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Latest Windows 10 Update Is Causing Some Printers to Crash PCs

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Screenshot: MitrandirLK /Wikipedia (Other)

The latest Windows 10 update isn’t playing nice with some printers.

According to Windows Latest, the issue is affecting printers from Kyocera, Ricoh, and Zebra. When a user sends a file to print, instead of actually printing, the entire PC will crash, showing the dreaded Blue Screen of Death along with the error code “APC_INDEX_MISMATCH for win32kfull.sys.”

This type of message usually appears when there’s incompatible hardware or drivers, and in this case it’s the latter. The KB5000802 update is causing Windows 10 to think those printer drivers aren’t installed or linked to the actual devices. So if someone tries to print from Word, Notepad, or another program, the PC immediately crashes to a BSOD.

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The issue has been affecting multiple versions of Windows 10, both on the client side and server side, including: Windows 10 version 20H2, 2004, 1909, 1809, 1803, and Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019 and Windows Server 2019.

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Microsoft is aware of the problem, but has not provided a permanent fix at this time, as the company only recently became aware of the issue.

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“We are presently investigating and will provide an update when more information is available,” the company said on its support page.

A Microsoft employee has posted a temporary fix on the sysadmin subreddit, which involves enabling direct printing and applying a fix with the Application Compatibility Toolkit.

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Another option is to completely roll back the Windows 10 March 2021 update, but doing so could also put your PC’s security at risk, because the KB5000802 cumulative update came with some security fixes. However, one Reddit user pointed out that KB5000802 seems to have been removed. I checked this on my own PC and that seems to be the case, but cumulative update KB5000808 is still available for Windows 10 version 1909, which can also cause similar issues with the same brands of printers.

If you do want to uninstall any of these updates, type Windows Update into the search bar, click on View Update History, and then Uninstall Updates at the top. A new window will pop up, and you should see the update listed as Security Update for Microsoft Windows KB5000802 or KB5000808.