Switchable graphics: Disable one/reduce heat?

[embolalia1187]

I have a Lenovo Thinkpad T500 with switchable graphics cards, dual-booting Vista and 9.04. One is an ATI "Mobility Radeon HD 3650", and the other is an Intel "Mobile 4 Series," according to lspci. I've been having problems with the laptop getting awfully hot and having poor battery life. I was talking with someone who thinks this is probably due to the ATI card having poor drivers that make it essentially run constantly.

If this is in fact the case, is it possible to simply disable it completely and use the Intel card? Or are there drivers that would make the ATI run better?

Thanks in advance!

[rishikesh]

In the BIOS, go to config, then go to display, and choose internal graphics card.

[embolalia1187]

Works pretty well. My Windows side got a little freaky for a bit, but it's taken care of. I'm also having a problem where, if I start it in its dock (with my monitor attached) there will be a few oddities. I have no idea if the are fixable.

First, the logon screen seems to show up on either my laptop screen or both screens, but never exclusively the external. Upon logging in, it will either give me a mirror screen (where both show the same image at the same resolution) or a blank laptop screen and a "signal out of range" message on the external. I can switch screens with Fn-F7, adjust the resolution, and return to the external, and it works fine. Even more odd is that, with the latter, none of the refresh options in the display settings manager will cause an error. Any thoughts?