Follow-up for Kai-H: 120Hz black screen issue update - Registry restored but problem persists

Hello Kai-H,

I am creating this new post as a follow-up to our previous discussion. I cannot find our old thread in my post history, so I am opening this new one.

I want to provide a crucial update on this issue: this is not just a 617.14 driver issue, but affects ALL NVIDIA drivers released after 610.88.

1. Critical Registry Modification Clue:

I have always used the latest Windows Insider Preview builds and new NVIDIA drivers without issues. The problem began immediately after I made specific modifications to the Windows Registry. Crucially, I have fully restored the modified registry file to its original state, but the black screen issue persists across ALL drivers after 610.88. This indicates the registry change may have triggered a persistent, corrupted display configuration cache in Windows that a simple revert cannot fix.

2. Refresh Rate Specificity:

• 60Hz, 75Hz, and 100Hz all work fine.
• Setting to 120Hz directly always causes an immediate, permanent black screen.
• Temporary workaround: Setting 75Hz first, then 120Hz temporarily works but eventually black-screens.
• Worsening: After reapplying my NVIDIA custom color/HDR settings, restarting no longer auto-reverts to 75Hz, leaving me with a permanent black screen and requiring a hard reboot.

3. Hardware Cross-Testing & Community Confirmation:

• I connected my monitor to a friend's laptop running the exact same driver (617.14) at 120Hz. It worked perfectly, ruling out hardware/cable/monitor failure.
• Another user on the NVIDIA official forums has confirmed experiencing the exact same issue.

Could you please investigate if there is a corrupted display cache or registry state in Windows 11 that the newer drivers are misinterpreting? I am willing to provide my current registry export and full DxDiag logs.

Thank you.