Windows Defender Says I Have Incompatible Drivers

therealsimpsons · Jan 27, 2025

Recently, a game, that I play on Steam will not open. When the status bar that opens the game is moving across the screen, it suddenly stops loading the game, and PC reboots. Every time. I have sent all of my save files and dxiag files to their support without a solution. I did a reset of the PC that did not solve the problem. Searching more, I discovered the messages in the attached photos while looking at my Windows Defender and the Webroot anti-virus. The Elgato program is no longer on my PC, I have no idea where the bad driver would be. Also, I have gone logitechs support looking for updated drivers and firmware, without success. In addition, my device manager says I have the latest driver available. I'm considering a complete wipe of the SSD and starting over, although I will lose almost 4 years of progress in the game. Even if I solve the driver issue, I have no idea if that will fix the game launch. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Also, how do I fix the drivers? Thank you.

andrew129260 · Jan 27, 2025

Memory integrity is just an extra security feature you can enable to make windows more secure. The notice is saying you cannot turn the feature on until the drivers are updated to a version that's compatible.

You can hit dismiss on the warning and safely ignore it. None of this should have anything to do with your game.

Instead, make sure windows is up to date, run all windows updates. Then Uninstall and reinstall the game. Pretty much all games can be uninstalled and then reinstalled without losing progress. Since your playing on steam, its possible the save is also backed up to the steam cloud save data service.

Steam Support :: Steam Cloud

help.steampowered.com

When you say your pc reboots from the game, how does it reboot? What exactly happens? Also use the nvidia app and make sure your drivers are up to date. What game also is it?

therealsimpsons · Jan 27, 2025

andrew129260 said:
Memory integrity is just an extra security feature you can enable to make windows more secure. The notice is saying you cannot turn the feature on until the drivers are updated to a version that's compatible.

You can hit dismiss on the warning and safely ignore it. None of this should have anything to do with your game.

Instead, make sure windows is up to date, run all windows updates. Then Uninstall and reinstall the game. Pretty much all games can be uninstalled and then reinstalled without losing progress. Since your playing on steam, its possible the save is also backed up to the steam cloud save data service.

Steam Support :: Steam Cloud

help.steampowered.com

When you say your pc reboots from the game, how does it reboot? What exactly happens?

When the game launches on Steam, there is a main screen that comes up, I select continue previous game, and then a status bar comes across the screen, and when it gets about 75% across, it shuts down, the game, Steam, and the PC, and the PC reboots automatically. I have a film of it, and will try to attach it. (the video is too large to upload) This has gone on intermittently since mid December. In the last two weeks, it is every time. Last Saturday, I tried to open the game 17 times, all with the same result. The game is backed up in the cloud, but each time the game shuts down, there is a new save, and I'm afraid I'm just saving what is bad, over and over.

andrew129260 · Jan 27, 2025

therealsimpsons said:
When the game launches on Steam, there is a main screen that comes up, I select continue previous game, and then a status bar comes across the screen, and when it gets about 75% across, it shuts down, the game, Steam, and the PC, and the PC reboots automatically. I have a film of it, and will try to attach it. (the video is too large to upload) This has gone on intermittently since mid December. In the last two weeks, it is every time. Last Saturday, I tried to open the game 17 times, all with the same result. The game is backed up in the cloud, but each time the game shuts down, there is a new save, and I'm afraid I'm just saving what is bad, over and over.

What game is it?
When you say the pc restarts, is it a blue screen, or does the screen go black and then windows reloads? Or does windows actually pop up and say restarting?
A pc restarting when opening/loading a game could be due to a power failure, or a gpu issue. Did you use the nvidia app to ensure drivers are up to date?
Do other games have this issue?

therealsimpsons · Jan 27, 2025

andrew129260 said:
What game is it?

When you say the pc restarts, is it a blue screen, or does the screen go black and then windows reloads? Or does windows actually pop up and say restarting?

A pc restarting when opening/loading a game could be due to a power failure, or a gpu issue. Did you use the nvidia app to ensure drivers are up to date?

Do other games have this issue?

1. The game is Way of the Hunter
2. There is no blue screen. The screen goes black, the boot menu sequence starts (I can see the DVD by light flashing), the the start screen comes up with a graphic of my Giga Byte Motherboard, then it goes dark again, and then it reappears with the white circle the same as any time I'm the one who turns on the PC.
3. No power failure that I know of. Unlikely there could be a miniature power failure on the PC 17 times in a row. None of the other items plugged in to the same surge protector are disturbed. Desk lamps, Cable box, Modem, Router, Television.
4. As far as I know, all of the other 17 games installed on Steam function normally, although honestly, I only play or two or three of them for several months. For sure, the other two were fine earlier today.
P.S. My Nvidia drivers are up to date, last release December 5, 2025.

andrew129260 · Jan 27, 2025

therealsimpsons said:
Unlikely there could be a miniature power failure

Actually it's very likely. Depending on the other games you play, if they are less power hungry than this game, than those might be fine. Some games take more power to run than others. When the power limit is increased and the gpu need more power and asks the power supply for more, it's possible the power supply is giving up the ghost and not providing the power the system needs, so it reboots.

The game does mention recommended gpu as NVidia RTX 2070 Super 8GB.

If the other games you have have less strict requirements, than the power can come into play.

Try downloading heaven benchmark (older) or superposition benchmark (newer) and run it at the highest settings. See if the pc reboots on that as well. If it does, you have your answer.

You can also check event viewer under windows logs > system. See if you have any reported power warnings during that time. Or a driver crash. You can search for kernel or power and see what events come up. Or look at the time stamps when it restarted and see what it shows.

therealsimpsons · Jan 27, 2025

andrew129260 said:
Actually it's very likely. Depending on the other games you play, if they are less power hungry than this game, than those might be fine. Some games take more power to run than others. When the power limit is increased and the gpu need more power and asks the power supply for more, it's possible the power supply is giving up the ghost and not providing the power the system needs, so it reboots.

The game does mention recommended gpu as NVidia RTX 2070 Super 8GB.

If the other games you have have less strict requirements, than the power can come into play.

Try downloading heaven benchmark (older) or superposition benchmark (newer) and run it at the highest settings. See if the pc reboots on that as well. If it does, you have your answer.

You can also check event viewer under windows logs > system. See if you have any reported power warnings during that time. Or a driver crash. You can search for kernel or power and see what events come up. Or look at the time stamps when it restarted and see what it shows.

I ran the benchmark. Not sure what it means. Not sure what settings to use. Looked good while it was running. No reboot. I have a 600W power supply, Nvidia RTX2060, with only 6 GB. Perhaps an upgrade? Can I save the results somehow?

andrew129260 · Jan 27, 2025

therealsimpsons said:
I ran the benchmark. Not sure what it means. Not sure what settings to use. Looked good while it was running. No reboot. I have a 600W power supply, Nvidia RTX2060.

Interesting. You should use the max setting option. Or extreme. Try using the newer superposition benchmark as well. I would check event viewer then and see what that shows after the game crashes on you.

therealsimpsons · Jan 27, 2025

andrew129260 said:
Interesting. You should use the max setting option. Or extreme. Try using the newer superposition benchmark as well. I would check event viewer then and see what that shows after the game crashes on you.

I will try the new one you gave. What is the path to event viewer?

andrew129260 · Jan 27, 2025

therealsimpsons said:
I will try the new one you gave. What is the path to event viewer?

hit your start menu and just start typing event viewer. it will come up

therealsimpsons · Jan 27, 2025

Wow..I downloaded the superposition, set everything at extreme or custom, and as it was loading, the PC shut down and rebooted, exactly like the game in Steam. What am I looking for in the event viewer?

andrew129260 · Jan 27, 2025

andrew129260 said:
You can also check event viewer under windows logs > system. See if you have any reported power warnings during that time. Or a driver crash. You can search for kernel or power and see what events come up. Or look at the time stamps when it restarted and see what it shows.

Yup you probably need a new power supply. Get a minimum of 800w if your looking to upgrade a gpu eventually. Do gold efficiency or higher.

Edit. I forgot to mention that power supplies usually have really good warranties like 10 years or so. you might be able to reach out to the company and get a replacement.

Helmut · Jan 27, 2025

"I select continue previous game, and then a status bar comes across the screen, and when it gets about 75% across, it shuts down, the game, Steam, and the PC, and the PC reboots automatically."

The symptoms sound like a problem with the Steam game client. I rarely use that, currently using the Epic one. That occasionally has problems with saving the Games position in the cloud and so forth, just get an error no crash or anything.

These are standard checks:
1. Update the Steam client: Steam > Check for Steam Client Updates...(last was 20 January 2025)
2. Verify game files, no idea how you do that on Steam as none of mine are currently installed.
3. Check: Settings > Cloud > Enable.

On the Cloud saves you could try Disabling those, in which case the saved games would be on your SSD.
If you can use those saved games on your SSD that means there is something wrong with Steam Cloud saves for that game.

" I have a 600W power supply, Nvidia RTX2060, with only 6 GB."
I would not worry about those as almost every game can be run with lower graphics settings, that means less VRAM usage and PSU watts.

Event Viewer is difficult to use and analyse anything. There are much easier analytic approaches.
e.g. See point 3. above.

"Wow..I downloaded the superposition, set everything at extreme or custom, and as it was loading, the PC shut down and rebooted, exactly like the game in Steam. What am I looking for in the event viewer?"

That is not a sensible method, proves very little, it could just be a requirement for 16 GB of VRAM or a myriad of possibilities, one of those maybe 6 GB of VRAM.

In that case you would analyse it with a game with a VRAM usage bar and adjust settings to exceed your 6 GB, see if it crashes/restarts or whatever.

andrew129260 · Jan 27, 2025

Helmut said:
The symptoms sound like a problem with the Steam game client.

I have never heard of a game or application crashing in such a way (without a blue screen of death) that restarts the entire computer like this.

If it ran out of vram/ram, it would say so and the app would stop.

Event viewer is a good way to help determine the cause.

I have already asked them to uninstall the game, and reinstall it. Which serves the same purpose as verifying the game files.

We determined the game was not the problem, as we were able to reproduce it with the benchmark.

A normal machine should not reboot like this regardless of a game or application.

Windows Defender Says I Have Incompatible Drivers

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