Faced with the error message “Something went wrong. Try restarting GeForce Experience,” the user’s first response is to follow the indicated step in the message. But even after repeated restarts, you are still faced with GeForce Experience not working? No worries though, you are not alone in this. This is a common error with the application and the resolutions are pretty straightforward.
The GeForce Experience not opening or won’t open for a large number of users started occurring after a recent Windows update. Users can see the application icon in the tray, but when clicked it was non-responsive or did not open. Reinstalling the GeForce Experience is a definite way of getting the application to work, but there are other fixes that you can try, which will ensure you do not encounter the same error in the future.
Here are a bunch of fixes after you have tried restarting the system and it did not work.
Fix 1: Install Latest Nvidia Driver Updates
A problem with the installed Nvidia driver files such as corruption can lead to the GeForce application not opening. By updating the drivers, you can fix this issue. Here are the steps to update the NVIDIA drivers.
- Right-click on This PC and click on Properties
- Select Device Manager from the left panel
- Under Display adapters, select and right-click on Nvidia graphics card
- Select Update driver
- Follow the on-screen instructions to install the latest driver updates.
- Check if GeForce Experience is opening or not.
You can also go to the official website of Nvidia and download a fresh copy of the Nvidia driver and install it. This should be done when the system fails to automatically recommend an update.
Fix 2: Reinstall the GeForce Experience
Reinstalling the application is the most effective solution when you face GeForce Experience not working error. As the new update may have interfered with the installer, installing a fresh copy of the software can fix the problem. Here are the steps to reinstall the GeForce Experience.
- Press Windows Key + R and type appwiz.cpl, hit enter
- Locate NVIDIA GeForce Experience, select, right-click, and click Uninstall/Change
- Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the current copy of GeForce Experience
- Go to the Official Website of GeForce Experience and download a copy of the software.
- Once the download completes, install the software and check if the GeForce Experience not opening error has been resolved.
Fix 3: Restart GeForce Experience Service
As some users also reported to resolve the issue by restarting the GeForce Experience Service, it worth the try. Here are quick steps to do that.
- Press Windows Key + R and type services.msc and hit enter
- Locate NVIDIA GeForce Experience Service, right-click and select Restart
- You can also Restart the service from left-panel or if the Restart option is greyed, select Start.
Once you have done the above steps, close the window and try checking if the GeForce Experience is working as normal.
Fix 4: Set Startup Type to Automatic for GeForce
Experience Service
- Press Windows Key + R and type services.msc, hit enter
- Locate Nvidia services – NVIDIA GeForce Experience Service, Nvidia GeForce Experience Backend Service, and Nvidia Telemetry Container, check Startup Type is set to Automatic.
- If not, select the services one by one, right-click and select Properties
- Go to Startup Type and select Automatic and click OK
- Check all the services are Status Running, if a service is not running Start the service.
- Now check if the GeForce Experience not opening error still occurs.
Fix 5: Reinstall NVIDIA Drivers
Uninstalling the NVIDIA drivers and reinstalling a fresh copy has also fixed the issue for some users. Here are the steps to uninstall and reinstall a fresh copy.
- Right-click on This PC and select Properties
- Click on Device Manager
- Under Display adapters > right-click on Nvidia driver and select Uninstall device
- Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the Nvidia drivers.
- Go to the official website of Nvidia and download the specific driver for your system after providing the details.
- Install the drivers and check if the GeForce Experience not opening error still occurs.
Fix 6: Turn of the Defender or Antivirus
The Windows Defender, Firewall, or the Antivirus you have installed on the computer is there to protect you from people with malicious intent, but every once in a while the program can mistake the GeForce Experience as a malicious program. This can cause the GeForce Experience not opening error. To fix this problem, you should try disabling the firewall, defender, or antivirus. Once you have disabled the applications, try opening GeForce Experience. Is the issue resolved? If yes, then, it’s your Defender or antivirus that’s preventing the app from opening.
As the antivirus or Defender is an important component you cannot have it disabled forever, you need to set an exception for GeForce Experience. Turn on the firewall or antivirus and follow the steps on our other post to set an exception on Firewall, Defender, and antivirus.
This should have fixed the problem of the GeForce Experience not working, let us know in comments what worked for you.
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