My Nvidia 950M GTX Card will not work when using to open ANY web browser

[mikebor27]

So I have a new laptop with i6700 HQ quad core processor, 512 SSD, 16 GB DDRL3 RAM, 4 GB 950M GTX Nvidia card and 4k touchscreen.

When I change the global settings in the Nvidia Control Panel to automatically open with my nvidia card - and then use either chrome or ie to surf the web, within 2 minutes it stops responding, fades out and then 2 minutes later a BSOD appears Driver Power State Failure and the computer restarts.

I don't know how to fix this. I want to use my better card on the web rather than the integrated graphics card but it's not letting me. Also when I open GeForce Experience with my nvidia card set in global settings, the GeForce also freezes within 2 minutes and then the same BSOD appears.

Anyone have any thoughts as to why this is happening and how to fix this?

Thanks
Michael

By the way, even when it isn't set like that in global settings and it's set as auto-detect, if I right click on Chrome or Edge or IE it asks me which graphics processor I want to run the browser in. If I choose my NVidia card, same thing happens.

I am so frustrated with this.

[76561198259023373]

It says in the documentation that you cannot run web browsers with the discrete NVIDIA graphics.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

New laptops are still always out of date when u get them.
Go to the maker's site for your exact model and update to latest BIOS version.
After applied and back in Windows again, uninstall NVIDIA Drivers; reboot as needed; then uninstall Intel HD Graphics and Intel Chipset INF.

Then install the latest from their sites (Intel & NVIDIA) for your model of hardware and OS.
> Intel HD 530 series[downloadcenter.intel.com]
> Intel Chipset INF[downloadcenter.intel.com]
> NVIDIA Forceware Mobile series[www.geforce.com] (manually select your GPU and OS)

If you still have issues afterwards (and again, make sure u reboot after each driver completed an install) then open each browser u use go to options and disable hardware acceleration. Even with this off, 4K Video off YouTube for example should still be butter smooth.

For AC Power usage then you want these changed:
> Control Panel > Power Options > High Performance
> NVIDIA CP > Manage 3D Settings > Power Management > Prefer High Performance
> NVIDIA CP > Manage 3D Settings > NVIDIA High Performance GPU as Global Default

[Alchemist79]

Run 'DXDIAG from the search apps option in the Windows Start Menu'. Check Directx features are enabled, and if any errors are reported.

Also, Install the latest driver from Nvidia's website.

Maybe run Gpu-Z, that might give you an idea what's going on.
https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

[mikebor27]

Originally posted by Joey Joe Jo:

It says in the documentation that you cannot run web browsers with the discrete NVIDIA graphics.

Does it really say that? Obviously if that is true I should stop trying to do it but I never heard or read that anywhere. Anyone else know if this is true?

[mikebor27]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

New laptops are still always out of date when u get them.
Go to the maker's site for your exact model and update to latest BIOS version.
After applied and back in Windows again, uninstall NVIDIA Drivers; reboot as needed; then uninstall Intel HD Graphics and Intel Chipset INF.

Then install the latest from their sites (Intel & NVIDIA) for your model of hardware and OS.
> Intel HD 530 series[downloadcenter.intel.com]
> Intel Chipset INF[downloadcenter.intel.com]
> NVIDIA Forceware Mobile series[www.geforce.com] (manually select your GPU and OS)

If you still have issues afterwards (and again, make sure u reboot after each driver completed an install) then open each browser u use go to options and disable hardware acceleration. Even with this off, 4K Video off YouTube for example should still be butter smooth.

For AC Power usage then you want these changed:
> Control Panel > Power Options > High Performance
> NVIDIA CP > Manage 3D Settings > Power Management > Prefer High Performance
> NVIDIA CP > Manage 3D Settings > NVIDIA High Performance GPU as Global Default

I tried the hardware acceleration disabling first(easiest lol) and it has seemed to do the trick. I wonder how come. Yeah and 4k video still looks great. What am I missing though if it is disabled? Something must get worse right?

Thanks for all the great advice.

[Alchemist79]

By disabling hardware acceleration you are asking the system to ignore your graphics card. It is a solution. However, you should probably get the gtx950m working, or in games at least, just in case it turns out to be a faulty card.

[mikebor27]

Originally posted by Alchemist79:

By disabling hardware acceleration you are asking the system to ignore your graphics card. It is a solution. However, you should probably get the gtx950m working, or in games at least, just in case it turns out to be a faulty card.

Wait, I thought it is working because I am now able to open websites with my 950M and it doesn't stop responding and crash with a BSOD Driver Power State Failure errors anymore. I have 2 games King's Quest and Abe's New 'n' Tasty and they both work using the card. Abe's fps though is 13 for me which I think is too low but that is another story. If my games are working with the 950, do you think I should just permanently disable the hardware acceleration and leave it alone? What is the benefit of having hardware acceleration enabled? Thx.

[Alchemist79]

If your positive it is using the gtx950 then great. Hardware acceleration uses the gpu to decode, with it disabled the decoding is carried out by the cpu.

[mikebor27]

Originally posted by Alchemist79:

If your positive it is using the gtx950 then great. Hardware acceleration uses the gpu to decode, with it disabled the decoding is carried out by the cpu.

Well to be honest I am not sure. I am opening Chrome with the 950 card and it allows me to. It hasn't crashed but maybe it isn't using the card. Who knows lol. All I do know is that I paid $1199 for this laptop, thought I had good specs and the Abe gaming is showing a 13 fps. That doesn't seem like a game that requires a beefed up computer. Let me ask you something- if a game is showing 13 fps, would it be very choppy and stuttering? It isn't doing that and it seems to be moving okay but the steam fps reader says 13 fps. What should a game like Abe look like at 13 fps?

[Alchemist79]

Gaming with 13 fps should be unpleasant. Try running Gpu-Z (link in my earlier post) in the background whilst running Abe, hopefully that will show you which gpu is being used, the intel integrated or the gtx950m.

[rotNdude]

If you buy a new laptop and it's causing problems like this, I would first contact the place you bought it from and find out what you can do to get this fixed.

[mikebor27]

Originally posted by rotNdude:

If you buy a new laptop and it's causing problems like this, I would first contact the place you bought it from and find out what you can do to get this fixed.

This is the replacement laptop from Toshiba. First one I couldn't open browsers with the 950 either. Plus I had so many BSOD Driver Power State Failure errors, computer would freeze, could not repair it, etc... returned it to Costco and got the replacement. Working much better except for the crashing when I open browsers with the nvidia card.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

U can always verify if the dedicated GPU is being the used one or not, simply by installing and running GPU-Z[www.techpowerup.com] app and then switch from say "Intel HD Graphics" to "NVIDIA Mobile GPU" and which ever u have it actively switched to, u can see the GPU's usage via graph, etc...