Memory Integrity off - no incompatible drivers found

AF1 · Aug 8, 2023

Richard1990 said:
My remote session with a customer representative from Microsoft ended like 20 minutes ago. I have to mention how responsive and cooperative she was.
I explained my problem and she informed me that Microsoft is aware of the problem and the engineers are working on an upcoming update that will fix the issue for all the affected users, since some people can turn “core isolation” ON after removing the incompatible drivers and some cannot, even though they do not have any incompatible driver at all (which was my case) or at least Microsoft does not detect any.
After some random prompts and some command as CheckHealth, RestoreHealth etc… she informed me that she will download a file for me and force “core isolation” ON, which she did.
So my problem is not rightfully fixed, but forcibly. Until Microsoft releases a new update, hopefully soon, and fix the problem for good.
I personally believe that there are some drivers that affect the feature, but are still undetectable by Microsoft Security. I find it too risky to uninstall them 1 by 1, unless you wanna restart and restore every time you delete a wrong driver. I believe I’m safe for now after two months of research and hours spent trying with my very basic knowledge in computers.
I sincerely recommend contacting Microsoft Support if you are too worried about your security and privacy, because they were so helpful.

I’m writing this on my phone, i can share the file that she downloaded on my pc and forced the “core isolation” ON, if anyone needs it.

AF1 · Aug 8, 2023

Hi Richard, yes I would like this file please.

safron · Aug 9, 2023

4 months after first noticing this issue, there's been no change on my Dell XPS. It still shows no offending drivers. All drivers up to date, SFC / DISM both good, no errors in device manager, and Virtualization is enabled. Waiting for Microsoft to get their act together and fix this is like waiting for Godot.

Yes, the registry tweak appears to turn MI on, but I wonder whether it merely sets the flag to "On", but in reality, Memory Integrity is still off.

serg · Nov 13, 2023

safron said:
4 months after first noticing this issue, there's been no change on my Dell XPS. It still shows no offending drivers. All drivers up to date, SFC / DISM both good, no errors in device manager, and Virtualization is enabled. Waiting for Microsoft to get their act together and fix this is like waiting for Godot.

Yes, the registry tweak appears to turn MI on, but I wonder whether it merely sets the flag to "On", but in reality, Memory Integrity is still off.

Hi Safron, I had the same issue as you and came across your post. Discussion here helped a bit but the solution was different.
I run a command line tool, hvciscan, I believe that's what windows runs through graphical interface but doesnt show the output.
In command line I could see the command fails on some very specifc dell driver - dddriver64Dcsa.inf

The driver file is Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device)

Further googling revealed this driver had issues and dell removed it. But it stayed in the pnp store which apparently is checked for mem integrity compatibility.

I checked the date stamp by going to .inf folder location as identified in hvsciscan tool:

then used pnputil to match the driver by company (dell) and timestamp/version (check 1 screen shot)

after that I knew I need to remove oem104.inf:

run the tool again:

now its GTG

and the last thing i managed to enable the mem integrity

you can see some old dell article about the driver

Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device) has a Yellow Bang Symbol Showing in Device Manager | Dell US

I wasn't able to find it in device manager, hence I removed it manually

PS. I also have XPS

safron · Nov 13, 2023

@serg Thank you so much for the detail, and welcome. I'll go through your process later this week / weekend and report back. How like Dell to gum up the works with their over-reaching, poorly designed software (I'd uninstalled DDV long ago, but of course there's likely residue left behind).

ChipC · Dec 5, 2023

Thank you @DavidAUM and @Richard1990! Setting this registry field seems to have done the trick for me.

GadgetFox · Dec 5, 2023

serg said:
Hi Safron, I had the same issue as you and came across your post. Discussion here helped a bit but the solution was different.
I run a command line tool, hvciscan, I believe that's what windows runs through graphical interface but doesnt show the output.
In command line I could see the command fails on some very specifc dell driver - dddriver64Dcsa.inf
View attachment 77626

The driver file is Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device)

Further googling revealed this driver had issues and dell removed it. But it stayed in the pnp store which apparently is checked for mem integrity compatibility.

I checked the date stamp by going to .inf folder location as identified in hvsciscan tool:
View attachment 77627

then used pnputil to match the driver by company (dell) and timestamp/version (check 1 screen shot)

after that I knew I need to remove oem104.inf:

View attachment 77628

run the tool again:

View attachment 77629

now its GTG

and the last thing i managed to enable the mem integrity

View attachment 77630

you can see some old dell article about the driver

Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device) has a Yellow Bang Symbol Showing in Device Manager | Dell US

I wasn't able to find it in device manager, hence I removed it manually

PS. I also have XPS

THANKS SO MUCH. I've been trying to fix this for hours. When I figured out that was the issue I used unlocker portable to delete the driver.

pinal · Feb 29, 2024

serg said:
Hi Safron, I had the same issue as you and came across your post. Discussion here helped a bit but the solution was different.
I run a command line tool, hvciscan, I believe that's what windows runs through graphical interface but doesnt show the output.
In command line I could see the command fails on some very specifc dell driver - dddriver64Dcsa.inf
View attachment 77626

The driver file is Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device)

Further googling revealed this driver had issues and dell removed it. But it stayed in the pnp store which apparently is checked for mem integrity compatibility.

I checked the date stamp by going to .inf folder location as identified in hvsciscan tool:
View attachment 77627

then used pnputil to match the driver by company (dell) and timestamp/version (check 1 screen shot)

after that I knew I need to remove oem104.inf:

View attachment 77628

run the tool again:

View attachment 77629

now its GTG

and the last thing i managed to enable the mem integrity

View attachment 77630

you can see some old dell article about the driver

Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device) has a Yellow Bang Symbol Showing in Device Manager | Dell US

I wasn't able to find it in device manager, hence I removed it manually

PS. I also have XPS

This worked perfectly for me! I have an Alienware 17R5 & for almost a year couldn't resolve this issue. Thank you @serg for the solution.

safron · Feb 29, 2024

Thank you @serg. Great e-sleuthing! Figures it would be an issue caused by Dell's sloppiness.

0fM4n4ndM4nt4 · Mar 17, 2024

serg said:
Hi Safron, I had the same issue as you and came across your post. Discussion here helped a bit but the solution was different.
I run a command line tool, hvciscan, I believe that's what windows runs through graphical interface but doesnt show the output.
In command line I could see the command fails on some very specifc dell driver - dddriver64Dcsa.inf
View attachment 77626

The driver file is Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device)

Further googling revealed this driver had issues and dell removed it. But it stayed in the pnp store which apparently is checked for mem integrity compatibility.

I checked the date stamp by going to .inf folder location as identified in hvsciscan tool:
View attachment 77627

then used pnputil to match the driver by company (dell) and timestamp/version (check 1 screen shot)

after that I knew I need to remove oem104.inf:

View attachment 77628

run the tool again:

View attachment 77629

now its GTG

and the last thing i managed to enable the mem integrity

View attachment 77630

you can see some old dell article about the driver

Dell Data Vault Control Device (DDV Device) has a Yellow Bang Symbol Showing in Device Manager | Dell US

I wasn't able to find it in device manager, hence I removed it manually

PS. I also have XPS

@serg - Thank you so much for this post, also solved my issue on a Dell G15 Laptop.
Memory Integrity would not turn on. But no drivers were listed to help solve the issue.

In my case it was similar problem as you solved, a leftover and out of date support file from Dell ..
"C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\dddriver64Dcsa.sys"
.. I had to right click the file, choose Properties, then go to the Security tab, and then go through the process of giving my windows account permissions to delete it. Then obviously deleted it.
There were no related .inf or oem files, or duplicates in the driverstore in my case. Just that one file.
After a reboot, I could now enable Memory Integrity.

So glad I didn't try following all the virtualization/bios/registry entry stuff other people have mentioned (seemed a bit like extreme hoop jumping to me, probably ill advised internet conclusions) .. None of that was required in my case.