My month with Windows Insider, AMD, QuickStream, DDU, Comodo, and these Forums

[mr cheese]

Well it has been a hell of a month.

Actually more like 2 but it's whatever.

 

So everything started with a driver update.

AMD Catalyst had been bugging me about an update in drivers for a few weeks and it had been getting annoying, so I plugged in and sat back.

There was some bloatware I had decided not to install, but one of them intrigued me: AMD QuickStream.

Well it seemed like a helpful tool so I decided to install it.

 

Well skip ahead and Catalyst is through the important display drivers and it has been on QuickStream for 30 min with no sign of life.

I'll let it sit a bit more and do some work.

Come an hour and a half later, no movement.

Well I did the only thing I could do and just kind of restarted so as not to break anything.

The display drivers were installed and the restart wasn't being held by anything so I just kind of went with it.

 

Well hey, this is new, a GSoD. Guess blue went out of style. Whatever floats ur boat Microsoft.

Okay, I'll just restart again, no problem.

Nope, GSoD is back again.

 

I go to safe mode. First thing I can think to do is just uninstall everything.

I removed anything with the name AMD and ran AMD's clean and DDU tool like 3 times.

Whelp, new error: IRQL not less or equal too.

The hell? Everything is gone?

 

Well next resort was to reinstall the driver in safe mode to see if it would magically fix something.

Head over to AMD, find the same driver (triple-checking it for compatibility) and download it.

Open it up, CUSTOM install, and...

"The Driver Detection Tool could not be loaded"

 

Oh God.
 

So now I'm running out of options.

I can't uninstall any further,

and I can't reinstall.

 

So I call AMD.

AMD dude is now confused AF and has no idea what to do

he tells me to run some tools,

that won't load in safe mode.

 

so I'm officially screwed.

Thankfully I had installed a second Windows (stable Windows, in case the [now dead] Insider Windows died)

So I'm trying everything I can and now I'm coming here.

I spend a bunch of time stitching together a GSoD post to try to get help.

Nobody replies.

not one.

 

I'm desperate so now I take things into my own hands:

Time to debug a fucking kernel dump.

 

So I have no idea what I'm doing but I manage my way around WinDBG and run a few commands.

and I find a trouble maker.

appexDrv.sys

 

It's a driver that belongs to *drum roll* AMD Quick Stream Technology.

So now I have to find a way to fix this with no Google alternatives.

 

Using the indexer Everything (highly recommend), I find a copy of this file in Windows.old.

I try just replacing the file with the one in Windows.old

no avail.

 

Now I have to result to the only alternative I know.

Fucking hard deleting a .sys file in System32>Drivers.

The sketchiest thing I've done in my life.

 

I consult the forums again on this idea.

and someone gives me a yellow light (go ahead but be safe) (thanks Jarno.!)

 

I've run out of options so I delete the appexDrv.sys in the Drivers folder and completely empty the Recycling Bin (wtf Windows, why there).

Boot up the GSoD'd Windows.

It fucking worked

 

The answer to all of my computer stress for the last month was a fucking delete key.

And that's my story.

 

Fuck you AMD

Fuck myself for being dumb AF

Fuck Windows for letting me delete a fucking driver file and fuck you for letting that fix the problem

Fuck the support forums for not helping (except Jarno,!)

 

TL;DR

AMD install failed and was aborted prematurely and fucked my computer

AMD Clean Utility and DDU had skipped a faulty driver file

AMD installer wouldn't load in Safe Mode

AMD support couldn't help me

Tests I had been trying to run weren't working in Safe Mode

The forums here weren't attempting to help me because you couldn't Google the answers (tbh)

Had to debug a kernel dump file by hand

Tried replacing the driver file which didn't work

Ended up just fucking pressing the delete key and deleting a driver by hand in the System32>Drivers folder

Fixed it.

 

I do not recommend or encourage this course of action to ANYONE in this situation.

Just throw your computer out the window.

 

 

Update:

COMODO Internet Security's automatic program containment actually contained the Quickstream installer without letting me know. About 85% it tells me when something has been automatically contained, and stays on despite disabling Antivirus and Viruscope. Unfortunately I like it's features and customization and have come to enjoy it despite its flaws and alternatives (Avast)

 

Update 2:

It has come to my attention that people are confused as to why... everything. I should do some explaining.

I updated form Windows 7 to Windows 10 to Windows 10 Insider Preview on an extremely older version of the Catalyst driver which never caused problems.

I reinstalled the older driver and updated the driver now that i have the computer back, and have had no issues.

The issue was not with Catalyst, just the installer.

No, I was not expecting a perfect Windows experience with Windows Insider, but that was (astonishingly) not the problem!

Now onto what actually caused the issue. I use Comodo antivirus because it does the job well and is highly customization and great for "power users". I have had issues with resources in the past with antiviruses like Avast and AVG (both just had unresponsive UI's on older spec computers).

Comodo has a bunch of very powerful tools, one of them being Auto-Containment, which automatically contains potential threats and runs them in a safe environment. Unfortunately it does this without your permission often, and sometimes without even letting you know. After some issues with a blocked program I looked into the contained list and found the QuickStream installer listed as contained. So Comodo contained the installer preventing proper installation and keeping the Catalyst installer from properly cancelling installation and canceling operations with QuickStream installer.

Even If I had been told that the program had been auto-contained it would have been too late.

I had disabled the Antivirus and the VirusScope but unfortunately left auto-containment on.

#feelsbadman

 

Update #3:

Old drivers were actually recommended by AMD's own support due to OEM compatibility (HP Pavillion dv6z-7000).

I might eventually make the switch to the latest Radeon if I can. Depends on compatibility. I have updated to the latest Catalyst for bug fixes and such. Working fine, if not better.

Also, doesn't it seem a bit odd that you can just delete a driver file from Windows>System32>Drivers without causing any further issues?

 

Edited March 20, 2018 by DaJakerBoss
People wanted answers

[Majestic]

CTRL-F: DDU, 0 hits

 

Looks like you didn't try the easiest solution.

[mr cheese]

1 hour ago, Majestic said:

CTRL-F: DDU, 0 hits

 

Looks like you didn't try the easiest solution.

oh yeah I used DDU like 3 times my bad

 

editing

[Crunchy Dragon]

-Moved to Member Reviews-

[AresKrieger]

All that for an operating system microsoft could even get me to use for free

 

Well good thing it worked eventually though the idea of it requiring you to delete a specific system driver file to fix it rather than a reinstall is absurd especially since that driver file seems to be associated with a somewhat useless internet "optimization" feature for streaming.

[mr cheese]

1 hour ago, AresKrieger said:

All that for an operating system microsoft could even get me to use for free

 

Well good thing it worked eventually though the idea of it requiring you to delete a specific system driver file to fix it rather than a reinstall is absurd especially since that driver file seems to be associated with a somewhat useless internet "optimization" feature for streaming.

I'm a streamer and struggle with that on an AMD A8-4500M APU so i figured anything would help.

I might reinstall it if it won't fucking GSoD my computer

[2FA]

This was an Insider Build? Why exactly are you surprised a beta build has issues?

[keskparane]

Why is this not your month with AMD Quickstream?

Did you ever try system restore? That's like the built in Windows way of recovering from a problem like this.

Why are you pissed that Windows lets you delete a file you want to delete?

 

 

[vanished]

So as far as I can tell, this was entirely a problem with AMD's driver... why bring Windows 10 into it?

[kirashi]

On 3/18/2018 at 2:15 PM, DaJakerBoss said:

Well hey, this is new, a GSoD. Guess blue went out of style. Whatever floats ur boat Microsoft.

Okay, I'll just restart again, no problem.

Nope, GSoD is back again.

You have Windows 10 Insider installed - the Green Screen of Death only happens on Insider Builds of Windows, and was implemented over the Blue Screen of Death to immediately let Microsoft Support know that you're not running a release version of Windows so they can direct you to the Insider Program for support. This version of Windows is not guaranteed bug free, especially when it comes to display drivers, and should not be used in a production environment.

 

Please wipe your system completely and install normal Windows 10 again, then let us know if you're still having driver issues that cause a Blue Screen of Death. I feel your pain, as I ran Insider for 18 months before deciding it wasn't worth my time reporting bugs and feature requests for free, so I went back to stable Windows 10 and left the insider program.

[Tsuki]

yep using new amd drivers on a beta version of windows.

 

 

this is entirely amd and windows 10's fault

/s

[johnukguy]

Why are you still using Catalyst, as it technically is no longer fully functional and is outdated? 

[mr cheese]

On 3/18/2018 at 5:35 PM, DeadEyePsycho said:

This was an Insider Build? Why exactly are you surprised a beta build has issues?

It wasn't a problem with Windows Insider

On 3/18/2018 at 8:11 PM, keskparane said:

Why is this not your month with AMD Quickstream?

Did you ever try system restore? That's like the built in Windows way of recovering from a problem like this.

Why are you pissed that Windows lets you delete a file you want to delete?

 

 

There were no system restores available for some reason. Yet, I managed to find them once I got back in.

Also why would Windows want you deleting a system file

23 hours ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

So as far as I can tell, this was entirely a problem with AMD's driver... why bring Windows 10 into it?

I guess this was pretty surface level about some of the other stuff I went through, but just general displeasure with how I wasn't able to boot without this driver unless I was in safe mode.

20 hours ago, kirashi said:

You have Windows 10 Insider installed - the Green Screen of Death only happens on Insider Builds of Windows, and was implemented over the Blue Screen of Death to immediately let Microsoft Support know that you're not running a release version of Windows so they can direct you to the Insider Program for support. This version of Windows is not guaranteed bug free, especially when it comes to display drivers, and should not be used in a production environment.

 

Please wipe your system completely and install normal Windows 10 again, then let us know if you're still having driver issues that cause a Blue Screen of Death. I feel your pain, as I ran Insider for 18 months before deciding it wasn't worth my time reporting bugs and feature requests for free, so I went back to stable Windows 10 and left the insider program.

It wasn't a display driver. I have a stable Windows 10 installed as well, which is what I resulted to using. The issue has already been fixed.

 

18 hours ago, Tsuki said:

yep using new amd drivers on a beta version of windows.

 

 

this is entirely amd and windows 10's fault

/s

Oh yes I pinned all the blame on Windows 10

/s

13 hours ago, johnukguy said:

Why are you still using Catalyst, as it technically is no longer fully functional and is outdated? 

Because when you have old hardware you install old drivers? Asking for a friend. AMD A8-4500M APU

 

[mr cheese]

Update: Comodo antivirus auto-contained the installer. updated post.

[mr cheese]

On 3/18/2018 at 8:11 PM, keskparane said:

Why is this not your month with AMD Quickstream?

Did you ever try system restore? That's like the built in Windows way of recovering from a problem like this.

Why are you pissed that Windows lets you delete a file you want to delete?

 

 

you raise some good points about the title. changed accordingly, comments?