Workaround for Vista Cannot Load Low Level Driver Signing Issue
One of the side effect of installing KB938979 Vista Performance and Compatibility Pack in order to improve the performance and stability of Windows Vista is that it breaks the ability to bypass, skip or disable driver signature signing permanently using “bcdedit -set loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS” command in 64-bit Windows Vista (32-bit Vista seems not affected yet). Lack of disable driver signing feature caused the uncertified device drivers which are unsigned fail to connect and load, render the hardware useless or works imperfectly.
Some error messages that you may get after installing the KB938979 Vista Performance Update Pack, and once you restart th computer and the restriction on disable not certified driver signing takes effect include “Can not connect to low level driver. Please reinstall The Driver under Local system administrator account or try to start driver manually using “Low Level Driver Installation” shortcut.”, “Can not load low level device driver. Please restart application.” and etc. Hardware that may be affected by this symptom include common graphics cards such as those from ATI and nVidia and GPU related accessories such as RivaTuner, TV tuners, Bluetooth adapters, many older devices and even VMWare virtual environment.
There isn’t any crack or patch to hack this new restriction on only allowing certified driver signing in x64 Vista yet. Currently you can use one of the following workaround as a temporary solution to get the the non certified drivers load properly in Vista:
- Uninstall KB938979 Vista Performance Update installation. To uninstall KB938979 update, go to Control Panel -> Uninstall Programs, then click on Installed Updates on the left pane, and look for Update for Windows Vista (KB938194) under Microsoft Windows section. Highlight the line and click on Uninstall on top of the list.
- If you need the update, use this workaround. Press F8 whenever your computer starts, then select “Disable Forced Driver Signing” option to continue booting Vista system. This option will disable driver signing, but not permanently, and simply in effect during that boot up session until you shutdown or restart. So you gonna have to do it on every reboot.
To avoid hitting F8 function key every boot up which you may forget at times, you can put computer into Sleep or Hibernate mode instead. This solves the inconvenient issue of having to perform additional step to boot up Vista too.
Or, the best way, download and install ReadyDriver Plus which permanently automate boot up to Windows Vista with signed driver signature enforcement disabled or turned off.
Also read the fix to cannot disable integrity checks issue on x64 versions of Windows Vista.
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Entries (RSS)
December 31st, 2008 01:25
[...] to sign the patched tcpip.sys with signtool.exe. This step is required because Windows Vista now require most drivers to be certified and digitally signed. With TESTSIGNING turned on, a “Test Mode” watermark will be displayed on four corner [...]
December 31st, 2008 01:24
[...] Vista now require all kernel-mode driver or software to be signed with digital signature in 64-bit Vista, and all boot-start drivers must be embedded-sign with signature on both x86 and x64 versions of [...]
August 27th, 2007 21:26
Reference my post here:
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=234970
this has a fix…basically, it uses the test mode certificate, puts your OS into test mode, then it has you remove that annoying test mode text and you’re left with a normal looking Vista 64-bit
August 27th, 2007 21:23
Ok, finally found a workaround using the test method.
1) Download the test certificate files here http://depositfiles.com/files/1512543
2) Follow their instructions and sign your drivers
3) Erase the watermark using my instructions here:
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/11/23/remove-and-disable-windows-vista-evaluation-watermark-from-desktop/#comment-378694
or read below and read the permission stuff at the site above. I managed to get this to work on Vista 64 as I have to run it this way.
I managed to actually get this to work with vista 64 with a few changes.
1) Download this version of the user32.dll.msu: http://depositfiles.com/files/1512506
This is a rar archive of 3 different user32.dll.msu files vista 64 contains, at least for my version.
2) Open up the batch file within to read the directories that I place the new files to. Take ownership of the files in these directories and give yourself read/write permission as stated above.
3) I built the batch based on c:\, extract all the files there. Replace them with your own edited version if you would like. I added the option to remove the test mode since that’s how I bypass the driver signature now.
4) Now here’s where you need to pay attention: Use your Vista install CD, if you don’t own one, get one from microsoft or winbeta. You need to reboot your computer.
5) You have the option to repair your computer, select this option.
6) Now open the command prompt.
7) Run that batch. All files should copy…if they don’t, time to modify the batch for yourself. Instructions are in the download.
*XP’s boot CD should work as well if you’re familiar with it*
Vista 64 would not let me copy the files over while the operating system was running. I did not try safemode because I was getting a little irritated over all my failures and I knew this would work to overwrite. I hope this helps you all.
Respectfully,
Trebuin