17 r3 (2016) dGPU/AWGA issues, NVIDIA control panel only showing 3d settings, how to use dGPU?

Hi, 

How exactly can you tell that it is not running your dGPU anymore?

Well, I'm not an expert, but I'm assuming since the NVIDIA Control panel only shows 3d settings, it's not utilizing my dGPU.

Secondly, when I use my alienware graphics amplifier with an external monitor attached while using my laptop monitor at the same time, and go to display settings to view the two different monitors settings, I press "Detect" and it says it cannot detect multiple monitors. Neither can detect the other for some reason (it is in extended mode), since both screens are being run with different hardware for some reason. Initially I thought it was an amplifier issue, since originally i had issues installing the right drivers to use the amplifier, but quickly I realized that it's my laptops inability to use NVIDIA hardware for some reason. 

Thirdly, normally in NVIDIA control panel you can change your computers refresh rates and resolution if it is running, and when my amplifier is plugged in with my external monitor, I can change my refresh and resolution, and cannot do it on my laptop screen (whether plugged into the amplifier or not).

Ok this should be enough proof. I plugged in my amplifier today, and it won't even display on my external monitor and won't show that it exists despite being plugged into my amplifier.

I went into device manager to see if maybe it wasn't running through the amplifier, but it shows that it's running my 1070 driver, and not my dGPU which is my 980m. I decided to try to force it to run off the 1070 so i disabled the intel 530 driver and I got this message

and the only display I'm running is my laptop display....

that should be enough proof to show that it's not running either my dGPU or eGPU.

Sorry, maybe I'm confused with how things are supposed to work.

Can you tell me how to switch from using my iGPU to using my dGPU/eGPU on my model? I can't seem to find out how, and doing so should fix my issues if I'm right.

i am not sure if this is related to your problem but i bought a used alienware 13 r1 with the 1440p screen for quiet a bargain a few weeks ago.what i notice is that the dgpu(gtx 860m) wont even run on battery power yet it is shown in bios and device manager.only way to get it to work is plugging in the power adapter and restarting the laptop.i am not sure if the previous owner uses a G-amp on it.i am about to try a clean install of os to see if i can the matter to be resolved.

Have u try a clean install?i am about to do it.just need to finish backin up few games and data

99% of the time my laptop is plugged in before i start it up....thanks for trying to help tho

I tried the resetting the PC option in windows 10 where it saves your files, but re-installs everything and removes all programs you wouldn't get in a clean install, and it didn't solve any of my problems...all it did was delete over 2 months of my notes for class and now i'm kinda screwed for school...yay.

So, if you scroll through the forum, you'll see that plenty of us have had the exact same issue at around the same time (We can't switch to NVidia, massive slowdown on programs that require GPU), it started back in March, coincidentally, just when some warranties expired.

I was just told by a representative that apparently the motherboard might be damaged, which, to be frank, it's very disappointing and it says a lot about the quality of this product (It's all happening with the exact same model! At this point I feel like we should escalate this), a clean install won't help at all, I was told that you need to get it physically diagnosed by someone from Dell and see where things go from there, and if it's a motherboard failure like I was said, it might be something expensive to repair, personally, my system is barely a year old, I have never owned a system that has had massive hardware failures this quickly, and my system is always on a cooling base and it's given regular use.

Hello Dio85,

Thanks for the reply. If that's true, then that's very dissapointing news. This laptop was a replacement laptop from Dell due to my original one becoming unusable near the end of my warranty so they sent me this one, which means I have no warranty on this laptop at all.

It is very disappointing since this unit isn't even 1 year old....

Hopefully they can figure something out that they can do by updating software instead of just saying "oh well you might as well just buy our new laptop so we won't put effort into fixing your old laptop"

It is extremely disappointing, I thought this brand was renowned but in my 32 years, I have never had a system that has had these massive hardware issues after a little more than a year (And saying that I've been gentle with the system is a massive understatement), and needless to say, I need my system to work and I'm unable to do so because it's practically crippled.

I'm 100% positive that you'll be asked to send it for a diagnostic and then will be given the choice to replace the motherboard, which might end up being extremely costly, I am finding myself in the very same situation, same model, same symptoms, the fact that you received a replacement one because your previous one was unusable just makes me regret more and more choosing this brand.

Since it appears to be a big hardware issue, I seriously doubt it's something that can be fixed by a mere software update, most of us were asked to do a clean install, update drivers and whatnot and that didn't fix a single thing, this definitely appears to be a massive qc issue with this particular model, I was really expecting a quality product so I'm extremely disappointed, and if I end up sending my laptop to get repaired and end up shelling out extra money, who can guarantee me that I won't be dealing with the same issue after some time has passed? I'm very hesitant to trust Dell now, once again, a system that is practically new should not have something as big as "Issues with the motherboard"

Originally it was a great product, but from what I can tell is that when Dell purchased Alienware they started moving from quality products to cheaper asian substitutes that are more prone to failure.

But the worst part is that if we do have to replace the motherboard is that it'll cost way more than necessary since it looks like both of our laptops have soldered CPU's and GPU's. Which means instead of just replacing a motherboard, they'd have to replace the cpu and the gpu, which is costly. ( https://na.alienwarearena.com/ucf/show/229156/boards/technical-support-1/ForumPost/the-mini-technical-support-faq-for-yo… )

The other thing that's disappointing is that the alienware rep responded pretty quickly on this thread then just disappeared without a word :/

I had also heard great things about the brand, but I ended up being massively disappointed with my product and the customer support, what you say about Dell purchasing Alienware makes an awful lot of sense. In any case, all of your system's symptoms are 100% what my system is going through, down to the extremely low performance on programs that use GPU and the error messages from trying to run applications like the 3D Vision Photo Viewer, so I can guarantee you that it has the exact same motherboard "issue".

And indeed, if we have to replace the motherboard, that's effectively being almost as expensive as buying a whole new system, and worse of all, if this happened once, who's going to guarantee us that we won't have to deal with this again?

This is the model I bought, and the amount of bad reviews are more than average 
Amazon.com: Customer Reviews: Alienware AW17R3-4175SLV 17.3-Inch FHD Laptop (6th Generation Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, 1 … 

The frustrating part for me, is that I got this for my last quarter of college, it was expensive but an investment since I planned to use the system to do freelance work, 3D modeling, motion graphics, etc. and now I ended up with a super expensive paperweight.

I don't know how qualified are the representatives in here are, but I was basically told "unfortunately we can't help you", I am not happy at all, not with customer support nor with the absolutely deplorable quality of the product and I'll definitely escalate this, I want a fully functional, quality product because that's what I paid for.

luckily i still have my older aw 17 with the 4800mq and gtx 770m which can be upgraded and easy access to internals.i was thinking of getting the new 17 but looking at how they limit internal access and upgrade-ability i bought a use aw 13 instead since its dirt cheap.fixed the issue on my alienware 13 r1 btw.turns out i have an overlapping g-amp software and previous owner didnt realise this.once i remove it the dedicated gpu start to function normally again on battery.

naz30 wrote:

fixed the issue on my alienware 13 r1 btw.turns out i have an overlapping g-amp software and previous owner didnt realise this.once i remove it the dedicated gpu start to function normally again on battery.

that's awesome.

well done my friend.