Question Can't get laptop to use built-in RTX 3050

[Arcaeca]

My laptop is an HP Victus 15 which shipped with an RTX 3050 (w/ 6 GB of dedicated RAM) and Windows 11 - I refuse to "upgrade" to Windows 11 and all my files were already on a Windows 10 SSD anyway (from my old, now dead laptop; died of a motherboard short), so I just took out the SSD it shipped with and swapped in the old SSD. According to System Information it is now running with:

- Windows 10 Pro v. 10.0.17763
- Intel i5-13420H, 2611 MHz, 8 cores
- Integrated Intel graphics (does not say what model specifically)
- NVIDIA RTX 3050 w/ 6 GB dedicated RAM
- 24 GB total installed RAM

Most of the new hardware I have simply been able to manually install new drivers for and have them work fine, but I have never been able to get the RTX 3050 to work properly. No matter what I'm doing it always shows 0% usage in Task Manager, even when it set as the preferred GPU in the NVIDIA control panel - in fact when it is the preferred GPU, multiple apps will simply crash-to-desktop mid launch with error messages that suggest a fatal graphics error. Only setting the preferred GPU to Intel prevents this, but performance obviously suffers. Ditto for trying to set the preferred GPU for individual apps via Windows > Graphics Settings.

I have also gone into BIOS to see if it needs to be enabled there but HP BIOS seems to have no such option.

I used DDU to completely wipe both the Intel and NVIDIA drivers and then reinstall them direct from Intel and NVIDIA - the Game Ready Driver NVIDIA recommended for Win10/RTX 30 series. Still no luck getting the GPU to do anything even with a driver as up to date as v. 537. Note that HP does not have any Windows 10 drivers for the Victus 15, they're all only for Windows 11 - so "just go get the drivers from the laptop manufacturer" is a non-starter. But they do have Windows 10 drivers for the related Victus 16, and on the off-chance they would work I wiped the NVIDIA driver again with DDU and force installed the Victus 16 one (v. 528.40, apparently) even though a popup complained about being the wrong Windows version (without saying what the right Windows version would be) - unsurprisingly this also does not work, still 0% usage, and I don't know if it's related but about an hour afterwards the Intel driver (according to the minidump) abruptly crashed causing a BSOD.

I don't know what else to try at this point. I thought the driver just needed to match the OS and the GPU model, so why aren't the NVIDIA driver(s) that do that working?

 

[USAFRet]

so I just took out the SSD it shipped with and swapped in the old SSD

This "old SSD" has the old OS from the other laptop you're currently trying to boot with and run?

 

[Arcaeca]

This "old SSD" has the old OS from the other laptop you're currently trying to boot with and run?

That's correct, it had Windows 10 installed so I used it to replace the pre-installed Windows 11 SSD. I have not updated the OS on it, just the drivers.

 

[USAFRet]

That's correct, it had Windows 10 installed so I used it to replace the pre-installed Windows 11 SSD. I have not updated the OS on it, just the drivers.

Well....

Moving a drive+OS to a whole new system, there are 3 possible outcomes:
1. It works just fine
2. It fails completely
3. It "works", but you're chasing issues for weeks/months.

You are deep into #3.

Full wipe and reinstall of the OS and everything else is your next move.

 

[DSzymborski]

Yeah, this is a mess. It's bad enough with a desktop, but you basically slapped one laptop in another, the second being a laptop that has parts with drivers intended for Windows 11. You were lucky that anything works.

 

[Arcaeca]

Full wipe and reinstall of the OS and everything else is your next move.

There's nothing to reinstall from. The SSD in question is basically a clone of a clone of an earlier laptop that shipped with Windows 10. It's not like I have an installation disk or even really a license key kicking around. I didn't think it would be a problem since it wasn't a problem the other times I've moved SSDs over.

 

[USAFRet]

There's nothing to reinstall from. The SSD in question is basically a clone of a clone of an earlier laptop that shipped with Windows 10. It's not like I have an installation disk or even really a license key kicking around. I didn't think it would be a problem since it wasn't a problem the other times I've moved SSDs over.

It works every time.
Except the times it fails.
Like now.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[stonecarver]

Note that HP does not have any Windows 10 drivers for the Victus 15, they're all only for Windows 11

It works every time.
Except the times it fails.
Like now.

How To - Windows 10 clean install tutorial

If you are looking for the Windows 11 Clean install tutorial, you can find that here: Windows 11 Clean install tutorial (Click here) Otherwise, welcome to the Windows 10 Clean install tutorial This tutorial is intended to help you, step by step, to perform a clean install of Windows...

forums.tomshardware.com

USAFRet​

Titan​

Moderator

Is right start fresh and follow the guide made by Darkbreeze and prepare and install a fresh copy of Windows 10.

You can use your cloned SSD you already installed or , just my thing grab a fresh SSD from the stack and install windows 10 clean.​

Now here is the trial if we can get your windows 11 drivers to play nice with windows 10.

I need you to have access to your windows 11 SSD that came with your new laptop. We need to get to your system 32 folder inside your windows 11 folder.

So have your new windows 10 up and running

Have access to that system 32 windows 11 folder. hook up drive back to laptop externally or how ever we can get to system 32. Use a thumb drive if you need to with a copy of that system 32 folder.

If your following so far now go to your device manager
go to your GPU and right click and choose update driver. tell it you have the driver and point it to that system 32 driver folder. It will take a minute but will install your driver.

You can do this for each driver that you might need that 10 just won't give you.

This was the formula I used on so many laptops that had windows 8 back to windows 7. YMMV good luck.

​

 

[USAFRet]

No idea what you're saying.

Does your system now work 100%, and with which OS?

 

[Arcaeca]

No idea what you're saying.

Does your system now work 100%, and with which OS?

You're asking the wrong guy.

Have access to that system 32 windows 11 folder. hook up drive back to laptop externally or how ever we can get to system 32. Use a thumb drive if you need to with a copy of that system 32 folder.

If your following so far now go to your device manager
go to your GPU and right click and choose update driver. tell it you have the driver and point it to that system 32 driver folder. It will take a minute but will install your driver.

I do have access to the Windows 11 SSD via a USB enclosure. I tried this - and I can tell that the driver did update because I can see that the 3050 now has a different driver version than before (528.85 instead of 528.40) and a different date - but it didn't fix anything. Still no GPU utilitization and apps still crashing mid-launch when the 3050 is the preferred GPU.

I guess that means I have to go buy a fresh USB drive for the Windows 10 reinstall media tonight. I have an extra, brand new 1TB SSD that I can use to make a backup, just in case, although I didn't want to have to use it.

 

[USAFRet]

You're asking the wrong guy.

OK, yes.

I misread that whole thing...