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
    2023-10-23T06:09:27+00:00

    FWIW, I contacted Microsoft support about this the only thing they suggest is reinstalling Windows. Which would mean digging up the registration code every piece of software installed.

    I hope someone can help find another way around this because there's no #$%ing way I'm going to reinstall all that without buying a new CPU. (And with the current state of Outlook, Macs are starting to look appealing...)

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-01-08T04:24:06+00:00

    This worked for me: https://www.urtech.ca/2021/11/solved-core-isolation-memory-integrity-incompatible-drivers-wdcsam64_prewin8-sys/

    1. RIGHT click on the START button and select WINDOWS TERMINAL (ADMIN)
      • If you are on Windows 10, select POWERSHELL (ADMIN)
    2. You can then list all of the drivers on your computer using pnputil /enum-driversand find the one with WDCSAM64_PREWIN8.SYS or you can just look at the error message.  In my case the driver that needs to go is OEM26.INF
    3. Uninstall the driver usingpnputil /delete-driver oem<XX>.inf

    You do NOT need a reboot so you can immediately retry to enable CORE ISOLATION and you should see a prompt to reboot once Core Isolation > Memory Integrity is turned ON.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-01-25T01:29:58+00:00

    I did just as you described, restarted my PC and then scanned again. The new drive that's incompatible is the same name published name: oem23.inf

    I'm assuming we remove this driver as well, however I'm hesitant to. I don't want to be removing anything my PC needs but if the windows security is urging me to remove it... I would hope that means i can with no negative consequences

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-01-25T13:22:45+00:00

    Geht mir genauso! Servus Christa

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