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Strix SCAR G533QR GPU not being utilized (Solved?)

NeedLongerNames
Level 7

EDIT - I got my father's opinion on this issue since although he hasn't worked with computers he is pretty handy with electrician-type work. He told me that the two cables may be ground cables that need to be in contact with the bare metal of the case for the system to work properly, so I fixed the loose cable firmly back into place with electrical tape and also inserted the right-hand cable into the slot that was near it (the end was previously hanging unconnected). Now the laptop seems to be working completely flawlessly, with even my earlier issues having seemingly disappeared. Only time will tell if this was the solution all along, but if so, then it seems like all my troubles with the display may have been caused by this one cable being improperly adhered to the inside of the case and slightly moving every time I changed the angle of the display.

 

Hello! This issue has a bit of history behind it, so I'll try to be brief as possible while still giving you all the necessary context.

I've had my Strix laptop since late 2021, and it was working perfectly up until around December 2022. At that point, it started refusing to boot up seemingly randomly, and would sometimes crash to a black screen while being used. After a lot of trial and error, I discovered that it would only crash within a few minutes of me moving the display, and the boot issues completely disappeared if I avoided moving the display for a day or two. This meant that for the laptop to work reliably, I had to carry it around with an open lid.

I took it to a couple local repair shops and neither of them could nail down what was wrong other than that it was probably something that necessitated replacing the motherboard and GPU, and so I just decided to deal with it for as long as I could. Fast forward to a couple months ago, and I decided to get an external display so that I could just keep the lid closed at all times except for when I need to hit the power button. This is how I've been using it ever since then, with nothing bad actively happening during that time.

Now, just starting a few days ago, all apps have stopped utilizing my GTX 3070. The laptop is effectively just running on integrated graphics right now, with most apps not even being able to recognize what GPU I have. For example, DXDiag only shows my integrated GPU, and games with a GPU selection option in the graphics menu only allow me to select "Microsoft Basic Render Driver." Task Manager, Device Manager, MyASUS, and NVIDIA Software can all recognize that I'm using a 3070, but everything about it is constantly at 0% utilization. It also seems like I can't use the laptop at all without an external monitor now, because it just powers on to a black screen otherwise.

Since then I've done a lot of Googling and tried any potential solution I found, mostly installing/uninstalling drivers in different ways, to try to find something that would help. I thought I might have stumbled onto a solution by reinstalling my AMD drivers *without* AMD Adrenaline and then subsequently doing a clean install of my NVIDIA drivers, since that led to everything working properly yesterday and the day before, but then I booted it up this morning and my GPU is back to being un-utilized.

I'm pretty inexperienced with troubleshooting the hardware side of tech issues, so I assumed I wouldn't be able to tell if anything was wrong if I opened up the laptop myself, but I finally decided to do that this morning and I found what you can see below. I know that when opening up laptops there will sometimes be cables that are easy to accidentally disconnect if you aren't careful, so I slowly lifted up the case backing while making sure to give the cables some slack, and I noticed that the cable on the left was just barely hanging on to where it was attached. When I set down the case against the wall as you can see, the cable completely detached from the last bit of adhesive that had been holding it on:

(1) Full view.jpg(2) Detached cable.jpg

Adhesive mark circled below:

(3) Place where cable was attached.jpg

Still-attached cable on the right for reference:

(4) Cable on opposite side for comparison.jpg

Where the other end of the detached cable currently is:

(5) Place where other side of cable is attached.jpg

Could this cable have been the source of my troubles all along? And if so, is there any way for me to properly re-attach it? The laptop still works as it did before I opened up the case, so the cable detaching at least didn't make anything WORSE, but I can't imagine this is the way things should be. If you've read this far, I'd appreciate any help you could give me.

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