These Windows 10 Updates Are Causing BSOD Crashes When Simply Printing

by Brandon Hill — Thursday, March 11, 2021, 10:13 AM EDT

When Microsoft releases updates on Patch Tuesday, we typically expect the company to fix problems, not create new ones. Unfortunately for the owners of certain printer brands, the KB5000802 and KB5000808 updates are causing all sorts of headaches for Windows 10 users.

KB5000802 and KB5000808 were released earlier this week as cumulative updates during Patch Tuesday. The updates were automatically downloaded and installed to Windows 10 systems for some users. When users of Kyocera, Ricoh, Zebra printers (among others) attempt to print, they are instead presented with an irritating Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).

According to a thread over at Reddit, the exact error message that the BSOD throws is "APC_INDEX_MISMATCH for win32kfull.sys." Many administrators are particularly incensed by this latest Microsoft gaffe. "Brilliant move from Microsoft to bundle all updates in a big monthly cumulative update," wrote Redditor SkyBeamCH. "So now you have the choice to uninstall KB5000802, leaving your systems exposed to potential security vulnerabilities or installing it, leaving your systems BSOD when printing."

The original Reddit thread has nearly 200 comments right now, with many expressing their anger and some even offering workarounds for the issue. "We just got 3 calls from clients all experiencing this same issue, so thanks so much for the post," added MercTreads.

One solution that offered is to just remove the offending updates by entering the following strings into the command prompt:

wusa /uninstall /kb:5000802

wusa /uninstall /kb:5000808

A Microsoft employee, Skillful Expert, even gave the following suggestion to enable direct printing to fix the issue:

Identify the name of your printer. E.g., "Kyocera TASKalfa 820 KX"
In an elevated command prompt, run rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xg /n "Kyocera TASKalfa 820 KX". If Direct appears on the line of attribute:, that means direct printing has been turned on and you had the right settings - stop here and proceed to section 2. Note - replace the Kyocera TASKalfa 820 KX text with your printer's name
If Direct setting is not on, in an elevated command prompt, run rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xs /n "Kyocera TASKalfa 820 KX" attributes +direct Note - replace the Kyocera TASKalfa 820 KX text with your printer's name

Have you encountered this issue with your Windows 10 system? Let us know in the comments section below.

Tags: Microsoft, Patch Tuesday, Windows 10, (nasdaq:msft), kb5000802, kb5000808

Brandon Hill

Brandon received his first PC, an IBM Aptiva 310, in 1994 and hasn’t looked back since. He cut his teeth on computer building/repair working at a mom and pop computer shop as a plucky teen in the mid 90s and went on to join AnandTech as the Senior News Editor in 1999. Brandon would later help to form DailyTech where he served as Editor-in-Chief from 2008 until 2014. Brandon is a tech geek at heart, and family members always know where to turn when they need free tech support. When he isn’t writing about the tech hardware or studying up on the latest in mobile gadgets, you’ll find him browsing forums that cater to his long-running passion: automobiles.

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