How to Fix APC_INDEX_MISMATCH Blue Screen of Death Printing Issue

How to Fix APC_INDEX_MISMATCH Blue Screen of Death Printing Issue after installing KB5000802. Although regular “reports” about broken Windows patches and updates are often severely exaggerated, this is not the case with the March cumulative updates. Shortly after the update became available, Microsoft confirmed a bug that causes a BSOD when a user tries to print a document. A system throws a blue screen of death with the APC_INDEX_MISMATCH error code. 

Microsoft was relatively quick to acknowledge the problem (which was not the case with the Surface Book 3 screen blackout issue), but the company did not provide any workarounds. Now, a temporary fix is available in the official Windows Health Dashboard documentation.

Update 2021/03/16: Microsoft has released the official patches to resolve this issue. You may want to install them instead of manually modifying the printer properties.

Microsoft’s investigation showed that the bug affects computers with Type 3 printer drivers. Printers with Type 4 drivers are not affected. Here is how you can check which driver type your printer uses.

To check the printer driver type

1. On your keyboard, hit Win + R and enter the printmanagement.msc command. If Windows cannot run this command, open the Start Menu and type Manage Optional Features. In a new window, press Add a Feature and select Print Management Console.
2. After installing the console, launch it using the command in the first step. In a new window’s left sidebar, expand Print Servers and select your PC in the list. Select Printers.
3. Now, proceed to the middle column and look for the Driver Type column.

Write down the names of all the Type 3 printers. Now, do the following.

Fix APC_INDEX_MISMATCH Blue Screen of Death

1. Open Command Prompt as Administrator.
2. Execute the following commands one after another. Be sure to replace the PRINTER NAME portion with a proper Type 3 printer name. rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xg /n “PRINTER NAME”.
3. The command above will open the selected printer’s settings. Look for the Attributes field and check whether it has Direct in the parameter.
4. If it does not, return to Command Prompt and execute the next command:  rundll32 printui.dll,PrintUIEntry /Xs /n "PRINTER NAME" attributes +direct 
5. After this, run the first command once again and check the Attributes field for the Direct parameter.
6. Repeat these steps for all the Type 3 printers connected to your computer. You can also check the official video guide from Microsoft using this link. 

The issue affects all client and server Windows 10 versions from 1803 up to 20H2. Microsoft promises to fix the problem permanently in the upcoming updates. Until then, use the temporary workaround from this article. Needless to say, you do not need to make any changes if your computer prints documents without issues.