Solved! Laptop's dedicated gpu seems to be broken. How to fix

[tikitakasumit]

details of the laptop:
ASUS ROG GL552VW
Cpu : i7 6700HQ
Integrated Gpu: Intel HD 530
Dedicated Gpu: Nvidia GTX 960M

Laptop freezes and then get BSOD after a while

I have been getting blue screen(BSOD) for a several months. I get error codes like:
"Device power state failure",
"dpc watchdog violation" and
"video scheduler internal error".

Sometimes it was less frequent and can use the laptop while sometimes it happened so often that I couldn't use the laptop at all. I've noticed that it happens more on hot days.

After different attempts to diagnose I noticed that it is caused by the nvidia driver. When i uninstall or disable the gtx 960m from Device Manager, the laptop works fine. However the windows soon installs the driver automatically and the laptop is unusable again. So i have to uninstall it again as soon as i boot

Is this a hardware issue? Is the gpu damaged? Is there a way to fix it?
Thanks

 

[hang-the-9]

Seems likely it's a failed video chip. No way to fix those outside of replacing it. You can try a new Windows setup to rule out any software issues. If the card is in an MXM slot you may be able to replace it, but finding a working replacement is not easy, they are pretty expensive and you are taking a chance on someone selling you a failed card also.

 

[Solandri]

I agree it sounds like a failing Nvidia GPU. However, before you give up on it, try downloading the Nvidia and Intel drivers for your laptop from the Asus support website. Then unplug your computer from the network / turn off WiFi (to prevent Windows Update from auto-updating the drivers). Install the drivers you downloaded from the Asus website. Reboot, and try running a game.

The hybrid Intel/Nvidia graphics found in laptops requires very specific display driver support. Windows 10's automatic updates have this nasty habit of replacing working drivers with broken drivers it thinks will work better but don't. On my previous laptop, I was unable to use the Nvidia GPU for nearly a year because of this (I had to manually block Windows Update from running during this time). There's an outside chance the problem is the driver Windows Update is automatically installing, not your GPU, so try testing it with the drivers your laptop vendor puts out.

If it works fine with the Asus drivers, enable your network again. Let Windows Update replace the two video drivers. Then go into device manager, go to the properties for the two devices, and compare to the version you downloaded from the Asus website. If Windows Update has replaced the driver, go to the driver tab and click the "roll back driver" button. This is the method Microsoft finally settled on for preventing Windows 10 Update from auto-updating a driver.