by The carefully sequestered, rock-solid and reliable PC I use to test graphics cards was completely and utterly leaked this week. I couldn’t even get the system to boot into Windows repair mode to try to debug it. The culprit? A rare bug in the way Windows interacts with AMD’s latest WQHL-certified Radeon drivers, Adrenalin 23.2.2. Some quick Googling revealed that this has happened to a small handful of other users since Adrenalin 23.2.1 landed in mid-February, with similarly devastating effects.
This experience would be an absolute disaster for anyone who isn’t the executive editor of a computer publication with a deep rolodex on hand (though AMD representatives are very responsive to driver feedback on social media). But luckily I was able to work closely with AMD on the issue.
AMD engineers were not only able to diagnose the potential cause of this exotic error, but also discovered an equally exotic troubleshooting solution that helped bring my PC back to life. A permanent fix is being investigated, but affected users can hopefully use this fix to repair their systems without resorting to a full fresh Windows installation.
Here is what happened, how it happened, how to avoid it, and how to fix it if a similar disaster befalls your PC.
How AMD’s Radeon Drivers Broke My Windows Installation
I received a new custom Radeon RX 7900 XT for testing this week, so I went through my usual rigorous process to ensure the PC is up to date and ready for benchmarking. Before swapping in a new graphics card or new drivers, while my existing stable setup is still intact, I perform several steps to make the system as “as new” as possible, to avoid potential problems caused by swapping in different GPUs from different brands. (The system hardware remains static, with minimal software installed beyond benchmarking tools, to ensure consistency.)
This is a rig from AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 series, not my test system.
Adam Patrick Murray / IDG
I already had a GeForce RTX 4070 Ti set up to give Nvidia’s amazing RTX Video Super Resolution a whirl. With that installed, I updated Windows 10 manually. I then shut down the system and replaced the 4070 Ti with the Radeon RX 7900 XT. It started up normally. I then used Windows 10’s Add and Remove Programs tool to uninstall all Nvidia software from my PC and rebooted. Standard stuff. I then used the wonderful DDU Uninstaller tool to make sure Nvidia’s bits were truly and completely eradicated, and rebooted. Everything went well.
Then the problems began.
I opened Chrome, navigated to AMD’s website, and downloaded the WQHL-certified Adrenalin 23.2.2 drivers that the website recommended for a 7900 XT. I then installed the driver, and checked the box to perform a “factory reset” clean install instead of an in-place upgrade. It turns out that checking that box, done in conjunction with a silent Windows update that happens in the background without my knowledge, probably causing my rig to fall.
Everything went well – until the software told me to restart the PC to complete the driver installation. After rebooting, my system hit the MSI BIOS splash page as normal, but the second it tried to load Windows it immediately got a Blue Screen of Death, flashing the “Unavailable Boot Device” error code shown in the image in the tweet below (which is unrelated to this AMD issue). Ugh. The system then started an endless cycle of BSOD > reboot > BSOD > reboot without initiating automatic repair attempts or presenting me with the usual Windows troubleshooting options.
I didn’t have time to troubleshoot it, so I shut down the system and tried again the next day. Same deal. I pulled out the custom Radeon RX 7900 XT I need to test and replaced it with AMD’s reference Radeon RX 7900 XT. This time, after two BSOD > reboot cycles, Windows tried to repair the system automatically after the BIOS splash screen. Success! …or so I thought. But I was terribly, terribly wrong.
Instead of correcting the problem, you choose Startup repair made it even worse. Once that was done, the screen went dark and completely unresponsive (while still powered on). Now, every time I tried to start the computer, I saw the little “Windows is thinking about it” circle spin after the BIOS screen for a brief moment, then a return to the infinite blackness. My Windows installation was pumped so hard that the BSOD crashes didn’t even happen anymore and I had no chance to try standard Windows troubleshooting measures.
In desperation, I tried replacing the Radeon RX 7900 XT with an RTX 4070 Ti and an Intel Arc A750 – GPUs I’ve been testing for the past two weeks, which worked reliably – but to no avail.
Googling the issue turned up this WCCFTech article from mid-February along with a ton of other coverage, citing numerous user reports of Adrenalin 23.2.1 corrupting their Windows installations. It’s a deeply frustrating experience, and one that would be disastrous for a standard PC gamer. I tweeted about my woes and an AMD representative emailed me back within minutes. Being the executive editor of PCWorld can obviously track me down for a quick answer (but again, AMD representatives are very responsive to driver feedback on social media). In this case, my high-profile headache was able to help AMD investigate the core issue, so I can provide troubleshooting steps that worked for me and please report that a permanent solution is being investigated.
How to fix Radeon drivers breaking Windows installation
I could have simply put in a new SSD with a clean Windows install, but we spent two days going through various troubleshooting fixes while AMD engineers tried to reproduce and diagnose the problem. Switching GPUs, trying new monitors, unplugging the monitor cable at various times, clearing CMOS and ensuring UEFI was selected instead of CSM in the BIOS (it was!) proved fruitless.
But this morning AMD’s team got back to me with another suggestion: When the BIOS splash screen is up right after you turn on the PC, hit the power button to try to trick Windows into forcing an automatic recovery attempt. I tried it four times with no luck. I was told to keep it up, that it wanted work in the end. And after a total of fifteen tries, it did!
I’m not sure what made it finally catch on, but timing seemed to play a part in it. Pressing the power button while the BIOS keystroke options were up simply shut down my PC immediately. Pressing it when the spinning “Windows thinking” icon appeared kept the PC on but did nothing – my system just blacked out again. Finally I managed to press the power button for a second between the BIOS options disappearing and the Windows circle appearing, and that managed to kickstart an automatic recovery attempt.
You will choose the System Restore option and choose a restore point from before the Windows corruption. Windows should have automatically created one right before you install the new GPU drivers.
IDG
Success!
After Windows did its thing for a while, I finally ended up in the Windows Recovery Tools menu, able to restart my PC or select advanced options. I went into the advanced options debug menu and selected System Restoresince Startup repair flushed my PC even worse before. I chose a mid-February restore point, uploaded it, and after two agonizingly frustrating days, my test rig was back in action.
If you’ve suffered from the recent adrenaline rush of drivers messing up your Windows installation, try this process to hopefully get you back on your feet. You should also try the usual arcane method of invoking the Windows Recovery Tool, found in the “Using the Startup Repair Feature” section here. (Do not use Startup repair although! Use a restore point! Just use this process to get to the menu with both options.)
But how did this happen, and how can you prevent it from happening to you?
How to prevent Radeon drivers from corrupting your Windows installation
AMD tells me that it took dozens of attempts to reproduce the problem in their labs due to its extreme rarity. On one call, a representative actually called me “patient zero”. The company gave me the following statement while the investigation is ongoing:
“We have reproduced an issue that may occur in an extremely small number of cases if a PC update occurs during the installation of AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, and we are actively investigating. We advise users to ensure that all system updates are applied or paused before they install the driver and that the “Factory Reset” option is not checked during the AMD driver installation process.We are committed to resolving issues as quickly as possible and encourage users to submit issues with AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition via the Bug Report Tool. »
It’s worth noting that my version of Windows 10 was updated before I attempted to install the Adrenalin software, but the Game Bar or some other part of Windows may have been quietly updated in the background to start this disaster.
DO NOT click on “extra options” and tick “factory reset” until the core issue is resolved!
AMD
As a workaround, just don’t check the reset box if you install new Radeon drivers. There’s no need to do that if you already have a working Radeon GPU set up and simply update to the latest drivers anyway. As simple as that. It worked for me after my test system was revived and I now have Adrenalin 23.2.2 installed and working like a charm.
A bloody shame
It’s a shame this happened. Most excruciating for myself and other gamers who had their Windows installation deeply corrupted, of course, but also for AMD.
I’ve been a vocal advocate of the serious driver and software improvements AMD has made over the last half decade or so. People slammed the insecure state of Radeon drivers for years. AMD listened and used huge investment and effort to refurbish them. Now, Team Red’s drivers are even better than Nvidia’s popular Game Ready drivers in many ways, and in June 2022 AMD felt confident enough in its software to declare that it offers “industry-leading stability” with “99.95% of users experience no crash when AMD software is installed.”
There’s no doubt that AMD’s driver stability and overall stability is now right up there with the best of them after years of intense refinement. This is an extremely unusual edge case. It sure sucks to be on the 0.05%! But problems this catastrophic damage cause to rebuild the Radeon software image, no matter how rare they are. Whether Windows or AMD is ultimately to blame, this experience is the kind of thing that will instantly make many PC gamers swear off Radeon GPUs forever, and tell all their friends why. And that’s a shame.
Several Radeon GPUs feature in our roundup of the best graphics cards. I will not remove them despite my personal disaster. This serious problem is not widespread, it only occurs in ultra-rare circumstances, while AMD offers really compelling value up and down the stack with Nvidia driving GeForce prices through the roof. And yes, AMD’s drivers are really rock solid enormous most of the time. This particular scenario could have been disastrous without AMD’s direct help, but no software is perfect – especially in the complex PC ecosystem – and while I was stuck in a deeply frustrating situation, there’s only a microscopic chance that it affects you. (And hopefully this article can help you if it does.)
Most people don’t check the factory install box anyway. Just make sure you don’t do it until a permanent fix is released.
