win32k.sys blue screen

I am having a MSi laptop running with Windows XP Pro, recently upgraded it to SP2. I also have desktop at my home whos HDD is sent for repairing, hence I though use its monitor with my laptop as Dual Monitor using Extended Desktop feature. But as soon as click on the check for Extended Desktop I suddenly receive a Blue Screen with following message:

STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBF9377A3, 0xA8B1F8Fc, 0x00000000)
win32k.sys - Address BF9377A3 base at BF8000001, Datestamp 48ce5235

I did some research for the fix and found somewhere that recreating the pagefile can fix this problem. I tried the same but that worked for few seconds as dual monitor, and again I got the BSOD. For more troubleshooting I renamed the win32k.sys file and let Windows recreate it, also run Windows Updates, no success. Hence I deleted all monitors and display adapters from Device Manager. Next time when I booted my system I saw system reinstalling all correct monitors(drivers automatically.

Anyone know why I was not able to do dual monitor setup ? Any help ?

It seems to me either hardware compatibility issue or drivers problem. Did you checked Device Manager, is there anything listed with yellow Exclamation mark? If yes, check its Device Error Code and Google for some help. Other than this, you should also click Start > Run, Type “sigverif.exe” and press enter. This will bring up list of installed drivers. Here check which of them are unsigned.

Further more you should checkout this msdn article about info on “Stop Error message 0x8E”. According to this, any third party remote control software installed on your system can be cause of if the problem is related to Win32k.sys. If it is there on your system you should go to recovery console and delete its service file. This may help.

I appreciate your help 1kshana but as far as I know as mine is not the problem of KERNEL_MODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED error, I don’t think the URL you provided is going to help me. Also, as per your suggestions I checked Device Manager and there is nothing marked yellow with exclamation. One think I would like to ask, what you exactly mean by Remote Control Program? In my knowledge there is nothing such program installed on my system.

I also put Sigverif.exe in RUN and that brought me up with only C:windows
\system32\spool\drivers\w32x86\3 showing unsigned drivers but if am not wrong those are just related to printers. What else ?

What I can suggest you at this stage is first of all disable Automatic Restart of your system. This will help you to note down the complete information appears on blue Screen on system Failure. FYI, the error code you mentioned above (0x0000008E) is related to all BSDOs. Hence it is very difficult to address the actual error you facing. You should have noted and mentioned the 3rd and 4th stuff came after “0x8E”. You can do this by going to desktop properties > Advanced > Startup And Recovery > System Failure. Here uncheck the box next to Automatically Restart.

I was having very similar problem with my laptop (was trying to connect two monitors with my system) when I got BSOD. After lot of workaround finally found that it was Microsoft’s Security patches specially the MS08-061 (KB954211) causing the problem. Am sure about this because I have tested it thrice with and without that patch installed. Whenever the patch was installed I faced system crash while doing dual monitor setup. And when I do the same without the patch it worked fine.

So, you know what you need to do. Remember there is not just one but two patches actually, i.e. KB954211 and KB959252.

Thanks for the info friend, that really worked for my friend. However I found out one more fix that worked for me because I was having such option on my motherboard. It may not work for all (like it dint worked for my friend because that option wasn’t on his MOBO).

On my Asus Mobo I have an option to change the RAM timing that lowers the RAM speed. So what I had to do was to change the RAM timing from Optimal to Sync and that fixed mine. But it is not available on most of the motherboards. Hence if the solution posted by mprovencal above wont work for you guys than you should try lowering your memory speed upto 133Mhz. You can also switch the TAM Dimms/Simms.. That’s it. It should work.

Here is my solution after searching for many hours for a software problem: It´s a hardware problem: I had 2 RAM bars, i suspect that in one of them a cell got damaged (after working well for months) without being noticed. Removing that bar solved the problem.

Hey, this has been happening for a while. My computer shuts down with a BSOD pretty often when I am playing games on it. Everytime the error report shows it is from ::
C:\DOCUME~1\dan\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER91e4.dir00\Mini010912-02.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\dan\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER91e4.dir00\sysdata.xml

and the info is something along the lines of BCCode : 1000000a BCP1 : 00310484 BCP2 : 00000002 BCP3 : 00000000
BCP4 : 8050A5AC OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 3_0 Product : 256_1


Now, i don't always get the same error messages. I get a couple of different ones. One was UNMOUNTABLE BOOT DRIVE. One was win32k.sys. And so on. It is so frustrating to have this happen so often though. I was told by many that it was 99% a RAM problem, so I ordered new RAM, and that didn't fix it ( in fact it blue screens everytime i put in any different ram.)

I have updated NVIDIA drivers. I reformatted. Bought new hardware. Looked up the problem many a times. No fix.


AMD Athlon X2 4800+ Processor
2048 MB Samsung DDR2 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 430 GT
ECS Iris8
320 GB Hard drive (not sure of name/model)
Windows XP 32 Bit SP3

Please help =(

There is a thread already made on TA titled win32k.sys blue screen do check that.