Graphics Card not being detected?

[Zyerz]

Hey, some of you might have already seen a post about a month ago where I wondered why I couldnt run DDO with DX11 and max graphics, since my laptop is an alienware m14x... Well, the graphics card is an Nvidia Ge Force 555M, which I hear is a decent graphics card, not the best, but good enough to play most games on decent graphics. My OS is Windows 7Home Ed.

Problem is, in my nvidia control panel, I chose the option for max graphics and maximum performance, with dx11 installed and all... Yet, games dont let me play at max graphics.

Also, games wont choose the nvidia card as the default, and wont allow me to choose dx11, it wont even appear, whereas in my old windows vista vaio, that had a really crappy videocard, could run dx11... With an inmense amount of lagg of course... But it would still run it!

I also just got Elder Scrolls 5 for PC, and it wont let me choose my Nvidia card, it simply autochooses the Intel HD graphics 3000, with no option for the other card... So yeah, my computer is being picky about graphics... Anyone have an idea why?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.


PS

I play DDO on dx10 on modified semi-high graphics, with frill and dx10 shadows disabled, because these cause me a heck load of lagg, especially in tree areas and places with lights. In town though, I can max out these and suffer no lagg whatsoever. So I'm really confused.

[fco-karatekid]

Hey, some of you might have already seen a post about a month ago where I wondered why I couldnt run DDO with DX11 and max graphics, since my laptop is an alienware m14x... Well, the graphics card is an Nvidia Ge Force 555M, which I hear is a decent graphics card, not the best, but good enough to play most games on decent graphics.

Problem is, in my nvidia control panel, I chose the option for max graphics and maximum performance, with dx11 installed and all... Yet, games dont let me play at max graphics.

Also, games wont choose the nvidia card as the default, and wont allow me to choose dx11, it wont even appear, whereas in my old windows vista vaio, that had a really crappy videocard, could run dx11... With an inmense amount of lagg of course...

I also just got Elder Scrolls 5, and it wont also let me choose my Nvidia card, it simply autochooses the Intel HD graphics 3000, with no option for the other card... Anyone have an idea why?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

I HATE when developers "help" me - I'd rather they let me float around a bit and fix it properly than they guess from thousands of miles and too many variables as to what to do on my machine.

That rant over with - I saw a thread that I cannot find ATM that called this out as a known issue with Alienware laptops. The suggested workaround was to "activate" the 3d card first, THEN launch DDO and tell it to refind the card.

IIRC, the instructions were launch something that initiates the 3d card (my suggestion for something uber lightweight that will accomplish this is the Windows version of GLXGears. While it is running, launch DDO, go in and autodetect THEN. According to the instructions, that should write the proper video card to the config and you can alt tab out and kill the 3d application.

If this is wrong, I apologize - going off memory.

[Zyerz]

Found the problem... Took me a while of investigation and all, but I found out that whenever I tried to update drivers, my computer would try to update a graphics card I dont have installed instead of the one I own. It was trying to update a Geforce GTX something, which I don't own. So I manually edited a few things, and now DDO, Skyrim, in fact, all my games run at full capacity. Hell, even my computer itself runs faster.
I can now play DDO on Dx11 with Ultra High Graphics with shadows/frill enabled. yay!


Only problem I gotta resolve is the heat... Bought a fan, it still heats up like hell. Any suggestions?

Only part that really heats up is the exhaust port zone in the back, everything else is at room temp.