GPU not detected in Surface Book 2

Anonymous

Hello MS support,

I bought surface book 2, 256 GB, NVIDIA GeForce 1050, 2GB model in November, 2017 and it worked pretty well until recently. I don't know why it stopped detecting the GPU. It's not showing up in the display adapters. I tried detaching and attaching the screen it gets detected for a moment and goes off again. I tried one solution offered in the Microsoft page to uninstall the driver (checking the delete software ) and restart the PC but with no luck.

Is it a hardware problem or a frequent software problem ? I will be really glad if you can provide me a solution to this.

Thanks,

Rajeev

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Anonymous

Hi Robert_at_lane,

I had the same problem as you the last days and I also tried the different solutions posted here in the community I nearly gave up but today I tried it the last time on a different way and it seems like it is working now. Graphics card is still there and isn't switching off anymore even if I use programs which need a lot of performance, also waking up is working super fast again without any problem and the power button is working as well. (I guess there is some issue with the power management because when my power supply was plugged in the power button and the startup worked, unplugged I could press what I wanted, only the detach button was waking up the device and the Nvidia cards always disappeared after a short time except when I was using Rhino3D plugged in with best performance)

Maybe my solution helps you as well....

Make sure that all windows updates are made and the latest firmware is installed, also the latest Nvidia driver (397.64)
Put the power settings to best performance (plugged in and in battery mode)
Open the device manager and keep it open
Unplug your SB2
Detach the tablet and wait for ~10-15sec until the system updated the connected devices (the device manager should flicker once or twice until it stops, maybe there is a sound as well)
Reattach and wait until the Nvidia card pops up in the device manager
Quickly make a normal shutdown as long as the card is still visible in the device manager
When the device is off, do a hard reset by pressing the volume up button and the power button for at least 20 seconds (Press and hold the volume up button before pressing and holding the power button)
The UEFI interface might appear, just exit and let the system restart.

These steps seemed to work in my case...I hope they help you as well...if there are any changes during the further use of my SB2 I will inform you.

Best regards.

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Anonymous

Thank you for your feedback. We have completed our investigation and have published a set of drivers and system updates which includes a fix for this issue. This is now available in Windows Update.

We recommend that you install the latest updates to keep your Surface performing its best. You can get updates now by checking Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update.

Update 8/1/2018: New drivers are available for Surface Book 2 15” PixelSense™ Display with NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1060
Update 11/28/201 8: New drivers are available for Surface Book 2 13.5” PixelSense™ Display with NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050

You can find the details of the latest update on our Surface Book 2 update history page.

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495 additional answers

Anonymous

2019-02-06T17:55:37+00:00
Make sure that all windows updates are made and the latest firmware is installed, also the latest Nvidia driver (397.64)

Put the power settings to best performance (plugged in and in battery mode)

Open the device manager and keep it open

Unplug your SB2

Detach the tablet and wait for ~10-15sec until the system updated the connected devices (the device manager should flicker once or twice until it stops, maybe there is a sound as well)

Reattach and wait until the Nvidia card pops up in the device manager

Quickly make a normal shutdown as long as the card is still visible in the device manager

When the device is off, do a hard reset by pressing the volume up button and the power button for at least 20 seconds (Press and hold the volume up button before pressing and holding the power button)

The UEFI interface might appear, just exit and let the system restart.
Worked for me! As a result it fixed a problem of Nvidia Control panel doesn't open on Surface Book 2.

Possibly to fix the problem is enough to complete step 8,9 only.
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Anonymous

2019-01-25T03:09:39+00:00

Having it updated does not help at all in this situation!
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Anonymous

2019-01-02T17:59:45+00:00

Hey WillQF,

Here is my experience. I am on my SurfaceBook2 right now and it is working. This actually isn't my SB2, it is a refurb they sent me after I send the first one in thinking they were going to fix it and send it back. This one isn't in as good of shape as mine was, and the keyboard isn't perfect, but there is nothing that can be done about that except to warn others not to send their SB2 back to MS unless you want a different one.

So... how am I still using the SB2 and what is it like?

First, I haven't CURED the problem, I've learned to manage the problem. From time to time, something will happen, (probably a Windows update or other change that I don't control or specifically ask for) and my NVIDIA GPU disappears.

Much like you describe, the computer seems to no longer know there is even an NVIDIA GPU in the box anymore. Device manager doesn't show it, and unlike some suggestions here, starting and/or running the NVIDIA EXPERIENCE program doesn't help, right clicking on the desktop and trying to open the NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL doesn't work because the computer doesn't think there is an NVIDIA card in the computer.

So how do you fix it. Almost always, for me, the answer is a hard reboot of sorts. This is easy enough to do... You hold the POWER BUTTON and the VOL UP BUTTON simultaneously for 15-20 seconds and wait for the SurfaceBook2 to reboot. Once you see the white Windows 10 logo you can let go of the buttons.

Once you have rebooted, you can right click the desktop and try to open the NVIDIA CONTROL PANEL and see if it is showing again. Alternatively, you can run DEVICE MANAGER and see if it is showing under DISPLAY ADAPTERS there.

If it is, then you may want to load the NVIDIA EXPERIENCE program or go to NVIDIA DOT COM and download the latest driver. This almost always works for me. Whatever driver is at the NVIDIA site seems to work fine, and seems to overwrite whatever has been installed without my knowledge.

One last though, if you are able to get the NVIDIA card working again, you might consider turning off automatic updates from Windows, or at the very least, select the option to require you to review each update before it is installed so that you can skip any updates that change the graphics driver in any way.

If this doesn't work, please let us know and I will try to dig deeper. I once was very knowledgeable on the subject as I dealt with it a lot, but I have not had the problem so much lately as I tend to keep the NVIDIA driver updated and try to dodge the Microsoft updates.

I do not think this is a hardware problem as much as it is a driver/update problem. It seems as if Microsoft has an issue that they have not acknowledged or understood and they KEEP ON pushing updates that cripple their top computers over and over again. I'm not sure I fully understand why or how this is happening over and over again, but I AM pretty sure it is a software/driver problem and not hardware.
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