News Radeon Driver Bug Corrupts Windows, AMD Shares Fix

[Admin]

AMD has acknowledged a rare bug with its Adrenalin drivers that corrupt users' systems when the "Factory Reset" is checked.

Radeon Driver Bug Corrupts Windows, AMD Shares Fix : Read more

 

[PlaneInTheSky]

The fact this is AMD's WHQL-certified driver is even more insane.

A WHQL driver bricking Windows and causing people to lose their data. If any other company did this, you wouldn't hear the end of it. But this is AMD, supported by a throng of fans who think this is acceptable.

Terrible drivers is why I stopped buying AMD GPU.

 

[_deXter_]

A WQHL driver bricking Windows and causing people to lose their data. If any other company did this, you wouldn't hear the end of it. But this is AMD, supported by a throng of fans who think this is acceptable.

Terrible drivers is why I stopped buying AMD GPU.

Some of us don't use or care about Windows. AMD's open-source drivers on Linux are top notch and I haven't had any issues with them, unlike nVidia, which still doesn't play well with Wayland and has a chance to break with every kernel update.

Their excellent Linux support is why I continue buying AMD GPU.

 

[TechieTwo]

The fact this is AMD's WQHL-certified driver is even more insane.

A WQHL driver bricking Windows and causing people to lose their data. If any other company did this, you wouldn't hear the end of it. But this is AMD, supported by a throng of fans who think this is acceptable.

Terrible drivers is why I stopped buying AMD GPU.

As the story notes this could actually be considered a Windows bug more so than the AMD driver - which functions properly but is being corrupted by Windows trying to load two video drivers at the same time.

 

[USAFRet]

A WQHL driver bricking Windows and causing people to lose their data.

While the driver issue is absolutely bad and should not happen, 'lose their data' or "now I have to set up Windows again from scratch' should not be a thing. At all. Ever.

This is what actual backups are for.

 

[Amdlova]

When I have a AMD graphics in the system first I try to find in Google what it's the best version... because the new shine drivers come with lot of bugs. The amd driver is pain in the ... and yes I have systems locked up because the amd graphics.

 

[greenreaper]

I would argue that if it is WHQL-certified, this is something that Microsoft should probably have caught. That's part of what you pay for when they qualify it. Maybe they need to add Windows Update to their testing matrix.

 

[GeorgeLY]

Some of us don't use or care about Windows. AMD's open-source drivers on Linux are top notch and I haven't had any issues with them, unlike nVidia, which still doesn't play well with Wayland and has a chance to break with every kernel update.

Their excellent Linux support is why I continue buying AMD GPU.

Well, you're almost right. The open-source driver for Linux is excellent, but it does not prevent other parts breaking. There was introduced instability on integrated AMD graphics in Linux kernel 5.19 that caused crashes once an hour or so, that fortunately got fixed in kernel 6.1. Unfortunately though Ubuntu LTS recently updated to kernel 5.19 which means a lot of people that wouldn't be able to troubleshoot the cause will blame it on the driver.

 

[Deleted member 431422]

As the story notes this could actually be considered a Windows bug more so than the AMD driver - which functions properly but is being corrupted by Windows trying to load two video drivers at the same time.

I agree. I'm surprised concurrent installations is a thing in Windows. It should not be possible. In Linux when a program has access to install database, there's a file lock in place and nothing else can do modifications. It might be annoying if you leave something running in background, but it's a well thought safety feature which should be standard in Windows.

 

[cfbcfb]

It's a windows problem and it's been a long standing issue with drivers, requiring turning off auto updates?

Not in my experience. I've had a bunch of machines on windows autoupdate with all sorts of drivers and I can't recall the last time I had an issue with that. Years.

What I have had is at least 3 times that AMD drivers gave me problems, and they're all in the past 12-15 months. The 'finewine' has turned to vinegar.

 

[drivinfast247]

So the title should read: "Windows bug allows AMD Adrenaline to corrupt install".

 

[Cooe]

The fact this is AMD's WHQL-certified driver is even more insane.

A WHQL driver bricking Windows and causing people to lose their data. If any other company did this, you wouldn't hear the end of it. But this is AMD, supported by a throng of fans who think this is acceptable.

Terrible drivers is why I stopped buying AMD GPU.

Lol way to scream to everyone who reads this article that you literally don't actually know how to read! 🤣 Because if you COULD read, you'd have realized that this bug isn't AMD's fault, IT'S MICROSOFT'S!

And on top of that, it wasn't AMD that WHQL certifies the driver as "A'Ok!"... because that was once again... MICROSOFT! And not only is it fundamentally a Microsoft bug, NOT AMD's, but it's one that has affected LOADS of different driver packages and not just AMD's GPU drivers!

Basically with this post you told everyone - "I'm brainwashed sheeple who BOTH doesn't know how to read, AND buys expensive PC products based SOLELY on some junk I think I once heard people talking about around 2019 / the RDNA 1 launch." 🤷

 

[mitch074]

It's more an installer bug than a driver bug - unfortunately that solves nothing for users, but it does illustrate how annoying Windows can be at installing stuff behind your back and then breaking itself. If the Windows Installer were better there would be no need for DDUor AMD's factory reset.
AMD trying to make things right by allowing users to do a complete cleanup on install without having to use DDU is commendable in my book, and better than nVidia's - I had to do a DDU run when upgrading a GTX 1060 to a RTX 3060 no later than last week, so it's a useful feature to have.
It's however telling that the system breaks before the actual boot process - my guess is that the UEFI graphic driver component must be found missing by the kernel image loader while it was rebuilt for some reason by the silent install. It is concerning to think that a userspace component can impact something as sensitive as a boot loader...

 

[Makaveli]

I ran into this issue with those drivers and had a feeling it was related to windows update. The drivers dropped on a patch Tuesday and I remember coming home and seeing my system requesting a restart from windows patching. So I did that logical thing and rebooted my machine before install the new video driver. Which then put my system into a windows repair boot loop. Luckily I had a restore point made from that windows patching and was able to restore my system. On my rig i was able install the driver by turning off fast boot.

 

[mitch074]

[...]On my rig i was able install the driver by turning off fast boot.

That's on a self-built machine I guess, unfortunately on many laptops or pre-built systems you can't enter the UEFI without going through Windows (or you need to unplug your boot disk) so this is indeed a PITA that needs fixing quick.

 

[sirsquishy67]

I was a member in vangaurd trying to get this bug fixed since 2020. The root issues are that MS pushes an ODM/OEM specific driver and overwrites whatever driver you have installed, no matter the driver version(WHQL or otherwise) over writing it. I have seen this windows corruption happen on laptops, OEM desktop, whitebox builds,...etc. Yet AMD did nothing over the last 3 years to address it. While this is mainly a MS issue due to <Mod Edit> WUD policy and behavior, AMD is on the hook at the relationship/SLA level between themselves and MS to ensure their end users are not having stupid issues like this article is stating. Then we have the bugs in windows updates that ignores 'driver controls' from time to time, so the "show/hide" utilities along with the 'in OS' native controls do not always work to block drivers being shipped from MS.

 

[dalek1234]

WHQL certification is granted by Microsoft after Microsoft tests the drivers to make sure they are compatible with Windows, and the tests pass. The fact that Microsoft missed the bug during testing, seems to me that it's MS to blame here.

 

[Makaveli]

That's on a self-built machine I guess, unfortunately on many laptops or pre-built systems you can't enter the UEFI without going through Windows (or you need to unplug your boot disk) so this is indeed a PITA that needs fixing quick.

Yes this is a custom built desktop.

And not being able to get into bios before windows boots is a horrible design and I would never buy a system like that.

 

[BrickedPC197]

this happened to me but it also made it where my display will not connect so i cant even get into recovery because i can not see to time powering it on and off. is there a fix for this or am i up a creek?

 

[Deleted member 14196]

You will have to run a Windows repair or reinstall windows from a USB drive in order to get around your bug

 

[BrickedPC197]

Turns out it had set my bios to factory which disabled duel ram and all i had to do was remove 1 stick and change in bios again. Took forever to figure this out.