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Unable to start the Driver

Anonymous
2025-06-17T10:19:46+00:00

Hi Team,

I am encountering a problem with a driver signed using the "Microsoft Windows Component Preproduction CA 2024" certificate. When attempting to start the service, I receive the following error message:

[SC] StartService FAILED 2148204812: A certificate was explicitly revoked by its issuer.Please provide some guidance on how to resolve this issue. Additionally, let me know what steps or configurations need to be added to address this problem.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Devices and drivers

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  1. Anonymous
    2025-06-17T10:58:02+00:00

    Hi,

    Thank you for reaching out, and I truly understand how frustrating it must be to encounter this issue — especially when you’ve gone through all the necessary steps to sign the driver properly.

    The error you’re seeing:

    "[SC] StartService FAILED: A certificate was explicitly revoked by its issuer."

    means that the certificate used — Microsoft Windows Component Preproduction CA 2024 — has been revoked by Microsoft. This particular certificate is typically intended for internal or limited testing scenarios and not for general or production use, which may explain why the service is failing to start.

    Here are a few steps you can take:

    Test-Signing Mode (If applicable)

    If this driver is for internal testing, make sure that test-signing is enabled on your machine:

    bcdedit /set testsigning on

    After enabling this, reboot and try again. This allows Windows to load drivers signed with test certificates.

    Verify the Signature

    You can run:

    signtool verify /pa /v yourdriver.sys

    This will show whether the certificate is trusted or revoked, and help confirm the issue.

    Production Use?

    If this is intended for use outside your development/test environment, you’ll need to re-sign the driver with a trusted certificate — either through the Microsoft Hardware Dev Center (WHQL submission), or using an EV code signing certificate.

    Revoked Certificates Can’t Be Trusted Again

    Once a certificate is revoked, unfortunately, there’s no way to “re-enable” its trust. The safest approach is to replace it with a new, valid signing certificate.

    Please know I’m here to help however I can — and I really appreciate the level of detail you included. If you’d like help verifying your setup or exploring signing options, feel free to share more details about your environment or goals (e.g., internal dev vs. public release), and I’d be happy to guide you further.

    Wishing you a smooth resolution ahead!

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-06-20T18:04:47+00:00

    Thanks for the guidance! Re-signing the driver with a trusted certificate, as suggested, solved the issue.

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