How to Fix “System Thread Exception not Handled” stop code in Windows 10

You reboot or start your Windows 10 computer and you get a blue screen with the stop code System Thread Exception not Handled. A reboot won’t fix it as you probably noticed. Is there a way out of this boot loop?

The blue screen is caused by a faulty driver that is installed on your system. Drivers can get updated automatically or they are being installed after you have connected a new piece of hardware.

SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED

So how can we fix this “system_thread_exception_not_handled” error in Windows 10? In this article, I have described a couple of methods that will help you restore your system.

“System Thread Exception not Handled” cause

Before we can fix the system_thread_exception_not_handled error we first need to understand what is going on. When you start your computer Windows 10 will load all the necessary drivers that are installed. Sometimes a driver is not compatible with your Windows version or there is maybe a bug in the driver.

This prevents Windows 10 from starting correctly leading to a blue screen (BSOD) with the error SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED. Sometimes the problems occur out of nowhere, one day your computer is working fine and the next day it won’t start anymore.

Windows updates or automatic driver updates are most of the time cause of these sudden problems. They will install new drivers automatically which get loaded after a reboot.

Fix System Thread Exception not Handled

There are a couple of methods to fix the system thread exception not handled stop code in Windows 10. We are going to start with the most common solutions, if a step doesn’t solve your problem then just go to the next step.

If you have recently installed new hardware or connected a new device to your computer, then start with disconnecting the device from your computer. Newly installed or connected hardware is one of the most common causes of the stop code system thread exception not handled.

Step 1 – Boot into safe mode

Most of the time when you get the blue screen with system_thread_exception_not_handled stop code you won’t be able to boot to Windows. So the first step is to boot into safe mode.

If you can start Windows normally, then try the steps below without safe mode first.

Your computer will start the Recovery mode after 3 failed start attempts:

  1. Start your computer
  2. When you see the Windows or notebook brand logo hold the power button (for 10 seconds) until your computer shutsdown.
  3. Repeat this 3 times (Step 1 and 2)
  4. Windows will start Automatic Repair or show a Recovery screen.
Boot Windows 10 in Safe mode
as
  1. If you get the Automatic Repair screen:
    1. Choose Advanced options
    2. Select Startup Settings
  2. If you get the Recovery Screen:
    1. Press F8 for Startup Settings
system thread exception not handled windows 10
  1. In the Startup Settings menu choose 5) Enable Safe Mode with Networking
  2. The Windows Logon Screen will load, login with your account.

If this doesn’t work for you then follow the steps described here to boot into safe mode.

Step 2 – Use a Windows Restore Point

Windows 10 can create automatically restore points before each system change. It’s worth checking if you have a restore point and try to roll back to it.

When you use restore point then only the system change is rolled back. You won’t lose any personal data or files on your computer.

  1. Open Start and click on Settings (gear icon)
  2. Type Recovery the search box at the top and open Recovery
Windows 10 recovery
  1. Select Open System Restore
  2. If you see a red stop sign, then system restore is turned off. Go to Step 3 – Find the faulty driver. Otherwise click on Next
  3. Select a restore point with a date from before the problems occured
Restore windows 10 recovery point
  1. Click on Next and Finish.

Windows will need to restart to roll back to the previous restore point. If the restore point didn’t help then continue to the next step.

Step 3 – Find the faulty driver

With Windows 10 now loaded into safe mode, we need to find the driver that is causing the problem. There are a couple of ways to do this, but a good start point is to review the blue screen. We can use a small program to analyze the blue screen error, Blue Screen Viewer. This program will tell us which driver caused the error.

  1. Download the program and open the zip file.
  2. Start the BlueScreenView application. If you get a User Account Control warning, click yes.
driver system_thread_exception_not_handled windows 10

The bug check string (1) will show the stop code that you have seen on the blue screen itself. I have simulated a blue screen here, but in your case, it will show system_thread_exception_not_handled. It will also show which driver caused the error (2).

You can use Google to find which device the driver belongs to. A couple of common drivers that can cause their errors are:

  • Nvlddmkm.sys – Graphics card driver from Nvidia. Download the latest or an older version of the driver here at Nvidia.
  • Atikmdag.sys – Graphics card driver from AMD (ATI) Radeon. New drivers can be found here.
  • CorsairVBusDriver.sys – Corsair Utility Engine driver. Get a new driver here
  • Igdkmd64. sys – Intel Graphics card driver. New drivers for Intel graphics cards can be downloaded here.
  • Ntfs.sys – Windows System file related. Follow this article to repair your Windows system files.
  • dxgmms2.sys – Error related to DirectX. DirectX is used by your graphics cards. Update your graphic card driver to fix the error.

Step 4 – Replace the faulty driver

If you were able to find a driver that is causing the SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED error then the next step is to replace or remove the driver. The best option is to update the driver to the latest version. But sometimes you already have the latest version, then it’s also an option to install an older version of the driver.

  1. Right-Click on the Start menu and choose Device Manager
  2. Expand the Display Adapter (assuming that the graphics card driver is the problem) and right click on your graphics card
  3. Choose Update Driver to start with
bsod system thread exception not handled
  1. First try to search automatically for drivers. If a new driver is found install it and restart your computer.
  2. If you already have the best driver installed then close the update driver window
  3. Right-click again on your Graphics card and choose Properties
  4. Select the Driver tab and write down the Driver version.
update driver version
  1. Open the website of the manufacturer (see list in step 3 or use Google) and check if there is a newer driver version available for you Graphics Card. If there isn’t a newer version, then download a older version.
  2. In the properties screen click on Update
  3. Choose Browse my computer for drivers
  4. Select the driver that you have just downloaded.
  5. Restart your computer

Step 5 – Remove the faulty driver that causes System Thread Exception not Handled

Sometimes you can’t find another driver of the correct device to which the corrupted driver belongs to. We can still fix the system_thread_exception_not_handled error by removing the driver.

There are a couple of ways to do this. If you know the device to which the driver belongs, then uninstall the device in the device manager. Follow the steps in Step 4 to open the device manager and instead of update driver you choose Uninstall device.

If that doesn’t work then we can rename the driver file:

  1. Open the explorer (Windows key + E)
  2. Navigate to C:\Windows\System32\Drivers
  3. Find the file that matches the name that we found in Step 3
  4. Rename the file to .old
rename driver to fix system thread exception

It’s possible that you can’t rename the file due to a permission error. We can still rename the file, but we will need to boot into Recovery mode for this.

Remove driver in Recovery mode

Use the steps described in Step 1 or in this article to restart Windows 10 into Recovery mode. Instead of Startup Settings make sure you select Command Prompt this time.

We are first going to list the drivers that are loaded by Windows, type the following and press enter:

DISM /Image:E:\ /Get-Drivers
Repair windows exception not handled

Scroll through the list and find the file name that matches the faulty driver that we found in Step 3. Note the published name oemx.inf

Remove the driver with the following command, where you replace oem1.inf with the correct published name of your driver.

DISM /Image:E:\ /Remove-Driver /Driver:oem1.inf

Restart your computer and check if the problem is resolved.

Rename the driver file

If you are unable to find the driver with the DISM command then you can also rename the file through the command line.

Navigate to the driver’s folder:

cd e:\windows\system32\drivers

Rename the file, replace the file name with the name of the faulty driver.

ren Nvlddmkm.sys Nvlddmkm.old

Restart your computer by closing the command prompt windows and choose to Continue Windows 10. Check if the System Thread Exception not handled error resolved.

Step 6 – Repair your Sytem files

When the blue screen is caused by NTFS.sys or if you are unable to find a responsible driver, then we need to take a look at the system files. Corrupt system files can also cause the system_thread_exception_not_handled error.

Use the steps described earlier or from this article to start Windows 10 in recovery mode. Make sure you select Command Prompt from the recovery options or open Command Prompt in Safe mode (right-click start, choose command prompt or PowerShell)

First, we are going to repair any corrupt files in our Windows system image:

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

When DISM is finished we can scan the system files and repair them if necessary:

sfc /scannow

Step 7 – Restore your Windows installation

When non of the steps above solved the System Thread Exception not Handled error on your computer then your last option is to restore your Windows 10 installation. Windows 10 has the option to keep your personal files, so in most cases, you won’t lose any data.

But always make sure you have a backup of your files before you start restoring your Windows installation.

The easiest way to repair Window 10 is with a recovery USB. I have described in this article how you can make one. Use the USB to restore your Windows installation.

Wrapping Up

The system_thread_exception_not_handled error can be a difficult error to fix, but it’s possible. If you can’t start Windows 10 in safe mode, then use a Windows 10 installation medium (see step 7) to start the recovery mode. This will allow you to open the command prompt and follow steps 5 and 6.

I hope this article helped you with solving the error. Please share it when you found it useful. If you have any questions, just drop a comment below.

6 thoughts on “How to Fix “System Thread Exception not Handled” stop code in Windows 10”

  1. Hi Rudy,

    I am facing a special problem. I jave HP Pavilion x360 touchscreen laptop and my screen broke. Since it was giving me trouble, I thought it would be better to disable the touch screen. I did that and when I restarted, the system did not start and gave me this problem. My hunch is that since my touchscreen is broken, computer cant disable it, but cant enable it either. Do you have a solution? I am very tensed right now as i have no backup of my work.
    Thanks
    Yamini

    • If you can get into safe mode, you could try to update the drivers of the touchscreen. A broken screen should not give the thread exception error. Another option to save your data is to remove the hard disk and connect it to another computer.

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