Users and journalists have discovered a rare bug that occurs due to a conflict between Windows and the latest AMD Radeon Adrenalin 23.2.2 drivers. The problem leads to a serious “breakage” of the OS, after which the system cannot be booted even in recovery mode.
Let me remind you that we also wrote that AMD fixed dozens of vulnerabilities in graphics driver and more, and also that NVIDIA Released Update That Fixes Ten Vulnerabilities in Windows GPU Drivers.Also the media wrote that AMD Chipset Driver Bug Allows Bypassing KASLR And Accessing Sensitive Data.
Adrenalin version 23.2.1 was released in mid-February 2023, and since then, some users have experienced a strange issue that forces them to reinstall the system completely.
One of the victims was the editor of PCWorld magazine Brad Chacos, who spoke about the incident in detail. It all started when Chakos received a custom Radeon RX 7900 XT for testing and installed a graphics card in his computer:
Brad Chacos
The PCWorld editor downloaded the Adrenalin 23.2.2 WQHL drivers recommended on the 7900 XT website and installed them. To perform a clean install, he checked the “factory reset” checkbox, but it turned out that checking this box, combined with automatic Windows updates going on in the background at that time, completely disables the OS.
Unfortunate checkbox when installing drivers
When the journalist tried to remove the custom Radeon RX 7900 XT from the computer, replacing it with the usual Radeon RX 7900 XT from AMD, the endless loop of reboots was interrupted and he tried to automatically restore the system, but it only got worse.
Attempts to change the Radeon RX 7900 XT to the proven and working RTX 4070 Ti and Intel Arc A750 also did not bring any result.
Googling the issue, Chacos finally found an article on WCCFTech dated mid-February, as well as many user complaints that Adrenalin 23.2.1 completely destroys Windows.
Chakos ironically notes that it’s good to be the executive editor of a major computer media, as he was contacted by AMD representatives shortly after his own complaint on Twitter.
As it turned out, AMD engineers were already aware of this exotic problem, and finally they even managed to find an equally strange way to fix it, which eventually helped to revive Chakos’ computer.
At the same time, AMD said that the company’s engineers had difficulty recreating this problem in the laboratory due to its extreme rarity, and a company representative even jokingly called the journalist “patient zero”. According to AMD, the bug can occur “in a very small number of cases, if the PC is updated during the installation of AMD: Adrenalin Edition software.”
