System Thread Exception Not Handled - nvlddmkm.sys BSOD and Error #132 crashes

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1

Hello.

I have been getting BSODs lately while playing WoW. For a few hours of playing sometimes, I won’t get this BSOD, but other times I would get it within a few minutes. I have been having this BSOD issue since I upgraded to Windows 10 almost 2 weeks ago. When I had Windows 7, I never had any BSODs or crashes.

So this BSOD, System Thread Exception Not Handled, would show up while I am in-game in WoW. It would happen at random times so I can’t really specify when it happens. It can also happen after a few minutes or after a few hours of playing WoW. I also get that file name, nvlddmkm.sys, in the BSOD. I just had a BSOD now and here is the details of the BSOD from WhoCrashed:

On Fri 2020-07-10 8:13:27 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP
This was probably caused by the following module: [nvlddmkm.sys](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=nvlddmkm.sys) (0xFFFFF807497FFE3F)
Bugcheck code: 0x7E (0xFFFFFFFFC000001D, 0xFFFFF807497FFE3F, 0xFFFF9689CE164118, 0xFFFF9689CE163950)
Error: [SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=MSDN+bugcheck+SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)
file path: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_ccad5caddc3a3d35\nvlddmkm.sys
product: [NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48 ](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48 )
company: [NVIDIA Corporation](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=NVIDIA Corporation)
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48
Bug check description: This bug check indicates that a system thread generated an exception that the error handler did not catch.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: [nvlddmkm.sys NVIDIA Corporation SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=nvlddmkm.sys+NVIDIA Corporation+SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)

On Fri 2020-07-10 8:13:27 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\071020-7343-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: [nvlddmkm.sys](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=nvlddmkm.sys) (0xFFFFF807497FFE3F)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC000001D, 0xFFFFF807497FFE3F, 0xFFFF9689CE164118, 0xFFFF9689CE163950)
Error: [SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=MSDN+bugcheck+SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M)
file path: C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\nv_dispi.inf_amd64_ccad5caddc3a3d35\nvlddmkm.sys
product: [NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48 ](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48 )
company: [NVIDIA Corporation](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=NVIDIA Corporation)
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 451.48 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: [nvlddmkm.sys NVIDIA Corporation SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M](http:// w w w .google.com/search?q=nvlddmkm.sys+NVIDIA Corporation+SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M)

I will list the things I have done to solve this issue but they haven’t.

  • I have updated my graphics card driver to the latest version (I have used DDU in safe mode without networking to completely remove the previous driver for my graphics card and then installed the latest driver by downloading it previously so Windows update would not update the driver automatically)
  • I have recently (3 or 4 days ago) re-installed a fresh Windows 10 64-bit from the media creation tool for Windows 10 from a USB stick after having formatted the 1st SSD that had my previous Windows on it
  • I have re-installed (3 or 4 days ago again) a fresh WoW installation from the Battle.net app after I had formatted the 2nd SSD I have that houses all of my games
  • I ran Windows Update and there are no more updates left
  • I have disabled Fast Startup, Sleep and Hibernate in the power management options

Is there anything else I can try?

Also, here are my specs for my computer:

Processor: Intel(R) Core™ i5-3570K CPU
Motherboard: ASRock z77 extreme4
RAM: 8 GB
PSU: Corsair Professional 650 watts
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit
Graphics card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Sound card: ASUS Xonar DGX
HDD: WDC WD1002FAEX-00Z3A0 ATA Device
1st SSD: SAMSUNG SSD 830 Series
2nd SSD: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB

If there is anything else you guys would like to know, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

EDIT:

My WoW just crashed like an hour or two ago. It froze while I was in-game in a dungeon (also got kicked within a minute after lol, but that’s a different issue) for like 5-10 seconds then it crashed to desktop without any errors or BSODs. I launched WoW again through Battle.net app, which was open and resumed playing again. I checked Event Viewer and this is the application error I got:

Faulting application name: Wow.exe, version: 8.3.0.34963, time stamp: 0x5ef67f34
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000000004
Faulting process id: 0x11e0
Faulting application start time: 0x01d657856623ed75
Faulting application path: E:\World of Warcraft_retail_\Wow.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 7e8edd81-b8e4-4faf-b997-e0733f2dfa1f
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Please help if you can. I would like to prevent these kind of crashes if possible in the future.

2

Hey, Haniina! You’ll want to have a local technician to look into this issue further with you and check out the event logs. Bluescreens will not be caused by the game, but something faulty with the system or hardware can trigger the BSOD crashes after playing WoW for a bit. Here’s our BSOD article.

With it persisting after a full DDU reinstall of the drivers, there’s likely some hardware issues causing the BSOD crashes with the Nvidia drivers. It may be worth checking for any overclocking or overheating on the graphics card after a few hours of play. It may also help to reduce the amount of BSOD crashes by disabling the factory overclock that comes with GTX TIs at times.

3

Hi, as well as what Caterpepi said, it’s been my experience that the vast majority of Blue Screens has been software/driver issues. Your own error log points the finger at driver 451.48.

Obviously this looks like an issue between the new driver and Win10 as you had no problems on Win7.

Some other users with problems have suggested trying to disable “ray tracing” and another user said his issues disappeared when he reverted back to a previous driver 446.14.

Just be careful if you try this as Win10 auto driver update will update you without telling you in the background. You can turn off Win10 auto driver update if you wish.

4

Thank you so much for replying, Caterpepi :slightly_smiling_face:.
I will find someone to look into the logs in the event viewer to make sense of them. My brother works in debugging computers so I might ask him about it.
I’ll check out that BSOD article, thank you for linking that.
Two days ago, I removed all the dust from inside my computer. It had been a few years since I did it. There was a LOT of dust. It took me more than half an hour to thoroughly clean it. Before I did all that, I used to get crashes often in WoW but now, it has reduced to being a bit random and happening after an hour or so of playing WoW.
I have checked the temperatures for my Intel CPU and my Nvidia graphics card when the crash to desktop happened without any error and it went up to ~70 C for CPU and ~60 C for graphics card. I am guessing that is alright?
I will check into disabling the overclocking for my graphics card definitely.
Thanks again.

Thank you for replying :slight_smile:.
I am gonna try to revert to a previous driver as you mentioned.
How do I disable “ray tracing”?
I will most likely disable my network card that has the internet coming through it (I will download that version of driver that you mentioned first) and then restart in safe mode without networking, and then I’ll use DDU to completely uninstall the Nvidia driver. Then I will restart and install that version that you mentioned and see how it goes.

5

Hopefully, your brother will be able to find more information on the bluescreen crashes. If you wanted to look through the errors for the bluescreen crashes, Microsoft has documentation on them here. It may give you some more ideas and clues to what’s causing the crashes.

The event viewer, reliability history, or the Windows Error Reports should give you the parameters for the bluescreen crashes. If there are multiple different BSODs, it usually suggests memory or hardware related issues. If memory is a possible concern, a memory diagnostic scan may help or physically taking out the RAM and testing it one by one (if multiple RAM is present). This test can take quite a bit of time (sometimes up to a few hours), so I’d recommend doing it while you’re away from the system or overnight.

Note: If the memory diagnostic scan gets stuck at exactly 21%, it usually means there’s faulty RAM or the BIOS settings for the IDE/SATA Controllers are set to something like AHCI instead of IDE.

This should be fine for most intel processors and graphics card. If it goes above 70C for the processor or 80C for the graphics card is usually when throttling or system shutdowns/bluescreens can occur. It may also be worth checking the BIOS settings to make sure the threshold isn’t set too low either.

I’d be concerned a bit that some hardware damage may have occurred depending on how long its been since cleaning out the system or if a mishap may have happened around the time the system was cleaned out fully. It’s usually recommended to clean out the computer at least every 6 months or so to keep the hardware optimal. If it does seem possible a hardware concern and you or a friend/family have any spare parts that are compatible with the system, it may be worth running through a few stress tests and benchmarks after switching out the parts out to test and find the culprit to the issue.

It’s not something that Blizzard can assist with troubleshooting directly, but I hope some of that information maybe helpful!

6

Thank you replying back again. I will follow up on everything you said.

So I tested out a few things.

  • I downloaded the 446.14 version of my Nvidia graphics card and installed it but still got crashes but this time no BSOD (Got Error #132)
  • I tried the debug mode through the Nvidia control panel to disable overclocking, which didn’t work either (same crash as above)
  • I have had my computer do a clean boot everytime it restarts (All non-Microsoft services are stopped and all startup services are disabled) but that hasn’t fixed it
  • I have DirectX 11 selected in the Advanced tab in the system tab in WoW for a while now but that has had no effect still

I will do the following things and reply back about the results:

  • I will do System File Checker
  • I will scan my memory for RAM errors (I just installed new RAM today, Corsair Vengeance 16GB, 2x8GB, DDR3 1600 MHz PC3 12800 Desktop Memory, which I bought yesterday)
  • I will check my system by doing a security scan
  • I will keep checking for overheating for my CPU and graphics card if I get the Error #132 again
  • I will check BIOS to see if the temperature threshold is not too low

I got Error #132 crashes twice today like a few hours ago while playing WoW (I was doing a horrific vision). I will post them here:

https:/ /pastebin.com/Q9WikUrT

https:/ /pastebin.com/B7wss7vE

I read online that these types of errors are hard to diagnose the problems but I wanted to post these anyway to see if they might help you guys.

7

From my understanding, a nvlddmkm.sys BSOD is a problem with your nvidia card’s drivers – Have you recently updated to the newest version of your card’s drivers? (451.67, based on what GeForce Experience is saying)

For reference: I had the exact same problem with doing anything even remotely strenuous on the nvidia card when I updated to 451.67. When I downgraded back to the last stable version I used (446.14), everything went back to working completely fine.

EDIT: …oh. It would help if I read all the posts in a thread before commenting.

8

Heh, no worries. It happens. It either way confirms that there could be something wrong with my Nvidia card driver.

For the past 2 days, I am not getting any BSODs. All I am getting is Error #132 crashes. I would be in-game doing something (It’s always random) and then my screen freezes for 2 seconds and then it crashes to desktop with the Error #132 message. It happens kind of in random intervals in terms of timing but I have seen it happen at least after half an hour or so. So far, there’s no overheating or anything like that for either my CPU or graphics card (It reaches 70C and 60C max respectively as mentioned in an above post).

  • I have ran System File Checker and it found no errors
  • I have checked BIOS and it doesn’t have any max threshold temperature so far as I could see
  • I have checked for overheating and so far there’s no overheating happening

I still gotta do a security scan and scan my RAM for errors, the only two major things left to check for the BSODs that had been happening before… But if I no longer get BSODs, should I focus on finding a solution for my Error #132 crashes instead? These errors are more annoying now since I can still reopen my WoW right away (since the option is right there in the window where it says to describe what I was doing before the error occurred). The BSODs on the other hand were more “devastating” since they would restart my computer instead.

If anyone else has any input on why I would be getting Error #132 crashes randomly, please reply to this thread and share your suggestions/solutions. Thank you.

EDIT:

According to the Error #132 support article, I still have to try to reset my user interface and see if that works.

I have done updating my drivers I think (is there anyway for you guys to check if I have updated my drivers “correctly”?)
I have checked for overheating components already.
I have definitely uninstalled and reinstalled the game (It was very recent like a week ago but I was still having BSODs after).
I have closed/disabled all background applications and do a “clean boot” every time I start Windows.
I don’t have any security programs other than the pre-installed one on Windows 10 when I re-installed it, which is Windows Defender I think.

EDIT 2:

I updated the title a bit for this thread if that is alright.

9

Just gonna chime in about resetting your UI, and its very easy. Find where WoW is installed, for me this is : C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft_retail_
Rename the folders WTF, Interface, and Cache to something else like adding bak to the end. Make sure to do this while logged out completely and then see what happens after.

For drivers, using DDU while in safe mode will mean that all possible files from old drivers were removed and a new driver install won’t have confusion from them.