Nvidia GPU not being recognised by games or system.

Question

Hello,

For the past few months now, my Surface Book 3's GPU (Nvidia 1660 Ti) has been very inconsistent. Some days it works fine, other days my system and my games (mostly Steam) don't recognise that it exists, even though I know it does. I've tried practically everything that I've searched for, like updating my drivers, clearing out some space, changing my computer settings, shutting down the computer, but none of these have worked.

As you can see in the screenshots below, my Nvidia GPU does not come up on Task Manager, Device Manager, or DirectX Diagnostic Tool.

I would appreciate a proper fix that preferably isn't a hard reset. It's annoying not being able to play games that I've paid for properly.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Hi kaitak2,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community. Apologies for the the inconvenience this has caused you. I am a consumer myself also and I understand how frustrating it is for us not to have the worth of our hard earned money that we spent to invest on our devices for day to day use.

I would like to ask if whenever the NVIDIA graphics is not detected or does not show up, does the keyboard or base of the device stops working also like the keys, touchpad and etc.? or is it just the NVIDIA graphics that stops while the other function of the base continues to work fine?

Is your Surface Book 3 running on Windows 10 or Windows 11 already?

Whenever the NVIDIA adapter shows up, may I know which version does it have? To check, double-click the NVIDIA adapter in Device Manager then go to its Driver tab and look for the Driver version.

For now, kindly try to toggle the dGPU option in the UEFI setting to off then on. See this page for the steps on how to get to the UEFI settings: How to use Surface UEFI (microsoft.com). Once you are on the UEFI page, go to Devices then look for the dGPU option and toggle it off. Go to Exit > Restart now. Boot back to the UEFI settings and toggle the dGPU option back to on then observe if still the issue persist.

If in case the issue persist, please try running these steps below (if not yet tried):

1: Check for Windows Update

Go to Windows Settings > Update & Security and select Check for updates

Make sure all updates need are installed including Optional updates

2: Update drivers and firmware

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.

After downloading, run and install the .msi then Restart. 

3: Run DISM and SFC command

Open Command Prompt as Administrator

Type and enter these command below individually:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealthDISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealthDISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealthSFC /scannow

Once the commands are completed, restart the Surface

Hoe this helps.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 2

Hi kaitak2,

We have noticed that you haven’t replied to our first 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.

Hope to hear from you.

Kind regards,

Marrion

Answer 3

Hi kaitak2,

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