Recently a new error occurred on many windows 11 PCs, where out of nowhere, on startup, the entire computer would start lagging, choppy audio, visual artifacts would appear, random restarts, random screen timeouts (simulating a failing gpu). Desktop Window Manager (DWM.exe) is running at 90% in task manager (this has nothing to do with that process specifically, it's just the GPU failing to compute even the most basic windows functions). Running the PC into safe mode stops the lag. Uninstalling all drivers using DDU seems to fix the problem until you reinstall gpu drivers, then it comes back again (same behavior on all versions). This has been such a big problem that I had to clean install multiple times to try and get rid of it, but it keeps coming back within a few days.
SOLUTION:
- Device Manager -> Look for your Audio Devices / Voice Clarity -> Right Click Uninstall -> Check "Attempt to remove the driver for this device" and press "Uninstall"
- Plug out your audio devices
- Restart the computer
- Plug the audio devices back in
*PS: Make sure to do this to all audio devices. This means under "Audio Inputs and Outputs", "Audio Processing Objects", Sound Video and Game Controllers" in device manager.
Explanation: The problem is a driver conflict between the nvidia drivers, and the audio drivers installed by windows. As soon as you install nvidia drivers after DDU, the issue comes back, even if you clean install and only install the graphics driver (No HD Audio or physics). Somehow keeping the nvidia drivers and uninstalling audio devices through device manager forces the installation of compatible drivers on the next startup.
I have used an open source program called "Rescuezilla" to create a backup image of a clean install of windows with all my programs in case something else goes wrong. I suggest you do the same.
-Specifications for reference:
RTX 3060ti
Ryzen 5 5600
Gigabyte A520 mk v2
Jcally jm6 pro DAC
Zero Blue 2 IEMs