Driver Booster Killed my computer

[PB72]

This is a legitimate problem. I have used Driver Booster for years and havent had many problems with it. However, I figured Id run a check and update my drivers recently and a restart does give me problems now. I have not had a successful restart after 3 attempts, even by isolation specific drivers during each attempt. Last time I used Driver Booster was roughly 6 months ago without issue, but something is definitely wrong right now.

The only way I got my PC running is from the bluescreen after the failed restarts.

Every update Driver booster installed was wiped after system repair. So there is a issue here.

If your lucky you can get it running again from the restart bluescreen by clicking:

Advanced Options > Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > Startup Repair

This worked for me, but its probably hit or miss depending on the problem.

IOBIT, you need to figure this out. The reason I bought Driver Booster is because of the simplicity of keeping my system updated. If I have to become a tech to diagnose problems your software causes, then that simplicity is gone and there is no reason to subscribe anymore. Just my opinion.

Great work up until now!

[Cicely]

Hi there,

We are really sorry for the problem. But your understanding is highly appreciated.

Since the environment of each PC is different, we need the tool to get the information about your system and the operation of our program. Without the required information, we can do little to analyze the issue or further help you. Your understanding is highly appreciated and it would be much better if you can follow the steps in the previous email to get the information.
Please download https://cdn.iobit.com/dl/db/debug/DBInfoHelper.exe > double click to run this tool on the problem PC > click 'Save report to Desktop' > find db_info_YYMMDD.zip on your desktop > send us the zip file.

We will analyze the file and try our best to find a solution for you.

[dev-drew]

Glad to see that I am not the only user of Driver Booster 6 to experience this issue. Would like to submit a refund for this product and no I cannot and will not download additional software or log collection tools. My Asus Zephyrus G14 was blue-screened by running the driver update. The restore point that I created also failed several times in a restoration loop which fortunately was not the only backup I had taken. I would have lost a lot of data on this computer had I not taken a full Windows system image which I was able to restore from as a last ditch effort to fix my system and boot out of the blue-screen loop. Take a Windows system image if you plan to roll the dice!

[Scannan]

23 minutes ago, dev-drew said:

Glad to see that I am not the only user of Driver Booster 6 to experience this issue. Would like to submit a refund for this product and no I cannot and will not download additional software or log collection tools. My Asus Zephyrus G14 was blue-screened by running the driver update. The restore point that I created also failed several times in a restoration loop which fortunately was not the only backup I had taken. I would have lost a lot of data on this computer had I not taken a full Windows system image which I was able to restore from as a last ditch effort to fix my system and boot out of the blue-screen loop. Take a Windows system image if you plan to roll the dice!

If you want to be taken seriously, then post in the correct area. This Topic is for DB 9...not DB 6.

[JLoo]

I installed your program, ran the updates and it broke my computer! Is there a solution you have found for all the failures I've read above? My computer wont boot, it wont boot in safe mode, it wont restore.  I've spent all day trying everything and it wont boot.

[Scannan]

38 minutes ago, JLoo said:

I installed your program, ran the updates and it broke my computer! Is there a solution you have found for all the failures I've read above? My computer wont boot, it wont boot in safe mode, it wont restore.  I've spent all day trying everything and it wont boot.

Have a look here....

 

[Deborah R]

Hello to everyone out there who has had this problem, blank screen or monitor says no connection, or blue screen of death. This has happened to me twice now! The first time I didn't recognize what had happened but this time I remembered that I was running the driver booster program when it occurred. I don't know why it happens and I won't use the program again but how I fixed it was to open up the tower and take the battery out and unplug the computer. Both had to occur at the same time. Shortly after that the computer booted up and gave me a couple of options on my monitor as to how to start up again. All is well now but I won't be using the program again. I hope this is helpful!

[Cicely]

Hi

Since the environment of each PC is different, we need the tool to get the information about your system and the operation of our program. Without the required information, we can do little to analyze the issue or further help you. Your understanding is highly appreciated and it would be much better if you can follow the steps in the previous email to get the information.
Please download https://cdn.iobit.com/dl/db/debug/DBInfoHelper.exe > double click to run this tool on the problem PC > click 'Save report to Desktop' > find db_info_YYMMDD.zip on your desktop > send us the zip file.

We will analyze the file and try our best to find a solution for you.

[Peachez]

On 5/11/2022 at 7:12 PM, Jani Hakonen said:

Hey, You are so totally wrong.

I have used driver booster over 10 years. Now it has in 3 months killed 3 computers that I have had to manually install whole shit again. I have removed driver booster from every computer I used to guard and I am sorry but I will no longer trust your programs.

Thing is that it finds some kind of old driver it had something to do disk drives. This happend to my new Lenovo Legion T5 and after update my computer could not launch windows and MBR was totally blasted out and I wasnt able to write it even manually. ACCESS DENIED.

Even computer own repair system or window reinstall didnt work before I downloaded whole windows 11 again and installed it with USB drive. 

I am so sorry but my trust for your program is now zero and that is very hard thing to upgrade.

 

On 5/11/2022 at 7:36 PM, Jani Hakonen said:

 

Well I did every single thing and it was no help. It corrupts the boot drive and even factory reset wont help, because it somehow manage to lock up m5 drives boot sector.

I have always done restore point - it still found only one and that was latest, I used it but no use, MBR was became unaccessable.

I really thing you owe more than stupid questions.

And wtf you mean should I do all the settings in driver booster, you have done it that you can automaticly update programs. 

I am angry as hell because not only like I said it caused to my wife mother computer to crash permanently and I didnt have a glue what to do and she took it to the "professional" who now said only 100e and he fixes it. And my reputation as being the good computer guy who can keep relatives and friends computers working well is now ruined. 

This is error that should never ever ever happen. Never.

I dont even get it. It even did not found that new driver that needed to update at first. I could use my computer like month or two then it happens. Same thing was with my wife mother. She had this crash once, managed to save it her self, second time and I it was so new computer they had to fix it free but third time... this is totally fucked up. 

You know how to contact me if you want to compensate I can send you the bill she has and it is totally your fault she went to greed bastard who takes 100e for fresh windows install - thats ridicilious price. But you definently owe me.

 

On 5/11/2022 at 7:49 PM, Jani Hakonen said:

I think we all should wait that iobit really compensate this and if not, lets remove every single program they have ever made and bye bye iosoft.

Sorry but there is no excuse that your program does not support m5 dirves, then you have done lazy job and I have worked as test engineer so I really do know when u do program for drivers - it should be tested with every latest technology.

Are you sure you havent got some of your employee gone mad for you? Because this somehow feels like someone did this for purpose - or then it just is that you really didnt test it with latest computers. All latest computers had m5 fast ssd drive. It can not be so hard.

for start 10 year free subscription for every single program you sell could make me write more nicely. But before that I will find every single thread where people have similar problem and I offer two similar sollution. 1) USB - reinstall windows (I llost every data because I tried even clean install before I found that i had USB disk) 2) do NOT use IOBIT software no more. There are other sollutions. But with new computer and specially with laptops ALWAYS use your manufactors updaters. Like HP has own, LENOVO has own. 

Iobit ruined whike thing badly,. Very badly, 

 

On 5/11/2022 at 7:36 PM, Jani Hakonen said:

 

Well I did every single thing and it was no help. It corrupts the boot drive and even factory reset wont help, because it somehow manage to lock up m5 drives boot sector.

I have always done restore point - it still found only one and that was latest, I used it but no use, MBR was became unaccessable.

I really thing you owe more than stupid questions.

And wtf you mean should I do all the settings in driver booster, you have done it that you can automaticly update programs. 

I am angry as hell because not only like I said it caused to my wife mother computer to crash permanently and I didnt have a glue what to do and she took it to the "professional" who now said only 100e and he fixes it. And my reputation as being the good computer guy who can keep relatives and friends computers working well is now ruined. 

This is error that should never ever ever happen. Never.

I dont even get it. It even did not found that new driver that needed to update at first. I could use my computer like month or two then it happens. Same thing was with my wife mother. She had this crash once, managed to save it her self, second time and I it was so new computer they had to fix it free but third time... this is totally fucked up. 

You know how to contact me if you want to compensate I can send you the bill she has and it is totally your fault she went to greed bastard who takes 100e for fresh windows install - thats ridicilious price. But you definently owe me.

You say Driver booster locked you out of your m5 boot sector? Driver Booster automatically creates a restore point before doing anything unless you have your settings for system restore turned off. Thats how I fixed my problem, driver booster created a restore point and I just went back. If you are talking about having an M5 SSD drive, then i'm not surprised that Driver Booster didn't have the right chipset for that. I'm not even really sure M5 Solid State drives really exist because usually they are meant for a m5 computer which is the version of the computer that is popular with Acer, and when it's a brand for a solid state drive, you'd be better off with a HDD. I even tried to google computers that came with m5 solid state drives and found none. It's an easy fix in any event. Because best bet is that you have a m5 processor and you got a wrong chipset driver. Never let anyone but you update chipset drivers btw.

I don't think you can attempt to hold Iobit accountable for not supporting your M5 because I can't find anything online that says not to use Driver booster with M5 anything. If that M5 is your processor. Meaning you had to have installed a wrong chipset driver which would have given you warnings prior to allowing a program to update it. You may have just needed to uninstall Driver Booster to have fixed it or else just changed your boot settings in BIOS and have fixed it. I don't know of any computer that fits what you said with "All latest computers had m5 fast ssd drive" When you get the wrong chipset update and get into problems with booting up, you don't need to reinstall windows, just change your boot settings in BIOS and fix the problem. If you can get into Safemode then you can uninstall the problem through there. You didn't have to lose anything dude. You should never have let your chipset drivers have been included with the "update all drivers" in the first place.

If you don't misuse certain programs they don't cause problems unless something just doesn't go right. The problem you have isn't going to be the problem a lot of people have. It's not because Iobit didn't test their software with the latest computers, there is not one thing but this page that mentions m5 and driver booster. You should know better than to use any software to update EVERY driver you have. Especially for someone who has been an engineer. You can't go around saying all these things and not have someone tell you that you are not correct on this situation.

You can't sue Iobit in any country for this, they didn't give you the problem or break your moms computer 3 times, reckless, void of logic surrounding computers, repetitive, dangerous thinking did it. Our computers usually come with software that helps us update drivers. We have things like Geforce experience for a reason, we don't let random mass driver update software handle our updates with our most important drivers. Those things cover the minor drivers that people usually forget about and never update anyway. You can't do things like that and expect it to not come back at you. Iobit doesn't have the software for your core driver updates. You never had to lose anything on your computer either, if you reinstalled windows and lost everything that is not Iobits fault, you did that when you didn't have to. Like come on dude. This isn't Iobits fault and they shouldn't have to do anything to compensate you for this. You have to realize that

[Osevon]

Just installed it on a Windows 10 Surface Pro and it killed my system, at the same time it seems to have wiped out any restore points

Cracking job Iobit

 

[Scannan]

8 minutes ago, Osevon said:

Just installed it on a Windows 10 Surface Pro and it killed my system, at the same time it seems to have wiped out any restore points

Cracking job Iobit

 

If only you had read this Topic before you ran it !!!

[Omar_]

[FOUND THE SOLUTION] So, basically the DriverBooster messed up the m.2 NMVe driver. All I had to do was to go to advance options (it is accessible even if windows cant boot) and select "Command Prompt" from there. 

Afterwards, you can Google "How to uninstall driver from recovery environment on Windows 10" and follow instructions to locate and uninstall your SSD boot drive driver (sorry i cannot post the link for some reason) and it will guide you to uninstall the SSD driver. Once that is done, simply restart your PC. 

Hope this helps someone someday. 

[s.wettleson]

@Omar_ thank you so much for your help! i’m stuck and can’t find my SSD boot driver during step 6. of this: uninstall drivers from windows recovery

 

any help would be so much appreciated 😭

[camilasaunder89]

Hello everyone. Can someone please help me with a good driver updater tool? My screen is freezing after using Driver Booster and I really don't understand how to fix this. Some other forums have recommended me to try Advanced Driver Updater or WinZip Driver Updater.

I got great help from this blog: https://wethegeek.com/best-driver-update-software/

[Cicely]

Hi there,

Since the environment of each PC is different, we need the tool to get the information about your system and the operation of our program. Without the required information, we can do little to analyze the issue or further help you. Your understanding is highly appreciated and it would be much better if you can follow the steps in the previous email to get the information.
Please download https://cdn.iobit.com/dl/db/debug/DBInfoHelper.exe > double click to run this tool on the problem PC > click 'Save report to Desktop' > find db_info_YYMMDD.zip on your desktop > send us the zip file.

We will analyze the file and try our best to find a solution for you.

[Emma_24]

On 2/1/2023 at 2:00 PM, s.wettleson said:

@Omar_ thank you so much for your help! i’m stuck and can’t find my SSD boot driver during step 6. of this: uninstall drivers from windows recovery

 

any help would be so much appreciated 😭

Hey, were you able to find the ssd boot driver?

[kath Jones]

I installed this Driver Booster on my personal computer successfully and although it updated my out-of-date drivers, the computer is completely unusable.  The desktop continually flashes on and off and there is no access to Word docs, SD cards and usbs cannot be read!  I will have to pay for a repair or buy a new PC and learn to NEVER AGAIN TRUST THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE EVEN WHEN PAID FOR.

😱

[adeybob]

solution found IF YOU HAVE A RESTORE POINT (note: driver booster normally creates a usable restore point at first use).
I used LAZESOFT Windows Recovery suite >> Loading Crash Solution >> Windows System Restore.
It recognised my restore point and then it asked to run windows scandisk...which I seemed to have to do a couple of times before Lazesoft suite would carry on.
Rather than faffing around, I downloaded Hiren's boot tools ISO from their website and made a bootable usb drive with their software.
Really tho, IOBIT - your response to this OLD issue is bloody appalling...I mean, have none of your techies got access to GOOGLE?
I used to depend on ASR and DB
NEVER AGAIN, I'm afraid.

[adeybob]

full fix, and to help referencing for googlers>>
ISSUE = system crash after using IOBIT DRIVER BOOSTER >> POST return = "inaccessible boot device" and/or BSOD.
If windows startup tools (WINRE) won't allow you to repair startup/boot - then following instructions may work if you have a valid recovery point (NOTE: DB will auto record a recovery point at initial use).
You will need a separate working PC to make these fixes.
SOFTWARE/TOOLS USED >> Hiren’s BootCD PE x64 (v1.0.2) ISO (downloaded from the official site) - which I then whacked onto a 8gb usb memory stick using Hiren’s BootCD PE. Full instructions on how to do this are on the Hiren site.
PROCEDURE for fix >>
PREPARE ENVIRONMENT >> enter BIOS and change UEFI disk settings to LEGACY DISK. Then set system to boot from USB. Then press F10 to save/exit BIOS.
Then BOOT PC using pre-prepared USB memory stick.
You should boot into a GUI that looks like a windows desktop - but sexier.
Open the UTILITIES folder on desktop and navigate to the LAZESOFT Windows Recovery suite.
Then go to following >> Loading Crash Solution >> Windows System Restore.
Lazesoft may report that the reference disk is corrupted and/or that it needs fixing. Follow the prompts provided to run Windows Disk Check tool. I had to run it twice.
When scandisk has finished, follow Lazesoft's simple prompts to find and utilise the pre Driver Booster Restore Point.
Pull out USB. try to reboot.
If successful - then GREAT. When you've finished sighing with relief, now REMOVE DRIVER BOOSTER and burn it with fire.
Reboot and redo the BIOS settings to how they were before you started pratting around ;-).
You're done.

IF the above fix doesn't work - then use tools in Hiren disk to save your important files and do a full reinstallation of windows (ISO available from Windows Support website).
No real biggie.

[adeybob]

7 minutes ago, adeybob said:

full fix, and to help referencing for googlers>>
ISSUE = system crash after using IOBIT DRIVER BOOSTER >> POST return = "inaccessible boot device" and/or BSOD.
If windows startup tools (WINRE) won't allow you to repair startup/boot - then following instructions may work if you have a valid recovery point (NOTE: DB will auto record a recovery point at initial use).
You will need a separate working PC to make these fixes.
SOFTWARE/TOOLS USED >> Hiren’s BootCD PE x64 (v1.0.2) ISO (downloaded from the official site) - which I then whacked onto a 8gb usb memory stick using Hiren’s BootCD PE. Full instructions on how to do this are on the Hiren site.
PROCEDURE for fix >>
PREPARE ENVIRONMENT >> enter BIOS and change UEFI disk settings to LEGACY DISK. Then set system to boot from USB. Then press F10 to save/exit BIOS.
Then BOOT PC using pre-prepared USB memory stick.
You should boot into a GUI that looks like a windows desktop - but sexier.
Open the UTILITIES folder on desktop and navigate to the LAZESOFT Windows Recovery suite.
Then go to following >> Loading Crash Solution >> Windows System Restore.
Lazesoft may report that the reference disk is corrupted and/or that it needs fixing. Follow the prompts provided to run Windows Disk Check tool. I had to run it twice.
When scandisk has finished, follow Lazesoft's simple prompts to find and utilise the pre Driver Booster Restore Point.
Pull out USB. try to reboot.
If successful - then GREAT. When you've finished sighing with relief, now REMOVE DRIVER BOOSTER and burn it with fire.
Reboot and redo the BIOS settings to how they were before you started pratting around ;-).
You're done.

IF the above fix doesn't work - then use tools in Hiren disk to save your important files and do a full reinstallation of windows (ISO available from Windows Support website).
No real biggie.

I forgot to say...don't panic if your anti virus reports a couple of issues when assembling the bootable USB mem stick...
THESE ARE FALSE POSITIVES relating to the harmless password-cracking tools that you're copying from the Hiren ISO to the USB during assembly.

[CR7Pacemaker]

On 1/8/2023 at 4:04 AM, Omar_ said:

[FOUND THE SOLUTION] So, basically the DriverBooster messed up the m.2 NMVe driver. All I had to do was to go to advance options (it is accessible even if windows cant boot) and select "Command Prompt" from there. 

Afterwards, you can Google "How to uninstall driver from recovery environment on Windows 10" and follow instructions to locate and uninstall your SSD boot drive driver (sorry i cannot post the link for some reason) and it will guide you to uninstall the SSD driver. Once that is done, simply restart your PC. 

Hope this helps someone someday. 

This method works. I am adding commands here for helping others:

dism /image:c:\ /get-drivers /format:table

The os was installed in c drive so I used /image:c:\. This command will provide the list of all drivers with their description in a table. For my laptop, the ssd was of intel company. You can check yours by googling the model or opening the bios and check the ssd name there. So now one by one google the inf file names of all the intel drivers mentioned in the table. In my case driver name was "ianvme.inf" and its file name was "oem202.inf". So I removed it using following command:

dism /image:c:\ /remove-driver /driver:oem202.inf

If you are unsure whether it is the correct driver or not, you can get detailed driver info using this command:

dism /image:c:\ /get-driverinfo /driver:oem202.inf

[quenbi]

This method indeed works. Just be careful when choosing the OS partition in the dism command, it can be mixed up with other drives. In my case it was the H drive although Windows is installed on the C drive.

If it can be of any help for anyone, the driver responsible for the BSOD was a RealTek one and no NVME SSD related.