Troubleshooting a Nvidia 3060: A Tale of Head-Scratching Tech Woes

As a professional in the IT field, I often encounter a variety of technical challenges. However, I recently found myself stumped by an issue that even my experience couldn’t resolve. I purchased a used laptop equipped with an Nvidia 3060 graphics card from my workplace, and initially, everything was running smoothly for about two weeks. Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse when the GPU suddenly ceased functioning.

In my quest for a solution, I delved into a series of troubleshooting steps that I thought would remedy the situation. I started by reinstalling the drivers, assuming a simple driver-related issue might be at play. When that didn’t yield results, I moved on to updating the BIOS, followed by reverting both BIOS and Windows updates in an effort to see if any recent changes were the culprit.

Despite my efforts to uninstall the drivers and switch back to older versions, the GPU remained unresponsive. In a last-ditch attempt, I went as far as reinstalling Windows entirely and downgrading to an earlier version, all in the hopes of regaining functionality.

Interestingly, the graphics card still appears in the Device Manager without any issues. However, it seems to be a case of the GPU feeling rather neglected, as it isn’t recognized by any other software.

I’m reaching out to the tech community in hopes of finding a resolution to this perplexing problem. Have any of you encountered similar issues with your graphics cards? Any insight or advice would be greatly appreciated!