AMD formally addresses rare driver bug suspected of bricking Windows installations

Recap: AMD graphics card customers have been reporting cases of driver installations utterly bricking their Home windows installs since mid-February. Regardless of the experiences popping up on a number of social media retailers and boards, no official assertion concerning the difficulty was ever made. AMD has now stepped ahead and admitted that they have been in a position to reproduce the difficulty, figuring out the Adrenalin driver package deal’s “Manufacturing unit Reset” possibility as the principle problem.

The difficulty, which was initially reported earlier this yr, was suspected to be a bug within the current Adrenalin 23.2.1 driver package deal. AMD customers who have been unlucky sufficient to come across the difficulty would try to put in the drivers, solely to be met with an inaccessible boot drive error upon restart. As soon as encountered, affected customers had two decisions: try to revive to an earlier restore level, or utterly reinstall Home windows.

PCWorld editor Brad Chacos has been investigating the difficulty and dealing intently with AMD to determine and resolve it for the reason that first experiences trickled in. In a current article, Chacos reported that AMD formally acknowledged the difficulty, discovering a flaw that might outcome within the inaccessible boot state of affairs when utilizing the software program’s “Manufacturing unit Reset” possibility throughout driver set up.

“We have now reproduced a difficulty that may happen in an especially small variety of cases if a PC replace happens in the course of the set up of AMD Software program: Adrenalin Version, and we’re actively investigating. We suggest customers guarantee all system updates are utilized or paused earlier than putting in the motive force, and that the “Manufacturing unit Reset” possibility is unchecked in the course of the AMD driver set up course of. We’re dedicated to resolve points as shortly as attainable and strongly encourage customers to submit points with AMD Software program: Adrenalin Version through the Bug Report Instrument.”

In response to the article, AMD is actively investigating the difficulty, which has been discovered to be extraordinarily uncommon and onerous to breed. No matter how uncommon it could be, the potential for a botched working system set up and lack of knowledge is rarely a promising risk. Thankfully, there’s an easy workaround: merely do not verify the “Manufacturing unit Reset” field in the course of the Adrenalin set up course of.

Whereas many customers might by no means verify the characteristic’s field, there are a variety who use it to clear previous knowledge and guarantee a clear driver set up. All customers ought to train warning when utilizing the “Manufacturing unit Reset” characteristic till a repair is carried out. Those that use it to carry out a clear set up and clear any legacy driver information can fall again to a different well-known graphics driver removing device, Display Driver Uninstalller (DDU). This system is offered for Home windows 7 by to Home windows 11 and can be utilized to take away all traces of AMD, Nvidia, or Intel graphics drivers.

The bug is extraordinarily uncommon, and plenty of customers (myself included) have put in the newest driver packages utilizing the remainder characteristic with out problem. That does not imply it would not exist, and making certain the “Manufacturing unit Reset” field is unchecked is an especially straightforward step to make sure you do not turn into one of many affected customers earlier than AMD can remediate the difficulty.