I have tried other tech forums for this problem and to no avail (no replies for it anywhere I have posted), so maybe I should have come here to begin with.
My main problem is that one day my 8951g Ethos just switched itself to the onboard graphics and won't switch back. I have checked and googled all over the web to find out if a) my laptop has switchable graphics, and b) how to switch back if it does. I thought I'd found the answer, but after doing so, restarting, and Windows updating itself last night, it won't detect the card anymore. I know this because I downloaded Shadow Warrior on Steam (I am indeed a gamer) and it default it ran on high settings. I got 5-6 FPS (via fraps) at most. When I dialed down all the settings to their lowest, I still got 5-6 FPS and I thought something was wrong. When I went back to the graphics options I noticed the graphics detected were Intel's onboard graphics. I had no option in the menu to switch to the NVIDIA card. It's like it doesn't exist.
I went to the GeForce control panel and followed the instructions in the knowledgebase as noted above, and nothing happened. CPU-Z doesn't find the card, and neither does any other detection program I have. The same goes for dxdiag.exe. The latest BIOS update listed for my laptop model is from 2012, so that pretty much leaves flashing the BIOS out of the question as a solution since I got this laptop after the BIOS had been flashed to that version long ago.
This problem comes shortly after the internal data cable dongle to connect third-party/aftermarket HDDs internally stopped working...I only know this because I put the HDD in an enclosure after noticing it wasn't detected even in BIOS and I used eSata and it worked perfectly. I am not sure if these problems are related, if I maybe shook or messed something up while transporting the laptop or what, but the timing seems a little more than coincidental.
Is there a possible solution to this besides sending my laptop in for repair? Is this a physical hardware problem, firmware, or software?
