Projector sometimes not found when connecting TV through through HDMI

I connect my TV to my laptop through HDMI occasionally. I have both an intel HD 3000 integrated graphics card and nvidia card in my laptop. For a while it worked fine with no issues. Recently this is not the case.

Here's the problem:
I plug in the HDMI cable, choose to "extend" my display or "projector only", but the TV does not get found and remains without a signal. If I choose "projector only", windows replies that a projector could not be found.

If I then reinstall my intel integrated graphics drivers and reboot, HDMI will then sometimes work. It appears to be truly random. If it doesn't work by reinstalling the latest drivers, uninstalling then installing an older driver will sometimes give it the kick that it needs to detect my TV again. The problem with these workarounds is that when I restart again, the problem will come back. Reinstalling the drivers only works until the computer is restarted again.

This is a real pain and I don't know what to do anymore. It seems that it is related to the drivers, as when this is the only thing that is changed, can bring about a temporary fix, although not in all cases. I get the feeling that if I reformatted and reinstalled it would be fixed but I really can't afford to do that. I'm hoping there is a less extreme way forward.

Hi
Have you tried another cable?

This cable works for other computers and for my computer on other displays.

It's only an issue for this laptop on my TV.

whats the make and full model number of the laptop?

Dell l502x.

I've tried using the official graphics driver from the dell website and that worked, but then when I restarted I had the same issue again.

Maybe the port is faulty. See if running a live cd like Ubuntu to see if it does the same thing