[SOLVED] DWM.EXE error causes my game to turn black and sometimes it crashes

[effectPC]

Hello everyone, i had this problem for a while but never really bothered me much until recently,

Here is the event viewer info from the last time this happened (don't know if its useful):
Faulting application name: dwm.exe, version: 10.0.19041.746, time stamp: 0x6be51595
Faulting module name: ism.dll, version: 10.0.19041.1052, time stamp: 0x337bcde9
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000088e8a
Faulting process ID: 0x285c
Faulting application start time: 0x01d767b3d95c0a14
Faulting application path: C:\WINDOWS\System32\dwm.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ism.dll

Here is my dxdiag info:
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 3700X 8-Core Processor (16 CPUs), ~3.6GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16334MB RAM
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070

Here is my Windows specifications
Edition Windows 10 Pro
Version 20H2
Installed on ‎19/‎06/‎2021
OS build 19042.1052
Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.2020.0


The PC is fairly new, i recently restored the windows isntallation but i dint do a full restore since i kept my files. Also, it think its fully updated.

More info on the bug: it only happens while gaming AFAIK, it happens with new and demanding games but i remember happening with games with bad or old graphics, next time i play i will try using msi afterburner to monitorize if my temperatures are high or something.

Im not really sure if it's a hardware or software error issue.

Thank you so much.


UPDATE: I THINK I SOLVED IT.
The solution was either making a clean reinstall of nvidia drivers using DDU or updating the Xbox Controller drivers in the Accesories app, i think i can confirm the error is gone but if i see the problem reappears i will update.

 

[punkncat]

Just to be sure, you are saying that you took your OS drive from another PC and put into this new one and did not perform a clean install?

dwm.exe is your desktop manager and is responsible for a lot of the graphical features within Windows. It acting up can be a sign of an improper graphics driver, but suspect that if you just brought this OS from a different build that you may just need to do a clean install of OS and reload all your appropriate drivers from the various vendors.

 

[effectPC]

Just to be sure, you are saying that you took your OS drive from another PC and put into this new one and did not perform a clean install?

dwm.exe is your desktop manager and is responsible for a lot of the graphical features within Windows. It acting up can be a sign of an improper graphics driver, but suspect that if you just brought this OS from a different build that you may just need to do a clean install of OS and reload all your appropriate drivers from the various vendors.

Oh, sorry, maybe i didn't explain myself properly since english is not my first language.
What i meant is that in the W10 restore or recovery options you can restore your entire PC or just restore your windows installation, leaving your personal files intact, since i have a lot of important files that i don't want to lose, i did the second option. I recently dumped them into an usb in case i need to do a full, clean w10 reinstall.

 

[punkncat]

Oh, sorry, maybe i didn't explain myself properly since english is not my first language.
What i meant is that in the W10 restore or recovery options you can restore your entire PC or just restore your windows installation, leaving your personal files intact, since i have a lot of important files that i don't want to lose, i did the second option. I recently dumped them into an usb in case i need to do a full, clean w10 reinstall.

In the case that this drive was not in another PC, this was a "native" install to this machine that (should be) ok.

I would suggest trying to uninstall your current graphics driver with DDU and utilize the current driver direct from NVIDIA to see if the issue corrects.

 

[effectPC]

In the case that this drive was not in another PC, this was a "native" install to this machine that (should be) ok.

I would suggest trying to uninstall your current graphics driver with DDU and utilize the current driver direct from NVIDIA to see if the issue corrects.

The drive is brand new and was not used in a different mechine.

I will uninstall the gpu drivers using ddu as you said and next time i play i will update.

 

[punkncat]

The drive is brand new and was not used in a different mechine.

I will uninstall the gpu drivers using ddu as you said and next time i play i will update.

If you uninstall the driver and don't personally install the newest one from Nvidia, then Windows update will turn around and install the latest "signed" one anyway.

 

[effectPC]

I've been playing for about 4hours today without a single problem, i haven't played that long without issues for months. If it stays like that i will mark the thread as solved.

I've done 2 things:
1- Uninstalled GPU drivers using DDU and made a clean install of the current nvidia drivers.
2- This one is kinda silly, but i downloaded the Accesories App from Microsoft Store and updated my Xbox Series Controller Drivers... i noticed the errors started appearing a few days after i bought the controller and some people over the internet had similar issues with black screens while launching games or while playing, but only if they were using the xbox controller.

I will come back in 2 days to confirm the problem is solved.

 

[effectPC]

Welp, i've been playing for 3 days without any issues. Im not exactly sure what solved my problem, but it was either making a clean reinstall of nvidia drivers using DDU or updating the Xbox Controller drivers in the Accesories app, i think i can confirm the error is gone but if i see the problem reappears i will update.