Hello. I replaced my dual (SLI) EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 970s with a single EVGA 1080 Ti on December 31st and I am fully thrilled and amazed by the improved quality!  No problems whatsoever after a clean install of the Nvidia drivers on the original Windows 10 build.
 
Two weeks later I bought a new 512 GB M.2 SSD and installed Windows 10 from a DVD ISO on it.  Windows updated my older ISO build to the most current build and installed generic Nvidia 388.13 drivers in the process. Of course I immediately updated to the current (as of this posting) 390.65 drivers. My problem was that Windows kept rolling me back to the generic Nvidia 388.13 drivers, sometimes crashing in the middle of running Pinnacle Studio 20 (a graphics rendering-intense DVD/Blu-ray movie authoring application). It also crashed even after a clean installation of the 390.65 drivers. In desperation I went so far as removing all partitions on the SSD to install a freshly copied ISO of the current Windows build, while off network, and performing a clean install of 390.65 drivers I saved to a thumb drive. I did this to prevent Windows from searching for and installing the older drivers before placing the PC back on the network. This implementation actually has proven to be more stable, but it still is not a complete solution to the problem. At least for now Studio 20 hasn't crashed in the middle of rendering.
 
Now, Windows appears to keep rolling back to a generic version of 390.65 instead of generic 388.13. This happens every couple of reboots or so whereas before this partial solution, it would first rollback to generic Windows drivers, immediately followed by an "update" to a generic Nvidia 388.13 driver every time I turned the computer on.
 
This rollback occurs regardless of whether GeForce Experience is installed or not. Installing the most current BIOS and chipset drivers for the motherboard had no noticeable effect, either. This rollback also happens both when the primary drive is the only drive connected, or when any combination of internal SATA drives and external USB SSD drives are connected.
 
I understand that some applications (such as Cyberlink PowerDVD 17) suffer from a known SGX compatibility issue between Intel and Nvidia, but I don't think this issue is a related problem because driver rollback executes whether SGX is enabled/disabled in BIOS, or when SGX services are enabled/disabled in Windows. Right now I'm stymied and can't tell if this is a Windows problem or an Intel problem, partly because my personal experience with Nvidia has been on my last three AMD systems (9800 GT on XP and Win 7, GTX 960 on Win7 and Win 10). This is my first ever Intel system.
 
I've researched my "homework" online and tried many logical (and even some not so logical) potential solutions to no avail before turning to this forum. Steps to resolution of this recurring driver rollback issue or an explanation as to why this happens would be most appreciated!
 
My system: Windows 10 64-bit Home (10.0, build 16299); Asus TUF Z370 Pro Gaming ATX Intel Motherboard (LGA 1151 300 Series); Intel i7 8700 Coffee Lake 6-Core 3.2GHz CPU (LGA 1151 300 Series); EVGA Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti FTW3 GPU; Corsair Vengeance 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 2666 (PC4 21300) RAM in dual-channel mode; dual WD Black 512GB M.2 2280 PCIe NVMe Performance SSDs (not configured for RAID); Freeze 120mm dual-fan liquid cooled CPU pump, Pioneer 4K UHD/M3 Rewritable Blu-ray Optical Drive, Seagate 2TB SATA3.0 Hybrid SSD/7200RPM HDD, WD Black 1TB SATA3.0 7200RPM HDD, Seagate 4TB Backup USB 3.0 SSD, Corsair mid-size gaming tower, 3 additional 120mm case cooling fans, and a Thermaltake 1,000W power supply. All connected to an Onkyo Dolby Atmos/DTS Neural:X 7.2.2 (yes, two subwoofers) home theater system with Bose surround sound speakers and Samsung 65" 8000 series 4K UHD TV for the best audio-visual experience ever!

No, the first time this happened was definitely a failed rollback from 390.65 (release date 01/08/2018) to 388.13 (10/30/2017).  The Nvidia Control Panel shortcut was also missing from dialog boxes and the Control Panel applet was present but inoperative.
 
It happened again after I did a fresh install of Windows off-network and installed a clean copy of 390.65, except 388.13 was never present on the system for Windows to revert back to and the only Nvidia driver on the system (390.65) was not reinstalled correctly by Windows' failed attempt at update.
 
I ran the DDU.  Interesting tool, I must say.  Sure saves a lot of time doing all of this manually.  I especially appreciate the registry key idea of Windows not automatically downloading driver updates until the next Windows update that resets the value to default.
 
My computer is back on the network with a clean copy of 390.65 again.  We'll see how long before Windows jacks it up again.
 
Thank you.
 

Thanks for sharing

And MS screwed the pooch again, it looks like. MS A) failed to "update" the Nvidia drivers which are already current, and B) failed to correctly reinstall the Nvidia "rollback" drivers leaving me with a damaged system again.  Maybe I should have stuck with AMD instead of venturing forth with Intel?  I guess I couldn't resist the big shiny button.  I am still amazed at how fast the system renders a 60-minute DVD compared to my not-so-older system, and I'm not even overclocking the GPU yet!
 
@ Cool GTX:  Thanks for the links, but (except for the first one for beginners) I've already tried them to no avail before contacting this forum.

Or........... You seem to be savey enough to learn to turn Win update off and toggle on when you want It. Keep a file of the drivers you like and if Win Update gives you some you don't like !) turn update off. 2)use DDU to remove their drivers, 3) install your prefered drivers. Be prepared to repeat because MicroCrap can be relentless so we should be prepared to be so also!

Well, I was loath to do it because I like to watch a lot of Netflix on the weekends, but I enabled my Ethernet connection to be metered.   I will try this for a while to see if it meets my expectations.  If not, I can always reverse it and try something else until MS gets their crap together and stops dictating what is best for me whether I like it or not.
 
Worst case scenario, I remove all drives except the boot M.2 drive and reinstall Windows after resetting all partitions to unallocated space.  Takes only 23 minutes to install Windows 10 on this new system, but takes about six hours or so to reinstall all my favorite applications and set all my preferences up again.  This time I'll follow AHowes advice and keep my system offline until I have everything set up and Microsoft-proofed as much as possible.  (Rapid system restore from a fresh Windows OS install is why I keep copious notes about my system, settings, and registry tweaks  And I don't keep data or anything that isn't system-related on the boot OS drive that can be stored elsewhere.)

I believe you cannot fully turn off windows updates on windows 10.

I had this issue and decided to do everything possible through both setting metered connections and tweaking the registry to neuter Windows 10's auto updates. Just part of Windows 10's irritating "I know your machine better than you" attitude.

How it works here.

I have one HDD with Win10 1607 on it just for kicks and also two in RAID array 0 with Win10 1709 on them..Windows Update absolutely, positively and unequivocally will not download/install any updates or upgrades to a newer version/build with metered connection on unless specifically told to do so by me clicking 'Download" when prompted after searching for updates.
 
I can selectively show or hide any and all updates/upgrades, either individually or en masse, using the Show or Hide Updates tool.
 
I can totally shut off Windows Update by stopping and then disabling Windows Upate in Windows Services (services.msc) so that Windows Update doesn't even work at all.
 
As an 'advanced user' (pretty sure, lol) I have no problems telling Win10 what or what not I want it to do.

Update:  Drivers keep recycling every three or four restarts, but otherwise appear to be more stable than when this mess first started.  With all your help I've learned to uninstall the hidden drivers from Device Manager during the recycle phase, which forces the system to become stable again a little quicker.  Side note - Installed the latest Nvidia drivers yesterday and caught a Windows update today.  With the new updates and a fresh install of the SGX package through Cyberlink, everything passes the Cyberlink UHD Blu-ray Advisor test with the Nvidia 1080 Ti except for Advanced Protected Audio/Video Path (GPU), which registers as "unavailable."  4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disks failed to play at all before the most recent updates.  They now play on my system with Cyberlink PowerDVD 17 even though APAV doesn't pass, but that's OK with me.
 

HeavyHemi

bob16314
How it works here.

I have one HDD with Win10 1607 on it just for kicks and also two in RAID array 0 with Win10 1709 on them..Windows Update absolutely, positively and unequivocally will not download/install any updates or upgrades to a newer version/build with metered connection on unless specifically told to do so by me clicking 'Download" when prompted after searching for updates.
 
I can selectively show or hide any and all updates/upgrades, either individually or en masse, using the Show or Hide Updates tool.
 
I can totally shut off Windows Update by stopping and then disabling Windows Upate in Windows Services (services.msc) so that Windows Update doesn't even work at all.
 
As an 'advanced user' (pretty sure, lol) I have no problems telling Win10 what or what not I want it to do.

I'm not sure how that helps with his issue but, congrats on the award.

It would be because it mentions how Windows allows you to hide updates in the latest builds of Windows 10. It's a very nice feature for fixing this kind of issue.

Wow! Just a little upset?

bcavnaugh
Wow! Just a little upset?

Not particularly and I explained my reasoning... did you need a PM or something?

BushTL56
Thanks for the support, HeviHemi  I am open to all suggestions that make sense.  Food for thought:  Back in the day I was told to allow software to install to its default or preferred location.  Makes it easier for cleaner uninstall and less technical issues.
 
I noticed that my secondary M.2 drive has a system file partition on it, but the primary M.2 drive that holds the OS doesn't.  I'm wondering if some system files are being directed there, causing the yo-yo effect with the video drivers when they are "missing" from the primary OS drive.
 
I'm tearing my system part way down this weekend to replace all five 3-pin 3-speed case fans with blue LED, 4-pin PMW fans.  I'm also thinking about taking out the secondary M.2 drive and disconnecting all other drives while I'm at it, except the primary optical.  Pull the Nvidia card, and use the Intel iGPU on the motherboard to install a fresh copy of Windows, wiping the partitions off the primary M.2 drive as part of the fresh install.  Install the chipset drivers, get everything stable with current security updates and patches, then use DDU to remove the Intel video drivers.  Take the system off network, install the Nvidia card with current drivers and see if I continue to have issues before putting the system back online and installing my apps.  A lot of work, and two trips on the work bench for component installation, but I've got a 3-day weekend and love tinkering with computers as a hobby anyway.  Should be fun.

That could be. Having your system partition on a drive other than the OS....could you put up  snip of your Disk Management window?
 
 

HeavyHemi

bcavnaugh
Wow! Just a little upset?

Not particularly and I explained my reasoning... did you need a PM or something?

No, You never replied.
Just seeing between the lines in your Posts now.