When trying to open the Nvidia Control Panel, the user may encounter the message “NVIDIA Display Settings are not available. The display you are using is not connected to an NVIDIA GPU." The appearance of this notification indicates that there are problems with the PC graphics card drivers, as well as an incorrect connection of the system monitor. Below we will analyze the causes of this dysfunction, and also present options for solving it.
The selected display is not connected to the Nvidia GPU - the essence and reasons
The vast majority of modern laptops (and some desktop computers) can boast of two active video cards at once. In most cases, one of them is built into the motherboard, is low-power, and is used for everyday tasks (usually the Intel HD Graphics series). The second is a powerful discrete one, used for resource-intensive graphics applications with active use of 3D graphics (video cards from Nvidia and AMD).
Systems with two video cards can effectively save power by using a weaker card from Intel when performing simple operations (surfing the net, working with text, etc.). This feature is called “NVIDIA Optimus”, and we can see it working in many modern laptops with Nvidia graphics cards.
The use of this technology allows you to extend the battery life of your laptop
When you launch the Nvidia control panel, the system tries to identify the Nvidia card used to create the image on the PC screen. If authentication fails, the user receives the message “The display you are using is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU.”
The causes of dysfunction may be the following:
- The user plugged the monitor plug into the built-in graphics card connector instead of a discrete one (in the case of a desktop PC);
- Instead of the native laptop drivers, the user (or Windows OS) installed basic drivers from Intel or Nvidia. Your laptop manufacturer can modify standard drivers for a specific laptop model, giving the system the ability to optimally switch between the built-in and discrete graphics card. Such drivers are called “OEM drivers” (the abbreviation “OEM” stands for Original Equipment Manufacturer). OEM drivers usually come with a laptop on an CD or PC hard drive, and their use is the key to the successful operation of both video cards. If the user installs standard drivers from Nvidia or Intel, then this switching may not work correctly;
- The user did not install drivers for system video cards correctly. In particular, you first need to install drivers for the built-in card from Intel, and then for the discrete one (Nvidia). Many do exactly the opposite;
- Drivers for video cards are outdated or do not work correctly.
Below we will look at ways to solve the problem.
Let's look at the solutions to fix the "Nvidia Display Settings Not Available" error on your PC.
Method 1: Connect your monitor cable to the Nvidia card connector
In the case of a desktop PC and a separate monitor, make sure that the monitor cord is connected to the Nvidia video card connector, and not to the built-in Intel card connector.
Method 2: Check if the integrated Intel graphics card is disabled
On some laptops, the operation of a discrete Nvidia card is impossible without the integrated graphics card from Intel enabled, so it displays “NVIDIA display settings are not available. The display you are using is not connected to an NVIDIA GPU."
- Go to Device Manager (press Win+R, type devmgmt.msc there and press enter).
- Here find the “Video Adapters” tab, double-click on it to expand it.
- Hover over the Intel card, right-click, and select “Enable Device.”
Method 3. Install original OEM drivers on your PC
An effective solution to the problem is to install original OEM drivers for the video card of your PC. Do the following:
Get-WmiObject win32_bios
And press enter. The displayed parameters will contain “SerialNumber”, the value of which will need to be entered into the corresponding search field on the website of the manufacturer of your device. You will have the opportunity to download drivers and other updates for your laptop.
- Download drivers for the version of your Windows OS (do not confuse 32 or 64-bit versions). The specified drivers may be of an earlier date than the drivers you already have installed, but that’s okay;
- First install the drivers for the Intel video card;
- Then install the drivers for your Nvidia video card. Make sure you do a clean installation for Nvidia drivers;
- Restart your PC.
If you are worried that Windows will install its drivers again, you can disable this feature. To do this, go to, then to “System and Security”, then “System” - on the left “Advanced system settings” - the “Hardware” tab - “Device installation options”. Here, select the “No” option, click on “Save”, and restart your PC.
Method 4: Check if the Nvidia service is working
- Click on Win+R, type services.msc there and press enter.
- In the list of services that opens, find the “Nvidia Display Container LS” service, make sure that it is running and its startup type is set to “Automatic”.
- If necessary, start the service, this may help resolve the “Display in use is not connected” error on your PC.
Method 5: Check BIOS settings
In some cases, incorrect BIOS settings may interfere with the correct operation of the Nvidia card. Go to BIOS, find the “Graphics Device” option there and set the value to “Auto” or “Optimus” if available.
Method 6. Update your Nvidia drivers (for desktops)
Users of stationary desktop PCs should try installing Nvidia drivers from geforce.com. You can find drivers for your card on the website manually by selecting the card model and its operating system, or let Nvidia's special tool do this by clicking on "AUTO DETECT YOUR GPU".
Also make sure that when installing the drivers you have activated the “clean install” option.
Method 7. Use special programs
Specialized programs such as “DriverPack Solution”, “Driver Easy” and other analogues that scan PC components and install the latest versions of drivers for them can also help in installing the latest drivers.
Conclusion
The appearance of the message “The display you are using is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU” usually indicates that there are some problems with the operation of the Nvidia drivers on the user’s PC. Follow the tips listed in the article to get rid of the “NVIDIA Display Settings are Unavailable” error on your computer.
The display being used is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU - users often receive an error with this text when trying to open the settings window for the settings of a discrete video card.
As a result, the computer cannot use the component while playing games or running other programs.
Let's take a closer look best ways resolve this error on your PC.
Often the above problem occurs with discrete cards. A discrete graphics card is a hardware component that, unlike an integrated card, is designed as a separate circuit.
The purchase and installation of such an element is usually done by the users themselves to speed up the PC when running games or video editing applications.
Enabling the video card in Device Manager
If you are using a Windows operating system, the reason for the error message may be based on the graphics card component being disabled in Device Manager. After updating, reinstalling the OS, optimizing the computer, the system can automatically install the initial settings of the components.
To check the operating status of the GPU and start it, follow the instructions:
- Open the search menu on the Windows desktop;
- In the text line, enter “Device Manager”;
Rice. 1 – search for the “Device Manager” utility
- Open the result you found.
Rice. 2 – Window of all available devices and OS components
Open the video adapters tab, there should be several components in the list. Find your NVIDIA device and right-click on it. In the context menu that appears, you can check the status of its operation. If the adapter is disabled, the Enable box will appear in the menu. Do this and wait a few seconds.
Even if the system shows that NVIDIA GeForce is working, we advise you to reconnect the device. Click on “Disconnect” and then again on “Connect”. In this way, normal operation can be restored.
If this does not help you, move on to the next method.
Updating video card drivers
If simply rebooting the GPU does not resolve the issue, the card drivers may be outdated or may not be compatible with the OS version installed on your computer. There are two ways to update the GPU configuration - automatically or manually installing drivers.
First, try the first option. It does not require special skills or understanding of PC characteristics. Go to Device Manager again and click on the video adapters tab menu. In the list, select “Update hardware configuration”. The computer will automatically find and download the required software. After completing the action, be sure to restart your PC for the changes to take effect.
Rice. 4 – automatic update of GPU drivers
Remember! This method of installing drivers is suitable if the computer has an Internet connection. You should also use only a genuine copy of Windows OS (otherwise, drivers may be downloaded from unreliable and dangerous sources).
The second way to update drivers is to search for the necessary files yourself. This can only be done on the official website of the manufacturer of your video card - NVIDIA Corporation.
The figure below shows the driver software download page. Users must independently select the type, series and family of the product, as well as the version of the operating system used. Then you should confirm the search so that the system automatically generates a suitable archive for downloading.
Rice. 5 – selection of video card parameters on the NVIDIA website
Wait for the search results and download the archive by pressing the " Download now»:
Rice. 6 – downloading the archive with drivers
How to find out the video card parameters? To do this, use the instructions that were included with your purchase. If it is not there, you can look at the characteristics in the operating system itself:
1. Open the system information window;
Rice. 7 – search for the “System Information” utility
2. Wait for the parameters to load. This may take 1 to 3 minutes;
3. On the left side of the window, open the “Display” tab. After a while, a detailed description of the characteristics of all devices that are responsible for displaying data on this computer will appear on the right. You will need fields with the name and version of the GPU.
Rice. 8 – viewing the parameters of a discrete video card in PC settings
And also on the NVIDIA Corporation website you can start the procedure for automatically selecting driver software for your computer. Click on the "Graphics Drivers" button, as shown in the figure:
Rice. 9 – launch automatic system scan
You will then be redirected to a new software download page. Wait for the analysis of your OS to complete. This will take a few minutes. As a result, the site will display a message indicating which driver you need. When you click on its icon, the file will automatically download to your computer.
Rice. 10 – automatic detection of missing drivers
Using one of the methods described above, you can update the hardware configuration of a discrete video card. There should be no problems launching games in the future. If the GPU is still not working correctly, there may be files or processes remaining on the system that are stopping it from working. Let's look at how to properly configure the GPU.
Activating NVIDIA System Service
Often the whole problem is the NVIDIA display container service crashing. You can fix the problem using the Services utility. It contains information about all components of the computer management console. Users can configure process settings, disable them, or update them.
Rice. 11 – opening system services
In the window that appears, find the “NVIDIA Display Container LS” item and open its context menu. Click on the “Restart” and “Update” items one by one. Then you should restart your computer.
Rice. 12 – service update
Removing outdated driver files
Even after installing new driver software, there may still be outdated files on your computer that interfere with the operation of the GPU. The fastest option for removing such files and folders is to use the Display Driver Uninstaller utility. It is distributed free of charge and performs all actions automatically.
In the main application window you need to select the type of graphics driver (in our case it is NVIDIA). Then click on the Clean and Restart button. After the uninstallation is completed, the computer may restart several times.
Rice. 13 – main window of the Display Driver Uninstaller program
Using a Windows Backup
If the GPU stops working after performing a certain action (installing new applications, games, installing OS updates), you can clean up all the “erroneous” actions using a backup copy.
Open the System Backup and Restore window. Then click on “Copy Settings” and select the archive to restore that is suitable for its creation date. Follow the computer's further instructions to complete the procedure.
Rice. 14 – backup window
The guide describes in detail the process of managing NVIDIA video card settings. We will also tell you how to configure NVIDIA 3D settings for some games. Before setting up, you need to install drivers for Nvidia.
If the drivers are installed, we begin configuration.
Right-click on the desktop to display a pop-up menu. In which we select the item:
After this we get to the control panel. Let's go to the section: 3D Options
In the window that appears, first select the item: Adjusting Picture Settings with Preview
Click: Apply(as shown in the picture below)
Now the fun begins.
Configuring NVIDIA 3D Settings for Games
Let's go to the section: Managing 3D Settings
After this, we proceed to configure the parameters in the right window.
For the applications to work correctly, you must set the following parameters:
- CUDA - GPUs: All
- Anisotropic filtering: Turn off
- V-Sync (Vertical Sync): Turn off
- Vertical sync pulse": Use 3D Application Setting
- Background lighting shading": Turn off
- Maximum number of pre-prepared frames: you should select the item marked with the NVIDIA icon
- Stream optimization: Automatically
- Power management mode: Adaptive
- Antialiasing - gamma correction: Turn off
- Antialiasing - parameters: Turn off
- Antialiasing - Transparency: Turn off
- Antialiasing - mode: Turn off
- Triple buffering: Turn off
- Acceleration of multiple displays/mixed GPUs: Multi-Display Performance Mode
- Texture filtering - anisotropic sampling optimization: Turn off
- Texture filtering - quality": Highest performance
- Texture filtering - negative UD deviation: Turn on
- Texture filtering - trilinear optimization": Turn on
- Anisotropic filtering. Directly affects the quality of textures in games. Therefore it is recommended switch off.
- Enable scalable textures: Turn off
- Expansion limitation: Turn off
After changing all the settings, click the Apply button. These settings do not guarantee 100% results, but in 90% of cases they can increase FPS by up to 30%.
Good day to all!
Not long ago I encountered an interesting error on one laptop: the link to setting up the NVIDIA video card disappeared on the desktop (i.e. if you right-click anywhere on the desktop, there was no link to “NVIDIA Control Panel” in the window that appeared) .
Without thinking twice, I went to the Windows control panel and opened the section "Equipment and Sound" and tried to open the link provided there - but an error appeared " NVIDIA display settings are unavailable" . After 15 min. I got rid of this error and configured the video card, in fact, this article is just about solving a similar problem. So...
Error example \\NVIDIA\\ The display you are using is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU
A similar error occurs most often when there is a problem with the drivers: either they are not installed, or a conflict or failure has occurred.
In general, you need to do the following: first completely remove the drivers for video cards from the system, then download the latest versions of drivers from your laptop manufacturer’s website, install them, and restart your computer/laptop. As a rule, after this everything starts working as expected!
Let's take a closer look!
How to find and download drivers for a video adapter
Method number 1 - automatic
By automatic method, of course, I mean using special. utilities for finding and installing drivers for ALL hardware on your system. Using them will allow you to get rid of many worries: you will not need to delete old “firewood”, install new ones, make backup copies, etc. - ALL this will be done for you in auto mode!
Since I have several articles on my blog dedicated to such programs, in this one I will not describe in detail how and what to do in them. Below are a couple of useful links:
- Programs for updating, uninstalling, searching for drivers -
- Updating drivers in Windows 10 - review of the 5 best programs (in Russian) -
Method No. 2 - in "manual" mode
Important! This error usually appears on laptops with two video cards (discrete and integrated). Therefore, drivers must be downloaded for both the built-in one (usually Intel HD Graphics) and the discrete one - AMD or NVIDIA.
After the drivers have been downloaded, you can start removing old “firewood”...
Removing old video drivers
Method number 1 - through the control panel
The most obvious way to remove old drivers is to use the Windows Control Panel, the built-in software removal tool. To open it, go to the control panel at: Control Panel\Programs\Programs and Features .
Next, you will see a list of installed programs: find the ones you need among them (for example, as in my case "NVIDIA GeForce" etc., select them and press the button "Delete\Change" .
Method number 2 - through the device manager
First you need to open device Manager , the generic way to do this is:
- press a combination of buttons WIN+R;
- to line "Open" enter devmgmt.msc ;
- press ENTER.
- open tab "Video adapters";
- select the desired adapter, right-click on it, and go to its properties;
- then open the tab "Driver";
- press the button delete .
Uninstalling the INTEL HD Driver
Method number 3 - using Display Driver Uninstaller
Display Driver Uninstaller
An excellent utility for COMPLETELY removing any video drivers from a Windows system. It will delete not only the driver files themselves, but also delete registry keys, folders, files (including temporary ones), and it works even in cases where the standard Windows installer produces errors and refuses to work.
As for using the utility, everything is simple, just run it, select the video adapter and press the button "Delete and reboot" . As a result, the utility will remove current and old versions of drivers, making the system completely clean of them, as it was immediately after installing Windows.
ADDITION!
I also have an article on removing drivers on my blog. If the above methods did not help you, I recommend that you also read it (link below).
How to remove drivers: old or unnecessary -
Installing drivers
In principle, installing drivers today, in most cases, is not difficult - just run the executable file setup.exe .
Here I will give just one point: first install the driver for Intel (through the device manager), and then for nVidia itself.
Note!
IMPORTANT!
After the drivers are installed, be sure to restart your laptop!
ADDITION!
In some cases, get rid of the error "NVIDIA Display Settings Unavailable" A fairly simple and quick way helps:
- go to device Manager ;
- open the video adapters tab, select NVIDIA and press the button "Update drivers" ;
- next select "Automatically search for updated drivers" ;
- after Windows reports that the drivers are updated or they do not need updating, restart your computer .
That's all for me. Good luck!
Manufacturers produce proprietary utilities for modern video cards. In them you can configure many device parameters, improving its performance. If instead of the utility you see the error “The display you are using is not connected to your NVIDIA GPU,” use our instructions. We figured out why the settings window does not open and how to fix it.
First, remember what you changed on your computer before the problem appeared. Whether new programs were installed, drivers were updated, the list of services was optimized, Windows was reinstalled - any of these actions, performed not entirely correctly, could lead to a failure. If the error did not arise as a result of your actions, check the following points.
In Windows OS, hardware components may be disabled on the system. If the error “NVIDIA Display Settings is not available” appears, first go to Device Manager. To do this, hold down Win+X and select the utility by name from the list that appears. Find the item “Video adapters” and click on it to expand the list. If there is an NVIDIA card there, right-click on it. A submenu will appear, if it has an “Enable” option, click on it, your GPU has been disabled.
If there is no “Enable” item in the menu, the equipment is active. In this case, reconnect the device - select “Disconnect”, then the option to enable will appear. This will help reboot the card and get rid of a number of errors.
Driver Update
The OS transmits signals to the hardware using drivers, which do not always work correctly. If the display you are using is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU, what should you do next? To fully configure the utilities, you must completely remove them from the system and install them again. Removal can be done using Windows or third-party programs:
- In Start, open Settings and go to the Applications subsection. In the list of installed programs, find NVIDIA entries, select “Uninstall” in the actions.
- Press Win+X and launch Device Manager. Go to the “Video adapters” category and click on the name of the failed video card. Right-click on the mouse, go to properties, and on the “Driver” tab, uninstall the utility.
- The Display Driver Uninstaller program will help even if standard tools give an error. It performs a complete removal, clearing registry entries and temporary folders left by the utility. In the Uninstaller window, select your GPU from the list and click “Uninstall and reboot.”
For any method, it is advisable to first reboot the PC into safe mode, when only basic functions will be launched. At the beginning of boot, press F8 (some computers require pressing a different key; it will be indicated on the first boot screen) and select “Safe mode” from the list of options.
After uninstalling the utility, Windows will begin. But the system does not always find the most recent and correct files, so it is better to download them from the manufacturer’s website. NVIDIA offers 2 options for downloading drivers: manually and automatically searching for the required files. For manual selection, select the type, series and family of equipment, OS version and bit depth, and installation language. First look at the video card parameters in the “Device Manager”; check the Windows type in the properties of “My Computer”.
To automatically search, select “Option 2” and click on “Graphics Drivers”. The service will begin scanning the system and searching for suitable files. To access the characteristics of PC hardware components, you will need to install Java - if it is not already on your computer, it will be faster to select the required driver manually.
After downloading the GPU files, run the installation. Finally, restart your PC and check if NVIDIA is working. If you have 2 video cards installed, do these steps for each of them.
Service connection
If it does not work on a laptop or PC, check the activity of the display container service. If you disable it, NVIDIA settings will become unavailable. For check:
- Launch “Services” by searching for the name in “Start” or from the “Administrative Tools” group.
- In the list of components, find NVIDIA Display Container LS.
- By right-clicking the mouse, select the actions “Restart” and “Update”.
Then restart your PC and check the error.
Bios setup
Problems with using a discrete video card may arise if it was not included with the computer from the very beginning. In this case, only integrated graphics may be enabled in the BIOS, so the PC will not recognize the new device. To solve the problem:
- During the reboot, enter the BIOS by pressing Del or F
- Look for the “Display” subsection, usually located in the “Advanced” or “Config” tabs.
- In the list of graphics devices, select your video card by name.
- Save the settings and reboot.
System Restore
If the entire OS is not stable and the error with the NVIDIA GPU display is not the only one, restore Windows. First, be sure to try updating the video card drivers - completely uninstalling and then installing. If it doesn't help:
- launch Windows settings from Start;
- go to the “Update and Security” subsection;
- open the “Recovery” item to return the computer to its original state.
A system rollback will return the original settings, eliminating many problems with your PC.
Conclusion
We figured out how to deal with the connection error to the NVIDIA GPU. Start by simply reconnecting the device in the Manager and activating the appropriate service. Update your drivers - instead of automatic updating, prefer to completely remove and download the necessary files yourself. In the most severe cases, only restoring the OS will save you.
