Troubleshooting a Malfunctioning Nvidia 3060: A Tech Dilemma

As a seasoned IT professional, I typically find solutions to most tech issues fairly quickly. However, I’ve recently encountered a perplexing problem that has left me scratching my head. Here’s what happened.

I purchased a second-hand laptop from my company, equipped with an Nvidia 3060 notebook GPU. For two weeks, everything functioned seamlessly. However, just a few days ago, the graphics card ceased to operate.

In my effort to resolve this predicament, I have tried an extensive array of troubleshooting steps. First, I reinstalled the graphics drivers—no luck there. Next, I explored BIOS updates and even rolled back to previous versions of both BIOS and Windows, hoping that a recent update was the culprit. I also uninstalled the drivers entirely, reverting to previous versions that had once worked flawlessly. As a last resort, I reinstalled Windows, but even this didn’t yield any results.

While the graphics card appears in the Device Manager without any warnings, it remains unrecognized by other applications. I’m reaching out to the community to see if anyone else has encountered a similar situation or has suggestions for potential solutions. Your insights would be greatly appreciated as I navigate this challenge!