Solved! Nvidia GPU (GTX 1060 6gb) not detected by system

Marlo Walker-Lacroix

Junior Member
Jan 18, 2023
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Around about a week ago I purchased a new laptop (Microsoft Surface Book 2). Upon opening the laptop, I straight away installed GeForce experience and downloaded the new game ready drivers for my GTX 1060 6gb dedicated gpu. However halfway through installation I accidentally closed down geforce experience and when I rebooted my laptop, I found that my dedicated 1060 gpu was not detected in task manager so I went over to device manager and my gpu was not listed under display adapters only my integrated Intel graphics. I checked the box saying display hidden items and sure enough my nvidia gpu showed up under display adapter greyed out. So, I right clicked it and uninstalled the drivers and restarted my laptop. But now It doesn't show up anywhere in device manger, nothing with a yellow mark next to it in other devices or PCI slots in system devices. And GeForce experience won't detect my gpu and when I try to install drivers manually from Nvidia site, I get error saying driver not compatible with this version of windows.

My laptop is 64 bit Windows 11 Pro Version 22H2
OS build: 22621.1105

Windows update does not prompt to reinstall driver when I check for updates and drivers are not automatically installed when I restart the computer. I have no system restore points before the incident as well.

I have been thoroughly searching through many forums and yt videos to find solutions, but nothing is working, and it is really disappointing since it is a brand-new laptop. I even tried "Reset this PC" and gpu is still not detected. Any help would be most greatly appreciated.
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
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This will strip out all of the drivers and allow you to try again.

The GPU might be under "unknown devices" while it's not configured correctly. A quick test would be putting Linux on a USB and booting to that and checking "lspci" for output indicating it's just a software issue in Windows.

I hope you didn't spend too much on a GTX1060 though. I picked up a 12700K/RTX3060 last spring for $1300 If you want more info here's a link.

Of course I bought it with the intent of ripping it apart and upgrading a few things.
 

Marlo Walker-Lacroix

Junior Member
Jan 18, 2023
6
2
36

This will strip out all of the drivers and allow you to try again.

The GPU might be under "unknown devices" while it's not configured correctly. A quick test would be putting Linux on a USB and booting to that and checking "lspci" for output indicating it's just a software issue in Windows.

I hope you didn't spend too much on a GTX1060 though. I picked up a 12700K/RTX3060 last spring for $1300 If you want more info here's a link.

Of course I bought it with the intent of ripping it apart and upgrading a few things.
Thank you for the reply, I have already tried running DDU in safe mode, i still run into incompatibility error when trying to reinstall and it still doesn't show in device manager. Under the other devices tab in device manager there a long list of maybe 9 "unknown devices" none of which have a yellow mark next to and i have tried uninstalling them all and restarting but doesnt fix. How would I go about putting linux on a usb and booting into that because I have not yet tried that.
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
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1,118
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Rufus - https://rufus.ie/en/


Just download Rufus and then the ISO for Ubuntu and burn it to the USB drive and boot from that. If Ubuntu sees it then it's a Windows issue. If not then there's something else going on due to the borked install.

If it's not showing up due to another issue you could pop the case open and pull the batteries the main and the BIOS one and let it sit for a minute and see if it brings it back to life. Also, instead of "reboot/restart" actually power off the laptop.
 

In2Photos

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2007
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Perhaps when you reset the PC you also removed various chipset drivers that control the PCIe lanes? Download all of the driver's from the manufacturer's website for your laptop and install them 1 by 1 until you get rid of all the unknown devices.
 

Marlo Walker-Lacroix

Junior Member
Jan 18, 2023
6
2
36
Perhaps when you reset the PC you also removed various chipset drivers that control the PCIe lanes? Download all of the driver's from the manufacturer's website for your laptop and install them 1 by 1 until you get rid of all the unknown devices.
I have already tried going to Microsoft site and installed the 1.5GB driver package for the Microsoft Surface Book 2 and running that. It did not change anything.
 

In2Photos

Golden Member
Mar 21, 2007
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Last edited:
Solution

Marlo Walker-Lacroix

Junior Member
Jan 18, 2023
6
2
36
This is interesting here: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...d/95166ab6-92ba-46bb-a454-b37ed760cea5?page=3

One person said that their charger was the issue.

Some other possibilities. https://www.thewindowsclub.com/surface-book-not-detecting-nvidia-graphics-card

This post seems to indicate that newer drivers may not work with the Surface 2.


SIR, YOU ARE AN ABSOLUTE LEGEND. The windowsclub link you sent completely fixed the issue. I commend you, you have saved me hundreds as I was thinking about taking to a repair shop. The issue was fixed by removing the screen from the keyboard and refreshing device manger then reattaching it and refreshing again and "3D video controller" showed up under "other devices". I then restarted my computer and now installing my drivers works and doesnt show error. Thankyou so much for your help, and I appreciate everyone else help along the way aka Tech Junky :)
 

Tech Junky

Diamond Member
Jan 27, 2022
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1,118
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Detachable keyboard causing a sync issue. Assuming the GPU resides in the keyboard side then. The one and only surface I had always the sp3 pro and didn't think of this as being much different. Learned something new.