The “SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED” error occurs on PCs running Windows 10 and Windows 11 when the system tries to load an outdated driver or a corrupted driver. This problem can be difficult to fixsince multiple drivers (even simultaneously) can cause the problem and sometimes the computer may not detect all of them.
To solve the problem so we will have to find the exact driver that is causing the problem and try to restore or delete it; even if the error still occurs, the problem affects more than one driver or affects some driver essential to Windows, making the entire system unstable.
In the following guide we will show you how to fix the “SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED” error on Windows PCs, so you can get back to work on your computer without any lock screen and without having to leave your work halfway due to a sudden BSOD .
READ ALSO -> Analysis of Windows “blue screen” crashes and look for the cause of failure
Boot the system in safe mode
The first advice to apply is to start the system in safe mode, using the windows recovery console to access the advanced options menu.
There are various methods to access the Safe modebut the most effective one in each scenario involves forcibly restarting Windows 11 or Windows 10 three times (pressing the shutdown or restart key as soon as the Windows logo appears) and, on the third start, wait for the console to load and press on Advanced optionswe press on Startup Settings and finally press on Restart.
At the next restart, press the button button 4 (o F4) and the button 5 (o F5) to start the system in Safe Mode or Safe Mode with Networking. As soon as the system is active, we remain on the desktop for a few minutes, so as to realize if the system is stable.
If the system is stable, the problem is almost certainly with video card drivers, sound card drivers, secondary device drivers (printers, scanners, etc.) or webcam drivers (devices that don’t work in safe mode).
Uninstall faulty drivers
If the system is stable in temporary we can easily find the faulty driver by pressing the key combination WIN+R on the keyboard, we type eventvwr to open the Windows Event Viewer, go to the Windows Logs folder, open the folder System and look for the error system_thread_exception_not_handledhelping us with the keys Find e Current log filter present on the right side.
As soon as we identify the faulty driver we open the Start menu, look for the entry Device managementexpand the section where the device with the faulty driver is present, press the right button on it and choose Uninstall devicetaking care to select the item Remove the device driver software (o Removing the device driver su Windows 11).
At the end we restart the system to access in normal mode, let’s update the missing drivers directly from Windows Update and verify the correct functioning of the system. Alternatively we can install new drivers using a free program such as Driver Booster.
Rename the faulty file
If the default driver is a non-uninstallable system driver, we can try to bypass it, always in safe mode, in the app File Explorer and later in the path C:\Windows\System32\driversi.e. the folder where all the drivers are.
We identify the driver that shows the “SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED” error (as seen in the previous chapter), click on it, press F2 and replace the file extension with the extension .old.
The driver file will no longer load, forcing Windows to use a generic driver or a new driver downloaded via Windows Update. We advise you to use this trick only in case of real needsince an error on the wrong driver can cost the entire Windows installation to boot.
Use SFC and DISM to repair system files
If none of the previous tricks worked and you still get the “SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED” error on your PC we can try using SFC and DISM to repair corrupted system files on your Windows installation.
To use SFC from safe (with networking) we open the command prompt from the Start menu (with administrative permissions, accessible by right-clicking on the app) and typing the following command:
sfc /scannow
The search and replacement of corrupted or missing system files, often the cause of the error seen in this guide, will start. If this scan does not bring any useful result we can start the online file repair system (DISM) by running the following command from the prompt:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
The system will start scanning the files to repair; as soon as the scan ends we run the command:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth
to start the actual repair. The process may take a long time, so it’s better to get comfortable and wait for the end of the operation; as soon as DISM completes its task, we restart the system to verify that Windows is working properly.
Restore Windows
Did any methods work to fix the “SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED” error? In this case theOur last resort is to reset Windowswhich can be used from the same menu seen in the chapter dedicated to safe mode.
We forcefully restart Windows three times, access the recovery console from the menu Advanced options and we use the System Recovery or System Image Recovery items to restore Windows.
On this subject we can read our guides on how restore PC to previous date come on how to reset windows (Reset PC).
Conclusions
As mentioned in the introduction fixing the error “SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED” is not easy at all, since often the problem concerns one or more drivers installed on the system. To be able to act we will have to access safe mode, verify that everything works without BSOD and look for the faulty driver, so that we can remove and replace it.
If the problem concerns the system files, it is better to use SFC and DISM to solve it, as also seen in our article on how to fix “file not found or corrupted” if windows and how to use theDISM interface to clean and repair Windows.
