I have it working now (see attached)!
@Pretentious: Thank you for your help and continued contributions (hacking the newer drivers). It would not have been possible without your support.
I followed the same steps as before:
1) Boot into Safe Mode.
2) DDU the old driver
3) Boot normal.
4) Installed 417.71 (custom, checking "clean install")
5) Ran the 3 bcdedit commands.
6) Modified *.sys
... [Deviation]...
7) Replaced old *.sys with hacked *.sys (C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi*\)
-- Unsigned, unmodified checksum.
8) Booted with "disable Driver Cert" (same reboot sequence as "safe mode" but instead option 7)
Results:
I was able to open the NVIDIA control panel and see the SLI option.
I was able to enable the SLI option and upon rebooting (again with "Disable Driver Cert"), the SLI option was still enabled.
Problem:
With that working, I "signed" the driver and rebooted into Normal Windows. However, I had the issue with the NVIDIA console not starting.
* Via the device manager, I noticed that the driver was not showing up as signed.
* I looked at the command script and noticed that the signtool was using a timestamp.dll from the verisign.com.
* The problem here, Test System is not connected to the network.
Additional Steps to "sign the driver":
Using a PC connected to the network,
1) Created the cert and install the cert onto the PC.
2) Checksum fixed & signed the modified driver.
3) Go back to the "Test System"
4) Boot test system to "Safe Mode"
5) Add the Cert to the Test System
6) Copy the Cert and Driver to their correct folders:
--
Cert: C:\Windows\*.cert
--
Driver: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi*\ *.sys
7) Rebooted in normal mode
Success!
See attached for screen shots.