Windows 11 will silently remove GPU drivers after prolonged Eco Mode use, requiring manual driver reinstallation.
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The tech enthusiast community is certainly a great place to be for nerds. Here, users can learn and discover all sorts of interesting things, both for software and hardware. For example, earlier today we covered the tale someone who came to know of CompactOS, an official Windows feature that helps save disk space. While that was something we already knew, another user, also on Reddit, discovered an entirely new thing that caught many, including us, by surprise.
The affected user found that Windows 11 can quietly delete your graphics driver if your device is kept in "Eco Mode" without any apparent warning. The problem could be limited to the Asus ROG laptops where it took place, or it could be a widespread issue affecting all such systems that feature similar power settings.
As a reminder, Microsoft had been previously known to downgrade Windows graphics drivers, something that's finally being fixed as part of the new Driver Quality Initiative (DQI), this new issue of complete removal of drivers went totally unnoticed.
For those wondering what exactly happened, the user was running a ROG Zephyrus G14 with an RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU and had kept the machine in Eco Mode for several weeks. This mode effectively power-gates the discrete GPU, seemingly leading Windows to believe as if the device has been disconnected.
Interestingly, this seems to trigger a Windows maintenance process called pnpclean.dll that can remove devices that have been absent for a certain period. The DLL in question, as the name suggests, is said to handle Plug and Play (PnP) clean-up tasks on Windows, basically maintaining unused device drivers by removing them when they appear to no longer be connected.
According to the user's investigation of the setupapi.dev.log file, his GPU had a 15-day timeout. Once that period passed, Windows removed the device and subsequently removed its unused Nvidia driver package as well. The default timeout is reportedly 30 days.
Consequently, switching back to Standard Mode caused the GPU to reappear as a new device, but without its proper driver. It instead showed up as the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter, with the user also reporting a Code 10 error and Nvidia's software claiming that the installed driver was incompatible.
The discovery may not be limited to Nvidia hardware either. The user believes AMD GPUs could be affected as well if Windows considers them absent for long enough. Other users have also reported seeing similar behavior with older G14 models.
Following this discovery, G-Helper, which is a lightweight control tool for Asus laptops, has added an advisory on how to deal with the situation. It says:
"If your dGPU stays disabled (in Eco mode) for a long time (15 days for Nvidia), Windows decides that device is gone for good and silently removes it together with its driver during automated disk cleanup. Next switch to Standard mode brings GPU back as Microsoft Basic Display Adapter (error 10 or 28 in Device Manager), and only reinstalling the Nvidia driver fixes it."
To prevent this you can turn off that specific cleanup. Run in PowerShell (as admin):
Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\VolumeCaches\Device Driver Packages' -Name Autorun -Value 0
Setting the DWORD value to 0 essentially stops the automatic silent pass. In case you don't want to deal with that, G-Helper has recommended users to periodically switch to Standard mode once in a while to reset the 15-30 day timer.
Source: Ok-Horse-3169 (Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/ZephyrusG14/comments/1vt5gdg/psa_if_your_laptop_gpu_turned_into_microsoft/)) via G-Helper (GitHub (http://github.com/seerge/g-helper/wiki/FAQ#my-dgpu-became-microsoft-basic-display-adapter))
source (http://www.neowin.net/news/user-unexpectedly-discovers-microsoft-can-purposefully-delete-windows-driver-without-warning/)