I downloaded and played a recent Sonic fan game for a few minutes. During that session, my laptop screen began flickering, and I heard the device-connected sound several times. Restarting afterward took much longer than usual. Windows seemed normal once it loaded, but several games—including Fortnite, Stranger of Paradise, and my 3DS emulator—now run at only 4–5 FPS. Lowering the graphics settings no longer helps. Oddly, Kingdom Hearts 3 still runs normally at around 60 FPS, so the problem affects only some games.
I have restarted the laptop multiple times and removed the fan game. I also checked discussions about the download but found no reports of malware or similar problems. Could this be related to the graphics card or its drivers? Why would only certain games be affected, and what steps should I take to diagnose and fix it?
2 Answers
One possibility is that Windows replaced or rolled back your graphics driver during an update. That can happen even when the system says everything is working, and it may affect games differently depending on which graphics API or GPU profile they use. Compare the installed driver version with the one available from the laptop or GPU manufacturer, and consider performing a clean driver installation rather than relying only on Windows Update.
Check Device Manager under Display adapters and look for warning icons or error messages on either GPU. Laptops often have integrated and dedicated graphics, and if the GPU used by most games is malfunctioning, those games could become nearly unplayable while another title still runs normally.
I checked both display adapters, and Device Manager says they are working properly. There are no warning icons or reported errors.
I’m running the latest Windows 10 version, and the NVIDIA software also reports that my graphics driver is up to date, so I’m not sure whether a rollback occurred.