Unable to change display mode NVIDIA error [Fix]

If you see Unable to change display mode error popup notification in NVIDIA when you launch a game, this post will help you resolve the issue. The error occurs on computers that have NVIDIA graphics cards. According to the users, this error message pops up whenever they launch a game. It is annoying as this error message appears automatically on every game.

Fix Unable to change display mode NVIDIA error

If you see the Unable to change display mode NVIDIA error message while launching a game on your Windows system, the following solutions will help you.

Temporarily disable your antivirus
Update NVIDIA driver
Check your NVIDIA Display Mode settings
Check error logs in Windows Event Viewer
Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state

Let’s see all these fixes in detail.

1] Temporarily disable your antivirus

Some users found their antivirus software responsible for the error. After disabling or turning off the antivirus, the issue was fixed. This may be the case with you. Turn off your antivirus and then launch the game. See if the error message occurs this time or not. If not, your antivirus is conflicting with the game. In this case, you can disable your antivirus while playing the game.

2] Update NVIDIA driver

Make sure that you are using the latest version of the NVIDIA graphics card driver. Problems may occur if your system is running with outdated NVIDIA drivers. For this, you have to download the latest version of your graphics card driver from the official website of NVIDIA. You should know your graphics card product type and product series to download the correct driver.

After downloading the driver, run the installer file to install the latest version of the NVIDIA graphics card driver on your system.

3] Check your NVIDIA Display Mode settings

It is also possible that your display settings in NVIDIA Control Panel are changed from what you had set earlier. This happens when you reset your NVIDIA Control Panel settings to default. In this case, you can change the display mode again to fix the issue.

Some users reported that their Display mode was changed to Auto Select from Optimus by itself. The problem was fixed when they switched back their Display mode to Optimus. However, for some users, switching to the NVIDIA GPU only Display mode worked. An option to switch the Display mode is available under the Manage Display Mode setting in NVIDIA Control Panel.

4] Check error logs in Windows Event Viewer

According to the reports, this error occurs due to a conflict between NVIDIA Control Panel and other applications. Different users have reported different applications as the culprits of this error. Therefore, the possibilities of this conflict are also high in your case.

You can use the Windows Event Viewer to view the details of this error message. When an error occurs, Windows creates an error log. You can view all the error logs in Windows Event Viewer.

Open Windows Event Viewer.
Expand the Windows Logs folder.
Select Application.
On the right side, click Filter Current Log.
Select Warning and Error in Event Level and click OK.
The error and warning logs will be sorted in decreasing order with date and time.

With the help of Event Source and Date & Time, you can view the details of the error to know the conflicting application.

5] Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state

If you do not get enough information from the Event Viewer, we suggest you troubleshoot in a Clean Boot state to find out the problematic application or service.

To start your system in a Clean Boot state, use MSConfig. In the Clean Boot state, all the third-party apps and services remain disabled. Hence, if the problem occurred due to a conflicting background app or third-party service, it would not occur in the Clean Boot state.

After entering the Clean Boot State, launch your game and see if the error occurs. If not, identify the problematic app or service.

To identify the problematic app or service, do the following:

Enable some of the startup apps and restart your computer.
Launch the game and check if the issue persists. If yes, disable the startup apps one by one and restart your computer every time you disable a startup app.
Check if the issue persists.

If the issue does not occur in the second step, disable another batch of startup apps and repeat the above three steps again to identify the problematic startup application. Repeat the same steps to identify the conflicting third-party service. But this time, you have to use MSConfig to enable or disable the third-party services one by one. Once you find the conflicting app, uninstall it.

While using MSConfig, make sure that you disable only the third-party services and not the Windows essential services. If you disable all the services by mistake, you wil not be able to use your computer.

Some of the conflicting programs reported by the users include Epic Games Launcher, LightShot screenshot app, PowerToys, Spotify, Google Drive for Windows, etc.

Read: NVIDIA Control Panel not saving settings.

Why can’t I change my display in NVIDIA Control Panel?

There can be many reasons why you are unable to change the display mode in NVIDIA Control Panel. Your antivirus may be conflicting with the NVIDIA Control Panel and preventing you from changing the display mode. Or a third-party app may be creating a conflict.

How do I change my NVIDIA display mode?

To change your NVIDIA display mode, Open the NVIDIA Control Panel. You can also open NVIDIA Control Panel from the right-click context menu. When the NVIDIA Control Panel opens up, select Manage Display Mode under the 3D Settings branch on the left side. Now, you can change your Display Mode.