Suddenly can't use my ATI Mobility Radeon HD 6550

Hello everyone,
I'm having some problems activating my other with my other video card on my HP laptop (with Windows 7 64 bits). I have been able to switch between both of the - my ati mobility radeon hd 6550 (which i want to activate) and my Intel HD Graphics.
There is an option to manually change between the cards on my desktop, the ATI Catalyst Control Center (version 2010.0909.1412.23625). It is currently on High-performance GPU, meaning the Radeon video card should be active. Yet, when I try to play a game or when I check my current computer technical details (using Can You Run It), the computer acts as though I'm currently activating the Intel card. Furthermore, when I disconnect my laptop from the power supply, the Catalyst Control Center asks me whether I want to switch graphic cards or not. If I do agree, or if I change the graphic cards manually using the ATI Catalyst Control Center, the ATI Catalyst Control Center icon dissapears from the icons on my taskbar, and an Intel icon appears, allowing me to change some of the properties of my Intel graphic card, but not to switch between the cards. There is no way to get my computer to use, or even pretend using like it did, the Radeon graphics card.
Now, I tried installing the Radeon's card's driver, but there's an error message when i try.
Before I change the graphic cards, when the computer appears to be activating the Radeon card, it appears as though both of the card's drivers are installed, but if I switch to the Intel one, the Radeon card's driver doesn't appear in the device manager.
Now, it worked a few weeks ago, but it didn't work today. I tried restoring to the most previous checkpoint, which was 4 days ago, but all that did is make my computer appear as though it's running the Radeon graphic card.
Now, I suspected that my graphic card has been disconnected, but I'm not sure just where it is, and when I tried to look for it, I figured it isn't worth the risk in case i don't succeed, so i want to make sure that's the problem.
Any suggestions?
 
What is the exact model number of this laptop? It seems to me that what ever graphics choice gave you the best video performance, this would be the only video you would ever use. Why the need to switch graphics adapters in the first place?
 
Because, when I use my intel HD graphics, my batterly life goes from 1h to about 2.5h, so I can see why I need to video cards. But I can't switch between them.
 
Hi there,
I think it might have accidentally happened that the driver of ati in device manager is disabled.
It once happened to me. I had stopped all the startup programs and the tray icon disappeared.
I had intel switched on.It was not changing even after doing various things.Then suddenly a thought came to my mind that drivers can be enabled and disabled from the device manager,
I checked it out there and ati was disabled, enabled it and booom it was working like before.
 
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