4K laptop screen not displaying properly

[Teligence2]

All right, this is a hard one to explain:

Starting on October 16, 2020,  my 4k laptop screen stopped showing the 4k resolution properly. When the max (recommended) resolution is set (3840 x 2160) then the actual viewable screen size appears to be 1920 x 1080, but the "working" screen size appears to be the full 4k size with the top left corner as the "starting point". since it only shows the top left corner of the full resolution, at 1/2 the 4K height and 1/2 the 4K width,  only the top left portion of the 4K desktop is showing. In this situation things like the windows taskbar, etc.  are in the unviewable lower half of the screen.

Sorry if my explanation doesn't make sense, because the issue I'm having certainly doesn't...

I've connected an external monitor at 1920x1080 and made it my primary screen just so I can function.

I have had ZERO problems with the 4k screen until just a few days ago.

Actions taken:

1. Ran a system restore with a previous restore point (10/13/2020), and it appeared to operate properly after that - for a bit. Stupid Windows 10 automatic updates appears to have installed something and reverted the 4k screen back to "misbehavior" mode. Then the 10/13/2020 restore point disappeared so I can't use it for any other recovery attempts.

2. Removed and reinstalled the graphics driver software (Nvidia GEFORCE GTX1070) which didn't make a difference.

3. Ran DISM followed by SFC. SFC reported that it found and repaired some errors, but it made no difference with the screen issues.

I'm reluctant to do a "Windows Refresh" because of all the apps I'm running

Maybe it's a bad Windows update .that affects 4K resolution screens somehow?

[WAWood]

@Teligence2 

A couple of the very recent Win10 Windows Updates have been reported to cause serious issues, so it very likely could have been one of those.

But more likely, it sounds like MS is forcing a driver update on you -- which it will do, without your knowledge or consent, after you to a System Restore to return to a previous driver version.  I would turn off forced driver updates -- as I have done on all my Win10 PCs -- and see if that helps.

Consider disabling future driver updates using the information in the link: http://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/48277-driver-updates-windows-update-enable-disable-windows-10-a.h...

Good Luck