Memory Integrity Error

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Rec’d memory integrity error via  Defender yellow icon and went to Device Security telling me about a problematic device. I know of at least one, my Brother Fax/Scanner because there is no updated driver for it. I saw the yellow exclamation in Device Manager so I disabled the thing, but that made no difference. I did a Windows Update hoping that would resolve the issue, but it didn’t.

I then looked at the list of problematic devices, most of which go back to 2007/2008 and are for devices I don’t even own anymore, mouse, keyboard. There’s Lachesis/Lycosa, Razer and a mention of Saitek that has no date attached to it. I’ll have to research that one. The Brother driver is in the mix as well. I found the offending drivers in the “File Store” and thought about deleting them, but thought better of it. So, I’d ask before deleting stuff or can I safely dismiss the memory integrity thing because I know what the offenders are. The other thing is, why would Windows decide to cause me trouble now?….this stuff has apparently on my PC  since Win7/8. Thanks

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As a relative newbie on a new home Dell 8940, running Windows 11, I just received a yellow warning in Windows Security about Memory Integrity for incompatible drivers from my WD 2TB Passport External Hard drive purchased in 2020, which supports Acronis.  The drivers are wdcsam64_prewin8.sys, wdcsam64.sys, and tib.sys Acronis TOB Explorer.  I tried to uninstall my WD SES device in Device Manager, as some website suggested, but it reappeared after I rebooted and the warning is still there.  Any suggestions?

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Check the manufacturer’s website for driver updates (if there is any).
I have run into a problem lately because Microsoft is no longer signing older drivers. This has affected both Win7 and Win8.1 that I know of, but it isn’t the version of Windows that’s the problem. It’s the fact that the drivers are no longer signed by MS, which may affect Win10/11 as well.

Here is the MS doc explaining:

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/install/deprecation-of-software-publisher-certificates-and-commercial-release-certificates

3 users thanked author for this post.

windbg, Jasmo1046, Microfix

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Spent considerable time searching for other users with the same issues. It seems that the little bugger most folks have problems with is   wdcsam64_prewin8.sys. There are complaints @ Western Digital, but there doesn’t seem to be an answer there.

This file is on my list of incompatible device drivers. So, I have to decide what I’ll do about it. There are some solutions on the web. I guess I’m not going to worry about this issue too much. I don’t have any of the hardware associated with the incompatible device drivers some of which are 15 years old.

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Jasmo1046

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I spent 90 minutes on the phone with Western Digital with no success yesterday.  They said that they will be updating the drivers soon, but who knows?   I’m tempted to run my WD backup drive with Acronis, and not worry about the memory integrity error, or I could just eliminate my WD backup for now and rely on my Carbonite.  What would be best?

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Google the “wdcsam64_prewin8.sys” and you’ll find many posts about folks with the same issue. You’ll see what others did to tackle the problem. One of the solutions was that mentioned by oldguy using the pnputil as a way in which to remove the offending device drivers.

I had to laugh reading one of the folks in a WD forum talking about contacting WD who apparently didn’t have a clue what the caller was talking about.

My Brother printer is an older MFC model w/o a replacement driver for the fax/scanner. The fax I think I used twice in 10 years….the scanner a bit more frequently. Otherwise the printer works fine. It’s too bad about not having the proper driver because this machine has been a workhorse for me for a very long time and still is as a matter of fact.

I don’t need updated drivers. Most of the offending ones are for accessories I don’t own and haven’t owned since Win7/8. It must be that Windows keeps all your system files no matter what version of Windows you might upgrade to.

 

 

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Perhaps you could use the following line which should drop the problem driver details to a desktop problems.txt file, and post that? (it works with 10 but 11.. don’t know) – do this under elevated command prompt..

pnputil /enum-devices /problem /ids >> %userprofile%\desktop\problem.txt

You could also get a whole list and pull some older unused drivers off a,d potentially add new ones with pnputil but I wouldn’t recommend you try that without guidance from someone running WIndows 11, and a good backup to go back to as a minimum.. better to uninstall where you can.

As for the Brother, I doubt you use the fax so I’d suggest you might (post backup, of course) get by by removing the “whole package” software for it and just installing the manual install separate printer driver (usually marked as “for administrators” or such) and maybe that’ll get enough functionality without issues.. The scanner driver on the other hand might well be more of a problem.. perhaps a search for issues by it’s model number might help?

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I cut & pasted the “pnputil /enum-devices /problem /ids >> %userprofile%\desktop\problem.txt”    using an elevated command prompt.

I opened the desktop icon, the message said “no devices found”. So, the command either doesn’t work in Win11 21H2 or Windows figured out those devices aren’t on my PC.

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The command does work – try “pnputil /enum-devices”
No devices found means there are no problem devices, probably because you disabled it.

cheers, Paul

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windbg

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I ran the command and all my stuff is there including the disabled Brother fax/scanner.

Now, let me ask I have a half dozen or so outdated device drivers not attached to anything. Memory Integrity error wouldn’t seem to me to be something I should have to worry about then is it? Thanks for all the assistance. I’ve dismissed it so I don’t have to look at it.

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PeachesP wrote:

Memory Integrity error wouldn’t seem to me to be something I should have to worry about

It’s MS attempting to tell you you are using an unsigned / older signed driver. It doesn’t make your computer unsafe so no need to worry.

cheers, Paul

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Liz C., windbg, PeachesP

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If you want to sort out old devices, the change suggested by Paul T (https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/memory-integrity-error/#post-2474483) will work fine, maybe in adding the pipe to file, change the end of the line to

> %userprofile%\desktop\problem.txt 

so it overwrites the problems.txt file, rather than tagging information on the end..

in the same vein, the following will replace the same file with a list of disconnected devices:

pnputil /enum-devices /disconnected > %userprofile%\desktop\problem.txt

Dig through the results and research the items you feel might be a problem and post back the details for any which concern you. As PeachesP indicates, an out of date driver isn’t usually a massive problem (and you can of course remove them, but there are risks so it might not be worth doing), as you wouldn’t handle those drivers that would cause an issue (eg ELAM drivers) in that way anyway..

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windbg, PeachesP

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As it turns out, the offender is “BrUsblb.sys” that happens to be my Brother MFC7840W. The driver is 13 yrs old as is my printer that happens to be my old, graying workhorse. The driver is dated 2009.

So, I go ahead and uninstall it, get Win10 drivers and what a mess. Couldn’t get the thing installed. Because the file was a .sys, I created a restore point before all this and everything went back to normal. I removed the rest of the little buggers for software I don’t own as I did previously and was left with the old Brother driver. All is well.

Quite an exercise for something that won’t ruin my life. ;-). Thanks to all who helped.

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geekdom

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Your problem with being unable to install the Windows 10 driver was most likely because it’s not “signed” (BTDT, rinse, wash, repeat.)

To install it you need to use the Advanced Startup Options.

Open “Start“, click the “Power” button, hold the Shift key and click the “Restart” button.

Your PC will reboot and you should see the Choose an option screen.

• On the Choose an option menu, select “Troubleshoot“
• On the Troubleshoot menu, select “Advanced options“
• On the Advanced options menu, select “Startup Settings”
• On the Startup Setting menu, click the “Restart” button

When you get to the “Startup Settings” screen, press 7 or F7 to select the Disable driver signature enforcement option.

BTW, I’ve found this screen works better if I press a number key instead of a function key to select a particular option — of course YMMV.

Once your PC reboots, you “should” be able to install the unsigned Brother driver.

Note: signature enforcement will be re-enabled during the next restart but, once an “unsigned” driver has been successfully installed, it’ll continue to work just fine.

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Microfix, wavy, satrow, windbg, PeachesP, geekdom, PKCano

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