Surface Book 3 dGPU is visible under Device Manager but invisible to Task Manager and Other Applications

Question

I have a Surface Book 3 that has an Nvidia Quadro RTX 3000 with Max-Q Design as its dGPU. I am on Windows 11.

Currently, the graphics card is visible under Device Manger with the message "This device is working properly", but is invisible to the Task Manager and all other programs that seek to use the GPU. The Intel integrated GPU does show up for such programs and in the Task Manager.

I have tried:

-Updating Drivers (through Windows Update, GeForce Experience, and from the Nvidia site, both the experimental and non-experimental branches, including clean installs of these drivers through Nvidia and with DDU)

-Uninstalling and Reinstalling Devices (in Device Manager)

-Detaching and Reattaching the screen, cleaning ports.

-Enabling/Disabling dGPU in BIOS

-Closing all Nvidia processes and restarting them in Services and in Task Manager.

-Running the Surface Diagnostic Toolkit

-Dxdiag cannot detect the GPU (only sees the integrated one)

I cannot access the Nvidia Control Panel, doing so creates the following error message in Event Viewer

Faulting application name: nvcplui.exe, version: 8.1.940.0, time stamp: 0x61b5030e

Faulting module name: nvcplui.exe, version: 8.1.940.0, time stamp: 0x61b5030e

Exception code: 0xc0000409

Fault offset: 0x00000000002947f5

Faulting process id: 0xa00

Faulting application start time: 0x01d880e380bba5dd

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel_8.1.962.0_x64__56jybvy8sckqj\nvcplui.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel_8.1.962.0_x64__56jybvy8sckqj\nvcplui.exe

Report Id: fade5040-8be5-45d2-9700-77793e90c0f9

Faulting package full name: NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel_8.1.962.0_x64__56jybvy8sckqj

Faulting package-relative application ID: NVIDIACorp.NVIDIAControlPanel

I also cannot access the Nvidia RTX Desktop Manager, doing so claims "NVIDIA RTX Desktop Manager cannot run" and:

"Minimum system requirements to run the application:

-NVIDIA RTX / Quadro GPU

    *-NVIDIA display driver*

    *-Windows 10 and above"*

All of these things should be satisfied. I cannot find a good reason for things to be going awry.

EDIT: I tried going to Windows 10 and the same error occurs. Alas, this should not be this hard!

Answer 1

Hi Jolfs,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. I'm sorry to hear about the dGPU issue that you are having on our Surface Book 3. We appreciate the efforts and time in doing the troubleshooting prior to contacting.

It really is weird that the NVIDIA graphics shows it is working fine in Device Manager but not being detected in Task Manager or other applications. May I what is the Driver version of the NVIDIA graphics that is currently installed on your Surface? See this under the Driver tab of the NVIDIA graphics properties in Device Manager.

Kindly try first running the System File Checker Tool on the device then see if the issue persist. See: Using System File Checker in Windows (microsoft.com).

If in case the issue persist, proceed in downloading and installing the MSI driver package for the Surface Book 3 by following the steps below:

Check what is the current OS Build of your Windows version by going to Settings > System > About. 

Go to Download driver and firmware for Surface, choose Surface Book

Then click the link next to Surface Book 3 then click Download on the next page

Choose the .msi file that matches your current OS Build and click Next

Open Device Manager, expand Display adapters

Uninstall the INVIDIA graphics adapter

Note: If prompted with a checkbox stating "Delete the driver software for this device", check the box then hit Uninstall. 

Run and install the MSI downloaded earlier then Restart

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 2

I have been trying to reply to this forum for the last day and a half and the "submit" box keeps graying out when I press it (and does not send the comment).

Unfortunately, I lost the exact details I had provided last time.

I tried the steps you provided and thought they might have worked since "sfc /scannow" did detect corrupted files and correct them (I had these listed before but they are unfortunately gone now), but they must have applied fixes for something else because my GPU is still inaccessible. I tried the extra steps afterward, but they also did not resolve my issue.

EDIT: I also thought I should mention that whenever the Device Manager does show the GPU, my computer slowly gets really hot to the touch (uncomfortably warm against skin) and loses its battery really fast. I can't confirm for sure that the GPU being visible in Device Manager (and enabled) causes this, but that's the correlation I've noticed. If I am right, I do not know what the GPU is doing to cause it to burn up like that, but it's nothing productive.

Answer 3

Hi Jolfs,

First of all, I would like to apologize for the very long delay in getting back and I'm sorry to hear that the issue persist even after the steps suggested. Thank you also for the response on our post. For this case, I would recommend that we proceed in reinstalling Windows on on the device using the Surface Recovery Image through USB Recovery. This option will reimage the entire device and reload Windows including the drivers and firmware. It is the most complete form of Reset and it will wipe out everything on the device. You will need also a 16GB/32GB of flash drive that must be formatted into FAT32 prior to downloading the Recovery Image. If you like to try, you can follow the steps provided below:

How to Download, Create and Use a USB recovery drive

To download the Recovery Image:

• You'll another working device running on Windows.

1. Visit the page to Download the recovery image for your Surface
2. Sign in with your Microsoft Account
3. From the list of Surface devices available, select the device that you need a recovery image for
   Please note that while you will only be presented with devices that are currently registered on your account, you will also be presented with the option to get an image for a different type of device. If you try to use this option, you will be prompted to enter the serial number for that device
4. Download the recovery image using the button on the page
5. When the download bar pops up at the bottom of your screen, save the file in a location you will be able to find it.

 Format USB Drive:

• Note: Formatting a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.

1. Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your PC.
2. From the desktop, open File Explorer
3. Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format
4. Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start
5. Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive
6. Tap or click OK when the format is complete

Create a recovery drive:

1. On your Surface or PC, open recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it or right click then select Extract and then Extract all.
2. Select the USB drive you formatted earlier for the location and click Extract.

Use a USB recovery drive to reset your Surface:

1. Shutdown the Surface
2. Insert the USB recovery drive into the USB port
3. Press and hold the volume-down (-) rocker
4. Press and release the power button
5. When the Surface logo appears, release the volume-down (-) rocker
6. Surface will start the recovery software on the USB recovery drive
7. When prompted, choose your language options and keyboard layout
8. Select Troubleshoot
9. Select Recover from a Drive. Choose Remove Everything and Fully Clean the Drive. Recovering this PC.
10. If prompted, select Repartition the drives
11. If prompted for BitLocker Key, tap Skip this Drive

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 4

Hi Jolfs,

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our last response yet. We would like to know if you still need some assistance on the concern raised. If yes, please reply back for us to further assist you. Were you able to proceed with the reinstallation of Windows as suggested?

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 5

Hi Jolfs,

We still have not received any response from you since our last follow up message. Please do not hesitate to create a new thread for further concerns. We hope that the issue you reported to us has been resolved. We personally understand that finding time to work on this matter can be a little difficult to manage.  Thus, we would like to let you know how much we appreciate your patience and most importantly the time you've dedicated to getting a resolution for this issue of yours.

Thank you for spending time here in the Community.

Kind regards,

Marrion