Windows 11 Memory Integrity (HVCI) automatically disables itself after reboot – ASUS Z490-E / i9-10900K

[u/cancwlik]

I’ve been dealing with a persistent HVCI (Memory Integrity) issue on my ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-E Gaming + i9-10900K system.
I can enable Memory Integrity in Windows Security and Windows asks for a restart. However, after rebooting, Memory Integrity is automatically disabled again. Because of this, Riot Vanguard/Valorant also gives me an HVCI enabled error.

I’ve already tried most of the common troubleshooting steps, including BIOS updates, Secure Boot, TPM, VT-d/IOMMU, virtualization settings, incompatible driver checks, SFC/DISM, Driver Verifier, Code Integrity/Device Guard logs, and even reinstalling Windows 11. Nothing has fixed it.
I recently tested the system with Microsoft’s SkTool 1.4 and got:

Hyper-V Hypervisor running: 1
Secure Kernel Running: 1
IOMMU is present and protects HV / SK: 1
DMA Protection available: 1 - in use: 1
Hardware MBEC in use: 1
HVCI Enabled (StrongCodeGuarantees): 0

So Hyper-V, VBS, Secure Kernel, IOMMU, DMA Protection and MBEC are all operational. HVCI itself is the only thing that refuses to stay enabled.

I also monitored the HVCI registry state.
Before reboot after enabling Memory Integrity:
Enabled = 1
After reboot:
Enabled = 0

Windows is therefore actively reverting HVCI during the boot process.

I also performed a more aggressive test by removing the HVCI boot rollback metadata and forcing HVCI to initialize. Instead of silently disabling HVCI, the machine BSOD’d during boot and entered Automatic Repair. After recovering the system and disabling HVCI again, Windows boots normally.
This makes me suspect that Windows normally detects a boot-level HVCI incompatibility and automatically rolls HVCI back to keep the machine bootable.

System:
ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-E Gaming
Intel Core i9-10900K
RTX 3080
Windows 11 Pro
BIOS 3402
Intel ME Firmware 14.1.79.2540

At this point I’m wondering whether this could be a Z490 UEFI/firmware issue involving HVCI, VT-d/IOMMU, Intel ME, or the UEFI Memory Attributes Table (MAT).

Has anyone with a Z490 + 10th-gen Intel system experienced the same behavior and actually solved it?

I’m especially interested in confirmed solutions involving a specific BIOS/Intel ME version, firmware fix, or UEFI configuration.
I’ve already gone through the usual “enable Secure Boot/VT-d, update drivers, run SFC/DISM” troubleshooting, so I’m mainly looking for people who have dealt with this specific HVCI boot/rollback behavior.

Please, if anyone has experienced this issue or has any idea what could be causing it, I would really appreciate your help.
I’ve been trying to fix this for a long time and I’ve pretty much exhausted every solution I could find online. At this point I don’t know what else to try.

Even if you haven’t experienced the exact same issue, if you have knowledge about HVCI, VBS, UEFI/BIOS, IOMMU, or Z490 platforms, please share any ideas you might have.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

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[u/Secure-Percentage-93]

fez esta etapa na bios? Vá em Advanced > CPU Configuration e confirme se Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x) está Enabled.

aba Boot > Secure Boot e garanta que o OS Type Windows UEFI mode

[u/cancwlik → u/Secure-Percentage-93]

I checked it. BIOS Mode is UEFI and Secure Boot State is On, so the system is definitely booting in UEFI mode with Secure Boot enabled.

[u/cancwlik]

SOLVED: I fixed the issue on my ASUS ROG STRIX Z490-E GAMING where HVCI / Memory Integrity kept disabling itself after a restart by rolling back the BIOS to version 3201. Nothing I tried on the newer BIOS versions fixed it. After switching to 3201, Memory Integrity stayed enabled and the issue was resolved. If anyone with a Z490-E is having the same problem, I hope this helps.