Help! I broke Optimus GPU Switching!

I installed the new beta drivers (290.53), hoping for better Skyrim performance, but they caused a lot of problems for me in that game, so I chose the rollback driver options through device manager. I opened "Uninstall Programs" from the control panel, and I still saw the new drivers, so I uninstalled them and the programs associated with them through there. Then I realized that the Nvidia settings icon in the system tray was gone and Windows was looking for drivers, so I went to Nvidia's website and downloaded the 285.62 drivers. Now my PC won't switch to the GeForce for gaming even though I have my games whitelisted. So far I've tried Skyrim and Mass Effect. The only way to get the GeForce to work is by making it the preferred graphics processor in the Nvidia control panel and that isn't working for Skyrim.

EDIT: I'm thinking I must have uninstalled something I needed that was not re-installed when I installed the 285.62 drivers. How can I get back whatever I lost? I'm freaking out. I can't play Skyrim at all. It will only use integrated graphics.

 

reinstall intel graphics drivers from theyr website first, with latest ones, then install nvidia drivers using clean install. Should make it work.

 

Okay, so its detecting the GeForce, but now my frame rate is terrible. I'm getting the same frame rate I was getting with the beta drivers.

Well now it's just back to how it was. Skyrim isn't detecting the GeForce even if I set it to preferred.

 

first off, you don't quite tell what you're doing, just some results by random. for skyrim to use nvidia card you gotta whitelist TESV.EXE otherwise even if setup detects it, it will use intel for the game.

did you try right clicking and selecting nvidia as the card to run with?

 

I thought I explained what I did in my first post. Well after that, I followed your instructions and installed the intel drivers, then the nvidia ones (285.62). That seemed to work initially, but then it was back to how it was before.

I never right clicked and selected run with nvidia, but I did whitelist TESV.EXE. I was, however, unable to whitelist the launcher - not sure whether that matters. I also made nvidia the preferred gpu to use as default from the nvidia control panel, but Skyrim was still trying to run on integrated graphics.

I finally installed this the driver found here and it fixed the problem: Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States] I actually found that installer on my harddrvie - I don't actually remember how I got it. I had to google the driver installer's filename to find that webpage. lol

It, along with the other things, fixed the problem, but my PC acts a little differently now. When I output to the TV and I change the resolution, it doesn't change the size of the picture as it would before. It keeps the image filling the whole screen if I set my TV to "Just Scan" whereas before I had to keep adjusting the level of zoom if I changed my PC's output from say 720p to 1080p. This isn't a problem... it's actually more convenient - I just hope it works on my TV in my college dorm... (I'm home on break right now)

Thanks for your help and sorry if I was not able to explain it very well. I was freakin' out lol

 

as long as it works i guess, though it is weird that latter drivers from nvidia didn't work while fossil ones from dell did... since you say you got optimus i assume it is an R2? unless its an R1 switching should work fine with latest drivers from nvidia...

 

Ignore this post. I got it working perfectly.