Nvidia Display Settings are not Available

Zeddexx

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Dec 4, 2015
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So, it seems that certain parts of my PC cannot detect my graphics card. I have an Nvidia Geforce GTX 850M card and Windows 8.1 64-bit. Everything was fine until I decided to update to the latest graphics driver, which, in this case was 359.06. In the middle of installing the update, my computer crashed and I got a blue screen of death with the error message being "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION". I left home and came back hours later and started up my laptop with no issues. However, when I started up a game, I got horrible performance. I concluded that my laptop had decided to use integrated graphics, so, I tried to open my Nvidia control panel and I got an error message reading "Nvidia settings are not available, you are not currently using a display attatched to an Nvidia GPU" and the Nvidia control panel wouldn't open. I followed the steps on this forum post to try and fix it:

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-2037914/nvidia-display-settings.html

but that didn't work either. I even tried reverting to a previous driver, but that didn't help at all. So now I am stuck with a PC that can't run anything above 5-10 fps. When I press windows+r and go to dxdiag, there is no mention of my graphics at all until the 3rd tab ("Render" tab). I'm not sure if it is supposed to be like this. Also, if I go to my Geforce Experience, I can install drivers, but it says that my system lacks the Geforce 850M. Is there any way to fix this? Also, my laptop model is an ASUS ROG G56JK if that helps.
 
Solution
I have linked below a webpage on the "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION " error message. I am guessing that the driver that you tried to install is corrupted. You received the error message basically because Windows 8.1 timed out trying to use the new driver. There is a possibility that a drive is also at fault.

The steps that you referenced above are for a desktop not a laptop. The BIOS for a laptop is different in the way it uses Display adapters.


http://windowsreport.com/dpc-watchdog-violation-windows-8/


I would try completely uninstalling the graphics driver, then reinstall it. If that doesn't work, I would try updating the BIOS to the latest version and then try installing the driver again. The next thing I would try is going...

Zeddexx

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Dec 4, 2015
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I don't think that the driver is the issue. When I go the the device manger and look under display adapter, I can see both the integrated graphics and the Nvidia graphics cards. The integrated graphics have a down arrow on the icon indicating that it is disabled. When I go to the Nvidia Graphics properties, I can click update drivers and it says that the drivers are up to date. I have cleaned out all drivers and reinstalled them. I am still unable to use my Nvidia graphics card.

 
I have linked below a webpage on the "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION " error message. I am guessing that the driver that you tried to install is corrupted. You received the error message basically because Windows 8.1 timed out trying to use the new driver. There is a possibility that a drive is also at fault.

The steps that you referenced above are for a desktop not a laptop. The BIOS for a laptop is different in the way it uses Display adapters.


http://windowsreport.com/dpc-watchdog-violation-windows-8/


I would try completely uninstalling the graphics driver, then reinstall it. If that doesn't work, I would try updating the BIOS to the latest version and then try installing the driver again. The next thing I would try is going back to the previous driver.

If all that fails, I would perform a fresh install of the operating system, and try the installation again.
 
Solution

Zeddexx

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Dec 4, 2015
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I have done everything and it still hasn't worked. Is there a possibility that my graphics card is permanently broken?
 
Have you updated the motherboard BIOS and done a fresh install of the operating system? Have you updated the graphics driver since that procedure?

Last year, I had a brand new GTX 970 that I couldn't get the operating system (desk top) to recognize. And I tried literally everything to correct the issue. I even edited the registry. I repaired the operating system , and then I did a fresh installation from the Windows disc. As a last resort I updated the BIOS (because it already had the latest motherboard BIOS version). But after that update of the presumably corrupted BIOS, everything worked like a charm. The system immediately recognized the graphics card. And the driver updated almost instantly (even though I had been struggling with for over a week).

It is a possibility that the mobile graphics have failed. Right now you aren't able to access the graphics card. And short of removing the graphics card (which may not even be possible in your case) and testing it in another system, I can't think of another way to test it.

You may be able to have it checked out under warranty. I assume that it isn't new so that you can just return it
 

Zeddexx

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Dec 4, 2015
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I had my friend look at my PC and he found that there was a corrupt file in the registry. I was able to solve the issue through doing a clean OS install a second time. However, it was a pain to have all of my programs temporarily deleted.