You may have experienced a Blue Screen of Death (BSoD) on your Windows PC stating “System thread exception not handled (Dxgmms2.sys).” This is usually experienced while gaming or performing tasks that require heavy graphics rendering. There is no one reason why this exception may be thrown, but there are a few workarounds for it.
In this article, we discuss various ways through which you can prevent experiencing the same Blue Screen of Death error again on the hardware that you are currently using.
Table of contents
What is Dxgmms2.sys
Dxgmms2.sys is a critical file in Windows that is responsible for the graphics rendering capabilities of your computer. If it cannot handle the rendering process it will throw exception which results in a blue screen of death. Therefore the entire computer will need to be restarted to repair the problem.
There are several possible causes for the dxgmms2.sys error:
- Faulty RAM modules/Hard disk.
- Incompatible firmware.
- Outdated/corrupted drivers.
- Unable to cope with hardware acceleration.
- Corrupted BIOS.
How to fix Dxgmms2.sys BSoD
There are several ways you can troubleshoot your PC to overcome the Dxgmms2.sys BSoD. The following steps should be performed sequentially until your problem is resolved, since any one of them could be affecting your computer’s rendering capabilities.
Troubleshoot hardware
We suggest that you start by making sure that your hardware, such as RAM, GPU, and the hard drive is functioning normally.
You can start by removing your RAM modules, cleaning them as well as the bay, and plugging them back in one-by-one to check if any of the modules are faulty. Also, remove your GPU and clean it as well as its bay.
For the hard drive, we recommend that you use any third-party tools to check and monitor its health.
Update drivers
An outdated or corrupted driver can also throw in an exception as it is unable to perform at its optimized configurations. We suggest that you make sure that you have the latest driver for your GPU installed.
You can download the latest drivers for your GPUs on the manufacturer’s website. Download and install the latest drivers for NVIDIA GPUs using this guide, and refer to our GPU section for the latest drivers for Intel GPUs. For AMD drivers, refer to their website.
Run DirectX diagnostics tool
DirectX is a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that enhances your multimedia experience on a computer. It has a built-in diagnostics tool in Windows 10 that displays all the current information about the graphics hardware as well as the associated software.
To run the tool, type in dxdiag in Run.
Once the tool launches, switch to the Display tab and check if the 3 features under DirectX Features are enabled. If not, then there might be a compatibility problem with the driver and the GPU.
If you cannot get the feature to run, then you may have to re-install DirectX on your PC. You can download all versions of DirectX from this post.
Reset complete BIOS settings
A misconfigured BIOS can also lead to BSODs on your PC. Therefore, if your issue has not yet been resolved, we recommend that you reset your BIOS settings entirely.
The process to reset BIOS settings is almost the same on any computer, regardless of the manufacturer. Enter your system BIOS using the respective method given in this post. Then, scroll through different pages and look for “Reset BIOS” or “Restore to default settings.” Usually, this can be found on the Save & Exit page or on the Security page. Press Enter and then select Yes to reset the settings.
Increase tdrdelay time
TdrDelay is the time delay the GPU takes before preempting the GPU scheduler. This value is set in seconds, and by default, its value is 2. This can be changed through the Registry Editor, which we are going to show you how.
First, we recommend that you create a system restore point for your operating system, as any mistake in setting up the system registry could be fatal to your system’s functionality.
Now launch the Registry Editor by typing in regedit in Run. Once open, paste the following in the address bar at the top and hit Enter. This will automatically open the destination location:
Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers
Now right-click GraphicsDrivers in the left pane, expand New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value. When created, name this new DWORD as TdrDelay.
Double-click TdrDelay and set its Value Data to 10. This will ensure that the GPU preempts the Scheduler after 10 seconds, rather than 2. Of course, a system restart will be required before the changes take effect.
Disable sleep mode
This does not happen often, but the displays of the computers sometimes go into sleep mode, even when the GPU is being used. When the display attempts to return to wake mode, the computer encounters a Dxgmms2.sys exception.
Therefore, you need to disable your computer’s sleep mode. Here are 4 ways to prevent your computer from going to sleep.
Disable hardware acceleration
The purpose of hardware acceleration is to give the best performance while eating up more power. However, it is of no use if it becomes the reason for BSODs. Hardware acceleration may occasionally throw the Dxgmms2.sys exception. Therefore, you need to disable it and check if the problem is resolved.
To disable hardware acceleration system-wide, launch the Registry Editor by typing in regedit in Run. Then, paste the following path in the address bar at the top:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics
Now create a new DWORD (as in the previous section) and name it DisableHWAcceleration. When created, set its Value Data to 1.
As per routine, your system will require a reboot so that the changes take effect.
Closing words
It is very frustrating to be in the middle of a game and suddenly everything stops working. Thus, do not wait for the next BSoD to appear and utilize the troubleshooting steps given in this post to rectify the issue before it occurs again.
