Let me quickly explain. Last night, I was having issues with starting CS2 as it kept messing with my screens resolution every time it started (it starts on my external display). Would move the actual positioning of where Windows thinks my external display is, and would be enlarged so couldn't play the game.
In a hurry, I asked you know who (I'm sorry). CrapGPT told me to open Nvidia Control Panel, go to the laptop display and turn 'Perform Scaling On' to 'GPU' instead of 'Display'.
After that it told me to go to Alienware Command Center and enable dGPU. None of these worked anyway, as per usual with CrapGPT. So I did some tinkering myself and eventually got the game displaying correctly.
Anyway, before I went bed, I disabled dGPU in the Command Centre. Figured I'd like to keep my settings as usual and felt everything CrapGPT told me to do was unnecessary. When displaying it, there is a message that says reboot required. I was shutting down my laptop for the night so figured upon the next boot up everything will be fine.
So woke up today, powered on laptop, Alienware logo appears, then BAM, as soon as Windows starts, my laptop screen goes completely white/greyish blank with a black strip running across it horizontally. Luckily I was able to use my external display to navigate. I shut down, powered the laptop back on again, and same thing happened. Panicking I checked some settings, went into the Alienware Command Centre and I noticed the "Reboot is required" message was still there underneath the settings to enable/disable dGPU. So I went ahead and gave it an actual reboot instead of just powering down and powering back on. That worked. My laptop screen came back on.
However all wasn't resolved. I was now noticing my laptop screen very slightly jittering. Clearly this wasn't right. I thought the only thing I need to do is clear up whatever CrapGPT told me yesterday. So I went into the Nvidia Control Panel and tried to turn 'Perform Scaling On' back to 'Display' for my laptop screen. And now my laptop screen isn't appearing in the Nvidia Control Panel at all! Only my external monitor.
I hesitantly went back to CrapGPT to throw some verbal abuse at it to let off some steam while I sat here shitting my pants at the possible thought I've messed my laptop up. It told me to turn off variable frame rate as a solution. I didn't even try. At that point I just closed CrapGPT because I seriously can't deal with its useless responses.
So first thought was to enable dGPU again. I figured the laptop screen should surely show up on the Nvidia Control Panel once I make sure it's directly using the GPU. So I reenabled dGPU, gave it a reboot, and checked Nvidia Control Panel.
At this point, the jittering has stopped (hooray), and my laptop screen is now showing in the Nvidia Control Panel. However, when looking at the dropdown for 'Perform Scaling On', the 'Display' option is no longer there. Only 'GPU' is listed there now.
I could probably just leave this as it is now. But I want to get my laptop back to the state it was in before I stupidly consulted in a delusional schizophrenic robot to help me. Why is 'Display' missing from 'Perform Scaling On'? I can't disable dGPU otherwise the laptop screen isn't recognised by Nvidia Control Panel anymore and I have that jittering problem.
Please can someone who knows their sh*t help me with this? This is my first laptop like this. I've never owned anything with a dedicated GPU inside of it, so this is all new to me. I just don't want to mess with anything. Just want to get things back to how they were and move on. Thank you all.
Honestly I'd start by downloading Display Driver Uninstaller and using that to nuke all your graphics drivers. Make sure you've downloaded a copy of both your iGPU and dGPU drivers before you reboot into safe mode, then do that, use DDU to nuke everything, install the latest drivers you just downloaded, and then reboot into normal mode.
That'll remove all config changes to the drivers and reset them to their factory default condition.
I'll be honest I feel a bit uneasy doing that. If I have to, I'll do it. I guess main concern is should everything be fine as it is? I don't have the jittering problem anymore, it's just that now my laptop display seems to be forced to have to use dGPU instead of hybrid. I kind of wanted it on hybrid, but if it's ok I'll just leave it.
My laptop is 100% of the time plugged in. Maybe very rarely I'll use it unplugged if I'm at someone else's house or something. But I'm not the type to take my laptop down to the cafe and use my laptop. Not with this laptop anyway. I live in a pretty rough part of London, and feel uneasy just taking my laptop out with me in it's Alienware bag as it's hardly inconspicuous as to what's inside of it lol.
But main priority, is there any major disadvantages to leaving it on dGPU? I'm not a gamer, I only play the occasional CS2 in between breaks to pass the time. I bought this laptop for my business so primarily use it for work only.
It's completely safe to do it. With the drivers uninstalled, it falls back to basic VGA until you get the new ones on there. It's my first step when seeing weird driver issues etc.
If you're running constantly plugged in, dGPU mode is fine. It's how I run all my laptops, but I accept that battery life on gaming laptops isn't a thing
I may give it a go then. I'm on a deadline at the moment so won't do it right now. But I guess you don't learn until you do it, so will give what you've said a go at some point. Where do you get the Display Driver Uninstaller from?
https://www.guru3d.com/download/display-driver-uninstaller-download/
Cheers
Just an update for you:
I reinstalled Intel and NVIDIA drivers. Laptop internal display still doesn't show in the NVIDIA control panel in Hybrid mode, only in dGPU mode.
The only monitor that shows in the NVIDIA Control Panel in Hybrid mode is my external monitor. Part of me is starting to wonder if my internal monitor ever did show in the control panel in Hybrid mode, and maybe it was always my external monitor and I mistakenly thought it was my internal monitor.
Not sure if you would know if that is the case or not. Either way, everything is working perfectly fine so I'm not concerned.
If anyone else has the same laptop (Alienware Aurora 16) and has an external monitor, I would love to know if your internal display shows in the NVIDIA control panel when in Hybrid mode.
Thanks again.