[brazen1]

Why is there a driver app sitting in the taskbar?  Do you mean the notification area aka system tray?  Easy to turn off in NCP but that won't make any difference.  What is the driver app at startup?  There is no reason not to d/l the drivers from NVidia and run the installer and use the clean install feature.  If you simply d/l it and unpack it and then update/install from device manager, you are going to have problems with omitted/corrupted registry entries and/or residual ones that further corrupt.  The installer knows this because it looks at your existing and then removes the entries making way for new ones.  You also never want to use the roll-back or update feature in there either.  Not when it comes to video drivers.  They couldn't make it any simpler and when trying to build a better mouse trap, you are not going to catch any mice by adding complications you thought were improvements. 

Fwiw, what I've done is not only for 3D.  It's also an avenue for auto starting .exe's like the passkey you use and anything else instead of loading when Windows starts.  I also use them because there is a bug that will probably never be addressed when coming out of HDR mode which is just like coming out of 3D mode in displays regarding subsequent playbacks.  You just indicated you only have problems on subsequent playbacks on a 2nd machine with a similar but different environment than the one that is problem free, mainly video card.  What kind of GPU is the problem child?

Interested in the playercorefactory you have written.  Mind sharing it with a little synopsis?  Here is what I'm currently using and how it works: 

PowerDVD 17 - SDR 2D and 3D iso's default and play full menus mimicking a physical disc exactly.  (I use this because DVDFab Player 3 cannot do frame packed 3D)
DVDFab Player 3 - UHD HDR iso's default and play full menus mimicking a physical disc exactly.  (I use this because I don't have special hardware required for PowerDVD UHD playback)
KODI videoplayer - defaults to play everything else.
MPC-BE - I select this player manually by pressing 'C' (mapped to 'Menu' on my remote) when I desire to override any of the defaults.  (When quality vs function is desired knowing it plays everything but no menus)
All four players serve a unique need when one desires to play everything offered with no caveats.  Each can be manually selected to play what you'd like provided it handles the given source.
I won't go into the .bats but you need them whether you use 3D or not.
Titles are marked as 'Watched' upon completion in the KODI library no matter which player was used.
Press play in the KODI library is all I do.  Everything is automated from there.  No resolution flipping around.  No HDR switching on/off.  No enable 3D or not.  No nothing.  Just press play.  KODI always returns to focus.  No minimizing.  No black boxes.  No resolution malfunctions.  No fullscreen/windowed/truefullscreen flipping.  8/10/12 bit depths automated for each player. Resolutions automated, set and forget.  Etc.

 :
<playercorefactory>

  <players>

     <player name="PowerDVD" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">

       <filename>C:\Users\DAN\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\PDVD3DISO.bat</filename>

       <playcountminimumtime>1140</playcountminimumtime>

     </player>

     <player name="MPC-BE" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">

       <filename>C:\Users\DAN\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\MPCBE3DISO.bat</filename>

       <playcountminimumtime>1140</playcountminimumtime>

     </player>

     <player name="DVDFab" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">

       <filename>C:\Program Files (x86)\DVDFab Media Player 3\FabPlayer.exe</filename>

       <playcountminimumtime>1140</playcountminimumtime>

     </player>

  </players>

  <rules action="prepend">

     <rule filename=".*HDR10.*|.*HDR.*|.*hdr.*" player="DVDFab"/>

     <rule filetypes="iso|bdmv|mpls|m2ts|.*3D.*|.*.3D.iso|3D.*" player="PowerDVD"/>

  </rules>

 </playercorefactory>