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RobbieCrash
Asked: 2018-03-02 18:35:10 +0800 CST

Hyper-V Guest Cannot Verify Driver Signature for Hyper-V NIC Code 52

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I've got a Server 2016 Standard guest running on a Server 2016 Datacenter Hyper-V 4 node cluster which cannot start the Hyper-V NIC due to the following error:

"Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device. A recent hardware or software change might have installed a file that is signed incorrectly or damaged, or that might be malicious software from an unknown source. (Code 52)"

I'm facing all the same problems and have tried all the same solutions, that were tried in THIS thread, all to no avail. This includes:

  • Removing recently installed updates
  • Removing and re-adding the vNIC at the host level
  • Removing all phantom NICs from the guest
  • Attempting to update the driver in the guest, but it's the most recent one
  • Attempting to update the driver for the host NIC, also the most recent one
  • Restoring from backup, but the problem comes back after installing any updates released after October 2017
  • Screaming into the void

I can get it working by disabling driver signature verification, but I really don't want to do that as this is a security related server. I have multiple other VMs running extremely similar configurations, at the guest and OS level, in the cluster, all of which are fully patched, none of which have any issues.

I really don't want to have to reinstall and reconfigure, especially if this is caused by some particular configuration on the VM which will make this occur again. Reinstalling means I need to reconfigure not only the server, but a bunch of the clients that depend on it as its certificate will change.

There's nothing that seems pertinent in the eventlogs.

hyper-v

2 Answers

  1. Try this:

    1. Power off the VM
    2. Remove all NICs from the VMs configuration
    3. Start the VM
    4. Start a new CMD and run the following commands: set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1 start devmgmt.msc
    5. Go to View and then select Show Hidden Devices
    6. Start regedit.exe
    7. Go to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces
    8. This registry key should be completely empty now, if you find some sub-keys, export those registry keys (backup) and delete them
    9. Power off the machine
    10. Re-add the NICs
    11. Reinstall the Hyper-V guest drivers
    12. Reboot again and retry
    • 1

  2. As i mentioned i have problems with 7 drivers and not just the NIC.

    I took a Snapshot of the VM, and replace that 7 files, which were not signed, from another VM with same IS version. The file version on the affected server was wrong, but if i try to update the IS, it told me that it'S up to date.

    Then reboot, the server rebooted twice, and everything is ok. Additional reboot was also ok.

    Can't guarantee that this will work forever, or cause later other problems, but it is not a critical server. So will see:)

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