Windows 10: No Graphic card under display adapters.

hi guys, i already tried this on the sevenforums but since i upgraded another (older) laptop to windows 10 with no problems, actually 2x faster higher fps on games and overall better feeling, i wanted to upgrade that laptop also.

So the windows 10 upgrade went perfect, then i clean installed windows 10 because i didnt need any items on that laptop. Its a Dell inspiron R15 N5110 i7 2,20hz 6gb. It has a intel Hd graphics driver and a Nvidia Geforce 525m on the mainboard. Bios updated to A11, graphic card not found in bios and under misscl. Devices in bios there are only 2 options

Here is where the long road of problems begin...
( FOR ALL INFO: Clean install windows 7 cant detect graphic card! - Windows 7 Help Forums)

So on windows 10 i still cant find the graphic card in device manager, but the weird thing is that some startup programs are only for Nvidia graphic cards. So i would try it out here, i;m willing to do alot, but preferable not open up the laptop. (Pretty amateur here)


I'm trying to fix this issue for the past couple weeks now... hours and hours of reading and testing. nothing worked. there is little information about this problem online, so really ANY HELP is appreciated really really really... just really appreciated.. *chuckle*Sleepy*Sleepy

:)

 

I am getting a 'Unknown Device' under 'Other Devices' section in 'Device Manager'.

This should be included in the Nvidia drivers for you graphics card. Open the device manager and under display adapters, which graphics adapter does it display?

 

windows 10 screen to big

no graphic card under " Display Adapters" No place to update driver

 

Looks like your laptop uses the infamous Optimus scheme: Intel graphics for low-performance use (for power saving), nVidia for high performance (with reduced battery charge life). Dell supports that (you showed your service tag as j0hhmr1).

I know nothing about Optimus, other than it exists.

Do the nVidia drivers for the 525m recognize the existence of the controller?

I'd suggest checking the BIOS settings, but I don't find what's available.

Sorry that I can't be more helpful. Optimus looks like one of those bright ideas that can turn into a pain in the backside when you're trying to do a fresh OS install.

 

Hi! thanks for the quick response
I've tried high performance for every status. The big problem is, the nvidia display adapter is no where to be found. Not in the bios, nor in the system specs. But if i go into windows system information i see kernel modes with Nvidia presence. I just dont understand where to look any further. I dont even think i got Optimus!

I got some screenshots from device manager in the link in the OP.

There are alot people with this exact problem that cant seem to get it working. Its almost impossible the card is dead, since the motherboard is replaced recently.

Thanks again, hope i will get the issue fixed someday. So any more thoughts ?

 

You say that the nVidia card would not be found inside the BIOS.

Do you know, if it has been there before?

If it was, then I would say the problem already is somewhere on the BIOS level (and it is not inside Windows).

 

Honestly.. i do not know. Its been a couple weeks now this issue has risen for me and its only since then i knew anything about BIOS. But now after weeks of "study" i have alot general knowledge, and i assume it should be listed there before.
I know it was installed on my windows 7 before i upgraded. Rollback is not an option, because i reinstalled windows 7 clean, then upgraded, then clean with W10 again.

I saw a post somewhere about reflashing the bios with the same version it already has, do you know how to do that?

 

I think that the problem is not within Windows:
Even if you had no driver installed for the card, the device manager should still list it in a way and even if it's only as "Unknown device". Even in that case, it would still display a kind of hardware identification string, which you could view in the card's properties inside the device manager and with this string you could use Google to get the information that it is exactly this card.
The fact that the card does not even show up as an unknown device makes me think that there is something wrong with it on a level, which Windows cannot influence.

This - the fact that the card is not recognized at all currently - also is the reason why changing things in the nVidia tools on your PC or changing things with the nVidia startup programs won't change a thing.

Something else is not getting completely clear to me: In the sevenforum you wrote that you had the motherboard replaced. Has the card ever been recognized on the new board? Or has it not?
And when exactly have you done the BIOS upgrade? Was that the point in time after which it has no longer been recognized while it had been before?

 

Yes the card has been recognized on the new board. I updated my BIOS to latest version before i clean installed windows 7. i didnt turn any updates on at that point of time because i knew windows 10 was working way better. W10 would install the most basic and known drivers that it recognizes and so on..

so working Nvidia discrete graphics card. Bios update -> Clean win7 -> upgrade win10 -> clean win10 -> not to be found anywhere.

EDIT:

I see alot of "motherboard recources" under system devices, does it have anything to do with that? that windows doesnt see it as a faulty hardware but just doesnt recognize it as use-able?

 

So chronologically you have this:

New motherboard, card is recognized (this is in Windows 7 - however, I still think that what you have done in Windows should not be relevant).
Then you do a BIOS upgrade.
Then you do things in Windows (new install of Win7, upgrade to Win10, clean install of Win10; I consider all this to be irrelevant).
Then you notice that (beginning at an unknown point in time after you got the new motherboard) the card is no longer recognized.

Note that flashing the BIOS can, if it does not work correctly, make your computer unusable. However, with these facts, I think it might be an idea to undo the BIOS update. After all it has been working before that upgrade.
Another idea would be to just live without that card (if you do not actually need it and if you do not want to have the danger of the BIOS downgrade going wrong).

That is a good question...
Since you have the correct drivers on your system, the device manager should list the card with its proper name in the proper category. Another option would be that it still lists the card in the correct category, but lists it as "broken" in whatever regard. If you did not have the correct drivers (obviously not your problem), then the card would be listed as "Unknown device" - but not under "motherboard resources". After all, the things in the "motherboard resources" section have been recognized as something and I don't know, why a faulty graphics card should not be recognized as faulty, but instead as something completely different.

 

Something else you might do before you change things with the BIOS:

There is a tool called Speccy, which you can download for free from Speccy - Download
It will list all the hardware in your PC; well and this should also include the graphics card. My guess is, that if the card does not appear in Windows at all, that then it also does not show up in Speccy, but who knows...

Second idea: You could try with a bootable version of Linux on a USB drive. I have never done that myself, but the following would be my idea for this: Boot the PC from that USB drive. You will then be inside this Linux system. Then there should somewhere be some kind of hardware manager. Look into it to see, if the card gets recognized there.

 

Hi! Thanks for the big reply and the info thats so nice.

i downloaded speccy and sadly it didnt see the nvidia chip. Or atleast i dont know the full name of it, nor did some device sound familliar to it. I booted with linux lime(something) a while ago, and sadly also there it didnt find any devices.

Doing stuff with bios that can brick my laptop im just too scared to do, especially how u make it clear that it is a possibility.

The frustrating thing is, i have a feeling im coming closer to the problem. There were some problems with nvidia cards when windows 10 just launched and there are some hotfixes. I've tried downloading it from the geforce website but sadly it didnt work.
the "motherboard resources" tabs are strange though. I could write down the hardware id's 1 per 1, but i wont know what it means...

I really, really know this CAN be fixed. I just lack the experience and the real knowledge of how to do it.
There are people who fixed this trough changing registry keys from 0 to 1. (i dont know what it means, but they say it works for some people) I'm just too scared too brick it totally.

I'm a casual gamer, so i can play low end League of Legends in medium low graphics. But i would like to play it without lagging or stuttering for once.. :-(

So again guys, thanks for the help so far! But im not giving it up yet! so please, any thoughts, SHARE. ​



EDIT:
In device manager i have about 6 PCI Express Root port's, 5 Motherboard Recources of which some dont have a driver.

 

The properties of my only shown display adapter are: Intel(R) HD Graphics 3000, hardware id =
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV)0116&SUBSYS_04CA1028&REV_09
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV)0116&SUBSYS_04CA1028
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV)0116&CC_030000
PCI\VEN_8086&DEV)0116&CC_0300

Someone?*Sick*Sick*cry

 

That's one argument more for the "it's not a Windows problem" list.

When you have the hardware IDs, all I do with them is put them into Google and see, what it is. That's all I do to find out. The ID you posted above belongs to an Intel HD graphics card. You can try that with the elements in the device manager, of which you think they are somehow strange.

That means that they changed a value inside the Windows registry. There is no need that you do something like that now, but if you still have the website where someone writes that doing such a change helped him, I can have a look at it...

 

A stupid question: have you tried running the driver installer for the nVidia graphics device? I don't recall reading that you explicitly did so.

You may get a "no nVidia graphics card detected" message or something of the sort, but it should do no harm.