Microsoft has confirmed that Windows 10 devices with a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) may crash when pressed under certain circumstances after the cumulative updates were applied in March.
After installing the updates released during this month’s Patch Tuesday, ‘you may receive a blue screen APC_INDEX_MISMATCH error when you try to print to certain printers in some applications’, such as Microsoft on the Windows 10 Health Panel explain.
Affected platforms include Windows client and server versions:
- Client: Windows 10, version 20H2; Windows 10, 2004 version; Windows 10, version 1909; Windows 10, version 1809; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019; Windows 10, version 1803
- Server: Windows Server, version 20H2; Windows Server, 2004 version; Windows Server, version 1909; Windows Server, version 1809; Windows Server 2019; Windows Server, version 1803
The cumulative updates that blue screens from Windows 10 cause when you press are:
- KB5000802: Windows 10 2004 / 20H2 and Windows Server 2004 / 20H2
- KB5000808: Windows 10 1909 and Windows Server 1909
- KB5000822: Windows 10 1809 and Windows Server 2019
- KB5000809: Windows 10 1803 and Windows Server 1803
As BleepingComputer reported on Wednesday, we saw a stream of user reports about the printing that caused Windows 10 to crash with ‘APC_INDEX_MISMATCH for win32kfull.sys’ BSOD errors as the cumulative updates were released as part of Tuesday, March 2021.
While Microsoft did not provide any additional details, the blue screen issues are likely related to the CVE-2021-1640 and CVE-2021-26878 security updates that resolved two Windows Print Spooler vulnerability fixes at the correct level.
Some of the printer brands affected by this well-known edition include Kyocera, Ricoh and Dymo.
Microsoft is currently investigating the newly recognized issue and will provide an update as more information becomes available.
How to BSOD falls under pressure
Although Microsoft did not provide a solution for Windows 10 devices affected by this issue, you can temporarily restore the print functionality by removing the problematic cumulative update.
You can remove the buggy updates by closing all applications, opening a command prompt, and entering the following command (replace the KB ID to match the cumulative update you want to remove):
wusa /uninstall /kb:5000802We also have this detailed guide for more help removing Windows updates using the Control Panel or the Advanced Options feature.
A similar issue affected Windows 10 devices during the Patch Tuesday update in June 2020 when an error could hit users.
To resolve the printing issues, Microsoft has released out-of-band updates for all affected Windows users.
Update: information included on all cumulative updates that are causing issues with BSOD.