New laptop not recognizing the NVIDIA card it came with

[Noob20]

Hi all,

I bought a new gaming PC from Dell that has an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 8GB GDDR6 with Max-Q Design built in. However, when I went to launch the NVIDIA Control Panel software, I get a message that says there is no NVIDIA card installed. Any suggestions?

[preludesam]

Check for updates to the driver for the graphics card. Nvidia is a little funny sometimes when it comes to drivers for laptops and may direct you to the manufacturer's website. On the desktop side, we use Gefore Experience but I am not sure if it works for laptops as they are really integrated with the manufacturers like Asus. Make sure the driver is for laptops and do not get the desktop version. Nvidia has them on their website or whoever makes the laptop.

[ProTee Max]

Indeed, check if you can manually install the drivers from their website, but also that Windows is fully updated.
Do make sure to select the correct one on the website (from the dropdowns).


If the installer does not recognize the card or after the install it still doesn't recognize it, triple check that the card is seated correctly.
- power off the PC, unplug the power cord.
- At the card there should be a little plastic lip, push it down and the card should pop up.
- Carefully pull it out and push it back in, with the other end ( where the lip is not at) first and then push it back into the holder.

If that still comes up as not recognized try seating it in a different slot

If you are unsure on how this is all done or don't feel comfortable about it, try asking around if someone in the family or friends have someone who did these things before.

[preludesam]

You are providing directions for reseating a desktop graphics card in the pci express lane when the user has a laptop.

[Noob20]

Thanks for all the ideas. As this is a laptop, I was not comfortable opening the case. After two hours on the phone with support we found that while BIOS saw the card, we could not get the operating system to see it, nor the internal test (F12). Therefore it will need to be replaced. I suspect it will take weeks before that happens. If anyone thinks there is another solution to try, I would love to hear it.

[preludesam]

Aside from a fresh install of windows I don’t think you have any other options.