Graphics Card Not Showing in Device Manager: Solutions

A video card is one of the main components of a personal computer (PC) or laptop since it is it that forms the image on the monitor screen. And on how she will do this depends at least the convenience of working on a PC, and as a maximum the user’s health, because if you constantly look at the screen, the image on which is flickering or blurry, you can easily spoil your eyesight.

One of the common problems with many users face is graphics card not showing in device manager. Moreover, it doesn’t matter if the computer does not see the Nvidia GeForce or AMD Radon video card, or some other.

The article will consider what to do if the computer does not see the video card, what may be the reason for this phenomenon, and what actions should be taken.

Graphics Card Not Showing In Device Manager

Why Graphics Card Not Showing In Device Manager?

Usually, in the vast majority of cases, this problem manifests itself after a new video card has been installed in the PC. This is a normal phenomenon, since the system lacks drivers for unknown hardware and, naturally, the operating system does not see it.

After reinstalling the video card drivers, Windows detects it after the next system restart and everything falls into place. But what to do if the problem persists when installing the drivers? Let’s consider the various reasons for this phenomenon.

Check out Nvidia Graphics Cards List.

Incorrect connection

It often happens that when a new video card is installed incorrectly. Despite the seeming absurdity of this proposal, this is a very real phenomenon, since connection interface standards may not always be observed. In this case, the user may even not know that his card is incompatible with something.

For example, the video adapter does not receive additional power from the source, or it is installed in a slot that does not support it (for example, the slot visually looks like PCIEx16, but in fact it operates in PCIEx4 mode), the video card is not properly connected using an SLI or CrossFire bridge … And so Further. There can be many reasons, but they have one thing in common – the video adapter is connected incorrectly in hardware.

In order to fix this problem, it is necessary to check again all the connections of the card, up to the point that it is checked against the instructions of the motherboard, processor, power supply and other things.

Important! The processor may also be indirectly related to the problem of “not detecting” the card, since it is it that determines the maximum number of PCIE lines in a PC.

After the problem is resolved, you should restart your PC and reinstall the drivers.

Why Graphics Card Not Showing In Device Manager?

Read How To Flash GPU Bios Nvidia.

Windows crash

Very often, a computer or laptop does not see the video card due to a malfunction of the operating system. The reasons for the failure can be very different.

You can check the status of the operating system using the built-in System File Checker utility (SFC program).

To run this program, while in the Windows environment, press Win + R and type the command “sfc / scannow” in the window that appears, then press OK.

The utility will check the system files and, in case of errors in them, will offer to install the damaged system components, as well as correct the faulty settings. After the procedure is completed (and this may take several reboots), you should check if the card appears in the device manager. Most likely, it will not be there, but it should be, since now you need to install the drivers.

After downloading the drivers and installing them, you will need to reboot the system again and the video adapter should appear in the device manager. If this did not happen, then the reason may be a conflict between the drivers of the Windows operating system.

Driver conflict

This problem is typical mainly for 64-bit operating systems. Windows 10 often does not see cards whose drivers are signed, in its opinion, “incorrect”. And, in fact, the software product from Microsoft does not bother at all that the drivers that come directly with the hardware are designed to be used exclusively with it and are best suited to it.

In this situation, you should find and install drivers that will be suitable for the card from the point of view of the Windows security service. It can be very difficult to get around this problem since the system of kernel security and protection against unauthorized access is more and more “buried” with each new version of the OS.

The situation can be partially corrected by using drivers from older systems. So, for example, for Windows 10, Windows 7, Windows 8 or even Windows Vista drivers can work without problems.

Here is fix for Windows 10 Not Detecting Graphics Card.

BIOS settings

Often times, cards may not work due to incorrect BIOS settings. This can be expressed in two ways:

  • incorrect PCI Express configuration for external cards;
  • disconnection or insufficient memory for built-in.

In both cases, you should study the instructions for the motherboard for the BIOS capabilities to control both the PCI Express bus and the options for the integrated video card, and according to this manual, configure the PC for correct operation.

Attention! The alternative setup method in this case is very simple: you can try to set the BIOS Setup defaults. Usually, this is enough to normalize the work of both the external and the built-in video adapter.

Viruses

In some cases, a situation is possible when the computer stopped seeing the video card due to viruses running on it. But, in this case, you should not try to fix the problem yourself, it is better to contact a specialist. Since, if the virus was able to access the device manager, all the more so to a device such as a card, then the security of the system is absent in principle, and most likely the virus has already spread over the local network.

To solve the problem in this case, most likely, it will be necessary to remove the storage media from the PC and check them on another computer.

Embedded card issues

Sometimes it becomes necessary to use a built-in card (both separately and together with an already working discrete one), however, it is not in the task manager.

This problem in 99% of cases is solved by turning on the video card in the BIOS settings, or by allocating the required amount of memory for it (the amount of this memory is set there).

Check guide on How To Fix Geforce Experience Not Working.

Broken video card

Also one of the fairly common reasons. Unfortunately, in most cases of video card breakdowns, it is not something that cannot be seen in the device manager, often Windows loading becomes impossible.

In some cases, the following symptoms are observed: at the beginning of work, while the video card has not yet warmed up, it works normally, but as its chip or memory heats up, the operating mode changes with the disappearance of the device from the task manager. Instead of a video card, a faceless “VGA-compatible device” appears in it.

Moreover, the image in 2D is “rendered” normally, it is possible to work in the Windows environment, however, launching any 3d-application is impossible or leads to the system freezing.

In this case, most likely, nothing can be done, since the video card has started to “crumble” the chip. Sooner or later, this happens with all cards, since they have been using low-melting solders for 10 years. In this case, only the replacement of the card will help.

Hi, fellow tech enthusiasts! I’m Syed Kashif Shah, and I’m proud to be your go-to expert for all things like problems, suggestions, recommendations related to graphics cards. As a seasoned Technology Consultant and Hardware Enthusiast, I’ve spent years in the graphics card troubleshooting and repair field.