m15x Graphics Card Problem

Short version at the end!

Hi guys, I'm new to posting on this site, I read a lot here with regards to benchmarking and other help topics, but this is my first time posting.

I have an m15x area 51 alienware machine. its a t8300 processor with 2gb ram on a 32bit windows 7 os. the graphics card i believe (i will explain later) is an 8400m gt.

A couple of days ago I was having trouble with some malware, whenever I was clicking links on google searches it would redirect me to a dodgey site.

I did a windows update and ran an anti malware software program and used hijack to see if i could see and remove the problem.

After managing to solve the problem with the help of an online guide, I found myself without sound anymore, my realtek sound drives had vanished and there was no way i could get my sound back (i tried countless suggestions on endless websites and forums) Whilst i was trying different method of getting my sound back after a random restart my laptop would turn on - lights flash, fans kick in etc, but there was no picture at all, just a black screen, i thought it could be possibly overheating so I opened the back, gave the fans a good clean made sure everything was connected right and for good measure took the bios battery out to clear the bios settings in case something had changed in there. Afterwards i turned it on to find to find that my dedicated graphics card was no longer registering in device manager and my laptop was running on the integrated grahpics processor.

I decided a fresh install of windows was needed so i formatted, and installed windows 7 from scratch.

Now i have my sound back no problems but still no joy with the graphics card.

I've tried numerous suggestions from this forum and others to try and get it back, the only thing i can think of now is that there is a setting in the bios that has been changed to turn pci/pci-e slots off and with my current bios there are no changable settings for this topic. im running the x36 bios i beleive its called.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd be happy to try them, I've opened the case right after running my machine for an hour or so and the grahpics card does seemt o be slightly warm, not as hot as it would be if it was actually doing something, but not cold as though it wasnt getting any power.

I can sbumit system information checks upon request, just not sure which the best ones to submit are so please just request the one that will be most useful if needed.

Many thanks!

Short Version

Dedicated graphics card not showing in device manager or gpu-z.
Feels warm to touch so presuming its still getting power/running
Currently running off integrated graphics
Fresh install of windows so no malware or viruses etc causing the problem