Graphics card does not seem to be connected to Acer Aspire laptop.

Victor151
Victor151 Member Posts: 9

Tinkerer

edited November 2023 in 2020 Archives
My Acer Aspire E 15 E5 will not play video games like fortnite. Seems that Nvidia graphics card is not working at all. Instead the computer is using only the built-in Intel graphics. Anybody know a solution to this? Have updated graphics driver, but when I go the the driver it says:

Nvidia Display settings are not available.

You are not currently using a display attached to a Nvidia GPU

Seems like some kind of basic hardware issue, but I can't find any solutions here or online.



Answers

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    Many E5's  don't have a discrete nvidia adapter. What is your full E5 model number? E5-xxxG? Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Victor151
    Victor151 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    JackE, Thanks for replying. Yes it does have Nvidia graphics card. Full model # is Acer Aspire E 15 E5-576G-5762
    Do you have any advice? I have heard that there were problems caused by a Windows update that rendered the graphics card useless. Weird that Aspire or Nvidia wouldnt address this. Any links to solutions would be appreciated.
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    Open DeviceManager. Do you see any red or yellow warnings? If no, click on display adapter folder. Do you see the nvidia card listed? If yes, right click on it and uninstall it. Exit DeviceManager without re-installing anything. Shut down Windows normally. Turn the machine back on again. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Victor151
    Victor151 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Thanks JackE. I did as you suggested, deleted Nvidia driver and restarted Windows. The Nvidia graphics card still is not being used by Acer. Went to Intel site and used their download to see if any Intel drivers needed to be updated. Updated a few unrelated drivers. Intel software shows Nvidia card as present and connected to PCe bus, but "offline." Went to Nvidia control panel and got the exact same error message as in my original post (below). Tried fortnite and got 1 FPS! The "Windows-g" function shows that the GPU is at 0% while the CPU is frequently hitting 100%.

    "Nvidia Display settings are not available.

    You are not currently using a display attached to a Nvidia GPU"


  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Post a picture of your Device Manager view, follow @JackE's directions to see if the card is actually working fine and there's no yellow triangle next to it:



    And since you're there, double click it and show us the actual driver you're using, like this:



    It may seem unrelated, but which Windows build are you running? Is it a 2004 release? Because there Windows can bypass the settings for "which card to be used for which application" in the respective control centers of the graphics cards and those settings are now integrated in the Settings app of Windows itself.

    You can see that if you run "winver", for example, this would be an example of a 1909 build:


  • Victor151
    Victor151 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Thanks Aphanic,
    Here are the screen shots you suggested. Does this tell you anything? I see that the intel graphics are not working for some reason. It was working before. I've added that too in case it's helpful.







  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    It tells us plenty:
    • We have now irrefutable knowledge that there is a dedicated card in your system.
    • Shows is its driver version, which is WDDM 2.6 certified and should be perfectly fine, WDDM 2.7 only appeared in the 2004 version of Windows.
    • Shows us the Windows version you're using, 1903, which is pretty much like 1909, there's very little difference.
    • And more importantly it shows us there seems to be a problem with your Intel graphics card (or its drivers).
    Whether that last point is related to what you're experiencing is for now unknown, but I would suggest updating its driver for good measure. Given that it's likely running on DCH drivers because it's a recent Intel processor you could try using the default Intel drivers installed over the ones you currently have, that's the way you're supposed to do it to preserve any manufacturer customization (Acer in this case). These are the current, non-beta, ones: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/29784/Intel-Graphics-Windows-10-DCH-Drivers?product=80939

    Windows Update however, being stubborn as it is may not like that you do that and could try to revert back to the previous version, or one it deems more suitable, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

    As for the NVIDIA card, upgrading the driver is also a possibility (newest driver is here), but I think your problem might be related to profiles. It could be that the game is being run by the (malfunctioning) Intel card instead of the NVIDIA one, you may need to instruct it otherwise (and don't forget to apply the changes).


  • Victor151
    Victor151 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    Thank you for the detailed reply and links! Yes, fortnite tries to run on Intel graphics, which of course is a disaster. While I was waiting for a response I went ahead and started update of Windows to version 2004 to see if that fixed anything. Once that's done I'll see if problem remains and will then update both graphics drivers as you suggest. Will reply if any of this get the Nvidia graphics card working again.
  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Oh! Then in 2004 things change, that picture I posted of the NVIDIA control panel is not valid anymore, you'll find that setting here instead:

    Settings -> System -> Display -> Graphics settings (it's a link that is a line of text, not a button):


  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    I suggest that you download and try this ACER-flavored nvidia driver first before trying any generic nvidia drivers. The generic version that you have on there now probably overwrote the original ACER-specific nvidia driver during some Win10 update. 


    Jack E/NJ



    Jack E/NJ

  • aphanic
    aphanic Member Posts: 959 Seasoned Specialist WiFi Icon
    Drivers obtained through Windows update are sanctioned by the manufacturer @JackE (as in, they publish them through Windows Update), not generic, especially when talking about laptops.

    Some manufacturers are just lazy when it comes to publishing in their support websites, here you have an example of what an A515-54G experiences after a clean 1909 installation, with drivers downloaded and installed from the support page, then connected to the net and ran Windows Update:
    Device                           Driver published in the support page   Acer supplied drivers through Windows Update
    
    Intel Chipset SATA/PCIe, RST     17.5.0.1017	                        17.8.0.1065
    Intel WiFi, AX201                21.60.2.1                              21.90.3.2
    Intel Audio (for HDMI output)    10.26.0.8                              10.27.0.4
    Realtek Audio, ALC255            6.0.8699.1                             6.0.8865.1
    (Hardware Support Applcation)    11.0.6000.179                          11.0.6000.205
    (Audio Effects Component)        11.0.6000.685                          11.0.6000.742
    (Audio Universal Service)        1.0.0.168                              1.0.0.229
    (Speech Processing IP)           1.0.21.676                             1.0.24.718
    Intel SST                        10.23.0.2764                           10.23.0.3084
    Acer Airplane Mode Controller    1.0.0.4                                1.0.0.5
    
    Realtek Audio Console (MS Store) 1.3.179.0                              1.9.205.0
    
    And that was a vanilla installation, nothing custom about it. Searching for the Realtek ones for example for the audio card in the Windows catalog will show you a whole load of 6.0.8865.1 releases with at least one of them being for this machine and released by Acer with all of the customizations that entails (i.e. True Harmony, there isn't any other DSP for this machine).
  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    I suggest Victor151 try the ACER driver anyway. Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ

  • Victor151
    Victor151 Member Posts: 9

    Tinkerer

    The Nvidia graphics card is working again! Thank you guys for your help and your focus on drivers. I first deleted the Intel graphics driver that seemed to be malfunctioning. After restarting, Windows sent me to the Intel site for a replacement driver, but Intel's updating software told me that I need to install an Acer driver, so went to Acer and uploaded the Intel graphics driver there. (https://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/support-product/7333?b=1) Now the Nvidia driver is working fine and I can access the control panel for it that was not working before. Fortnite operating at 60-70 fps, which is great.

  • JackE
    JackE ACE Posts: 44,330 Trailblazer
    Congrats on your success!    :) Jack E/NJ

    Jack E/NJ