Apex S30 crash: EAC Untrusted amdihk64.dll on AMD RX 500 series
After the Season 30 "MARKED" update on August 5, 2026, Apex Legends crashes the moment I click "Play" to join a match, with this popup:
Easy Anti-Cheat: Untrusted system file (\\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\amdihk64.dll)
The game enters the lobby fine, but joining any match triggers the EAC popup and immediate crash.
My setup:
- GPU: AMD Radeon RX 590 GME (Polaris / RX 500 series)
- Driver: AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 26.5.2 (DriverVersion 31.0.21925.1001), the latest WHQL driver available for my card
- amdihk64.dll version 2.00.00.1788 (Radeon Settings: Host Service), valid AMD signature verified
- OS: Windows 10 64-bit
- Launcher: Steam (D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Apex Legends)
Background:
I had this exact same issue earlier this year. AMD released a driver update on/around May 2, 2026 (Adrenalin 26.5.x) that explicitly fixed Apex crashes, and it worked perfectly for months. After the Season 30 update on August 5, 2026, the issue is back and blocking me from every single match.
What I have already tried (every single one):
- Clean reinstall of AMD drivers (DDU in Safe Mode + fresh install)
- Completely disabled Windows Security Center and Windows Update
- Reinstalled Windows from scratch, then reinstalled drivers cleanly
- Reinstalled Apex Legends from scratch
- Verified game files multiple times via Steam
- Repaired EAC service via EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe
- Disabled OBS Studio and Watt Toolkit (Steam++) to rule out overlay conflicts
- Disabled all AMD Radeon Software scheduled tasks and services
- Renamed C:\Windows\System32\amdihk64.dll (kills the popup, but EAC then silently terminates the game because it detects a missing driver file = "system tampered")
- Tried to rename the DriverStore copy under C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\u0201039.inf_amd64_* - blocked by Windows Resource Protection (WRP) in both normal mode and Safe Mode
Key observations:
- amdihk64.dll has a valid AMD digital signature (verified)
- The new Adrenalin 26.7.1 driver does NOT support RX 500 series GPUs, so there is no newer driver I can install
- AMD has effectively ended driver support for Polaris (RX 400/500 series), so 26.5.2 is the final driver for the entire installed base of these cards
- Many RX 500 series AMD users are likely affected by the same problem
Temporary workaround:
Following the accepted solution in another thread, I deleted the EasyAntiCheat folder inside the Apex installation directory and ran Steam's "Verify integrity of game files" to redownload a fresh copy. This sometimes lets me into a match, but the problem recurs.
Request:
- Please update the Easy Anti-Cheat trust list to include amdihk64.dll version 2.00.00.1788 shipped with AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 26.5.2 (or whichever specific build/version is needed).
- Since RX 500 series GPUs cannot be updated past 26.5.2, this is the only driver version that entire installed base can have. The EAC trust list needs to recognize it.
- Many AMD users are likely being silently blocked from playing Apex.
Reproduction steps:
1. Install AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 26.5.2 on any RX 500 series GPU
2. Launch Apex Legends via Steam
3. Enter the lobby
4. Click "Play" to join a match
5. EAC popup appears, game crashes immediately
Thank you.
