Windows stop error - 0x0000007E system thread exception not handled

This article provides steps to resolve issues where the guest operating system (guest OS) encounters a problem and attempts to restart your Azure virtual machine (VM). The error message that's displayed says, "A system thread exception wasn't handled."

Symptoms

When you use boot diagnostics to view a screenshot of the VM output, you'll see that Windows needs to restart with either the "SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED" stop code or the "0x0000007E" error code.

Screenshot shows Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We'll restart for you message and SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED stop code.

Cause

The cause can't be determined until a memory dump file is analyzed. Continue to collect the memory dump file.

Solution

Tip

If you have a recent backup of the VM, you may try restoring the VM from the backup to fix the boot problem.

To resolve this problem, you first need to gather the memory dump file for the crash and then send the file to Microsoft support. To collect the dump file, follow the instructions in the next two sections.

Attach the OS disk to a new repair VM

  1. To prepare a repair VM, follow steps 1-3 of the VM repair commands.
  2. Connect to the repair VM by using Remote Desktop Connection.

Locate the dump file and submit a support ticket

  1. On the repair VM, go to the Windows folder on the attached OS disk. For example, if the drive letter that's assigned to the attached OS disk is labeled F, go to F:\Windows.
  2. Look for the memory.dmp file, and then submit a support ticket with the memory dump file attached.
  3. If you're having trouble locating the memory.dmp file, follow the guide to generate a crash dump file using non-maskable interrupt (NMI) calls.

For more information about NMI calls, see the NMI calls in Azure Serial Console user guide.

Next steps

Contact us for help

If you have questions or need help, create a support request, or ask Azure community support. You can also submit product feedback to Azure feedback community.