radeon AMD’s Latest Radeon Driver Causing PC Boot Issues, BSODs, Corrupting Windows, & Forcing a Windows Reinstall/Reset (Updated)

[BiG StroOnZ]

Summary

AMD’s latest Adrenalin 23.2.1 driver is apparently crashing Windows and causing serious boot issues. The most current update appears to be crashing PCs, bricking Windows installs, sending users error messages that exclaim that the system has an "inaccessible boot drive" error; reports several users from the ComputerBase forums and Twitter.

 

 

 

Quotes

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Many users have reported corruption of their Windows installation, forcing them to reinstall or reset their operating system. We tried the driver ourselves and faced the same problem. Upon installing the Adrenalin Edition 23.2.1 driver, Windows initiates a system restart from which it never quite boots up. We ran into a BSOD that throws the “Inaccessible Boot Drive” error. It took a system restore and a complete reinstallation of the Radeon drivers using DDU to eliminate the problem.

 

Twitter user @PrepperAssasin stated that the driver “Crashed my whole PC, now I have to set up Windows again from scratch.” Another user, @flyinghyur, lamented that the driver “bricked my Windows install.”

 

Users are contacting AMD Radeon's Twitter account to thank the company for destroying their systems. However, all is not lost, as CapFrameX has updated users on what happened to consumers' PCs. The new AMD Adrenalin 23.2.1 driver reportedly alters the BIOS settings and changes the boot options to make the system crash. As a cautionary measure, users should not be so quick to reinstall the operating system on their computer but to check the boot settings and change the option back to the previous settings.

 

My thoughts

This is really sad, as I know AMD Radeon users were waiting almost two months for a driver update for Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs and older. Now the update finally arrives and you have to deal with this issue. There are users who are claiming no problems installing this driver, but then again, there are plenty who are claiming they are experiencing these issues. It appears CapFrameX discovered that the driver could be changing BIOS settings, such as boot options; leading to the crashes and/or boot problems users have been describing. It's recommended if you are experiencing these issues after installing the new Adrenalin 23.2.1 driver, to check your BIOS settings before resorting to reinstalling Windows. AMD hasn't commented yet or added any information about the current issue. Hopefully, it's not too long before AMD addresses this issue and provides a solution.   

 

Sources

https://www.hardwaretimes.com/latest-amd-radeon-driver-causing-bsod-corrupting-windows-forcing-a-reinstall-reset/

https://wccftech.com/latest-amd-radeon-graphics-drivers-reportedly-causing-pc-boot-issues-corrupting-windows/

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amd-driver-windows-crashing-boot-problems/

 

Update

 

Summary

AMD has issued a warning to users that updating the Radeon GPU drivers could cause damage to Windows installations. The company stated that during the Radeon Adrenalin software update, if users use the 'Factory reset' option and a Windows installation is taking place at the same time, Windows could become corrupted.

 

Quotes

Quote

“We have reproduced an issue that can occur in an extremely small number of instances if a PC update occurs during the installation of AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition, and we are actively investigating. We recommend users ensure all system updates are applied or paused before installing the driver, and that the “Factory Reset” option is unchecked during the AMD driver installation process. We are committed to resolve issues as quickly as possible and strongly encourage users to submit issues with AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition via the Bug Report Tool.”

 

— AMD

My thoughts

This is good that AMD acknowledges this issue and is working towards a solution. It's funny because at the time, certain people were complaining that the person covering the issue was simply badmouthing AMD and the issues weren't real. Now here AMD is clearly saying that the issue is real, and offers a workaround to prevent it from happening. Hopefully, they resolve this issue with a fix.

 

Sources

https://www.guru3d.com/news-story/amd-warns-of-potential-windows-corruption-when-updating-radeon-gpu-drivers.html

https://wccftech.com/amd-acknowledges-radeon-driver-bug-that-can-mess-up-your-windows-os-working-on-fix/

https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-admits-a-very-rare-radeon-driver-bug-may-corrupt-windows-installations

[Shimejii]

Gotta love it when they dont properly test it in house before launching it, or it was tested and all these systems have some system component in common, or its just Windows being windows. 

[fade]

I remember an AMD motherboard chipset driver update being pushed automatically by Windows Update that did the same thing.  Fun times.

 

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-pulls-windows-10-amd-driver-causing-pcs-not-to-boot/

 

Had to go into command prompt in windows repair to fix it.

[circeseye]

welp, that explains the weird freezes and crap thats been going on today

[Mihle]

At least that version was only part of the newest driver release thing and have not been pushed to the recommended release. (AMD differentiate between the two).

[sof006]

Think i'll wait for the amernimezone modded version of this driver, happy with the version ive got installed from them currently.

[Batlh]

Great now i know why my system is acting weird.... i updated to that new driver for my rx 6700xt gpu and since then i have a permanent high cpu core temperature and a always 100% fan speed of the cpu cooler... that actually don't get the temperature even down?!? On windows it's about 80°C all the time in idle on cpu core temp while in bios it's about 50°C cpu core temp on idle befour it was around 20°C on bios Cpu core temp idle and around 40°C on windows idle CPU core temp (befour that new driver)

Made a downgrade to the version befour still the same issue.. i guess i will have to look in my bios if that driver messed up something else there... and replace the thermal paste if needed...

Oh and the best thing till now i found out that the system will not go in idle at all it will always stay as if you moved the mouse to get it back out of hibernation or as if it has no screensaver...

[Dabombinable]

I'll just keep on dealing with constant driver timeouts when using HW decoding...I avoided re-installing Windows when I got my first Gen 4.0 SSD, and I'm not going to risk it now.

[Doobeedoo]

Was fine for me. Also updated Windows too same day.

[GoodBytes]

I don't have these issues, but what I do have is the loss of DisplayPort 1.4 DCP, and HDMI 2.1. Meaning my main monitor on DP is limited to 95Hz at 4K (should be 4K 144Hz), and second monitor on HDMI 2.1 is limited to 4K 60Hz with color compression (should be 4K 120Hz with color compression or 4K 60Hz with full colors, no compression).

 

Just a note, I did try a clean install of the drivers as well.

 

Rolling back the drivers fixed the issue.

 

[Ripred]

14 hours ago, BiG StroOnZ said:

Summary

AMD’s latest Adrenalin 23.2.1 driver is apparently crashing Windows and causing serious boot issues. The most current update appears to be crashing PCs, bricking Windows installs, sending users error messages that exclaim that the system has an "inaccessible boot drive" error; reports several users from the ComputerBase forums and Twitter.

 

 

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

This is really sad, as I know AMD Radeon users were waiting almost two months for a driver update for Radeon RX 6000 series GPUs and older. Now the update finally arrives and you have to deal with this issue. There are users who are claiming no problems installing this driver, but then again, there are plenty who are claiming they are experiencing these issues. It appears CapFrameX discovered that the driver could be changing BIOS settings, such as boot options; leading to the crashes and/or boot problems users have been describing. It's recommended if you are experiencing these issues after installing the new Adrenalin 23.2.1 driver, to check your BIOS settings before resorting to reinstalling Windows. AMD hasn't commented yet or added any information about the current issue. Hopefully, it's not too long before AMD addresses this issue and provides a solution.   

 

Sources

https://www.hardwaretimes.com/latest-amd-radeon-driver-causing-bsod-corrupting-windows-forcing-a-reinstall-reset/

https://wccftech.com/latest-amd-radeon-graphics-drivers-reportedly-causing-pc-boot-issues-corrupting-windows/

https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/amd-driver-windows-crashing-boot-problems/

Oh my, that's why I don't update, unless there's something cool, even then ill still wait to hear about any issues

[CommanderAlex]

Don't have any issues yet after updating yesterday with a clean install while installing. Also updated BIOS yesterday for my Dark Hero to 4402 and had a crash with that, but it was due to CPU OC settings. 

[ravenshrike]

Huh, I think they pulled the update from the launcher because I just went into adrenalin and it's not showing it even though recommended and optional updates are on. Still up on the website though.

[Forbidden Wafer]

13 hours ago, fade said:

I remember an AMD motherboard chipset driver update being pushed automatically by Windows Update that did the same thing.  Fun times.

Windows update is pretty bad. I had an issue with an Intel ME driver, and only my OEM (Acer) one worked perfectly.

But damned Windows insisted on updating the known good driver with the bad one...

Removing and reinstalling was a chore, Windows asked why I was doing that, and even then, instead of flagging that driver as bad, they kept pushing it.

[mdk777]

I have a 7900xt. I upgraded like I usually do with new drivers.

It did cause screen freeze in my game.

 

Hence I rolled back to the previous driver that worked great.

Like many here, I was surprised that they would push out a new driver that had such obvious issues.

 

So, just sharing that this update is buggy across the board, and not just for older graphics cards. 

 

[tim0901]

2 hours ago, Forbidden Wafer said:

Windows update is pretty bad. I had an issue with an Intel ME driver, and only my OEM (Acer) one worked perfectly.

But damned Windows insisted on updating the known good driver with the bad one...

Removing and reinstalling was a chore, Windows asked why I was doing that, and even then, instead of flagging that driver as bad, they kept pushing it.

Sounds ilke ACER's fault to me, why are they making customisations that the stock Intel driver can't deal with, and not updating their firmware to deal with more modern drivers?

[Forbidden Wafer]

21 minutes ago, tim0901 said:

Sounds ilke ACER's fault to me, why are they making customisations that the stock Intel driver can't deal with, and not updating their firmware to deal with more modern drivers?

Well, Acer's drivers worked perfectly. The ones downloaded directly from Intel worked fine too (for ME, graphics and thermal management. The Intel Camera drivers didn't work at all for some reason).

The ones shipped by Microsoft were the problem. Borked pretty much everything.

I gave up and completely disabled Windows update on that particular 2-in-1. WSUS offline + drivers from OEM works just fine.

[DrMacintosh]

I do not envy having to be a software dev that has to build a graphics drive for a variety of graphics cards that are expected to run in literally infinite combinations/variations of systems. If you think about it, its kind of an insane ask.

[Ripred]

11 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I do not envy having to be a software dev that has to build a graphics drive for a variety of graphics cards that are expected to run in literally infinite combinations/variations of systems. If you think about it, its kind of an insane ask.

They should make versions based on category, Like Gen, Base platform AMD/intel, or atleast have recommendation of version based on config 

[da na]

"AMD cards haven't had driver issues since the Radeon HD days!"****************

*Vega

**Radeon VII

***RX 4/500 

****launch drivers for nearly every card

 

[da na]

Just now, Ripred said:

They should make versions based on category, Like Gen, Base platform AMD/intel, or atleast have recommendation of version based on config 

Unfortunately it's not just "AMD/Intel", each respective manufacturer has hundreds of chipsets, even just from the last decade, that all are different. 

[rcmaehl]

 

Y'all are getting updates?

[GoodBytes]

44 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

I do not envy having to be a software dev that has to build a graphics drive for a variety of graphics cards that are expected to run in literally infinite combinations/variations of systems. If you think about it, its kind of an insane ask.

They are extensive processes that can be made to validate drivers (and software). AMD clearly doesn't have the QA team to handle this. I could understand back when AMD was in the financial red as their GPUs and CPUs where just not selling. But now they are, as they are able to make compelling products, and that has been for a number of years now. There is no improvement on those front, meaning that the company is not caring about quality.

 

Too busy maximizing profits instead of focusing on quality. Too scared to face shareholders on the importance of quality for long term success of the company.

[Ripred]

20 minutes ago, Mel0n. said:

Unfortunately it's not just "AMD/Intel", each respective manufacturer has hundreds of chipsets, even just from the last decade, that all are different. 

Right, not suggesting they have something for each and every chip, but maybe a recommendation or a little spreadsheet, definitely cant cover everything and config but atleast is this driver or that one known to be stable with x manufacturer, generation, or maybe this driver is known to have issues using x chipset or brand(of course this would also take some cooperation from the users to give there config list when reporting issues) so said information could be added to said spreadsheet lol...that being said probably hopeless lol  

[Ripred]

Just now, GoodBytes said:

They are extensive processes that can be made to validate drivers. AMD clearly doesn't have the QA team to handle this. I could understand back when AMD was in the financial red as their GPUs and CPUs where just not selling. But now they are, as they are able to make compelling products, and that has been for a number of years now. There is no improvement on those front, meaning that the company is not caring about quality.

I've worked in manufacturing for a long time, very few ceo's/presidents care about end quality beyond recall of an entire run affecting their end margins (don't ever fly 737 max if you can help it) AMD is stacking cash now and the majority of the end users are satisfied so Quality control will be overlooked because why invest into the only department in the chain that doesn't add value

But a nice spreadsheet of issues reported by users who share there system configs setup to auto populate a little checkmark system for working config and not working config shouldn't be unreasonable, especially since such a thing must already exist within the driver development department or they would be able to support anything more than a few years old