Since antimalware tools are mandatory to boot with the system, many things can go wrong. There are several cases where an antivirus will wreak havoc on the boot sequence which will, at best, increase boot time.
The worst case? It will destabilize the system and you will not be able to boot. A fairly prominent bug for Malwarebytes users is the “mbamswissarmy.sys” boot error when the antivirus driver gets corrupted.
We have found some solutions thanks to the diligent community that Malwarebytes has. Check them out below.
Contents index
- How to fix mbamswissarmy.sys corruption issues
- Solution 1 – Boot into Safe Mode and uninstall Malwarebytes with MST
- Solution 2 – Delete or rename the file “mbamswissarmy.sys”
- Solution 3 – Backup your data and reinstall Windows 10
How to fix mbamswissarmy.sys corruption issues
Solution 1 – Boot into Safe Mode and uninstall Malwarebytes with MST
This is the best and safest method of dealing with this matter. Namely, it seems that this massive issue occurred due to the corruption of the mbamswissarmy.sys driver.
This driver starts with the system and takes care of cleaning up deleted or quarantined malicious files at startup. Therefore, you must start with the system. And furthermore, as its important boot component, its corruption will lead to boot failure.
If you can’t boot as standard, the best way to fix this is to boot into Safe Mode and uninstall Malwarebytes antivirus.
The best way to do this is by using the MST (Malwarebytes Support Tool). With it, you can delete all associated files and registry entries. After that, it should be easy to reinstall Malwarebytes.
Follow these steps to download MST and then boot into safe mode:
- Forcibly restart your PC 3 times to invoke the Advanced Recovery menu .
- Select Troubleshoot .
- Select Advanced Options and then Startup Settings .
- Click Restart .
- Choose Safe Mode with Networking.
- If the system boots successfully, download the Malwarebytes Support Tool , here .
- Install the application and run it.
- Now, you can try to repair the installation or remove the antivirus completely. We are inclined to suggest deletion.
- After you have removed Malwarebytes antivirus , restart your PC. It should start as usual, without any errors.
- Download the antivirus installation file, here , and install it again.
Solution 2 – Delete or rename the file “mbamswissarmy.sys”
If the previous step failed and there is no possibility to boot into Windows, even with safe mode, the next step is the one you should try.
First, try booting into Safe Mode again and navigate to C: windowssystem32drivers and rename mbamswissarmy.sys to mbamswissarmy.sys.old. If you can’t, continue below.
The main goal is to get to the elevated command line which should allow you to remove the mbamswissarmy.sys driver from the system. Although this is not exactly a risk-free solution, it should resolve the error in question.
There is a certain risk of critically damaging the system. However, in more than a few reported cases, affected users had no further problems.
On the other hand, if you can’t delete or rename the driver, you can prevent it from running by deleting its registry entry. This workaround should get you up and running and allow you to boot up smoothly.
For both options, you will need an external installation media and an alternative PC to create it.
Follow these instructions to deal with the “mbamswissarmy.sys” driver and boot into Windows 10:
-
- Create a bootable installation drive on another PC (with Media Creation Tool).
- Connect USB or insert DVD and restart your PC.
- Enter BIOS setup and set USB as primary boot device .
- When the Windows 10 files load, click on » Repair your computer » at the bottom.
- Open Troubleshooting> Advanced Options> Command Prompt.
- On the command line, type the following command and press Enter:
- sc delete MBAMSwissArmy
- Alternatively, you can run the following command:
- reg delete / f HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetservicesMBAMSwissArmy
- Disconnect the USB drive and restart your PC.
Solution 3 – Backup your data and reinstall Windows 10
Lastly, if neither of the above two steps helped you solve the problem, the last resort would be to reinstall the system.
Of course, be sure to use a third-party tool or command line to extract all important data before cleaning the system drive.
Once done, you should have a simple task to download the Media Creation Tool and create the installation media (DVD drive or USB Flash drive).
If you are not sure how to do it, check out this article for the detailed explanation. Also, don’t forget to tell us any workarounds that we forgot to mention here. We look forward to hearing from you.
