July 29, 2020

Protect Yourself From Tech Support Scams

Tech support scams are an industry-wide issue where scammers trick you into paying for unnecessary technical support services. You can help protect yourself from scammers by verifying that the contact is a Microsoft Agent or Microsoft Employee and that the phone number is an official Microsoft global customer service number. 

While I appreciate the responses, getting a new card or downgrade the software were not the "solutions" that I was looking for. After all, there is a 2015 Windows 10 driver provided by Microsoft that should solve the issue. Nevertheless, after some fiddling and more web research, I came to this procedure which solved the problem:

1. I updated Windows to the latest version 1903 (this by itself was not the solution, but it gave me an important clue later on. Besides, if I had no way to get to an early version, why not?).
2. Download from AMD the Legacy 13.4 beta driver and the .net framework version 3.5
3. I uninstalled all AMD/ATI software and removed all the drivers for the adapter through the "Device Manager".
4. At this point, Windows attempted to re-install the driver automatically, but was unable to do so. A notification appeared saying that a dll component from the driver had triggered the "Memory Integrity" module. I disabled this module from "Windows Security".
5. Disconnect internet, removed the driver one more time and restarted Windows.
6. Once back, I installed the .net framework v3.5.
7. I set the compatibility mode for the Legacy 13.4 driver installer to Windows 8.1, and run it as administrator. I installed only the driver and not the Catalyst Control Centre. This got the driver working. No issues with the "Memory Integrity".
8. Re run the Legacy 13.4 driver installer. This time, I installed all software but the driver. This got the Catalyst Control Centre working properly.
9. Connect internet.
10. With some hesitation, I ran Windows Update, which upgraded the driver to the latest version (the one provided in KB4057291). Display and CCC still working correctly.

Unfortunately, I don't remember the pages that provided most of these hints. However, I would not have discovered the "Memory Integrity" issue without getting the newer Windows 10 version.

I hope this may come handy to somebody else with the same issue.

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