Skyrim Does Not Detect Dedicated GPU

[256bit]

On the Skyrim launcher, under the 'graphics adapter' section of the options menu, a very old integrated graphics card shows up, which is strange because it is not hardware I have installed (NVIDIA Geforce 8800 GS). I have a GT 555m on my computer with the most recent drivers, and it does not appear as a usable alternative in the drop down menu. The game runs at about 5 FPS on low settings with native res, and after investigating issue with MSI afterburner, the GPU usage will remain at 0% when Skyrim is running. As a control, I ran BF3, and the usage jumped up to around 90%-100%, showing that the GPU actually works.

After looking around for a fix, the two solutions I've found (and they haven't helped, in my case):

1. In the NVIDIA control panel, set TESV.exe to use the GPU, as opposed to what the program specifies - resulted in no change.

2. Right click the executable file, and select 'run with graphics processor -> High performance NVIDIA GPU'

I'm running an alienware 14x laptop, and the BIOS and GPU drivers are up to date.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated.