Windows 10: Updated nVidia drivers, screens blacking out

I"m not getting a BSOD, but the system is recording all sorts of errors and warnings, so hopefully this is the right place...

Windows 10 Pro, EVGA Geforce 970 GTX. Winver SAYS it’s running 1803.

I GENERALLY try to keep the nvidia drivers current, but that may have been a mistake...

Yesterday morning I installed the “current” version of nvidia drivers – 398.82 (as of 10 minutes ago, this is still the current driver shown at EVGA for the 970 GTX.
Some time after that I started getting a screen black-out. Both monitors turn black, no response to keyboard or mouse, disk activity continues. Eventually, I hit the reset and crash the system. At some point AFTER that it happens again. May be minutes, may be hours.

The errors yesterday were similar to the ones below (these are happening today) – this is from the application log
Event 1000, Application Error
Faulting application name: dwm.exe, version: 10.0.17134.1, time stamp: 0xf5178e97
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xe0464645

Followed by Event 1001, Windows Error reporting
Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: APPCRASH
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Then by Event 0, Dwminit
The Desktop Window Manager process has exited. (Process exit code: 0x000000ff, Restart count: 1, Primary display device ID: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970)

SO, I re-installed nvidia driver set 397.31, which had been on the machine previously. Problem CONTINUED…

Later last night, I found a note elsewhere that doing a reinstall MAY not clean things out and recommended using the Control Panel to completely uninstall the nVidia drivers. So, I went into Control panel and uninstalled all the 397.31 drivers I could find. Rebooted. System APPEARED to be OK. Running.

I’m not sure about performance, but at least it APPEARED to stay alive from 11:15 pm last night to 3:34 pm today (during which period there was no one using the system so I'm not sure that has any meaning), when everything went black again in the middle of a backup.
Between 3:23:47 and 3:23:52 the event log recorded SEVEN occurrences of the three errors above. As near as I can tell, they’re all the same, with dwm failing or crashing or whatever it does, over and over.

In the SYSTEM log, starting at 3:23:47 I received TWO occurrences of
Warning Event 4101, Display - Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered.
At the same 3:23:47 timestamp

THEN, between 3:23:47 and 3:23:51 I received FOURTEEN occurrences of
Warning Event 263 Win32k - A pointer device has no information about the monitor it is attached to.

Then at 3:23:52 a Warning Event 4115, Display - Display driver failed to start; using Microsoft Basic Display Driver instead. Check Windows Update for a newer display driver.

Followed immediately by 3 more Warning Event 263 Win32k - A pointer device has no information about the monitor it is attached to.


At that point I hit the reset button and crashed the system.

This system is a normal, 30” primary monitor and 24” secondary.
It is used primarily for image processing.
It is NOT being used for games.
It is not a touch screen.

There have, prior to the latest nvidia drive update, NEVER been any errors or warnings of these types recorded as far as I know.

I’ve looked at all the errors on the Internet, but unfortunately the majority or reporting appears to happen in Micorsoft forums, and I’ve yet to see ANY ACTUAL SOLUTIONS for any question asked there. There’s an incessant demand for more information, eventually ending with something like “please let us know if your troubleshooting results in a solution. So, asking anything over there seems pointless.

The errors I’m seeing APPEAR to point to the GTX 970, and it’s worked flawlessly since installation. NOTHING new is happening on the system. No new work, no new hardware, no new software – other than the nVidia driver update (not counting all the updates Microsoft does).

Having gone back one version (of those I’ve installed) of nVidia drivers, then removing ALL the nVidia drivers, WHAT do I do now to get this thing to STOP locking up the screens?

I’ve got three older sets of nVidia drivers – do I start installing THOSE, hoping the one of them will work?
Is the problem being caused BY the nVidia drivers or is there a problem with the Micorsoft Windows driver(s)? Is there a way to UPDATE the Microsoft display driver or revert to some older driver?

What else should I be doing to get this fixed?

:)

 

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