Nodejs crash out "OpenSSL configuration error:" #41522

Version

v17.3.1

Platform

Window 10

Subsystem

Visual Studio Code/Powershell

What steps will reproduce the bug?

"npm install" or "yarn install" or even "node server" (on previous working project)
OpenSSL configuration error:
18290000:error:80000002:system library:BIO_new_file:No such file
or directory:c:\ws\deps\openssl\openssl\crypto\bio\bss_file.c:67:18290000:error:10000080:BIO routines:BIO_new_file:no such file:c:\ws\deps\openssl\openssl\crypto\bio\bss_file.c:75:
18290000:error:07000072:configuration file routines:def_load:no such file:c:\ws\deps\openssl\openssl\crypto\conf\conf_def.c:179:
OpenSSL configuration error:
40520000:error:80000002:system library:BIO_new_file:No such file
or directory:c:\ws\deps\openssl\openssl\crypto\bio\bss_file.c:67:calling fopen(C:\Program Files\PostgreSQL\psqlODBC\etc\openssl.cnf, rb)
40520000:error:10000080:BIO routines:BIO_new_file:no such file:c:\ws\deps\openssl\openssl\crypto\bio\bss_file.c:75:
40520000:error:07000072:configuration file routines:def_load:no such file:c:\ws\deps\openssl\openssl\crypto\conf\conf_def.c:179:

Not: latest version 64bit 3.0.1 of OpenSSL is installed but not used
Also as suggested elsewhere the environment variable OPENSSL_CONF has been deleted.

Why crash out when files not found and not required?

How often does it reproduce? Is there a required condition?

every attempt to run node following version upgrade to v17.3.1
also have uninstalled Node and installed previous version - still have the same error. Not using PostgreSQL in this project no idea what c:/ws/... is as it doesn't exist

What is the expected behavior?

node works without crashing (is there a flag to set for "no OpenSSL" to turn off this not required "feature"

What do you see instead?

output as above

Additional information

No response