dwm.exe is crashing during some games

[shtaklef]

my laptop is an alienware 17 r5 i9, 32gb ram and gtx 1080 graphics card. i installed windows 10 build 2004 on oct 2020 and i ran sledgehammer after that to disable windows updates

in the 1 year that i was on build 2004 dwm.exe is crashing during some games and the screen is flickering black for a bit. the issue has happened on multiple nvidia driver versions. i am using this controller https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/controllers/blue-wireless-controller when i play games and i use a 4m usb wire

the following are pictures from the event viewer at the time when the issue happened:-
1) https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1630855766827286740/1CD0642729ADD61E372F38FD6D562C864BBCF97A/
2) https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1630855766827346350/8E2A5596BDCEE7F96C2CDF4D2EADB2EF5953A2C6/
3) https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1630855766827289087/DABEC4C1F12072A978AEFACA9CBFD319218366CD/
4) https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1630855766827290533/18A0567E7E67116DD59F83E882D24BE4BF1300EA/
5) https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1630855766827291980/D20F4599300EE239159BE10E0878EB79D8ACA7CE/
6) https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1630855766827293766/1F3CC21A7E20ECCB832134A23D3D6BFA22CBDB5A/

i am currently on nvidia driver version 466.11 and i started using it in april. the issue happened multiple times on 2 games between april and may. after that i played around 10 to 15 games between may and september and the issue didn't happen. now the issue is happening again in 2 games

i played the first game for 3 days. all was ok. on the 4th day i got a dwm.exe crash after like 5 minutes of playing

after that i played another game. i played it for 5 days and there were no issues. on the 6th day my 4m usb wire spoilt and i was having problems using my controller. i changed the usb wire and i used the short wire which i use for charging my tablet. i got the first dwm.exe crash in that game just after changing the wire. and then 2 days later i got the second dwm.exe crash in that game. after that i got a new 3m usb wire and then i got the 3rd dwm.exe crash in that game

i played both of those games by setting maximum processor state to 99% in the advanced power plan in the power settings so that i get low cpu temps in those games

in the event viewer it mentions my nvidia graphics card so i think that the driver is causing dwm.exe to crash in some games

why exactly is that happening? the game is fine for a couple of days and then dwm.exe starts to crash during the game. i don't think that the usb wire can cause dwm.exe to crash because i had dwm.exe crashes on all 3 wires

[Illusion of Progress]

Ensure you're running the latest chipset driver and video driver. It might be worth trying a few video drivers including older versions, but that's going to add variables.

What happens if you try on the Intel integrated IGP (if one is present)? Do the crashes go away?

What happens if you play without the Xbox gamepad connected? Do the crashes go away? Many of the results I'm finding with dwm crashes pointing to ism.dll indicate an Xbox gamepad as a possible factor. If you suspect or find this to be the cause, you can try to download the "Xbox accessory app" and update the firmware on the gamepad.

[shtaklef]

if the xbox controller is truly the culprit then how come i got no dwm.exe crashes between may and september when i played 10 to 15 games?

[Illusion of Progress]

I'm not necessarily saying it is that. Those are just some things to check.

When I tried researching (read as, Google) situations with dwm having crashes and ism.dll being involved, there was a number of them that mentioned specifically that crashes are occurring during games, and most of them have Xbox gamepads.

https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/kj3277/desktop_window_manager_crashing_sporadically/

That may or may not be your issue. Another one I came across stated that while playing with the gamepad caused the crashes, but ALSO that they went away after they upgraded their GPU. Seemingly two separate causes to the same issues, but when together, so maybe one just wasn't playing nice with the other. Issues can be like that.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/continuous-crashing-cwindowssystem32dwmexe/570807ee-6219-4c01-9f14-373f004f4adb

As for why it didn't crash at one point... well, if the issue isn't that it is crashing ALL the time, then it is only crashing some of the time, no? You may have lucked out then. Those games may not be ones that are prone to the issue, or you weren't using a gamepad with them? I don't know.

Regardless it's worth checking the things I mentioned (update chipset drivers, update nVidia drivers, see if this occurs on the Intel IGP if you have one, and see if taking the gamepad out of the equation or updating its firmware improves things).

[Carlsberg]

You disabled windows updates? Then update drivers?? (sorry, but i see no sense in that).

Windows gets updated to fix bugs and add new features or improvements, (even though we don't always see them as benefits). In some cases this means that a driver has to be updated to remain compatible with the current windows system.

Update windows fully, then update drivers and the issue will more than likely resolve itself.