Reading time: 7 minutes. Views 1.8k. Published 08/25/2017
Hi all! Very often, users of computers and laptops with an NVIDIA discrete video adapter installed are faced with the problem of being unable to access the video settings settings. All this is accompanied by the appearance of the error “the display being used is not connected to the nvidia gp.” Because of this problem, the computer will not be able to use the video adapter during games and when running applications. As a rule, in most cases the problem occurs only with discrete video cards.
Discrete graphics card is a separate hardware component of a computer, which is made in the form of a separate circuit or chip and is connected to a high-speed PCI Express data bus. Such video cards are the most productive compared to integrated solutions. It is worth paying attention to the fact that the discrete board cannot always be removed from the device. For example, on laptops it is soldered onto the motherboard, but is made in the form of a separate chip or chipset.
Troubleshooting: The display you are using is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU
After we have learned a little about what discrete video adapters are, I propose to consider in detail how to solve our problem. As a rule, there are not so many of them. Therefore, we will consider the most popular options.
By the way, I suggest you remember what actions you performed earlier before this error began to appear: perhaps you deleted or updated drivers, optimized your computer and turned off unnecessary services, or reinstalled the Windows operating system. If you did not perform any actions on the computer, and the error: the display being used is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU began to appear by itself, then follow the instructions below.
We check whether the video card is enabled in the device manager.
Very often, this problem occurs because the video adapter component is disabled in Windows Device Manager. This can happen for various reasons:
- System updates have been downloaded and installed;
If the described operations took place, then the system could independently set the initial settings, so to fix the problem we do the following:
Note! There are times when the system shows that the NVIDIA Geforce device is turned on, but it does not work correctly. Then you should turn it off by clicking on the “Disable” item, and then “Enable” again. Perhaps this will help solve the problem.
If, after making the settings, the error: The display being used is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU persists, then proceed to the next step.
Update the video card driver.
There are cases when, after installing or updating drivers incorrectly, or because the driver is incompatible with the Windows version, the device refuses to work correctly. In this situation, you can try updating the video card driver. There are several ways to do this.
After that, click the “Search” button, the system will find the latest drivers for your video card and offer to download them. 
After downloading, feel free to run the update file.
After you update the video drivers, don’t forget to restart your computer and check if our problem has disappeared; if not, then read the article further.
Enable NVIDIA services
Quite often, the cause of many troubles is that some services stop working. This can happen due to incorrect user actions or due to a system failure. Therefore, to check whether the NVIDIA Geforce display container service is running, do the following:
Upon completion of the completed manipulations, reboot the computer and check whether the error has disappeared.
We delete old video card driver files.
If you updated drivers rather than clean installed them, then you forgot about such a little thing as deleting all the files and registry tails that remained from the previous version of the software.
To clean the system of debris left over from the previous installation, we will use a free utility called Display Driver Uninstaller, which can be downloaded from the official website www.guru3d.com. With its help, we can automatically remove old drivers. 
Therefore, download, install and launch the program. Before starting cleaning, you must select the GPU type and click on the “Clean and Restart” button. After these manipulations, the computer will reboot several times. So don't be alarmed.
We use the system restore tool.
If the above steps did not help you fix the situation and the error: The display being used is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU appears again, then there is another option to solve the problem. To do this, we will use the standard Windows System Restore tool.
To roll back to earlier computer settings, do the following:
As a rule, very often “System Restore” allows you to roll back your computer’s settings to its previous state and return the settings that were used before the user changed or before installing programs.
Let's summarize.
The display used is not connected to the NVIDIA GPU - users often receive a window with this content when they try to open the settings panel of their video card. As a result, the computer cannot use the component while playing games or running other applications. Let’s take a closer look at the best methods for eliminating this error on your computer or laptop.
Often this problem appears with discrete cards. . Discrete graphics card- this is a special component, which, unlike an integrated card, is made in the form of a separate circuit.
The purchase and installation of such a part most often produced by the users themselves to speed up your computer while running games or video editing applications.
Launching the video card through device manager
If you are running a Windows operating system, the reason for the "nvidia display settings are not available" problem message may be based on disabling part of the video card in your device manager.
After updating, reinstalling the system, or speeding up the computer, the system can automatically set the initial settings of the components.
To check the status of the GP and enable it, follow the recommendations:
- Open the search menu on the system desktop.
- Enter “Device Manager” in the text line; Let's open our result.
- Let's go to the video adapters tab, there will be several components in the list. Find the NVIDIA device and right-click on it.
- In the open special menu you can view the status of its operation. If the adapter is disabled, there will be an “Enable” field in the menu. Turn it on and wait a couple of seconds.
- Even if the system displays that NVIDIA GeForce is working, we recommend connecting the device again. Click on "Disconnect" and then again on "Connect". In this way you can return to normal operation. If this does not help you, let's move on to another method.
Video card driver update
If a normal GPU reboot does not solve the problem, it is possible that the card drivers are already old or are incompatible with the new version installed on the computer OS.
There are two methods to update the configuration GPU - automatic or installing drivers yourself.
You should try the first option first. It will not require unique skills or understanding of computer characteristics. Go to Device Manager again and click on the video adapters section menu.
In the list, select the item “ Updating hardware configuration". The computer itself will find and launch the necessary software.
After performing the manipulation, it is imperative to restart the PC for the changes to take effect. Remember! This method of installing drivers is suitable if the PC has an Internet connection. You must also use a licensed copy of Windows OS (otherwise the drivers will be loaded from unknown and dangerous sources).
The second method of updating drivers is to simply search for the required files. This can only be done on the official source of the manufacturer of your video card - NVIDIA Corporation.
It is easy to find a download page for driver software on the Internet. Users must manually select the type, series and type of product, as well as the version of the working operating system.
Then you need to confirm the search so that the system itself creates the necessary archive for downloading. We wait for the search result and download the archive by clicking on the “Download Now” button:
Find out the parameters of your video card
To do this, we will use the recommendation that was included in the purchase package.
If it is not there, you can see the characteristics in your system:
- Open the system information window;
- We are waiting for the parameters to load. This can last from one to three minutes.
- On the left side of the window, open the “Display” section. After a certain time, a detailed description of the characteristics of most devices that are responsible for displaying data on your computer will open on the right. You will need fields with the name and version of the GPU.
And also on the NVIDIA Corporation portal you can enable the process of automatic selection of drivers for your computer.
Click on the “Graphics Drivers” section.
At the end the site will show a message saying what driver do you need?, or whether there are problems with the video card. When you click on its icon, the file will spontaneously download to your PC. Using one of our discussed methods, you can update the hardware configuration of your video card. Then there should be no problems turning on games. If the G.P. is still not working properly, there may still be files on the system or processes that slow down its work.
But don’t worry, sooner or later you will discover the source of the problem and deal with it yourself.
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.
Often, when opening settings, a window appears with the text “The display you are using is not connected to the Nvidia GPU.” We will tell you what to do in such a situation.
1. Turn on the video card
Sometimes Nvidia display settings are not available for the simple reason that the graphics card is not enabled. There is no point in trying to understand how she could suddenly pass out.
Here's what you need to do to fix the problem:
- Launch Device Manager. The easiest way to find it is in the Start menu.
- Expand the "Video Adapters" section. One of the devices will definitely be called Nvidia.
- Right-click on it and in the menu that appears, click “Disable” and then “Enable” (right-click on the device again - the drop-down menu will be slightly modified). Or maybe you will immediately only have the “Enable” option. Choose him.
Rice. No. 1. Enabling the video adapter in Device Manager
- It happens that this method of inclusion does not work. Therefore, the same must be done in services and in the BIOS. As for the first, open the Control Panel item in the Start menu, then go to Administrative Tools, and then open Services. In the list you will find at least one item in which the name Nvidia will appear. Most likely it will be "NVIDIA Display Container LS". Right-click on it and select first “Restart”, then “Update”.
Rice. No. 2. Enable Nvidia service
- Now let's talk about BIOS. First you will need to open the BIOS or UEFI. How to do this, read this article. After this, you need to open the menu that is responsible for the connected devices. Look for something that has to do with graphics. In BIOS, most often something similar can be found in the “Config” or “Advanced” tabs. As you can see in the image below, there is a setting called “Graphics Device” and there you can select Nvidia.
Clue: If you can't do it, try finding information in the instructions or on the manufacturer's website.
Rice. No. 3. Graphics settings in BIOS
Now you know how to connect a video card if it suddenly turns off. If it doesn't work, move on.
2. Update your drivers
In general, this method is relevant for a huge variety of computer problems.
To update drivers, this is what you usually do:
- Go to the device manager in the way you are already familiar with.
- Open the “Video Adapters” section and on your Nvidia device, right-click and select “Update Drivers...”. You can also right-click on the entire “Video adapters” section and click “Update hardware configuration.”
Rice. No. 4. Updating the video adapter configuration in the manager
- Reboot your machine. If nothing has changed, right-click on your Nvidia device and select Properties. Next, go to the “Driver” tab in the window that opens and click “Delete”.
Rice. No. 5. Uninstalling the driver
- Restart your PC or laptop again. The system must independently find the most current driver and install it. If not, you will have to find it yourself. This is usually done on the official website of the computer manufacturer (not the video card, if there is nothing there, then go to the website of the video adapter manufacturer). Download the driver and install it. This is done in the same way as with any other programs - launch the exe extension file, agree to the terms and follow all the instructions.
In the event that this did not work or you have any problems with the installation, you can use special software to automatically install drivers. A list of the best examples is given here.
3. Reinstall or roll back the system
If none of the above works, then the problem is in the operating system. It can be difficult to track Nvidia GPU activity and when things stopped working.
In any case, if everything was fine a week ago, you should first roll back the system to this time. Read this article to learn how this procedure is performed.
Advice: Try several available restore points. Move from the one closest to you in time to the farthest. Things will probably get better at some stage.
And if even then nothing changes, you will have to reinstall the operating system. To do this, it is advisable to take a completely different assembly than the one you have now and completely clean the hard drive. In other words, you need to format it.
Step-by-step instructions for reinstalling Windows are given here.
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
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