Laptop graphics card switching issue

[Darth Hotpants]

New to the forums so don't burn me if I'm in the wrong place. I'm having a big issue and I haven't been able to find a good answer. Let me set things up real quick:

I own an MSI GT60 Dominator Pro 3k laptop. It was equipped with a GTX 880m, which up and died last week. I was able to source a 970m as a replacement. This laptop was designed with some upgradability, so after some minor heatsink modification I got the card installed. It seemed to be recognized and work right out of the gate! Then came the main issue...

Steam is refusing to use the new card. I have tried directing it to the new card via the NVIDIA control panel. I've tried directing the various game executable the same way to the graphics card with the same result. They all fire up using the integrated Intel graphics card. I've tried multiple games. I've tried Destiny 2, The Witcher 2, Dark Souls, and Alan Wake. Many suggest people with a similar issue simply disable the Intel card in the device manager, which I have tried and it doesn't work. Destiny 2 won't even boot, giving me a "failed to initialize GPU" type of error. Witcher 2 STILL somehow uses the Intel card. Alan Wake also gave me an error about failing to 3d render, or something like that.

Now before I'm told that the card isn't working OR that it's hardware or windows related, Fortnite runs perfectly. It runs much better than it did on the 880m tbh, which was also expected on the better hardware. Obviously Fortnite uses the Epic launcher, so this leaves me with the common denominator of Steam being the issue. Any advice or help out there?

Running current version of Windows 10, Steam, latest geforce drivers, etc.

Also, there's no way to disable the Intel card in the Bios, I've checked. Not that disabling the intel card is a "solution" technically anyway, just a bad workaround.

Thanks a lot!!!

[Omega]

You can't disable the Intel HD, the Nvidia card is connected to it.

The Nvidia card will be enabled when it is required and the Intel HD is used otherwise to conserve power and increase battery life.

Boot Windows in to safe mode and use DDU to delete the Nvidia drivers. Then install the latest drivers again.

In the Nvidia settings set the 970m as the preffered graphics processor.

[Darth Hotpants]

Yea, I knew that disabling the intel card was not the solution. I was mainly attempting to prevent people from suggesting that.

I also forgot to mention that I already tried that too. Booted into safe mode and fully removed the nvidia drivers. I did this because when I first booted up the laptop after installing the card, I updated the graphics card using the executable I downloaded from Nvidia for the card. At the time I figured the issue was because I didn't go through windows' own "update driver" utility. Once I removed the driver using DDU and installed and updated the NVIDIA card via the "update driver" option within device manager, the issue still remains.

Also, the epic launcher uses the 970m no problem. I just tried another game on Epic and it uses the 970m as well. It even shows up in the NVIDIA GPU activity window. Steam does not, (which makes sense as I know Steam isn't using the card at all), no matter what I try. Any other thoughts?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Wipe all of these using DDU app in safe mode.

Intel and Nvidia.
Configure DDU options to allow wipe of GeForce Experience and Vulkan, and enable the safe mode option. Then exit the options and app and relaunch DDU. Then select safe mode + restart.

Once you wipe Intel and Nvidia all of this will get wiped.

Intel Chipset inf
Intel hd graphics
Nvidia drivers, GFE and Vulkan runtime

Then download and install latest for...

Intel Chipset inf
Intel hd graphics (model is based on which cpu you have)
Nvidia GeForce 9 series (mobile) for Win10 64bit, 441.41

Disabling Intel GPU isn't something that works, period. The nvidia must use the Intel gpu as a frame buffer to display on the screen.

[Komrade]

Originally posted by Darth Hotpants:

Yea, I knew that disabling the intel card was not the solution. I was mainly attempting to prevent people from suggesting that.

I also forgot to mention that I already tried that too. Booted into safe mode and fully removed the nvidia drivers. I did this because when I first booted up the laptop after installing the card, I updated the graphics card using the executable I downloaded from Nvidia for the card. At the time I figured the issue was because I didn't go through windows' own "update driver" utility. Once I removed the driver using DDU and installed and updated the NVIDIA card via the "update driver" option within device manager, the issue still remains.

Also, the epic launcher uses the 970m no problem. I just tried another game on Epic and it uses the 970m as well. It even shows up in the NVIDIA GPU activity window. Steam does not, (which makes sense as I know Steam isn't using the card at all), no matter what I try. Any other thoughts?

Don’t update via device manager. DDU first then install from Nvidia directly and don’t install GFE.

[Darth Hotpants]

Ok, currently following Motha’s directions, reinstalling everything now. Upon reboot into windows, both cards listed as generic display adapters. As I was downloading Intel HD 4600 drivers, windows located and installed them in the background for me.

Redownloaded Nvidia drivers, 441.66 was all they listed, and ran the installer. The first run failed, but the device manager listed the card correctly after that, (not sure if windows reinstalled the 2017 driver it seems to default to for this card like it usually does). Anyway, reinstalled the downloaded drivers and now the card lists the 12/6/2019 driver.

Ok, while typing this all finished, so I booted up Alan Wake again. Same result; it’s still defaulting to the intel card.

I could go through nvidia control panel again and set everything up to use the Nvidia card like before, but that didn’t fix the issue. Before my 880m went bad, it swapped cards fine... I just don’t get it, (especially since Epic uses the right card with no issues).

[Komrade]

Originally posted by Darth Hotpants:

Ok, currently following Motha’s directions, reinstalling everything now. Upon reboot into windows, both cards listed as generic display adapters. As I was downloading Intel HD 4600 drivers, windows located and installed them in the background for me.

Redownloaded Nvidia drivers, 441.66 was all they listed, and ran the installer. The first run failed, but the device manager listed the card correctly after that, (not sure if windows reinstalled the 2017 driver it seems to default to for this card like it usually does). Anyway, reinstalled the downloaded drivers and now the card lists the 12/6/2019 driver.

Ok, while typing this all finished, so I booted up Alan Wake again. Same result; it’s still defaulting to the intel card.

I could go through nvidia control panel again and set everything up to use the Nvidia card like before, but that didn’t fix the issue. Before my 880m went bad, it swapped cards fine... I just don’t get it, (especially since Epic uses the right card with no issues).

Ok, you got it detected. So now it doesn't select the correct GPU in games, but can you actually still switch to the Nvidia GPU in-game? Is that an option?

[Darth Hotpants]

The computer always detected the graphics card just fine, but steam would never use it. The games through steam always default to the intel card, despite when I told the computer to use the 970m for pretty much everything, (steam.exe, destiny2.exe, alanwake.exe, etc.)

Unfortunately it’s still doing it. Epic’s launcher goes straight to the gpu like it’s supposed to, and the games use the 970m as well. Still stuck with Steam ignoring the 970m

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Facepalm...

Ok you have Windows Updates updating your drivers, disable that OS fearture.

Rerun DDU and go back to safe mode. In the ddu window where you choose graphics brand, in the lower right corner click the option to disable Windows auto driver installer. This prevents Windows Updates from auto fetching drivers. Allowing you to manually handle drivers. Dont handle them from device manager unless there is a specific need to do it that way, like for a game controller for example. The other drivers you install just like you do apps. By running their installer you downloaded. When done each driver, reboot after it says completed/successful.

Set nvidia gpu to "prefer max performance" and set steam client settings to hardware decoding.

[Darth Hotpants]

I shouldn’t say “never” actually, since Steam used the 880m. Though I recall having a small issue with this back in the day when this laptop was new, (like in 2015, 2016), but it’s run fine for years up until the 880m card died.

[Komrade]

Originally posted by Darth Hotpants:

I shouldn’t say “never” actually, since Steam used the 880m. Though I recall having a small issue with this back in the day when this laptop was new, (like in 2015, 2016), but it’s run fine for years up until the 880m card died.

Originally posted by Bad 💀 Motha:

Facepalm...

Ok you have Windows Updates updating your drivers, disable that OS fearture.

Rerun DDU and go back to safe mode. In the ddu window where you choose graphics brand, in the lower right corner click the option to disable Windows auto driver installer. This prevents Windows Updates from auto fetching drivers. Allowing you to manually handle drivers. Dont handle them from device manager unless there is a specific need to do it that way, like for a game controller for example. The other drivers you install just like you do apps. By running their installer you downloaded. When done each driver, reboot after it says completed/successful.

Do this^

[Darth Hotpants]

It didn’t reinstall the driver until I finished with DDU and rebooted into windows normally. I was in safe mode w/o networking, so it wiped everything while there.

So basically redo that stuff then reinstall everything with the comp not connected to the internet and see if that solves the issue?

I’m doing that right now, so we’ll see how that goes. Just curious, is there something specific you know that’s happening that’s messing everything up for Steam?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yes but without turning off the feature as I explained, windows will see hardware that doesn't have proper driver and auto install it from Windows Updates. That's the problem. Dont want it doing that.

[Darth Hotpants]

Gotcha. Back in windows now, (Internet off and that option from DDU selected while removing), just finished with the Intel driver. Restarting and beginning the 970m. Finger crossed...

[Darth Hotpants]

No dice. Just fired up Destiny 2, and it’s still using the Intel card. Even changed control panel setting to use the 970m again.

[Komrade]

Originally posted by Darth Hotpants:

No dice. Just fired up Destiny 2, and it’s still using the Intel card. Even changed control panel setting to use the 970m again.

Do you get the option to switch to Nvidia in the game's video settings?