Artifacts while on Intel GPU - Acer 5745G

Hello
My laptop is a Acer 5745G



As seen on the image, those artifacts appear when the following happens while I'm using the Intel GPU (more battery time, less performance)
- I connect or disconnect the power cable.
- The screen dims (brightness gets decreased).
- The laptop wakes up from sleep.

But when I use the Nvidia GPU (less battery time, more performance) there are no artifacts and everything above works fine.

At first I thought something was wrong so I returned it to the store where I bought it and got a new one. I did a clean install (like before) of Windows 7 installed the latest drivers from Acer's site and discovered that the same thing happens.

If I download the latest drivers from Intel's site and install them the problem goes away. But I cannot switch between the Intel GPU and Nvidia GPU. Downloading the latest from Nvidia does not work since the installer does not find my Nvidia card, trying the "auto detect" tells me I have to download drivers from the laptop manufacture.

I believe the drivers that comes with the laptop are newer then the ones on Acer's site. I have sent Acer a support email, but god know when I'll get a reply from them.

Anyone with similar problems (have you fixed it)? Or if someone has 5745G laptop that has not had a clean install can check their driver versions. Mine are

Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator HD
Driver assembly version: 8.16.11.8899

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
Driver assembly version: 8.16.11.8899

I'm not sure. With the second laptop I tried just quickly and it worked there. But if it were using the Intel GPU or the Nvidia GPU I did not check. It's too late to rollback now since I've already removed the Recovery partition and there were no Recovery CD either.

Yeah, I've noticed that. I thought all laptops came with Recovery CD. I was wrong.


I've been thinking about going back to the store where I bought it and ask them kindly if I (or they) can check the drivers version and if artifacts appear while using Intel GPU.