RTX 2060 keeps disappearing from device manager.

What model computer? Hard to help without any info.

Sounds like an internal hardware problem.

Does it pass ePSA-Diags? Be sure it's checking Nvidia card (and not just any possible Intel-IGP).

Sorry xps 9700 4k 

Sounds like it but I am convinced it's some wonky low level driver conflicts. 

This is my reply on another thread.

I have the same issue. It's not hardware, it's low level software driver conflict issues.
On fresh windows install it auto installs the intel UHD onboard GPU drivers first then it goes and downloads the Nvidia GPU drivers. It auto installs 4 Nvidia drivers, GPU... Sound... USBC or whatever etc. Upone checking device manager you can see Nvida drivers all over the place. Not just GPU. 
Then after a couple more updates, some of the GPU drivers have just disappeared from programs and features.... BUT they are still there in Device Manager. Then if you update Intel GPU (which it will want to) your Nvidia Physix driver will disappear from Programs and Features.... So now you are left with just the Nivida GPU driver in Programs and Features. 

Why does any of this matter? Because the drivers are still installed, you can see all of them in device manager. They have just been at least partly removed by either an installation conflict, a registry conflict or a driver conflict. And if this is happening and is easy for me to see... what else are they missing ?

Fresh install of windows... Do not update via Dell apps.... turn off auto scanning in Dell Support Assist. Update via windows update. 

If this still causes issues, as soon as windows is installed pause windows update, and turn off auto scanning in Dell Support Assist.

Down load Nvidia drivers from Nvidia. Install then run windows update. 


GPU back up and running. Pause windows updates and just unpause them once every 2 weeks, so it if something goes wrong or changes after an update it is very obvious what has occurred rather than it secretly installing conflicting drivers behind your back.

This is not the only low level BIOS / driver integration issue in Dell Hardware/Software. You can see a similar thing with the left speaker just stopping working (only fixable by back dating to an older driver ... which is not made easy ... or toggle audio on and off in the bios).

---

The problem with these sorts of conflicts is that they have a certain intermittent quality to them (making it feel like a physical connection issue).

If it was a hardware issue, why would the GPU come back and function 100% when I do a fresh install of windows? I would need to repeat these steps 10 times to absolutely confirm, but I believe that is Dells quality controls department. 

Will come back on this if it goes again, either before I do updates or directly after....

Thanks for your input guys, much appreciated !!!!

---

@Tesla1856 wrote:

Sounds like an internal hardware problem.

Does it pass ePSA-Diags? Be sure it's checking Nvidia card (and not just any possible Intel-IGP).

---

Yes, when the card is present in device manager, cannot test when it is not as it doesn't show in Dell software either.

Though I just had one fail on the general test. It passed the stress test and the cuda test and the general hardware scan.

It is possible it is hardware. Arghhh. This might be a bit of a nightmare...

When I scan for hardware changes in device manager, it blue screens... 

This is known glitch with XPS 9700 

Dell has released GPU firmware to fix this. Please install this

https://dl.dell.com/FOLDER06520152M/1/NVIDIA-GeForce-RTX-2060-and-Quadro-RTX-3000-with_3V8M8_WIN64_1.0.0.1_A00.EXE

That is one of the first things I tried. Though when I ran it, nothing happened, there was no installing notification or request to restart etc. I wonder I tried to do it when the card was not 'present'. 

I have since figured out how to get it back if anyone is following the breadcrumb trail...
Power off machine, unplug power, wait 30 secs, power on. 
Have your Nvidia driver exe downloaded and run it, but do not install, instead extract. (If you install it will fail as the device isn't recognized by the install). You can navigate from device manager, to the extracted folder 'Display.Driver' and the inf is in there, it will then give you a load of different card options ... select 2060).

This brings back the card. 

Now upon extensive testing the card fails the Dell SA dx12 test, and when you scan for hardware changes either in Device Manager or Dell SA diagnostics, the blue screen error relates to DX12 also.

Which leads me to believe, I either have a non functional card (though that I can just install the drivers and it works again) or I have a ram/gpu issue or indeed the GPU firmware needs updating (properly).

I have a strong suspicion that the 64gb of teamgroup 3200 memory they installed at the point of purchase is having a very specific transfer error with the GPU with DX12.
It passes all of the other tests, and thankfully all of the CUDA processing (what I really need it for) is working.

I will look at the firmware update install ... maybe from safe mode.

Thank you very much for your time !!!!

I think it might be fixed. It just passed ALL of the video tests for the first time. 
Directly after safe mode, run as admin, update vbios. It actually did something this time !!!


Before it was failing the test on the DX12 component and this was a typical blue screen. 
So hopefully now it passed the DX12 test, the BSOD and card disappearing will cease.