The device manager is clean, as long as I keep my USB webcam unplugged, and windows update shows no updates or alternate updates, fully updated.  As I said, everything in windows works perfectly, it's only with driver changes.
 
 I wonder which piece of hardware it would be?? OR what issue it could be in the BIOS, I have tried everything I know how to do, and have updated the BIOS to v1.06.  ALTHOUGH, now that you mention it, I did install windows BEFORE I noticed that the bIOS needed to be updated. At first, I had assumed it would be flashed with the latest BIOS, but it actually came with version number 1.02?
 
I'm going to try to run Prime95 for a few hours, see if the processor and ram are not the problems, and then if it keeps doing it after that, I guess I'm going to have to delete the partition and see if it's the M.2.
 
it's SO strange that it ONLY does it on a driver removal/install... 
 
It can't be my 3080 video card running at PCIe 4.0 for the first time?? can it? I mean it ran fine at PCIe 3.0 for quite a while now.
 
good grief, I hate hardware errors that don't tell you what hardware is doing the error....THAT should be next on Microsoft's list!!

Hard to say which piece of hardware it is without looking at the error in windbg. Can you repro this issue using windows 10? Running in pci-e 3.0 for testing to try and narrow down the issue wouldn’t hurt. When you say black screen of death I’m assuming you’re talking about the new blue screen that is actually a black screen in windows 11, and not just a blank black screen on your monitor correct?

The last post - the OP mentions having a bad CPU a fatal hardware error occured. WHEA logger event ID 1  
 
Try running stock BIOS settings 
 
Did you make any changes to the CPU cooler lately / maybe tighten it ?
 
"SO strange that it ONLY does it on a driver removal/install... "    What driver are you trying to Change ?
 
 

Cool GTX
"SO strange that it ONLY does it on a driver removal/install... "    What driver are you trying to Change ?

JimBeamBlack
BUT when I tried to run DDU to put on the new Nvidia Hotfix driver last night, it happened again...in safe mode!!

 Actually, I just went through all of the USB hubs/controllers in Device Manager, one at a time, and ran "update driver" on each, most of them are generic drivers. A lot of them had me restart the PC to update, but that's probably because I have some USB stuff plugged in. 
After that, still getting the 1 Fatal error in event viewer at boot.
 
 I did just "check" the tightness of the CPU cooler the other day, actually, I tore the PC apart down to an empty case, and reconnected everything one at a time, reseating the PCIe cards, power connectors, fan plugs, etc.  But I didn't torque on the cooler or anything, just made sure it was on there tight, and not loose.
 
 I just now ran Prime95 for about 30 mins, 2 of my cores are hitting 100c during the test, #3 and #5, while the rest hit between 80-99c, but the CPU seems stable. So I'm going to try a lower voltage. 
 
I have tried default settings in bios, ram CPU, etc, but it does the same thing. Tried ram at Gear 1, Gear 2, XMP on XMP off, still the same.
 
 
I'm not completely sure my EVGA CL cooler is working properly, during the Prime95 tests the fans never seemed to hit 100%, that seems unusual with the CPU using 100c doesn't it?  Flow Control is set up the way I had it set on my other system....
 
I may try disconnecting the CL cooler from the USB and see if the error goes away?
 
I don't know what else I can try, maybe a different M.2, new Windows install?? I don't have a free version of windows 10 though, only windows 11.
 
PS: Oh, and I just tried to install the latest intel chipset drivers from the EVGA website for my board, locked up and BSOD...again no log file recorded.
 
 
 

Have you done a cmos reset on the bios? The timings that are input into your bios are wrong, you have 18-22-42-7-10 when it should be 18-22-22-42. Being you made the timings so loose its able to work but is that affecting other things too down the line is hard to say.

 I have not tried the CMOS reset yet, I will try that this morning. Do the timings look correct in CPUZ?  Doesn't the XMP1 profile set the timings?  it has been a while since I have built a PC. https://imgur.com/oyTXK0F
 
 Ran Prime95 again last night for an hour, stable at with all cores 4.8 and running cool at 2.85 volts.  I also lowered the voltage of the ram back to 1.35.
 
 I will reset the CMOS and then redo my settings, see what happens, thanks for the suggestions.
 
Say, do any of you all have the Black board?? If so, what do the Beep codes mean? I actually had the beeper turned off, but turning it on, the board beeps like6-8 times really fast while it's booting, and I also get like a black screen right before the Z590 splash screen, that has a curser in the middle left of the screen and a code for keyboard check on it in the lower right corner? It's either 9C or 98.   Is that normal?
 
Thanks for the help by the way.
 
OH and one more thing, I ran "Scan for hardware changes" in Device Manager last night again and it BSOD Machine Check Exception, that is the first time it has done that, but something seems to be not working on the motherboard.  I wish I could find out what it is, maybe I can disable it in BIOS.  But so far the system is stable at running even under stress...... which is so frustrating.

Ok I tried the CMOS reset, and set my timings to CL-18 Trcd/Trp-22 and TRas-42, which is what I did before? Correct?
 
 And when I set it to XMP1 it uses those timings?  Because that's what it shows in CPUID.
 
I think I'm going to delete the windows partition and start over with windows, if it does this again I'm calling tech support, see if that can help, and if not I guess I'm RMA'ing the board, because everything else checks out.
 
IF anyone comes up with any ideas in the next hour or so, please let me know I will check back before I go ahead.

BSOD MCE (9C) could mean your cpu is the issue. A machine-check exception (MCE) is a type of computer hardware error that occurs when a computer's central processing unit detects an unrecoverable hardware error in the processor itself, the memory, the i/o devices or on the system bus. It is not caused by software.

I just checked, it's actually 98 and B4 after that.
 
 What about the beep codes? do the black boards beep like a lot of fast little beeps?? Or is that all the USB devices being detected?
thanks for the info