Core Isolation turned off due to WDCSAM64_PREWIN8.SYS incompatibility

Anonymous
2022-09-02T19:09:56+00:00

I have been running Windows 11 successfully on my Microsoft Surface for some time now with no problems.

Within the last day or so, I all of a sudden got a notification that Core Isolation has been disabled due to an incompatible driver, WDCSAM64_PREWIN8.SYS.

From what I can see, this driver is related to Western Digital. However, I do not have any Western Digital devices attached to my Surface, nor have I recently added/installed anything from Western Digital.

I have tried searching for this driver but have come up empty.

Surface | Surface Pro | Safety and security

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Anonymous
2022-11-28T10:37:21+00:00
  1. Select the Startbutton and type “Core isolation”.
  2. Select the Core Isolation system settings from the search results to open the Windows security app.

On the Core isolation page, you’ll find Memory integrity along with the toggle to turn it on

  • If you receive a notification / message says that the memory integrity can't be turn on follow the below steps.
  1. Try to scan and fix.
  2. If it is not solved, please click on "Review any driver incompatibilities".

3.We can see a driver or more.

  1. Please note the published name here is "oem46.inf"
  2. Select the Start button and type “Device Manager" and follow as shown below.

  1. Select the right driver from Device manager"oem46.inf" and right click and select remove driver.

Example :-

7. System needs to be restarted after removal of the driver.

Hopefully this will solve your issues no need to install any software for this.

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-01-20T21:28:07+00:00

    Excellent and to-the-point help. Resolved my issue.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-01-20T22:11:16+00:00

    Did exactly what you said, OEM46.inf removed successfully, but wdcsamn64_prewin8 still shown in Core Isolation as the offending driver and hence cannot be turned on !!!

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-01-23T08:43:57+00:00

    [EDIT WITH THE CORRECT ANSWER]

    No, don't do it using the steps above with the Windows interface (which just delete the driver), instead do like this:

    1. Run cmd as administrator
    2. Run this command to should a list of plug and play driver

    pnputil /enum-drivers (in my case, didn't added up much, but since I knew the name of the driver with the issue, go to 3 step)3. pnputil /delete-driver ´YOUR DRIVER WITH THE ISSUE´ /uninstall /force /reboot

    Than, it worded out!!!

    No, it didn't worked it out, and I am not surprised with you Microsoft :-(. Still, I can't turn it on the memory integrity, and when I press the bottom to fix the driver incompatibilities, it does not show anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    So, how it shows there are a problem in the drivers, but does not show each one????

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-02-04T02:32:25+00:00

    Exactly, I ended up throwing away my WD external HDD in anger. Thanks MS as always, some things never change...

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