I have a Lenovo Y560 with Core i3-380M (Intel HD 3000 integrated) and HD 5730.
Now little story (you can skip this part).
It first worked on Windows 7 with original Lenovo drivers. Then I switched to Windows 8 and since the Lenovo drivers wouldn't install and Windows wouldn't let me switch between GPUs so I used Leshcat's UnifL custom drivers. Then, while playing Civilization V for the x time, artifacts started showing up. From small ones to bigger. Eventually I think I ran into BSOD. The GPU basically died. I tried reinstalling Windows 8, but the custom driver wouldn't work anymore so I couldn't even switch to integrated GPU only. That was something around April 2013.
Discrete GPU is basically dead, but the problem is, it still drains much power and generates a lot of heat all the time and right after boot, apparently operating with maximum frequency constantly. If I pick Discrete only option in BIOS instead of switchable graphics, I get no image even on BIOS level and I have to blindly switch it back.
I tried disabling it in Windows Device Manager, but it doesn't stop generating heat.
On Ubuntu, the GPU drains power as well. I have tried a clean install of Windows 7 today, but during installation of the AMD driver, I got a black screen and then BSOD, although the fans started working much quieter than usually, apparently AMD PowerPlay started working and set lower frequency. However, an LED indicating discrete GPU work was still on. I also tried hard disk recovery from DVD from Lenovo. The fans worked quieter as well, but there was just black screen. Tried to run in safe mode, but Windows couldn't finalize installation in it.
I found some solution for Linux, but didn't try it. Perhaps I would be able to perform something similar under Windows?
EDIT:
After Installing Windows 8.1 it must have updated the AMD driver because it left me only the black screen. So I installed Ubuntu and managed to power off the discrete GPU using echo OFF > /sys/kernel/debug/vgaswitcheroo/switch added to rc.local file.
My question stays: Can I somehow reproduce this solution on Windows?
