Fix: KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED

A blue screen of death (BSOD) is an error which halts the operations of the PC, displays the error condition and forces your computer to restart after collecting diagnostic information. The error message “KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED” usually occurs when you are having driver issues.

It means some piece of external or internal hardware connected to your computer is causing a driver conflict which is forcing your PC to crash. In some cases, the error window contains the name of the driver which caused your computer to crash. In other cases, you have to manually diagnose which driver is causing the problem and disable/update it accordingly.

Solution 1: Disabling Fast Startup

One of the leading workarounds for this issue is disabling the Fast Startup on your computer. Fast Startup (also called fast boot) works similarly to the hybrid sleep modes of previous versions of windows. It combines the elements of a cold shutdown and the hibernate feature. When you shut down your computer, Windows logs off all users and closes all applications similar to the cold boot. At this point, Window’s state is similar to when it is freshly booted up (as all users are logged off and applications are closed). However, the system session is running and the kernel is already loaded up.

Then Windows sends a notification to device drivers to prepare for hibernation and saves the current system state to hibernation and turns off the computer. When you restart the computer, Windows doesn’t have to reload the kernel, system state or the drivers. It just refreshes your RAM with the loaded image in the hibernation file and navigates you to the startup screen. As we can see, Fast Startup involves all driver modules of your computer and if they are not working properly, may cause them to crash.

Note: This is a potential workaround. Workarounds are different from fixes where they offer a way around the problem. They do not fix the problem completely.

1. Press Windows + R to launch the Run application. In the dialogue box type “control panel” and hit Enter. This will launch your computer’s control panel.
2. Once in the control panel, select Large icons and click on Power Options.

3. Once in the Power Options, click on “Choose what the power buttons do” present at the left side of the screen.

4. Now you will see an option which requires administrative privileges named as “Change Settings that are currently unavailable”. Click it.
5. Now head to the bottom of the screen and uncheck the box which says “Turn on fast startup”. Save changes and exit.

6. You might need to restart your computer. Check if the problem at hand got fixed.

Solution 2: Diagnosing the Faulty Driver

If the first workaround didn’t work for you, you have to manually check each driver present on your computer and see what is causing the BSOD. The problem due to which KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED occurs may be different computer to computer; this is why we are listing down a generic solution in which you have to diagnose manually what is causing the error message.

There can be two ways due to which the error message occurs; either the problem may reside in services of some module or it may directly be linked to the driver of the device. We will cover both potential solutions starting with drivers.

1. Press Windows + R, type “devmgmt.msc” in the dialogue box and press Enter to launch the device manager.
2. Once in the device manager, right-click on the device and select Update driver. You have to follow this step for every device listed on your computer.

3. There are two ways through which you can update your device drivers. Either you can automatically update the driver using the first option or if that doesn’t work out, you can update it manually. You should head over to the manufacturer’s website, download the latest drivers and install it accordingly using the second options. We recommend using the second option for all the device drivers.

If updating the drivers doesn’t work, you can try disabling the services one by one and see which service is causing the problem. First, boot your device in Safe mode with Networking. After booting, follow the steps mentioned below.

1. Press Windows + R, type “msconfig” in the dialogue box and press Enter.
2. Check the option Hide all Microsoft services from the dialogue box. Now disable each service one by one and continue using your computer in normal mode. If the BSOD occurs again, it means that the service you disabled wasn’t the correct one and you have to uncheck another service.

Note: Try disabling the services which are connected to some hardware on your computer. This way you will be able to diagnose more quickly and efficiently.