Question NVIDIA GPU keeps disabling itself

[IIceCream]

(Keep in mind I have a laptop. I have it constantly plugged in.)

I enabled an option on the NVIDIA Control Panel which allowed me to see what applications my GPU (a GeForce GTX 1050 Ti) was running. In the beginning, it was fine until a few hours later, it said that the GPU was inactive. I tried everything to try and reactivate it like setting my preferred graphics processor to the NVIDIA GPU. The only fix that I've found to this is to restart my laptop, though the problem will still occur. It;s also very annoying having to restart my laptop very often.

Some more info:

I recently left for vacation and took my laptop with me, and this problem has been occuring ever since I went to visit my grandparents (I am still currently in my grandparents' house)

A few days ago, I put my laptop over a piece of cloth and started to use it for a day. I noticed that the performance was a lot worse than usual and I learnt that putting your laptop over a soft surface blocks the fans and slows the laptop down. I now have a hard surface under the laptop, though I might have already damaged a crucial component in my laptop that might be causing this problem.

I noticed that when I have applications that use up the GPU more (like triple A games) on, the GPU won't deactivate.

If anyone needs more information, let me know.

Thanks in advance to everyone helping me resolve this problem.

 

[helpstar]

Which laptop is it?

BIOS up to date? All drivers from the manufacturer of the laptop up to date and the GPU driver not from nvidia´s homepage?

Eventually you will need a cooling pad. Check the temperatures of CPU and GPU while gaming.

The laptop has a hybrid mode, the integrated graphics unit will run 2d and most common desktop apps. The nvidia only hardware accelerated apps, 3d and games.
"I noticed that when I have applications that use up the GPU more (like triple A games) on, the GPU won't deactivate."
This is a normal behavior

 

[2Dumb4U]

With laptops that have intel CPUs with integrated graphics, it purposely deactivates the GPU and lets the iGPU handle light workloads to improve battery life. This isn't normally an issue, but if you have issues with certain games, right click the desktop icon of the game, click run with graphics processor, and you should have no issues. As for damaging a component in your laptop, that simply doesn't happen. GPUs will never overheat to dangerous levels, because as it throttles, the clockspeed decreases so as to keep the temperature at a safe level.
Also, what exactly is the issue? If you notice your GPU turning off sometimes, that's normal. You shouldn't see any performance loss.

 

[2Dumb4U]

Which laptop is it?

BIOS up to date? All drivers from the manufacturer of the laptop up to date and the GPU driver not from nvidia´s homepage?

Eventually you will need a cooling pad.

I don't think laptops need BIOS updates... But yeah, make sure your system drivers are updated directly from intel's website. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html
And here's a link to the 1050ti laptop drivers https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/148586/en-us
A cooling pad is pretty unnecessary.

 

[IIceCream]

Which laptop is it?

BIOS up to date? All drivers from the manufacturer of the laptop up to date and the GPU driver not from nvidia´s homepage?

Eventually you will need a cooling pad. Check the temperatures of CPU and GPU while gaming.

The laptop has a hybrid mode, the integrated graphics unit will run 2d and most common desktop apps. The nvidia only hardware accelerated apps, 3d and games.
"I noticed that when I have applications that use up the GPU more (like triple A games) on, the GPU won't deactivate."
This is a normal behavior

It is a Dell G7 7588. BIOS and all drivers are up to date. I updated my GPU driver from GeForce Experience.

 

[IIceCream]

With laptops that have intel CPUs with integrated graphics, it purposely deactivates the GPU and lets the iGPU handle light workloads to improve battery life. This isn't normally an issue, but if you have issues with certain games, right click the desktop icon of the game, click run with graphics processor, and you should have no issues. As for damaging a component in your laptop, that simply doesn't happen. GPUs will never overheat to dangerous levels, because as it throttles, the clockspeed decreases so as to keep the temperature at a safe level.
Also, what exactly is the issue? If you notice your GPU turning off sometimes, that's normal. You shouldn't see any performance loss.

The problem is that the GPU would turn off but there would be no way of turning it back on other than restarting my laptop.,

 

[2Dumb4U]

The laptop has a hybrid mode, the integrated graphics unit will run 2d and most common desktop apps. The nvidia only hardware accelerated apps, 3d and games.
"I noticed that when I have applications that use up the GPU more (like triple A games) on, the GPU won't deactivate."
This is a normal behavior

Original..

With laptops that have intel CPUs with integrated graphics, it purposely deactivates the GPU and lets the iGPU handle light workloads to improve battery life. This isn't normally an issue, but if you have issues with certain games, right click the desktop icon of the game, click run with graphics processor, and you should have no issues. As for damaging a component in your laptop, that simply doesn't happen. GPUs will never overheat to dangerous levels, because as it throttles, the clockspeed decreases so as to keep the temperature at a safe level.
Also, what exactly is the issue? If you notice your GPU turning off sometimes, that's normal. You shouldn't see any performance loss.

 

[IIceCream]

Original..

I tried to set one of my games to run on my graphics processor but it still wouldn't launch.

I understand that the GPU turns off to save battery, but in my case, it turns off and the only way to turn it back on is to restart my laptop. While it's off, it prevents me from launching my games since my integrated graphics is too weak to handle them.

 

[2Dumb4U]

Yeah I can see what you mean. If the laptop is still covered by warranty, I would RMA, or see if they can figure out the problem. Make sure you press Windows key + R and type in services.msc. Scroll down to where it says NVidia and make sure you right click and press restart on all of the containers.

 

[helpstar]

I don't think laptops need BIOS updates... But yeah, make sure your system drivers are updated directly from intel's website. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/detect.html
And here's a link to the 1050ti laptop drivers https://www.nvidia.com/Download/driverResults.aspx/148586/en-us
A cooling pad is pretty unnecessary.

If something doesn´t work as it should (hardware related), the BIOS is the most probable cause in my experience.

Use DDU uninstaller to remove any nvidia drivers and install the latest driver from Dell. The hybrid/switching mode in laptops can be painful, if not using the drivers from the laptop´s manufacturer, even if these are older.

 

[IIceCream]

I think the problem is that the socket I am using isn't providing my laptop with enough power for it to be able to constantly use the nvidia GPU. This is just a theory though.

If something doesn´t work as it should (hardware related), the BIOS is the most probable cause in my experience.

Use DDU uninstaller to remove any nvidia drivers and install the latest driver from Dell. The hybrid/switching mode in laptops can be painful, if not using the drivers from the laptop´s manufacturer, even if these are older.

I will try this soon.

 

[IIceCream]

If something doesn´t work as it should (hardware related), the BIOS is the most probable cause in my experience.

Use DDU uninstaller to remove any nvidia drivers and install the latest driver from Dell. The hybrid/switching mode in laptops can be painful, if not using the drivers from the laptop´s manufacturer, even if these are older.

I tried re-installing the drivers but the problem is still there.