Ran into a strange problem today

I an using the 17 with a 980M. After installing some windows update, the video card can no longer be detected. I used windows recovery to recover the system to before the update was implemented and shut the computer down. After the restart, the graphic card can be detected again. The photos were taken of the bios screen before and after the windows recovery, notice the Discrete Graphics row. I am really confused as to what would cause the system to fail to detect a piece of hardware.

Edit: The problem is not with software. When I restart the computer, the system will no longer be able detect the graphics card, even if the graphics card was detected before the restart. Only when I shut down the computer and start it, the graphics card can be successfully detected.

 

I've had more or less the same on my previous system (m17x r3). Sometimes the GPU was detected in the bios and sometimes it wasn't.
I called tech support and a swap of the GPU solved the problem. So in my case it had nothing to do with a windows update or so (wasn't a software issue).
(Either way, I doubt how a software issue could affect whether the GPU is recognized in the BIOS?)

 

i seriously doubt that a windows update would cause something to happen at the BIOS level.

 

I think you are right. But I still don't understand why graphics card cannot be detected sometimes. When the system boots up with no detected graphics card, a restart would fix the problem, it seems very weird.

 

I'd look at cleaning the edge connector and reseating it. Sounds like a borderline connection and just the machine being 'warm' makes it work? Gotta be something 'out-there' and not software related.

 

Could be the card or the motherboard. Test the card on other laptops and try different cards on your laptop and see what might be the fault.

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