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July 28th, 2016 10:00
Alienware 14 (2014) Discrete Graphics card issue
So yesterday I was not at my Alienware 14, and I heard a restarting sound. I came back to it and it had an error message saying "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown." I told it to fix the problem and it just closed and nothing happened. Later that day I tried to open a game, and it was running super horribly. It usually runs solid 60FPS. So I tried another game to see if it was just that one, but they were all lagging horribly. I tried to open the NVIDIA control panel to see my GPU settings, but that wouldn't open, nor could I right click on my desktop (if I did, the desktop froze and I had to end the explorer.exe process and restart it every time from task manager.) I checked in Device Manager and the NVIDIA GPU wouldn't even show up there, it only had the Intel Integrated one. I looked up some fixes online and I saw something about updating the BIOS, so I did that. Went from A08 to A09. Since then it worked fine, just like it did before. Earlier this morning I randomly got some error saying "could not eject NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (which is my GPU) This device is not removable" or something like that, but I have never even opened my computer on the bottom, let alone tried to remove the GPU. Then I tried to open another game, and it told me my PC didn't meet the minimum requirements to play it. I had obviously played it before, though. Basically it told me my GPU was ancient and could barely run it. I checked and my computer was still recognizing the NVIDIA GPU. So I went into GeForce Experience and updated the drivers. It prompted me to restart the PC, so I did. After that, the PC went blackscreen for a couple minutes, so I hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and it started booting up fine. Since it rebooted, it's having the same problem as yesterday with not being able to detect the GPU or something. When I try to open NVIDIA control panel from the start screen, nothing happens. When I open GeForce experience, it says no drivers could be detected for my PC. In device manager, only the Intel GPU shows. Obviously since my BIOS is the latest version now, I can't use that fix again. I tried pressing Fn+F5 and it told me, "Your graphics card is automatically selected to provide optimal performance" or something like that, with the only options being to never show that message again or to X it out. If it helps, I have an external laptop fan, an external Lenovo monitor attached, and a Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Chroma and a Razer Mamba Tournament Edition plugged in. I normally have the displays extended, but since this started happening I just close the laptop and only use the external display to see if it helped. But it didn't. Here are some specs as well if they help:
Alienware 14
Windows 7 Home Premium Service Pack 1
Intel Core i5-4200M @ 2.5 GHz
8GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M (not being recognized, currently only Intel Integrated HD Graphics 4600 usable)
A09 latest BIOS
DirectX 11
Default laptop display 1366x768, external monitor 1920x1080
I'd really prefer to not have to take my computer apart so I'd like to avoid suggestions involving that unless it is the absolute last resort. Thanks


Eimy_B
6 Operator
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4.4K Posts
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July 28th, 2016 13:00
Hi,
Try a system restore back the day when this started or better before. To do this follow the steps below:
1.Log on to your computer as an administrator.
2.Open the Control Panel by clicking Start, and then clicking Control Panel.
3.Click System and Security, and then click System.
4.Under the Control Panel Home menu, click System protection.
If you are prompted for an administrator password, type your password. If you are asked for confirmation, provide confirmation.
5.Click System Restore.
Recommended Restore is the default choice. This restore is the most recent restore point and the best place to start.
To choose a different restore point, click Choose a different restore point, click Next and then click a restore point.
6.Click Next, and then click Finish to confirm your restore point.
To start the restore process, click Yes.
Once the system restore is complete, your computer will restart.
Let me know!
GameKing956
2 Posts
0
July 28th, 2016 15:00
Ooh... I didn't see that answer before I fixed it. Sorry about that. But turns out I could just flash the latest BIOS again and it came out fine. Thanks for that suggestion though, I feel like it would have worked too