Fullscreen youtube videos problem after Windows 10 April 2018 (1803) upgrade. Blank screen when video controls or annotations are rendered.

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dominikd100

Hello,

After recent Windows 10 April 2018 upgrade, I started experiencing issues with fullscreen youtube video playback. The playback runs fine until I either move the mouse (which causes the video controls to render) or until either a video annotation or subtitles are rendered, in which case the whole screen goes blank (nothing is displayed, although the screen is still on because I can see the backlight) and the sound stutters. It really looks like a graceful crash of a graphics driver, which either results in a recovery after a second or doesn't recover, in which case I need to disable my screen via a keyboard hotkey and then re-enable it via moving my mouse.

Steps to reproduce:

0. Windows 10, version 1803. Google Chrome 66.0.3359.170 x64. Asus UX305UA. Intel HD Graphics 520, driver 21.20.16.4550 (2016-11-11).
1. Go to youtube:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE7VzlLtp-4

2. Play the video in fullscreen. Disable annotations. Fast forward to middle.
3. Wait for the on-screen video controls to auto-hide.
4. Count to 10 (I don't know why, but a delay is necessary).
5. Move your mouse to make the on-screen video controls to come back on screen.

Result:
Screen turns blank for about 2 seconds and then comes back in with everything still playing and with the on-screen video controls rendered.

Observations:
1. I found that Windows updated my graphics card driver with the April 2018 OS upgrade.
2. When I revert the graphics card driver to the version available on Asus support page for my device (version 20.19.15.4474), then everything works normal again.
3. When I upgrade the graphics card driver to the latest one available Intel website (24.20.100.6025), then youtube video playback works fine, but my keyboard hotkeys for screen brightness don't work anymore (nothing happens when I click them, not even the brightness control is rendered on screen).

In this case I'd like to revert the graphics driver to the one offered for my device from Asus website, but Windows constantly keeps updating it back to version 21.20.16.4550 via Windows Update, which makes the fullscreen youtube playback problem come back again.

Alternatively, I'd like to update my driver to the latest version offered from Intel website, but then I've got the problem with missing brightness hotkeys. In this case, Windows Update also forcefully reverts the drivers back to version 21.20.16.4550, so there's a problem with that as well.

I tried to disable the auto-update of drivers in the System > Advanced system settings > Hardware > Hardware installation settings (this is a vague translation, because I don't use Windows in English), but these preferences don't seem to be respected by Windows Update.

I also read an article involving locking the installation and update of a specific device in the system via Group Policy Editor, but I'd rather avoid changing anything there because it seems too hackish to me.

I wonder why Windows Update forces me to use graphics drivers from November 2016, when there are newer ones on the Intel website. Moreover, I'm actively discouraged to install the drivers directly from Intel, when I'm using their driver installer (in order to install them, I need to manually uninstall the current driver and then manually make Windows use the driver from Intel).

I could use some advice here.

Thanks.

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