using google colab with GPU, but not working now

Question

I have been using Google Colab for some months now with GPU support. Up until a few days ago, it said that I have GPU support. Now, it doesn't. I am using the same code and I have set up the hardware accelerator properly. I am wondering if I did something wrong from Google's perspective. I am a university professor trying to learn deep learning stuff for a possible class. So, I am not sure what I could have done for this to happen.

Answer 1

When using tensorflow on Colab, it is recommended to use the bundled, pre-installed versions. Tensorflow 1.X and 2.X are available, and can be enabled via magic functions:

%tensorflow_version 1.x

for tensorflow 1, and

%tensorflow_version 2.x

for tensorflow 2 (see https://colab.research.google.com/notebooks/tensorflow_version.ipynb for details).

If you install external releases of tensorflow via pip install tensorflow-gpu==2.0 or similar, it will install a pre-built binary that may not be compatible with the GPUs and drivers available in Colab's runtime.