I have a T410 with an nVidia NVS 3100M, this is not a hybrid system, there is no Optimus. (No option in the BIOS for Optimus, lspci in linux as well as the Windows device manager only show the nVidia)

Using lspci I see the GPU as a present device, however, I can not, for the life of me, get any video driver to work that will let me start an X session, every time X craps out with the error (EE) No devices detected.

I have tried the nVidia binary blob, (with nvidia-config, made sure no nvidia support in the kernel), I have tried nouveau, I have tried nv, I have even tried generic vesa, nothing will work.

When I compare the dmesg that I get when loading the nvidia kernel module, I see that it is missing some lines compared with another system that also has an nvidia card, specifically the line mentioning the GPU name (3100M) is not there.

I have checked every option in the BIOS, there is nothing to control except for the BIOS video output port, which is set to the LCD panel.

I have no idea anymore what the problem may be, or even how I can diagnose this problem further. Any help will be appreciated.