Ah thanks for the suggestions, Nameless!

Unfortunately, I had the foresight to test exactly that in between uninstalling my drivers via the method you described a few days ago. It unfortunately was still freezing in Safe mode, without nvidia's graphics drivers installed.

I do believe that effectively rules out it being a display driver issue. I'll give it a 2nd test, though. I guess it couldn't hurt.

I don't have an onboard graphic's chip, either; my Motherboard is an Asus Rog Zenith Extreme Alpha X399. Onboard graphics were one of the bells and or whistles it didn't come equipped with.