# Black screen after disabling graphics card Help!



## flatline22 (Oct 26, 2013)

Hello  Today I bought a brand new Acer V3-772G laptop that runs Window 8 with a nvida gtx 760m graphics card built in.

Getting home I decided to use Just Cause 2's bench test to find out how the laptop would hold up. After completion and getting a rather low score I noticed it said the graphics card it was running was the integrated Intel(r) HD graphics 4600 card and not the nvidia.

So after some researching and trying out different ways with no results I right clicked on computer, clicked on manage, went to device manager then to display adapter, saw the intel card and the nvidia card so I disabled the intel card in hopes it would force the nvidia card to be used.

Once I did that all windows disappeared, the desktop was still there and I could still access the tile menu/start screen so I restarted hoping it would set everything back to normal and start using the nvidia card. Oh how wrong I was. Upon restart the acer title/logo pops up then disappears as usual but after that I only get black screen, nothing else.

Is there any way to fix this? To re enable the graphics card some how?
Thank you in advance!


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

If you could get to Safe Mode, you could re-enable the onboard graphics. 

In some cases, if Windows 8 doesn't successfully start a few times in a row, it will display a screen with alternate boot options - among them an "Advanced Options" tab - which will include an option to start in Safe Mode. Try letting your laptop restart a few times. If it recognises a problem with the onboard graphics, it might produce the Advanced Startup Options menu.

If you don't see that menu appear, you can use a Windows 8 repair disc (USB, CD, or DVD) to boot your computer. It will produce a menu from which you can choose Advanced Startup Options & choose Safe Mode. The Wndows 8 repair disc is not your Windows 8 installation disk, nor is it a recovery disk (such as those provided by your manufacturer). The repair disc starts your computer into the Windows 8 Recovery Environment. 

It only takes a minute or two to make the repair disc (literally). From a working Windows 8 PC, press the *Windows* & *R* keys at the same time. Then type *recdisc*. Choose *create repair disc*, & provide a blank CD, or blank DVD, or USB flash memory drive.
_________________________________________

Apparently, your laptop uses a hybrid type program called "Optimus" that uses both the onboard graphics as well as the discrete nVidia mini-card. The idea is that the onboard graphics handle mundane graphics tasks (to save battery life), and the nVidia kicks in when needed for gaming.

It seems that you do have some degree of control over when the nVidia takes over -- the options are in the "nVidia Control Panel". Here's a blurb from a gaming website about it:


> After you are at the control panel of nVidia, in the left side of that window there is 'Manage 3D settings' Under the 'Select a Task'. Click on that and you see in the other part there is a 'global settings' tab and 'program settings'. Go to the global one and in the 'preferred graphics processor' choose 'High Performance nVidia Processor'. You should then have the optimus technology when you choose apply. The 'program settings' in the other hand is to choose what graphics card you want to use for each program of your preference. So you choose on your program and select your preferred graphic card there


.

See if the nVidia Control Panel gives you the control you need, once you get things visible again with a repair disc.

Best of luck
. . . Gary


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## OldGrayGary (Jun 29, 2006)

P.S. .... the above instructions assume that you are using Windows 8 and haven't yet installed the 8.1 update. To create a repair disc from a computer running Windows 8.1 --- from Windows Search charm, change the search from Everything to Setttings, and then type in recovery, and select create a recovery disc (do not place a check mark in the box that offers to copy the contents of your recovery partition... you only need the Recovery Environment - a small little group of files).


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

First boot into *Setup* (Bios) and go to *Integrated Peripherals *or some such. See which video card is enabled. If you want to use the nVidia, then Disable the Intel and Enable the nVidia.


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## flatline22 (Oct 26, 2013)

Thank you both for the prompt replies! I tried following your advices but couldn't even access the start menu to reach the advanced settings. But it all worked out in the end I was somehow able to log in despite having a black screen, reach the desktop and was able to switch screens (fn+ f5) and correct the mistake.

Pleased to say everything is back to normal now (at least it seems like it) 

Thanks again for all your help! Wish you both a great weekend.


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