Microsoft’s Windows 10 version 1903 release is facing some critical issues on the Surface Book 2. As it turns out, on some of the models of the device, the discrete GPU randomly stops working on the update. Users have been facing the issue as early as late May, and Microsoft’s finally acknowledge the problem last week (via Reddit).

According to Microsoft, apps and games that perform graphics-intensive operation may close or fail to open due to the issue. Microsoft says the compatability issue on the devices leads to the dGPU on some Surface Book 2 models to occasionally disappear from the device manager.

“To safeguard your update experience, we have applied a compatibility hold on Surface Book 2 devices with Nvidia dGPUs from being offered Windows 10, version 1903, until this issue is resolved,” the company said.

For those who already have Windows 10 version 1903 installed, there really isn’t a fix. Instead, Microsoft simply recommends users to restart their device if they run into the problem, or run “Scan for hardware changes” in Device Manager to help the device detect the dGPU once again. For now, Microsoft says it’s working on a fix and will provide an update on the issue in an upcoming release.

It seems like the issue affects the original Surface Book too, and some users are reporting similar issues with their GPUs. The issue is quite major as Microsoft has been very late to take actions against the problem, and many users are already possibly running Windows 10 version 1903, meaning they have no other option than to downgrade or continue to suffer from the dGPU issues. And if you are a professional that does a lot of video editing, this is obviously a massive annoyance.

Tagged with Surface Book 2, Windows 10 Version 1903