Your entry sounds like you’ve had some on hand experience, I needed to see your blog when I started mining last Oct. I’ve experience most of what you blogged about and all of my software problems were solved by switching to SMOS from free windows 10.
I’ve been running SMOS on all of rigs since Jan., (42) 1070ti in seven rigs, I regret not finding it sooner when I started last Oct.
RE: GPU Mining – Pitfalls for a Beginner and What I’ve Learned