Aspire M3420 Dual Graphics?

I have an Aspire M3420-UR20P Desktop running Windows 10 Home x64. Mobo AAHD3-VC BIOS P01-A1. It was advertised "AMD Quad-Core A10-5700 APU with AMD Radeon HD (7660D + 7470) Dual Graphics(2GB VGA Memory).

It has this exact same advertisment on the info sticker on the side of the case.

This tower indeed has A10-5700 APU with Radeon HD 7660D GPU and it indeed has discrete Radeon HD 7470 GPU however with the discrete installed the bios seems to automatically disable the APU's GPU making "Dual Graphics" an impossible feature to achieve. There is no option to bypass this in the bios setup. I've been all around Google for days troubleshooting this and I've gotten nowhere. How do I enable the APU's GPU so that I can use Crossfire? This feature was why I chose this PC. Is Acer guilty of false advertising here or am I missing something?

Thanks for any info...

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Karp-Acer_Retired

Please check link below.

http://acer.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/16073/~/how-can-i-incorporate-a-dual-monitor-setup-on-my-acer-desktop-using-an-amd

darrinfarmer

Thanks for the reply however this has nothing to do with my question. My question is not concerning dual displays. My desktop claims to support AMD's dual graphics feature and claims to have the hardware to do it but there is no option for this in Catylist Control Center (it should have an option under preferences for either "Crossfire" or "Dual Graphics"). It's as if the BIOS disables the integrated graphics with the card installed.

Karp-Acer_Retired

I apologize for my previous response. After reading your post again and doing some researching on this model, I understand your issue better. Make sure you are plugging into the onboard video port on the system, and not the port on the Radeon HD 7660D. If you are plugged into the onboard port, you should be able to go into the AMD control center and enable Crossfire on the tabs at the top. This option will only be present if you are plugged into the onboard port. If that does not work, please answer the questions below.

Did this previously work before Windows 10 was loaded on the system?
Also, did you upgrade to Windows 10, or install a retail copy?

darrinfarmer

OK, I did a clean install of Windows 10 Home x64 using the usb install media I made using Microsoft's tool immediately after purchasing this computer so I don't know how it behaved prior however this is very unlikely to be an OS issue because the on-board HDMI never outputs anything with the PCIe card installed. Here is a little more information:

I now have two displays each connected via HDMI. One is connected to the PCIe card one is connected to the Mother Board. I have booted this setup several times, the on-board port's display never displays anything from POST to OS. The PCIe card's port displays everything from POST to OS. I have tried troubleshooting as follows:

With only the on-board HDMI connected and the card installed there is never any display at any point after trying several reboots.

With only the on-board HDMI connected and no card installed everything displays correctly from POST forward. Reinstalling the PCIe graphics card returns the onpoard HDMI port to becoming full-time dormant.

I have searched the BIOS setup utility thoroughly and there is no option to enable or disable the integrated or PCIe graphics. The BIOS just seems to automatically make this decision on it's own. I'm also slightly confused because I know this is a UEFI mother board but this is the first I've encountered with a setup utility that is identical to the older Legacy BIOS.

I guess now this has evolved ironically into a dual display question as well since I can't seem to do that either lol. Sorry

darrinfarmer

Just a small update: I am able to use dual monitors attaching one to the PCIe HDMI and one to the PCIe DVI. I only need audio on one so this works fine for me for now. The only issue now is like I originally stated; I'm not able to use both GPU at once for Dual Graphics or Crossfire.

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