Windows 10 crashing when you try to print? There's now an official fix

A generic blue screen of death in windows 10 os
(Image credit: Microsoft)

Recently an issue occurred that caused "certain printers using some apps" to crash Windows completely when printing. After the rollout of a recent Windows Patchday update on March 9th: KB5000802, users began reporting the error for which, until now, the only workaround had been to revert Windows to a previous state. 

Your next upgrade

(Image credit: Future)

Best CPU for gaming: the top chips from Intel and AMD
Best graphics card: your perfect pixel-pusher awaits
Best SSD for gaming: get into the game ahead of the rest

Affecting "a subset of Type 3 printer drivers" including those that some Kyocera, Ricoh, and Dymo printers run on, the error had been throwing up a blue screen of death with error "APC_INDEX_MISMATCH for win32kfull.sys" as users attempted to print. And after pausing the updates distribution, the company then made it available again, only for the issues to continue. 

Now, thankfully, there are fixes available to the public that don't involve reverting back to previous update versions. The solution comes in the form of optional updates, so you will have to install them manually.

To do this, go to > Settings > Update and Security > Windows Update > Check for updates and download the "optional quality updates" it gives you. Or you can use the following links, depending on what version of Windows you currently have.

To check your version of Windows, just hop over to > Settings > System > About and scroll down to Windows specifications.

Windows specifications version

(Image credit: Microsoft)

Microsoft explains the new update "Addresses an issue that might cause a blue screen when attempting to print to certain printers using some apps and might generate the error, APC_INDEX_MISMATCH" (via BleepingComputer).

This is good news for anyone who'd been experiencing the issue, and hopefully the BSoD issues have cleared up now. Still, it just go to show how easy it is for something simple like this to be missed during development, even for Microsoft.

Katie Wickens
Hardware Writer

Screw sports, Katie would rather watch Intel, AMD and Nvidia go at it. Having been obsessed with computers and graphics for three long decades, she took Game Art and Design up to Masters level at uni, and has been rambling about games, tech and science—rather sarcastically—for four years since. She can be found admiring technological advancements, scrambling for scintillating Raspberry Pi projects, preaching cybersecurity awareness, sighing over semiconductors, and gawping at the latest GPU upgrades. Right now she's waiting patiently for her chance to upload her consciousness into the cloud.

Read more
Promotional image of the HP Envy Inspire inkjet printer
Haunted printers turning on by themselves and printing nonsense has to be one of my favorite Windows 11 bugs ever
MSI RTX 5090 Suprim in an open test bench
RTX 50-series black screen issues should finally be fixed this week in an official Nvidia driver update
Nvidia RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card from different angles
Nvidia says it really has sorted RTX 50-series black screen issues this time around as yet another driver fix finds its way to release
Nvidia RTX 5080 Founders Edition graphics card from different angles
Latest Nvidia Game Ready drivers fix various black screen issues that left gamers staring at their sad reflections
Microsoft Windows 11
If you installed Windows 11 with certain security updates and a USB stick, you may not get any more security updates warns Microsoft
Eivor battling multiple foes in Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
Previously borked Ubisoft games are now fixed on Windows 11 24H2 as the troubled update begins automatically downloading to compatible PCs
Latest in Windows
Microsoft Copilot
A rather pleasing Windows 11 update bug automatically uninstalls Copilot and unpins it from the taskbar, which is jolly nice of it
Microsoft's Task Manager in Windows 11
After years of complaints about Windows Task Manager displaying CPU utilization incorrectly, a fix is finally on its way
Microsoft Windows 11
The latest Windows 11 dev build gives you the ability to snap together commonly paired apps for access in a single click, and I'm already sold
Windows 11's new emoji button in the taskbar.
You might mock Microsoft's new emoji button in Windows 11 but as someone that's explained how to quickly access emojis and special characters too many times, I get it
Windows 10 operating system logo is displayed on a laptop screen for illustration photo. Gliwice, Poland on January 23, 2022.
Valve's monthly survey reveals that almost 45% of Steam users on PC are still using Windows 10 even with the sword of Damocles hanging over them
Microsoft Windows 11
If you installed Windows 11 with certain security updates and a USB stick, you may not get any more security updates warns Microsoft
Latest in News
A mech awakens.
Mecha Break developer is considering unlocking all mechs following open beta feedback
Lara Croft Unified Art
Tomb Raider developer Crystal Dynamics lays off 17 employees 'to better align our current business needs and the studio's future success'
A long bendy arm stealing money from people in a subway car
'You're a very long arm. You steal things. It's a comedy game,' explains developer of comedy game where you steal things with a very long arm
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway