dwm.exe failures

I've been plagued by somewhat infrequent issues, related to dwm.exe issues, for years. Thank you for your time in advance: I've tried a lot, and this'll be a bit of a long post because of that.

While having these issues, I have replaced literally every single component in my PC except my SSD main drive, storage drive, disk drive, mouse, and graphics card. The issues have come and gone for about two years, with seemingly no consistency as to why. These parts have been around since I built my first gaming computer in 2013.

Those parts:

GPU: GTX 770 (failure occurred once with this swapped out)

SSD: 850 Evo

Storage drive: Western Digital Blue 2tb

I don't believe it's the mouse.

OS: Windows 10 pro

The issue: At seemingly random intervals, although tend to come in bursts, I will, with no warning, have both screens black out, have my graphics card and system fans spin up to 100% (quicker than they spin up when stress testing at 100% load), and be unable to input any commands with any input device - PS2 keyboard, USB keyboard, mouse, or wireless Xbox One controller. These failures happen, when they are coming in "bursts", every 2-4 hours, and seemingly much more often when gaming - but not exclusively. The most recent failure was with nothing open except Windows Explorer and the Nvidia control panel; however, it is far more likely to happen while gaming. Between "bursts" can be periods of between a week and a month, and bursts tend to be several days long. I do not know what ends these bursts, or what starts them. The system is not overclocked - I removed the factory overclock on my 770 in an attempt for more stability and fewer errors, and the CPU and RAM are at stock speeds. The system is very stable aside from these DWM errors, passing every stress test I can throw at it, and, when not in a "burst", never failing, in either memory intensive 3D modeling or gaming.

These black screen events appear to be similar to graphics driver failures.

Checking system logs, these are accompanied, consistently, with fatal errors in DWM.exe.

Things I have done in attempts to diagnose or fix this issue:

Rolling back to prior Nvidia display drivers, after doing a full uninstall of drivers via DDU: no effect

Updating to latest display drivers: no effect (have done this multiple times, sometimes accompanied by clean driver installs)

System Restore: appeared to work, as the problems ceased temporarily, but then problems resumed in another "burst" several weeks later.

System Restore again, months later, in another "burst": no effect

Complete reinstall of Windows: no effect

Windows memory diagnostic, via mdsched.exe and reboot: no errors found

Windows drive diagnostic, via chkdsk: no errors found

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth : it didn't say anything after completing, which I took as a good sign. Errors continued after that cleanup.

sfc /scannow : no errors found

Try another graphics card: I have put in a gts 250 which I happened to have available. This was with the previous motherboard, CPU, and RAM. I experienced a similar "black screen, fans spun up to max" error after an hour or so of gaming, but did not verify that it was the same DWM.exe error, instead reinstalling my 770, and hoping to just ignore it, which, in the pattern of these "bursts", eventually worked. In hindsight that was a mistake, but I eventually built a scrapyard gaming rig for my niece with that GPU and no longer have a spare card to test with.

I had initially believed this to be a power supply problem, what with the failures typically occurring when running a full screen 3D application, and the fact that, during these failures, my old PSU made a nasty whine. After the rebuild, PSU replaced, there was a period of increased stability, but eventually problems returned. My new PSU does not whine.

A log from the most recent DWM failure, seen in event archive: (Note that this error was unusual, in that, over the course of three seconds, DWM restarted eight times, instantly failing after each failure).

Version=1

EventType=APPCRASH

EventTime=131961269856090647

ReportType=2

Consent=1

UploadTime=131961269869793729

ReportStatus=268435456

ReportIdentifier=65a9bae5-936b-4dc6-9725-51a0923fedd0

IntegratorReportIdentifier=73e5229d-00ab-4a1e-a36f-47c103b81361

Wow64Host=34404

NsAppName=dwm.exe

OriginalFilename=dwm.exe

AppSessionGuid=00002****

IsFatal=1

Response.BucketId=beda1507195bdf293ef7091f8e90a063

Response.BucketTable=4

Response.LegacyBucketId=2231262171525849187

Response.type=4

Sig[0].Name=Application Name

Sig[0].Value=dwm.exe

Sig[1].Name=Application Version

Sig[1].Value=10.0.17134.1

Sig[2].Name=Application Timestamp

Sig[2].Value=f5178e97

Sig[3].Name=Fault Module Name

Sig[3].Value=StackHash_1d2f

Sig[4].Name=Fault Module Version

Sig[4].Value=0.0.0.0

Sig[5].Name=Fault Module Timestamp

Sig[5].Value=00000000

Sig[6].Name=Exception Code

Sig[6].Value=e0464645

Sig[7].Name=Exception Offset

Sig[7].Value=PCH_2B_FROM_KERNELBASE+0x00000000000EB90E

DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version

DynamicSig[1].Value=10.0.17134.2.0.0.256.48

DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID

DynamicSig[2].Value=1033

DynamicSig[22].Name=Additional Information 1

DynamicSig[22].Value=1d2f

DynamicSig[23].Name=Additional Information 2

DynamicSig[23].Value=1d2f584527de1429a419176529ca8e45

DynamicSig[24].Name=Additional Information 3

DynamicSig[24].Value=3fa1

DynamicSig[25].Name=Additional Information 4

DynamicSig[25].Value=3fa1e0002067bc510cbff88d228ea403

UI[2]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwm.exe

UI[5]=Check online for a solution (recommended)

UI[6]=Check for a solution later (recommended)

UI[7]=Close

UI[8]=Desktop Window Manager stopped working and was closed

UI[9]=A problem caused the application to stop working correctly. Windows will notify you if a solution is available.

UI[10]=&Close

LoadedModule[0]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwm.exe

LoadedModule[1]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll

LoadedModule[2]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNEL32.DLL

LoadedModule[3]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\KERNELBASE.dll

LoadedModule[4]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\apphelp.dll

LoadedModule[5]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\ucrtbase.dll

LoadedModule[6]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\advapi32.dll

LoadedModule[7]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcrt.dll

LoadedModule[8]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\sechost.dll

LoadedModule[9]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\RPCRT4.dll

LoadedModule[10]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\gdi32.dll

LoadedModule[11]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\gdi32full.dll

LoadedModule[12]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\dwmredir.dll

LoadedModule[13]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\udwm.dll

LoadedModule[14]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\msvcp_win.dll

LoadedModule[15]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\cfgmgr32.dll

LoadedModule[16]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\USER32.dll

LoadedModule[17]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\win32u.dll

LoadedModule[18]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\combase.dll

LoadedModule[19]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\bcryptPrimitives.dll

LoadedModule[20]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\CoreMessaging.dll

LoadedModule[21]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwmcore.dll

LoadedModule[22]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\dcomp.dll

LoadedModule[23]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\powrprof.dll

LoadedModule[24]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\dxgi.dll

LoadedModule[25]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\OLEAUT32.dll

LoadedModule[26]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\shcore.dll

LoadedModule[27]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\d2d1.dll

LoadedModule[28]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\d3d11.dll

LoadedModule[29]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\kernel.appcore.dll

LoadedModule[30]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\D3DCOMPILER_47.dll

LoadedModule[31]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\CRYPTSP.dll

LoadedModule[32]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\IMM32.DLL

LoadedModule[33]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\uxtheme.dll

LoadedModule[34]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\dwmghost.dll

LoadedModule[35]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwmapi.dll

LoadedModule[36]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\WindowsCodecs.dll

LoadedModule[37]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\avrt.dll

LoadedModule[38]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ism.dll

LoadedModule[39]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\CoreUIComponents.dll

LoadedModule[40]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\NInput.dll

LoadedModule[41]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\HID.DLL

LoadedModule[42]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntmarta.dll

LoadedModule[43]=C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\wintypes.dll

LoadedModule[44]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\clbcatq.dll

LoadedModule[45]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\UIAnimation.dll

LoadedModule[46]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\crypt32.dll

LoadedModule[47]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\MSASN1.dll

LoadedModule[48]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.Gaming.Input.dll

LoadedModule[49]=C:\Windows\System32\bcrypt.dll

LoadedModule[50]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\WINTRUST.DLL

LoadedModule[51]=C:\Windows\System32\twinapi.appcore.dll

LoadedModule[52]=C:\Windows\System32\RMCLIENT.dll

LoadedModule[53]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\imagehlp.dll

LoadedModule[54]=C:\Windows\System32\ffbroker.dll

LoadedModule[55]=C:\Windows\System32\deviceaccess.dll

LoadedModule[56]=C:\Windows\System32\OneCoreUAPCommonProxyStub.dll

LoadedModule[57]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\rsaenh.dll

LoadedModule[58]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\CRYPTBASE.dll

LoadedModule[59]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_edcffbdd101bbe5b\nvldumdx.dll

LoadedModule[60]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\VERSION.dll

LoadedModule[61]=C:\Windows\System32\Windows.System.UserDeviceAssociation.dll

LoadedModule[62]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_edcffbdd101bbe5b\nvwgf2umx_cfg.dll

LoadedModule[63]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINMM.dll

LoadedModule[64]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINMMBASE.dll

LoadedModule[65]=C:\Windows\System32\usermgrproxy.dll

LoadedModule[66]=C:\WINDOWS\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_edcffbdd101bbe5b\nvd3dumx_cfg.dll

LoadedModule[67]=C:\WINDOWS\system32\XmlLite.dll

State[0].Key=Transport.DoneStage1

State[0].Value=1

OsInfo[0].Key=vermaj

OsInfo[0].Value=10

OsInfo[1].Key=vermin

OsInfo[1].Value=0

OsInfo[2].Key=verbld

OsInfo[2].Value=17134

OsInfo[3].Key=ubr

OsInfo[3].Value=590

OsInfo[4].Key=versp

OsInfo[4].Value=0

OsInfo[5].Key=arch

OsInfo[5].Value=9

OsInfo[6].Key=lcid

OsInfo[6].Value=1033

OsInfo[7].Key=geoid

OsInfo[7].Value=244

OsInfo[8].Key=sku

OsInfo[8].Value=48

OsInfo[9].Key=domain

OsInfo[9].Value=0

OsInfo[10].Key=prodsuite

OsInfo[10].Value=256

OsInfo[11].Key=ntprodtype

OsInfo[11].Value=1

OsInfo[12].Key=platid

OsInfo[12].Value=10

OsInfo[13].Key=sr

OsInfo[13].Value=0

OsInfo[14].Key=tmsi

OsInfo[14].Value=421512

OsInfo[15].Key=osinsty

OsInfo[15].Value=3

OsInfo[16].Key=iever

OsInfo[16].Value=11.590.17134.0-11.0.110

OsInfo[17].Key=portos

OsInfo[17].Value=0

OsInfo[18].Key=ram

OsInfo[18].Value=16313

OsInfo[19].Key=svolsz

OsInfo[19].Value=465

OsInfo[20].Key=wimbt

OsInfo[20].Value=0

OsInfo[21].Key=blddt

OsInfo[21].Value=180410

OsInfo[22].Key=bldtm

OsInfo[22].Value=1804

OsInfo[23].Key=bldbrch

OsInfo[23].Value=rs4_release

OsInfo[24].Key=bldchk

OsInfo[24].Value=0

OsInfo[25].Key=wpvermaj

OsInfo[25].Value=0

OsInfo[26].Key=wpvermin

OsInfo[26].Value=0

OsInfo[27].Key=wpbuildmaj

OsInfo[27].Value=0

OsInfo[28].Key=wpbuildmin

OsInfo[28].Value=0

OsInfo[29].Key=osver

OsInfo[29].Value=10.0.17134.590.amd64fre.rs4_release.180410-1804

OsInfo[30].Key=buildflightid

OsInfo[30].Value=F8EE1E09-5379-44DF-B86D-E49E70CBE43B.1

OsInfo[31].Key=edition

OsInfo[31].Value=Professional

OsInfo[32].Key=ring

OsInfo[32].Value=Retail

OsInfo[33].Key=expid

OsInfo[33].Value=RS:1552

OsInfo[34].Key=containerid

OsInfo[35].Key=containertype

OsInfo[36].Key=edu

OsInfo[36].Value=0

FriendlyEventName=Stopped working

ConsentKey=APPCRASH

AppName=Desktop Window Manager

AppPath=C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwm.exe

NsPartner=windows

NsGroup=windows8

ApplicationIdentity=E839ABF38CAA6D245C131A2683756053

MetadataHash=-928398046

I know this is a lot: if I'm forgetting something, please let me know.

EDIT: Application error info from the new most recent crash:

Faulting application name: dwm.exe, version: 10.0.17134.1, time stamp: 0xf5178e97

Faulting module name: dwmcore.dll, version: 10.0.17134.441, time stamp: 0x8b352f6e

Exception code: 0xc00001ad

Fault offset: 0x00000000001cdff2

Faulting process id: 0x458

Faulting application start time: 0x01d4d23d92b4f031

Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwm.exe

Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\dwmcore.dll

Report Id: e778dae1-3e82-4efa-a358-9679b83601ea

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

//(Those last two being blank are correct to the application error report)

EDIT 2:

Had what appeared to be a normal display drive failure, leading to an automatic restart. No high fan speeds, and unlike those other cases, the system did reboot itself. windbg, viewing the dump to the memory file under windows in my C drive, and viewing the crash report, show errors in nvlddmkm. At time of crash, I had loaded up a video game (Killing Floor 2) and stepped away from it, leaving it idle in a menu. A copy/paste of the !analyze -v results follows.

KEY_VALUES_STRING: 1

TIMELINE_ANALYSIS: 1

DUMP_CLASS: 1

DUMP_QUALIFIER: 400

BUILD_VERSION_STRING:  17134.1.amd64fre.rs4_release.180410-1804

SYSTEM_MANUFACTURER:  System manufacturer

SYSTEM_PRODUCT_NAME:  System Product Name

SYSTEM_SKU:  SKU

SYSTEM_VERSION:  System Version

BIOS_VENDOR:  American Megatrends Inc.

BIOS_VERSION:  3803

BIOS_DATE:  01/22/2018

BASEBOARD_MANUFACTURER:  ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.

BASEBOARD_PRODUCT:  PRIME B350M-E

BASEBOARD_VERSION:  Rev X.0x

DUMP_TYPE:  2

BUGCHECK_P1: 1

BUGCHECK_P2: 1e00

BUGCHECK_P3: fffff8018b454378

BUGCHECK_P4: 0

DPC_TIMEOUT_TYPE:  DPC_QUEUE_EXECUTION_TIMEOUT_EXCEEDED

CPU_COUNT: c

CPU_MHZ: e09

CPU_VENDOR:  AuthenticAMD

CPU_FAMILY: 17

CPU_MODEL: 8

CPU_STEPPING: 2

BLACKBOXBSD: 1 (!blackboxbsd)

BLACKBOXPNP: 1 (!blackboxpnp)

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN8_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x133

PROCESS_NAME:  System

CURRENT_IRQL:  d

ANALYSIS_SESSION_HOST:  TWENTYSIXHUNDRE

ANALYSIS_SESSION_TIME:  03-04-2019 09:51:46.0170

ANALYSIS_VERSION: 10.0.17134.12 amd64fre

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from fffff8018b1dc187 to fffff8018b1b10c0

STACK_TEXT: 

fffff801`8d46bbc8 fffff****da

fffff8018d46bf40 fffff8018b10ea85 : fffff8018b9bcbb0 fffff8018d45d7d0 fffff8018d45d810 fffff8018b1b271f : hal!HalpTimerClockIpiRoutine+0x1b

fffff****d45d7d0 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiCallInterruptServiceRoutine+0xa5

fffff8018d46bfb0 fffff801********000 0000000000000000 : 0xfffff************0000000001

fffff8018d45d730 00000800000000ff : fffff8018b471400 fffff8018b471400 000000000b667a9f 00001abbb8d9fba0 : 0x00000800`00000000

fffff****3cda0 : nt!KiInitialThread

fffff****d45d758 00001abc2423cda0 : 00001abc2423cda0 00001abc300f8fa0 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 : 0x00001abbb****3cda0

fffff8018d45d770 0000000000000000 : 0000000000000000 ffffe40200000000 0000000000000000 0000002200000000 : 0x00001abc`300f8fa0

THREAD_SHA1_HASH_MOD_FUNC:  a56f3292****700 4883c428        add     rsp,28h

FAULT_INSTR_CODE:  28c48348

SYMBOL_STACK_INDEX:  8

SYMBOL_NAME:  nvlddmkm+1f9700

FOLLOWUP_NAME:  MachineOwner

MODULE_NAME: nvlddmkm

IMAGE_NAME:  nvlddmkm.sys

DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP:  5c6d35f0

STACK_COMMAND:  .thread ; .cxr ; kb

BUCKET_ID_FUNC_OFFSET:  1f9700

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  0x133_ISR_nvlddmkm!unknown_function

BUCKET_ID:  0x133_ISR_nvlddmkm!unknown_function

PRIMARY_PROBLEM_CLASS:  0x133_ISR_nvlddmkm!unknown_function

TARGET_TIME:  2019-03-04T14:45:53.000Z

OSBUILD:  17134

OSSERVICEPACK:  590

SERVICEPACK_NUMBER: 0

OS_REVISION: 0

SUITE_MASK:  272

PRODUCT_TYPE:  1

OSPLATFORM_TYPE:  x64

OSNAME:  Windows 10

OSEDITION:  Windows 10 WinNt TerminalServer SingleUserTS

OS_LOCALE: 

USER_LCID:  0

OSBUILD_TIMESTAMP:  2019-02-05 21:25:47

BUILDDATESTAMP_STR:  180410-1804

BUILDLAB_STR:  rs4_release

BUILDOSVER_STR:  10.0.17134.1.amd64fre.rs4_release.180410-1804

ANALYSIS_SESSION_ELAPSED_TIME:  3975

ANALYSIS_SOURCE:  KM

FAILURE_ID_HASH_STRING:  km:0x133_isr_nvlddmkm!unknown_function

FAILURE_ID_HASH:  {f97493a5-ea2b-23ca-a808-8602773c2a86}