ok i like messaging myself - i rolled back the driver and the issue seems to be gone, but i will update once more in a few days.
NOW i just remembered, when i downloaded the newest driver when this issue started - there was a weird hiccup during the download - it said the download failed the first time. I'm just curious if somehow the download got corrupted when it was installed. hmmmm. if no one else has this issue maybe that's what it was.