Razer Core X on Windows 10 - wrong Nvidia driver? Please help!

I’m having trouble getting my new Razer Core X to work. Specifically, I think there's a driver problem, or the Razer Core X itself is faulty.

I am using a brand new, top-of-the-line HP Spectre x360 (with Thunderbolt 3), and an old but supported MSI Nvidia 970.

The GPU gets recognised in Device Manager, but then once the driver is installed it develops a fault: black screen and black screen. Then Windows 10 says the driver failed to initialise. It immediately turns off the GPU and the fans stop spinning. Oddly, it sometimes reports that the fault lies with the Intel internal graphics, although this works fine.

I’ve tried installing older drivers and updated all others on the computer. However, it is as good as impossible to install any other drivers before Windows installs its own automatically, anyway.

Naturally, I have reinstalled all other relevant drivers from the website, and tested the card again just in case I had broken it putting it in. Nothing has fixed the problem, after trying so many different things for most of a day, and reading everything vaguely related anywhere on the internet.

Also worth mentioning this is a refurbished and tested model, sold for a tiny discount. It is possible it really is faulty, despite being sold as tested.

I would really appreciate some advice! Had an awful start to the year and this is the cherry on top! Thanks in advance.

 

I guess nobody's had this same issue, then...

 

Hi. Yeah, the GTX 970 is fine - I even took it out again to ensure it is still working, and have been using it again in my old PC. It is a brand new computer and I tried reinstalling all Thunderbird drivers. I'm pretty sure I am not missing anything basic - I have an IT degree for one thing.

The problem is I just don't know which drivers Razer WANTS me to use. So I could follow your instructions, but it would not help if I don't know which drivers you think I should be using for the MSI GTX 970.

The ones provided online are from 2016, which must be way too old, surely?

Windows automatically defaults to an approved driver released last year, which should work, but appears to fail for whatever reason. I've read elsewhere that as soon as I connect to the internet, Windows will update it to the dodgy driver anyway.

I haven't tried installing in safe mode or using DDU - just done it through Device Manager. Is it worth a try? We're talking another hour of my time and the risk of crashing my computer again, so I would like to be sure. I'm already pretty annoyed with this whole process and the time it's wasted... I can't really see why DDU would be much more effective if just using the exact same drivers and without a way to avoid this problem.

I thought this was meant to be plug & play, pretty much?