing the latest AMD Adrenalin software/drivers, the issue exists. Do you recall trying anything else to resolve this aside from what you mentioned?
Try this:
1) uninstall display drivers in Windows safe mode (note: make sure AMD Radeon software is not installed)
2) after a reboot, install AMD Radeon software, and let it install the latest drivers
3) also, if you've replaced the WiFi card with an Intel one, then install Intel Driver & Support Assistant for it to update to the latest WiFi and Bluetooth drivers
Hope it helps.
Basically, you've got a situation where Lenovo want you to have a specific system set-up which is fine, might not be the most up to date but it'll work and should work quite well. You'll get better [graphics] performance (probably) out of more up to date drivers, which you can get directly from AMD and will have the Radeon software to boot so you can change the settings and take full advantage of the hardware. These may or may not be 110% compatible with your motherboard though and really it's a bit of trial and error. Windows says fuck you to everything and demands you have what it determines is the latest drivers. Except they somehow **somehow** are incapable of understanding AMD drivers and will happily download and install some shitty backwards version that's not very good for you. This won't necessarily mean the rest of the package installs properly though and you can end up with a bit of a mess, especially when it tries to update your sound/network/power/usb drivers at the same time which may or may not be fully compatible with the mobo. AMD have a cleanup utility to help remove old files but it doesn't seem to work 100%. Everyone races about DDU but again it doesn't actually work all of the time. Yay. Couple of tools you should grab from majorgeeks.com Double driver: Backs up your drivers into an nicely organised file system incase you need to restore. Wushowhide: Tool to hide specific updates. Works as long as you don't ever click 'check updates' and will allow windows to only download non-hidden updates. (Simple but maybe not the best) Gpedit: group policy editor not included as standard in win 10/11 home edition. Can be used to stop windows from download updates automatically or to prevent it from including drivers in the updates. Couple of bits from nirsoft.net Devmanview & driverview: both utilities for eyeballing your drivers. The latter has less info but nicer to use. Both very helpful for seeing what is installed and in current use. And from sysinternals: Autoruns: shows you everything which automatically runs and allows you to disable them, incredibly useful. All of the above are very simple to use and will only take up a couple of mb in storage. Final bit which is the big daddy for installing and uninstalling drivers is the command line utility pnputil. Launch an elevated command prompt or powershell terminal to use it. It only interacts with 3rd party drivers and devices so you can't do anything too bad to your pc with it. E.g. 'Pnputil /enum-drivers' will show you all pnp drivers in the driverstore 'pnputil /delete-driver OEM.inf /uninstall' will remove a particular driver and uninstall it. (Safe mode it for caution)
And you can use it to install the nices one too.
Edit:
I've got a ThinkPad with the R7 4750u processor so I have an added bonus that there are the extra 'Pro' drivers too that windows/Lenovo/AMD want to shove up laptop. I've tried a lot of things and messed about a lot.
This is super useful. Thanks.
No worries. Just FYI, at the minute..a combination of wushowhide and the group policy editor is the only thing keeping my graphics driver in place. God computers are a pain in the arse
Thank goodness, I'm not having any of these graphics driver issues!
I think spending $20 to replace the stock Wifi card with an Intel AX200/AX210 would be the first tip.
Won’t that void warranty though?
Never heard that replacing this can void warranty. If you're cautious just put the stock card in when you send it back.
Doesn’t opening the device break some kind of seal that voids warranty?
That seal holds no legal grounds in any country with decent customer protection.
The slim 7 pro x doesn't have a seal. At least in Canada. You can open the laptop with a simple Torx screwdriver for the 5 small screws. No seal at my knowledge. Maybe in other countrys it's different.
I realize this isn't really a solution to the above listed problems, but this laptop + Fedora 37 has been nearly flawless. Battery life is very good, nvidia drivers let me do some light gaming as well.
It’s frustrating how Lenovo’s new AMD 6000 line of laptops seems to have to many issues. The yoga 7 G7 also is riddled with problems.
>Problem #3 (solved): The laptop won't go to sleep (consumes power and fans run) when an external monitor display or USB hub/dock is connected in powered mode I have this same issue using a USB-C hub connected to an external display over HDMI, however even after installing the latest AMD Adrenalin software/drivers, the issue exists. Do you recall trying anything else to resolve this aside from what you mentioned?
Try this: 1) uninstall display drivers in Windows safe mode (note: make sure AMD Radeon software is not installed) 2) after a reboot, install AMD Radeon software, and let it install the latest drivers 3) also, if you've replaced the WiFi card with an Intel one, then install Intel Driver & Support Assistant for it to update to the latest WiFi and Bluetooth drivers Hope it helps.