New Windows 10 Emergency Updates Fix Remaining Printing Issues

Microsoft has released the Windows 10 KB5001649 emergency update to fix printing issues plaguing users since the March 2021 Patch Tuesday updates.

On March 9th, Microsoft released their March 2021 Patch Tuesday security updates and cumulative updates for Windows.

Since then, many users have reported that Windows 10 would crash when printing with an “APC_INDEX_MISMATCH for win32kfull.sys” error or printed pages would have missing graphics, black bars, or blank pages.

These issues predominantly affected Kyocera, Rico, Dymo, Zebra, HP, Brother, and Canon printers.

“Can confirm… multiple locations, kyocera and okidata printing causing system crash, as well as opening files in Corel Draw 7 and Libre Office causing same stop code crash… good times!,” one Windows 10 user reported.

“Another issue here is printers not causing the BSOD are not printing some graphics. IE: Our UPS Zebra Printers stopped printing our logos on the labels, and are packing lists are printing black blocks. Zebra, HP, Brother, we’ve tried them all with the same results. Removing the update and things go back to normal,” another member reported in our article comments.

To resolve these issues, Microsoft released an out-of-band Windows 10 update on March 15th that only resolved the printing crashes but did not fix the other printing issues.

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Second Windows 10 OOB update released

Last night, Microsoft released a second Windows 10 out-of-band update (KB5001649) to resolve the remaining printing issues, such as blank pages, black bars, formatting issues, and missing graphics.

This update resolves the following issues when printing:

• Elements of the document might print as solid black/color boxes or might be missing, including barcodes, QR codes, and graphics elements, such as logos.
• Table lines might be missing. Other alignment or formatting issues might also be present.
• Printing from some apps or to some printers might result in a blank page or label.

Microsoft is releasing the fix as an optional cumulative update through Windows Update and the Microsoft Update Catalog and only recommends installing it if affected by the printing issues.

At this time, Microsoft has only released the update for the following Windows versions.

• Windows 10, version 20H2 and Windows Server, version 20H2 (KB5001649)
• Windows 10, version 2004 and Windows Server, version 2004 (KB5001649)
• Windows 10, version 1909 and Windows Server, version 1909 (KB5001648)
• Windows 10, version 1809 and Windows Server 2019 (KB5001638)
• Windows 10, version 1803 (KB5001634)
• Windows 10, version 1607 and Windows Server 2016 (KB5001633)
• Windows 10, version 1507 (KB5001631)

Microsoft states that they will be releasing further updates soon for the remaining Windows versions.

KB5001649 is failing to install for some users

When attempting to install the update, some users are reporting receiving an error stating “We couldn’t install this update , but you can try again (0x80070541).”

If you run into a similar error, you can manually install the update by downloading it from the Microsoft Update Catalog.

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Microsoft has still not provided a reason for these printer issues but it may have been caused by recent security updates that fixed Windows Print Spooler vulnerabilities.