Troubleshooting an Unresponsive Nvidia 3060 GPU on a Used Laptop

As an IT professional, encountering technical issues can be particularly frustrating, especially when you’ve explored several potential solutions without success. Recently, I experienced a perplexing problem with a used laptop I purchased from my previous workplace, which is equipped with an Nvidia 3060 notebook GPU. Despite initially functioning well for two weeks, the GPU ceased operation, prompting a series of troubleshooting attempts.

In my efforts to resolve this, I diligently went through a checklist of actions: I reinstalled the graphics drivers and executed various BIOS updates. I even reverted back to older versions of both the BIOS and Windows. My attempts also included uninstalling the drivers entirely only to reinstall them and testing with previous driver versions. As a last resort, I performed a complete reinstall of Windows, again trying older iterations of the operating system.

While the GPU appears in Device Manager without any issues, it is strangely unrecognized by any other software on the laptop. This has left me and many others in a similar situation stumped.

If you are experiencing a similar issue or have any insights into troubleshooting this kind of GPU malfunction, I would greatly appreciate your feedback and suggestions. Your expertise might be the key to unlocking this frustrating challenge!