Just received my P170EM, GPU not showing up

I've tried to solve this on my own to no avail; I need some help. Here are the issues:

In the Device Manager under Display Adapters it shows "Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000" and "Standard VGA Graphics Adapter", which has the little yellow triangle with exclamation point with the Code 10 device cannot start error. Drivers indicate that it's up to date. I'm guessing this Graphics Adapter is supposed to be my GTX670M?

Also in the Device Manager under Other Devices it shows "PCI Simple Communications Controller" with the error message Code 28 drivers not installed. When attempting to update drivers I get "Windows could not find drivers for the device".

When I click on the Nvidia Control Panel, I get the message "NVIDIA Display setting are not available". I'm sure this is due to my computer not "seeing" my Nvidia GPU.

One of the first things I did when getting this was to update all drivers, should I have not done this? I feel like I might have caused the problem because I think I remember seeing my Nvidia GPU at one point, but not anymore. Does my computer run the software that turns off the GPU to run the integrated graphics to save power? If so I don't want it to decide for me, I want to control it.

I have not restored my computer yet, and hope to avoid that if possible. The only programs I've installed are Google Chrome and various programs from Ninite.com. Thanks for reading

 

You would have optimus to switch between the dGPU and iGPU. Just get rid of the nvidia drivers and reinstall. Easier than doing a complete restore.
Use something like driversweeper to properly clear the nvidia drivers.
edit: add any missing drivers from the driver disk you should have, or get them from the driver sticky.

 

I feel ....... so ....... stupid. I went through the Device Drivers disk that was provided, and sure enough both error codes disappeared and my dGPU shows up! It should have been the first thing I tried, instead I assumed it was provided only for when restoring my computer. Thank you!

Side question: can this Optimus Technology be customized? If so is there any reason to?

I've restarted my computer many times today for various reasons, and holy crap what a fast boot up! I think the longest part is entering my password.

 

I'm not sure about optimus. Don't have it myself, although someone here can advise. Good to hear you sorted the problem though. What spec do you have anyway?

 

Specs: Clevo P170EM | i7-3610QM CPU | 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 RAM | GTX 670M GPU | Windows 7 Home Premium OS

I would have went with the AMD 7970 GPU but I needed this laptop as fast as possible. I'm sure the order line is pretty long, and I would have been at the back. I plan on upgrading it in a year or so, hopefully whatever Nvidia kicks out then (GTX 680M?) will live up to the hype. The ability to upgrade was a major factor in the purchase of this. I'm liking it really well so far, only problems have been self induced. Haven't stressed it with any games yet.

 

ability to upgrade? well, seeing how things go with the HM series atm i wouldnt be surprised if u could just "upgrade" to 7970M / 680M and thats it any gen after that would be exclusive for the EM successor with Intel Haswell CPU and chipset

cheers

 

Or any other 7000/600 series updates if they come about. You never know.
Spec looks good by the way. Ssd in there? That would be a decent upgrade.

 

What a crappy situation. I just signed that petition, and I hope a BIOS update in the future of HM owners. This is important for us EM owners as well.

I settled on a Seagate 8GB/750GB Hybrid drive. I'm thinking I should have went with a 120GB SSD but my build price had already climbed a little higher than I anticipated.

 

The only thing you can do for optimus is to assign programs to either dGPU or iGPU. And keep in mine if you want to completely turn off your dGPU in battery mode you must not leave any GPU monitoring programs on as any slight usage including dGPU sensor reading will cause the GPU not to turn off and drain battery life sooner also leave the PhysX option to Auto.