Lars R.

wait what safe Mode being clean doesnt fully clear the hardware... safe Mode barely loads the GPU, sooo a weak card can look fine there. idk maybe im wrong lol

Your BIOS observation is a good clue. If artifacts appear only after Windows loads the driver, but not in BIOS or in Safe Mode (which uses the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter), that leans towards driver/software. If they show up in BIOS…

@ada ember omggg the safeboot trick worked perfectly :) switched to AHCI, booted Safe Mode, removed teh flag, and Windows is happy. owe u a beer 🍺