Win32k.sys is a Windows driver that is responsible for windowing and graphics. It is a part of Windows and should not be deleted.

How to fix Win32k.Sys BSOD using Windows debugger?

If you look at the bottom of the BSOD you will  see a line that says “Begining dump of physical memory”. Windows debugger can be used to analyze this crash dump and find out what caused your computer to prompt a blue screen.

Download Windows debugger tool.  For debugger to work, you need something called the “symbols”. Symbols are Operating System specific. For Windows Xp you need to download Symbols for Xp. For Vista you need to download Symbols for Vista and so on… You can let the Windows debugger download the Symbols online, since its the easy way. To do that, follow the steps below,

To use the Microsoft Symbol Server

1. Make sure you have installed the latest version of Debugging Tools for Windows.
2. Start a debugging session.
3. Decide where to store the downloaded symbols (the “downstream store”). This can be a local drive or a UNC path.
4. Set the debugger symbol path as follows, substituting your downstream store path for DownstreamStore.

   SRV*DownstreamStore*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

For example, to download symbols to c:\mssymbols, you would add the following to your symbol path:
SRV*c:\mssymbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols

The next step is to analyze the crash dump file, that is located on the C:\windows\MEMORY.DMP. This is what you see on the bottom of the blue screen. To open the crash dump from the Windows debugger, click file > open crash dump and select the location of C:\windows\MEMORY.DMP

It will take a moment to load this file. After it loads, you get a prompt to type !analyze to analyze the crash dump. Type !analyze. Now the Windows debugger analyzes the crash dump. After its done. Open the crash dump in the notepad. Find the line, PROCESS_NAME:

The process you find, is the one that is responsible for the blue screen. Most of the time, its some mouse driver that is causing the problem. You need to uninstall that, and reinstall to the working version if you need one.

That’s how you analyze the crash dumps generated upon a blue screen error to find the process that is causing the problem. You can search more about that process and find a solution.

Note: Most of the Blue Screen errors are caused by the outdated, missing or corrupt Drivers. Update your system drivers now!

The image we see on the right is Blue Screen of Death message of Windows 8. The sad face replacing the crash details with a message stating that Windows is unable to handle the kernel level error and It wants to be rebooted, while still in the blue background. But that is not detailed like the one we all are familiar with. The dreaded blue screen containing full of text with the error message in a format we use to search for with the aim of finding more information on that and a solution for the problem in the question.

Why is there an image of blue screen of Window 8 when its not even released yet? Well to answer that, In the recent demonstration of Windows 8 (Sept 2011) we came to know the sad news is that Microsoft hasn’t found a way to totally get around the blue screen or atleast to find a better error handling and reporting feature  – but still the same error message that forces the reboot, even in the Windows 8.

So how to prevent and fix it as soon as it occurs and not to worry about it any more? This article talks about that.

The present Blue Screen of Death Screen.

We are all familiar with this. Most of the people won’t even care about this and immediately reboot the PC hoping that it wont come back. As you can see in the screen, below the technical information. The error message, the stop error, is in a format that is in the same pattern of all the BSOD errors which we use to look up online for help.

The STOP error displays four integer numbers in the form 0×00 (0×00,0×00,0×00,0×00) where the first is 32 bits and the rest are the bit size of the machine (32-bit or 64-bit).

Listed below are some of the Stop Errors.

There are about 99 Stop error codes that can happen for numerous reasons. So that’s a lot of blue screens for any version of Windows! This is why its a problem we have to learn to fix and not depend on technicians every time there is an error.

How to fix blue screen of death (BSOD)

Every error is unique, so we are going to talk about the common denominator of all the errors and solutions that are common to all of them.

Common causes of blue screen of death error

Blue screen errors or stop errors are usually from hardware failures, drivers error, incompatible device, cpu temperature issues, resource conflict etc… The stop error is thrown when the computer has a non-recoverable, critical, kernel level deep error that crashes the system.

Let’s now jump straight into fixing it.

1. Update your system driver.

The most common cause of BSOD is the corrupt, outdated and incorrect system drivers. You can see this for yourself if there is a .sys file mentioned in the BSOD screen. You need the latest driver for the problem with existing driver to be fixed. The latest correct driver will solve most of the issue including incorrect and corrupt driver problems. To get the latest correct driver, get it from the manufacturer site based on your hardware model id or use a automatic driver update program to do the job.

2. Undo what you just did before getting a blue screen error.

Did you install a program, added a new hardware or updated a new driver or added a new one etc…? If yes to any of that, there is a good chance for a BSOD error.

Boot the computer using “Last known good configuration” as soon as you reboot. This will ignore recent driver or registry changes. To do that,

1. keep hitting F8 key as soon as the system starts.
2. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.

Roll back your driver to its previous version if you have updated your driver. To do that follow the steps below,

1.     Open Device Manger from the System Control Panel.
2.     Now locate the hardware device that you want to roll back the driver for. Specific hardware devices are listed under the major hardware categories.
3.      Right click on the hardware’s name or icon and choose Properties.
4.     Click the Driver tab.
5.     On the Driver tab, click the Roll Back Driver button.
6.     Click the Yes button to the “Are you sure you would like to roll back to the previous driver?”.
7.     The previously installed driver will now be restored. But you need to restart the computer for the changes to take effect.

If you have added an hardware, Remove it. The other way of troubleshooting if you aren’t sure of what hardware is causing the problem. Open the computer, remove all the hardware except the basic ones that are required for normal functioning. Start the PC, if the computer starts normally, you now know that the problem lies in the faulty hardware that is removed.

Another undo’ing step is by using System restore to restore the system to its previous state.

3. Update windows for the latest hot fixes.

Apply the latest security patches and hot fixes from Windows Update regularly.

4. Perform PC memory test to see if the faulty RAM is causing BSOD error.

I use and recommend using Memtest86 for this. Faulty RAM can be identified if the memtest86 results has a lot of error messages in RED.

5. Update BIOS.

BIOS updates are offered by the Motherboard manufacturers. Choose from the list of manufacturers below to download a BIOS update.

Note When you update the BIOS, you might have to disable BIOS memory options, such as caching or shadowing, temporarily.

6. Reset the BIOS (load fail safe defaults).

To load the default Bios settings, you first need to get into the Bios. To do this, restart your computer and press the F2 or del or F10 key when the PC is starting.

Once you are in the Bios, you can load the defaults.

In the Award/Phoenix Bios, select “Load Fail-Safe Defaults” and then press the F10 key to save the settings.

In the AMI Bios,you need to navigate to the ‘Default’ screen using the cursor, +/- or PgUp/PgDn keys. In this screen, select the 3rd option ‘Fail-Safe BIOS Setup Settings‘. After this exit the Bios, saving the changes.

7. Maintain a healthy computer.

Make sure you have sufficient hard disk space left in the C:\ Drive. I would recommend having atleast 500mb to 1 GB of free space for the page file and temporary files. Scan for viruses and malware/spyware periodically.

Troubleshoot a specific BSOD error.

Troubleshooting a specific BSOD error can be as simple as noting down the stop error code number and looking for help online. You don’t have to prevent reboot on BSOD error for noting down the details, you can just film a video on your mobile phone and then get to the screen, even if the error message is shown for a fraction of a second.You can as well prevent an automatic restart on blue screen error message from the System and Maintenance windows, as shown below,

1. Click the Start menu and open the Control Panel.
2. Select System and Maintenance.
3. Next, select System.
4. Now click Advanced system settings in the task panel on the left-hand side.
5. In the System Properties dialog box, under Startup and Recovery, click the Settings button.
6. In the Startup and Recovery dialog box, clear the checkbox named Automatic restart under the System failure heading.
7. Click OK twice to close the dialog boxes and then close the Control Panel.

Reading Minidumps.

This is an advanced topic. For more details see this Microsoft article.

Now, lets update the system driver first.

To do that,

please download this tool – FREE scan of drivers now!

Ati3duag.dll is a universal graphics driver module from ATI Radeon for R300 chipset technology. This is a universal device driver for wide range of ATI Radeon R300 products. The Radeon R300 is the 3rd generation architecture of Radeon graphics chips featuring 3D acceleration based upon both Direct3D 9.0 and OpenGL 2.x. Hence the module Ati3duag.dll comes with the driver package for all R300 based graphics card. This file resides at the Windows system path,
C:\Windows\system32\ati3duag.dll.

How to fix Ati3duag.dll Stop Error – stop 0x0000007E?

Install this windows Hot fix.

The root cause of this error lies in the windows itself relating to “stop 0x7e in aec.sys”.

KB900485 – Error message in Windows XP Service Pack 2: “Stop 0x7E”

“Install this update to prevent an issue in which you may receive a “stop 0x7e in aec.sys” error message on a computer that is running Windows XP Service Pack 2. The error may occur during startup, or after the system has started. AEC.SYS is the acoustic echo canceling driver.”

Note: Try this hotfix as well, KB920872. This is to fix Kmixer.sys and Splitter.sys which as per the observation at this thread was from the fact that those system drivers were the common denominator in all of the error logs of Ati3duag.dll Stop error.

If that does not help, try updating the drivers!

Tips for optimum gaming experience:

• Updating the graphics drivers often solves most of the issues.
• Check if your system meet that game requirements.
• Check for the latest gaming patches.
• Keep up with the game website/forums for the video card issues.
• Update the directX from the Microsoft site here.
• Use Microsoft error reporting to report errors and get the latest hot fixes for audio system drivers.
• If the driver does not support dual monitors, or “dual head” video cards. You can disable the extra video output in your display properties control panel. Click Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Settings > Advanced.
• You need to clean the remnants of the old ATI driver uninstallation. Clean it with Registry Booster
• If the latest graphics driver doesn’t work for a particular game. Get the Beta version or even Omega version.

Ati2dvag.dll Blue screen – STOP: 0x000000EA – Infinite loop problem.

The problem is the graphics driver is caught in the infinite loop and it replies on the graphics card to end the loop. This is due to the graphics driver is unable to program the graphics card correctly. Or there the graphics card is malfunctioning and can’t respond to the commands of the graphics driver.

Note: For the,

THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER

Symantec’s PCAnywhere can also trigger this stop error (BSOD). The recommended fix is the update to the latest version of PCAnywhere.

The Error Message:

“The driver for the display device got stuck in an infinite loop. This usually indicates a problem with the device itself or with the device driver programming the hardware incorrectly. Please check with your display device vendor for any driver updates.”

“It was a Problem detected. Windows has been shut down so that the computer is not damaged.
The problem was, perhaps, from the following file: ati2dvag
If you received this error for the first time displayed should you restart the computer, if this message persists, they must follow the following steps the device driver is in an endless loop.

Technical Information STOP: 0x000000EA (0x86550B90, 0×86409380,
0x8677DDE8, 0×00000001)”

STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER

STOP: 0x100000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER_M

Commonly recommended fix:

A common recommended fix on the internet would be to open the update driver and selecting PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge. This trick seems to work for a lot of people. The fix is,

Right click-mouse over My Computer
Properties
Hardware(Tab)
Device Manager(button)
Click [+] next to System devices
right-mouse on CPU to AGP Controller (or whatever your controller is called, mine was SiS AGP)
Update Driver(button)

Select Install from a list or specific location (Advanced)
Next(button)
Select Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install.
Next(button)
Select PCI standard PCI-to-PCI bridge
Next(button)
Finish(button)
Reboot.

For further support please contact ATI’s support, http://support.amd.com/us/Pages/AMDSupportHub.aspx

If that doesn’t help, which brings us to the next part of the article.

Other methods to fix Ati2dvag.dll Bluescreen Errors.

1. Install the latest version of ATI video drivers.

You can visit the AMD website to download the latest version of ATI video drivers. There is a detect and install the version, I recommend using that. If you have 3rd party driver installer program, you can also use that. If you have a tool such as DriverAgent it can alert you when there is a new version of any drivers. You don’t need to manually visit the vendor sites to get the updates. And it’s a value service for a small amount.

2. Change the Hardware Acceleration settings.

Turning off Hardware acceleration is the safest option to decrease the occurrence of this error. While you may compromise the performance, I recommend it to troubleshoot to see if the problem lies in the Graphics driver or the Graphics Card. Also disable the “Enable Write Combining” to make sure the graphics driver won’t program the graphics card incorrectly. To do these,

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Display.
2. On the Settings tab, click Advanced, and then click the Troubleshoot tab.
3. Move the Hardware Acceleration slider to None, and then click to clear the Enable write combining check box.
4. Click OK, and then click OK.

3. Get a graphics card cooler (cooling unit).

Ati graphics can heat up pretty quickly. Getting a cooler would be the solution to keep the temperature below 40 C.

4. Upgrade your video card.

If you any of the solutions did not work, it’s the problem with the video card(GPU unit) itself. Your video card is old, or it has been overclocked to its maximum and worn out. So these must help you decide to invest on a totally new video card (other brand) or upgrade and get the latest version from the current vendor.

5. Additional recommendations.

Fltmgr.sys, is a Windows system file that expands to “Microsoft File System Filter Manager”. The role of this file is to arrange, manage and monitor data written on your Hard drive. Why? To make sure those datas are valid and not corrupted.

fltMgr.sys is located in the folder C:\Windows\System32\drivers and occupies 124 kb to 464 kb(1) of hard disk space.

What are the Errors associated with it?

1. Stop Error – STOP: 0x0000003b

SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION

STOP 0x0000003B (0X00000000C0000005, 0XFFFFFADF90204E58, 0XFFFFFADF80C70810, 0X0000000000000000)

fltMgr.sys – address FFFFFADF90204E58 base at FFFFFADF901F8000, datestamp 45d69305

Note: This STOP error also gets triggered on problems with win2k.sys, Tcpip.sys and other files. But this article aims only on problems with fltmgr.sys file.

How to fix this error?

The usual causes of this error are system services and outdated drivers. Check if there are any drivers on your computer that has a recent update released.

2. Stop Error – STOP: 0x0000007e

This error occurs after you have added AMD processor and NOT Intel processor, which you have prior to that. You OS being Windows Xp SP 2 or 3. The error message reads,

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer…

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xFC5CCAF3, 0xFC90F8C0, 0xFC90F5C0) SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

How to fix this error?

You need to fix the Intel processor driver ie. Intelppm.sys file. As this file which runs at the “system preparation” is built on the Intel processor. You need to fix this file from the Windows Upgrade here.

Since the registry key of the original is now orphaned, you also fix this with a registry cleaner tool.

1. Antivirus pogram or backup tool, sometimes is the cause, because when its Vista incompatible.

2. Also, when hardwares are Vista incompatible. So does the corrupted device drivers, BIOS firmware incompatibility, and a corrupted installation of system services.

3. Failed hardware.

Steps to resolve STOP 0x0000000A

1. Remove all external hardwares such as CD, DVD, printers, camera, sound card, network/wifi card, USB stick etc… and confirm they are all VISTA compatible. Dont plug in yet.

2. The next step is to restart the computer, and press F8 immediately when the PC starts to open Advanced Boot Options. Select System Recovery Option, and press System Repair. This starts the repair process of the entire PC.

3. Once the repair is done, plug in all the Vista compatible hardwares. Now click on Start->Control Panel->System and Maintenance->Problem Reports and Solutions. This must find the driver updates, run them. Now the problem must be resolved!

4. In come cases, you still see the error during startup but the windows loads. In that case go to c:\windows\system32
right click cmd.exe and Run As Administrator. Enter mdshed.exe.  This opens up Windows Memory Diagnostic tool. Click on “Restart now and check for problems (Recommended)”. System restarts now to run this tool. This will diagnose all the memory problems as this STOP 0x0000000A IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is related to memory.

4. b. Making sense of Windows Memory Diagnostic Test Results

If the test fails RAM is failed, i recommend you to get a new memory. Crucial.com is the best place i personally get my memory sticks.

If the test shows errors message “Hardware problems were detected”. The following steps helps,

i. If you have only one RAM, get another one for the test. (other computers or even friends)

ii. Run an Extended memory test (press T on the Tool screen) for both the RAM one by one at one RAM module, keep the others free. This might take a while. If your RAM has errors while the other hasn’t then its an hardware problem. Get a new one. Ram sticks are dirt cheap at crucial.com.

Its good to have all the maintenance tools with Vista compatibility. A good vista compatible antivirus, antispyware and Registry Optimizer Tool will make up for a great arsenal of PC health maintenance tool.

click on the image for full screen view.

NTFS file system can get corrupted because of,

• Corrupt ntfs.sys file
• Damaged hard drive data
• Damaged NTFS file system
• Corrupt SCSI or IDE drivers (hard drive component).

Steps to resolve this problem:

If windows still loads:

If you are able to still get the windows load, before repairing it, make sure to disable all the background services, antivirus scanners, or any malware monitors that are running on the taskmanage/taskbar. Also close the disk defragmenter that are scheduled to run.

Now, run the hardware diagnostic tool, to do that, click Start, click Run, type hwinfo /ui and then click OK.This shows the details of hard disk problem.

You can then run, disk scan, to do that, click Start, click Run, type chkdsk /r and then click OK. This is will repair file system damages.

If windows doesn’t load:

You can access your NTFS partition, using a NTFS boot USB or floppy. To create a booting USB or floppy, download a free program called NTFS4DOS from here, http://www.optimize-your-pc.org/files/ntfsinst.exe

You now have a bootable USD or floppy drive. It must boot the PC up. You see a welcome screen with 3 options to choose from. choose option 1. Type chkdsk/r in the command prompt, to repair the bad NTFS partition.

Remove the USB or floppy and restart the PC. The problem should be resolved now.

There is a thin chance that you cant repair on severe corruption, leaving you with data loss. The only way is to remove the Hark drive from your PC and repartition on another computer, and then running a data recovery tool to see if you can recover some data.

Hopefully, your problem wont be this severe if you have a well maintained PC with regular disk scans, defragmentation and antivirus/antispyware scans. Its also must to have a reliable Registry Optimizer Tool in your maintenance tool arsenal, to take care of registry health as well.

A user32.dll file is a part of Windows User API (Application Programming Interface). Its one of those files that interact between users inputs (from the programs) and windows OS. Most of the programs depend on this file. So its dangerous to remove this.

To fix the problem related to User32.dll, the following steps help,

1. Turn on windows automatic update. If you haven't already, click the start button, click Run, type sysdm.cpl, click Automatic Updates tab and choose "Automatic (recommended) Automatically download recommended updates for my computer and install them" and click ok.
    
2. If there is an User32.dll error after installing a program or hardware driver, uninstall that program and reboot your PC. Maybe there is a fault with that program or driver and you need to install the latest version of it.
    
3. If above steps failed, problem lies with the User32.dll file itself. Get a Windows OS CD that you installed your current version of windows with. Open the CD drive folder, navigate to i386 folder, and find User32.dl_. Copy that somewhere temporarily and rename it to User32.dll. Copy that now to C:\Windows\System32 folder, when prompted to rewrite that, hit ok.
   • If your prefer using recovery console, in case when you are unable to boot the PC. Insert the Windows OS CD, xp or vista or windows 7, whatever you have installed. Select the right booting if you have multiple boots. Enter password when prompted. A blank password for the windows xp home edition. When the welcome screen appears type R to start Recovery console. At the command prompt type, expand [CD ROM DRIVE]:\i386\user32.dl_ c:\windows\system32. CD ROM DRIVE is the drive letter for cd rom. In my PC its J:\. Type Exit, hit enter and restart the PC, remove the CD Rom for the normal boot.

This must do it for you. If not, you can use system restore to a point closer to today's point. Also i recommend that you clean the mess off your PC's registry using a Registry Optimizer Tool to keep your PC's health in good condition, in addition to of course, antivirus, antispyware and disk tool checkups.