Microsoft’s Windows 10 May 2019 update is not going according to plan. The Redmond-based company is putting a hold on May 2019 update for some of its Surface Book 2 laptops. The move comes after a number of users reported that the update causes Nvidia‘s discrete GPU to vanish from the device manager. This means apps and games that rely on discrete graphics processor cannot function reliably any longer. The issue is the newest in a series of failed Windows 10 update roll out from the company.
After Windows 10 users reported issues with October 2018 update, Microsoft decided to focus on stability instead. However, the Windows 10 May 2019 update seems to have caused a stability issue with one of Microsoft’s own product. According to ZDNet, the problem affects only a small subset of Surface Book 2 devices. Only the Surface Book 2 models equipped with discrete Nvidia GPUs are affected by this issue. Microsoft Surface Book 2 owners with models supporting Nvidia GPU will not be able to download the May 2019 Windows 10 update.
“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,” Microsoft said in an advisory note.
In fact, this is not the first issue that has arised with the release of Windows 10 May 2019 update. ZDNet notes that Microsoft had to hold back the release of the update for computers with USB storage device or SD attached. It said the issue is caused by “inappropriate drive reassignment during installation”. The fix, in that case, was simpler and Windows users simply had to unplug their external storage while installing May 2019 update. However, in the case of NVIDIA GPU disappearing, the fix might be harder.
Microsoft recommends those who have downloaded the update to restart the device for select ‘Scan for hardware changes’ from action menu of the Device Manager. However, there are also reports of machines locking up after scanning for hardware changes. Microsoft says it is working on solving the problem in a future update. It could mean that it will take longer to reach Surface Book 2 owners.
