Fix Windows 11 Black Screen Error

Virtual Reality is slowly becoming standard in gaming. More and more affordable headsets are coming out lowering entry prices and making them affordable for all. But in a sea of new VR headsets, it is important to at least purchase a decent one that will perform nicely and hopefully last longer. Therefore in today’s article, we will address some of the best options currently available on the market,

Oculus Quest 2

With its Rift model, Oculus set itself as a big player in VR. Now the company is slowly bowing out of the dedicated, tethered VR headset with its latest Quest 2 designed to primarily be a standalone headset. In case you do not know, tethered headset means that the headset itself is connected to your PC and is using its power to drive your VR experience. Now technical specifications of Quest 2 are pretty OK and it can drive stuff pretty decently and if you want you can purchase the dedicated cable to connect it to your PC for the full experience of games requiring more capable hardware. Oculus Quest 2 is the cheapest headset on this list and with its stable performance, is highly recommended.

Valve Index VR

Although the headset itself is nothing revolutionary or special its controllers are. They can track individual finger movements, making games (that take advantage of them) much more immersive than the standard trigger grips on other controllers. The Index's higher refresh rate makes for smoother action, as well, which is another nice bonus. If you already have an HTC Vive or Vive Cosmos Elite, and their base stations (not the regular Cosmos), you can buy only the controllers.

Sony PlayStation VR

The PlayStation VR is compelling thanks to Sony backing its development, plus the PlayStation 4's affordability and availability compared with gaming PCs. All you need is the headset, a PlayStation 4, and a PlayStation Camera (now included with most PlayStation VR bundles). Not really the best of the bunch but still one of the top ones for console gaming. Sony is working on a new PlayStation VR system for the PlayStation 5, with redesigned controllers. The new headset hasn't been revealed yet, but the company has released a preview of the new controllers.

HP Reverb G2 VR

HP headset is one which you get if you want the best image quality in VR headset, sadly controllers did not follow the same quality of headset itself. But this is still a pretty decent headset overall and worth the purchase.

HTC Vive Cosmos

HTC's Vive Cosmos is the upgraded version of the Vive. It features a higher resolution and replaces the external base stations with outward-facing cameras for motion tracking. It's a comprehensive package for whole-room VR. HTC recently released the Vive Pro 2, a high-end VR headset targeting both enterprise users and consumers. This new headset features a 2,448-by-2,448 resolution display for each eye, making it the highest-resolution headset currently available. It's also more expensive than the Cosmos Elite. Sadly one thing that is bringing this headset down is the price.

One of the useful features that came with Windows 10 is the Mobile Hotspot although there’s a downside to it – it drains your battery faster especially if your Windows 10 device is running on battery. Another one of its flaws in the implementation of this feature is that it stays activated even when the connection is idle. In other words, it is still activated even if no devices are connected to it. As a result, it consumes battery life and affects it. There are also instances when it affects the performance of the network connection. At the time of writing, Microsoft hasn’t done anything about this dilemma yet so in the meantime, you can continue reading this post to resolve this issue on your Windows 10 device. You can remedy this Mobile Hotspot issue by running a command in Windows PowerShell. To get started, follow the given instructions below.

Turn off Mobile Hotspot Automatically:

Step 1: The first thing you have to do is to copy the following command:

powershell -windowstyle hidden -command "Start-Process cmd -ArgumentList '/s,/c,net stop "icssvc" & REG ADD "HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesicssvcSettings" /V PeerlessTimeoutEnabled /T REG_DWORD /D 1 /F & net start "icssvc"' -Verb runAs"

Step 2: After copying the command given above, open the Notepad app and paste the command you copied there and save it. And when saving it, select the “Save as” option and its File type as “All files”. Step 3: After that, put “TurnOnTimer.bat” as the file’s name and save it on your Desktop. Step 4: Once done, run the file you just created, and when a User Account Control or UAC prompt appears, just click on Yes. Step 5: After you run the file, it will run a series of scripts in a command line which will turn off the Mobile Hotspot automatically when idle. And that’s how you automatically turn off the Mobile Hotspot when your Windows 10 device is idle. On the other hand, if you want to undo the changes made, you can always do so using the steps provided below.

Turn on Mobile Hotspot:

Step 1: Copy and paste the following command in the Notepad app:

powershell -windowstyle hidden -command "Start-Process cmd -ArgumentList '/s,/c,net stop "icssvc" & REG ADD "HKLMSYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesicssvcSettings" /V PeerlessTimeoutEnabled /T REG_DWORD /D 0 /F & net start "icssvc"' -Verb runAs"

Step 2: After copying and pasting the command, save it as “TurnOffTimer.bat” on the Desktop. Step 3: Once done, run the file like what you did earlier and select Yes when a UAC prompt pops up. This will run a series of scripts on a command line which will revert the changes back to their default state.

Code 42 - What is it?

Code 42 Error is referred to as a Device Manager Error code. Before we explain what this code indicates, it is important to understand what ‘Device Manager’ is and its functions.

Device Manager is basically a Windows tool that helps manage devices attached to the system such as the Printer, Scanner and the USB Device. The Device Manager Error code 42 occurs when a duplicate device is detected.

Error Code 42 is displayed in the following format:

“Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the system. Code 42”

Solution

Error Causes

Narrowing down to one particular cause for error code 42 is not virtually possible because it may be triggered due to many underlying reasons. These include:

• When a bus driver incorrectly generates and creates 2 identically named devices
• When a device with a serial number is found in a new location without being removed from its original location
• Mis-configured drivers

No matter what the reason for this error code,, to avoid inconvenience and to ensure proper hardware performance, it is advisable to fix it right away without any delay.

Further Information and Manual Repair

If you’re not technically sound, the code 42 message display can panic you. But don’t worry, the error message sounds complex but it is quite easy to fix.

To resolve code 42 in a few minutes, simply try the methods given below. These methods are easy-to-perform, effective and more importantly require no technical expertise.

Method 1 - Restart Your System

Code 42 can pop up due to some temporary glitch in the Device Manager. By simply restarting your PC, you can resolve this problem.

Therefore, first things first, restart your system. However, in case it doesn’t work out, try other methods.

Method 2 - Launch the Troubleshooting Wizard

Launch the troubleshooting wizard to find the underlying problem and resolve it accordingly. To do this, proceed with the following steps:

• Go to the start menu
• Type Device Manager in the search bar and press enter
• Now click on the ‘General Tab’
• Then click on ‘Trouble Shoot’ to launch the Troubleshooting Wizard
• After that follow the instructions in this Wizard to diagnose the problem and resolve it.

Method 3 - Restore Your PC to its Previous State

Another method to fix code 42 is to use the System Restore tool to restore your PC to its previous working state before the error popped up. To do this,

• Go to the start menu
• Type System Restore in the search bar and press enter
• Now click on ‘Restore my computer to an earlier time’ and then click ‘Next’
• After that select the restore point on the restore point list and confirm settings
• Restart your PC to activate changes
• Before restoring your PC to its previous state, create a backup. By creating data backup you can avoid data loss issues, which are likely to occur during this process.

Creating backup manually can be time-consuming and a painstaking task. The best way to create backup and restore your PC to its normal state is to download DriverFIX.

It is a user-friendly device driver management software that helps create data backup automatically and simultaneously restores your PC back to its normal working state in a few seconds.

This software is compatible with all Windows versions.

Click here to download DriverFIX on your system to resolve error code 42.

Raptor Lake, a new and upcoming Intel 13th generation CPU will break the 6GHz barrier for the first time ever in normal working mode, overclocked mode in Intel words will go as high as 8GHz. CPU will be 15% faster than Alder lake in single-threaded tasks and a stunning 41% faster in multi-threaded workloads.

The current world record for overclocking is 8.72GHz done with AMD FX-8370 and Intel is aiming at breaking that record with Raptor Lake, of course, this kind of extreme overclocking will require some top-of-the-line nitrogen cooling systems.

Raptor Lake will run on the current LGA 1700 socket, so you will not need to buy another motherboard for CPU and they will also be manufactured on a 10nm process which means that you will need to take care of cooling and power supply if they really go over 6GHz.

Mid-range Intel Core i5-13600K processor will come with 14 cores inside and 20 threads running at a maximum P-core frequency of 5.1GHz, while Core i7-13700K will have 16 cores and 24 threads and run on 5.3GHz max P-core frequency. Best i9-13900K will come packed with 24 cores, 8 of them will be P-cores, and the rest 16 are E-cores, and 32 threads. It will reach 5.4GHz frequency but it was stated it can go to 5.8GHz with Thermal Velocity Boost.

After this statement, we can clearly see that the 6GHz breaker CPU will probably be an i9 special KS variant. In other words, specially tested and picked existing i9 running at higher speeds as was with Alder Lake as well where normal i9-12900K ran at 5.2GHz while i9-12900KS was running at 5.5GHz.

If you encounter an error message saying, “ERR SSL VERSION OR CIPHER MISMATCH” while visiting a website, then it is not primarily your fault as an end-user. In fact, it can happen on any website like Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and even Internet Explorer. Getting this error means that the website you are visiting is using an SSL certificate which your browser seems to be rejected because there is some issue with the certificate. It is also possible that the certificate that’s downloaded on your computer is corrupted or that your computer configuration for TSL/SSL is misconfigured. Here are the complete details of the error message:

“A secure connection cannot be established because this site uses an unsupported protocol, Error code ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH”

To resolve the ERR_SSL_VERSION_OR_CIPHER_MISMATCH error, refer to the options given below and see which one works for you.

Option 1 – Try to access the website with the only HTTP

The first thing you can do is to try accessing the website using HTTP instead of HTTPS. If you can open the website using HTTP then it means that the problem is in the website itself. And if you are the website owner, you can check the following:

• Check if your website’s SSL certificate name is mismatched. Here you need to ensure that the name and alias of the websites match with the actual website URL where the certificate is installed.
• Second, check if your server is using the RC4 Cipher. If it is, then you need to fix that.

On the other hand, you may also check if your CDN also supports SSL since most of the CDN nowadays supports SSL. All you have to do is configure it correctly and it should be good to go.

Option 2 – Try enabling SSL 3 / TLS and disable QUIC Protocol

If you were using Google Chrome when you got the ERR SSL VERSION OR CIPHER MISMATCH error, then you need to follow the protocol fixes for SSL3/TLS and QUIC which are usually some of the reasons that cause the SSL version / Cipher Mismatch. It also has a few fixes for Windows 10 computer where you can clear the certificates and make sure that your computer date and time is in sync with your time zone and so on. If you were using Edge or Internet Explorer when you got the error, then you have to follow the steps below.

• Type “Internet” in the search box of your browser. After that, you should see the Internet Options from the search results.
• Next, open the Internet Properties window and switch to the Advanced tab and then scroll down to the Security section.
• From there, check the “Use TLS 1.1” checkbox as well as the “Use TLS 1.2” checkbox and then click OK to save the changes made.
• Restart the browser.

On the other hand, if you were using Firefox when you go the error, here’s what you have to do.

• Open Firefox and in the address bar, type “about:config” and hit Enter.
• If a warning appears, just click on the “I accept the risk!” button to proceed.
• Next, type in “TLS” in the search field and hit Enter.
• Then look for “security.tls.version.min” and double click on it and set its integer value to 3 to force the protocol of TLS 1.3.
• Now click OK and restart Firefox and do the same thing with SSL.

If your Windows 10 computer is having problems connecting to a wireless network and it takes too long to respond and only keeps on displaying the “Checking network requirements”, then you’ve come to the right place as this place will walk you through fixing the problem. There are two things that can happen when your computer connects to a wireless network. Windows can either connect to the wireless network successfully or return an error message that says, “Cannot connect to the network. However, if none of these things happened, and it only remains at the “Checking network requirements” message, then it could be due to obsolete or incompatible drivers in your computer, particularly the network adapter drivers. To fix this problem, you can try to update or reinstall these drivers, reset the TCP/IP, or run the Network Adapter troubleshooter, as well as reset the Network. For more information, refer to the given options below.

Option 1 – Update the Network Adapter drivers

The first thing you can do to resolve the problem is to update the Network Adapter drivers by following these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run window and then type in the “devmgmt.msc” command and hit Enter to open the Device Manager window.
• Under the Device Manager, you will see a list of drivers. From there, look for the Network Adapters and expand them.
• Look for the Broadcom Network Adapter and right-click on it, as well as other network adapters that have an exclamation icon, and update them all.
• Restart your PC and see if it helped in fixing the problem.

Note: If updating the network drivers didn’t help in fixing the problem, you can also try to uninstall the very same drivers and restart your Windows 10 PC. After that, the system itself will reinstall the drivers you just uninstalled. Alternatively, you can also download and install the drivers from the manufacturer’s website directly. To reinstall the network adapter drivers, refer to these steps:

• Open the Devices Manager from the Win X Menu.
• Then locate the device drivers and right-click on them to open the Properties.
• After that, switch to the Driver tab and click on the Uninstall Device button.
• Follow the screen option to completely uninstall it.
• Finally, restart your computer. It will just reinstall the device drivers automatically.

Option 2 – Try to reset the TCP/IP

As you know, the TCP/IP or the Internet Protocol is the most important thing if you want to use the internet on your computer. That’s why if it ends up getting corrupted, you need to reset the TCP/IP to fix the problem. To reset TCP/IP, refer to these steps:

• In the Windows start the search, type “command prompt” and right-click on Command Prompt from the search results.
• Then select the “Run as administrator” option to open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After that, execute this command: netsh int ip reset resettcpip.txt
• Once it’s done, exit Command Prompt and restart your computer and then check if the error is now fixed.

Option 3 – Run the Network Adapter troubleshooter

To run the Network Troubleshooter, refer to these steps:

• Open the Search bar on your computer and type in “troubleshoot” to open the Troubleshoot settings.
• Next, scroll down and select the “Network Adapter” option from the right pane.
• Then click on the Run Troubleshooter” button.
• After that, your computer will check for any possible errors and will pinpoint the root cause of the problem if possible.
• Restart your computer.

Option 4 – Try to perform Network Reset

You can also try to perform a Network Reset to resolve the problem. This will reset the entire network configuration including your IP address. To perform Network Reset, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + I keys to open Settings.
• From there, go to the Network and Internet section.
• Next, scroll down and look for “Network Reset” under the status pane.
• After that, click on Network Reset and then on Reset now to start resetting the network configuration. Once done, check if it is able to fix the error or not.

Kernel Mode Heap Corruption is the error message that the Windows operating system throws when it encounters a blue screen of death or BSOD error during PC startup or launching specific programs such as video games. It is mainly caused due to software conflicts, driver issues (especially graphics card driver), and computer hardware malfunctioning. The good news is that this error is easily fixable. Follow the next steps in order to fix the error:

1. Rollback graphic card driver

   Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X to open Windows secret menu and click on device manager Expand Display adapters section Right-click on your GPU and choose properties In properties window go to the driver tab and click on Roll back driver Select the reason for operation and click on YES Reboot your PC

2. Update corrupted and outdated drivers

   How is this error mostly driver issue, updating and fixing bad drivers can fix it very easily. As in the previous step, you will need to open the device manager and go through all drivers and manually check for updates for each one, update as necessary or reinstall ones you might think have gone rogue. If you are not experienced enough with this kind of task install some automatic solution for this task like DriverFix

3. Check for software issues

   If this error started happening after the installation of new software it is very likely that the application is causing problems. Try uninstalling or disabling the application to see if it will fix the issue. You can also boot Windows in safe mode to see if the error will happen there, if Windows is working fine in safe mode, it is likely that issue is on the software side.

4. Run SFC scan

   Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X and choose Command prompt (admin) In command prompt type in sfc /scannow and press ENTER Wait for the process to be finished and Reboot the system

If you are trying to access a particular file on your Windows 10 computer either to open, rename or delete it, and you suddenly encounter an error stating, “Could not find this item. This is no longer located in [Path]. Verify the item’s location and try again”, read on for this post will help you out in resolving this issue. If you are able to find and view a file on your computer, you should have clear access to it. And since you are seeing an error message when you try to do something about this file, you are not able to do anything with the file. There are times when this error pops up with the files created by third-party services and that the file’s extension is not defined properly. On the other hand, there are also other obscure causes for this error. To fix it, here are some suggestions you can try.

Option 1 – Delete the file using Command Prompt

If you wish to delete the problematic file and weren’t to, you can use Command Prompt.

• In the Start menu, type in “Command Prompt” to search for it or you could also click the search button right next to the Start menu and then right-click on the related result and select the option “Run as administrator”.
• Once you’ve opened Command Prompt, copy and paste the command given below and tap Entre after you do so. You also have to make sure that you key in the correct path where the file is located as well as its name.

rd /s \?X:badfolderpath Note: In the command above, “X” is the placeholder letter so you must input the letter that corresponds to the drive’s letter where the file is located.

• After that, you will see the “Operation completed successfully” message on your screen. If you don’t, check if you’ve really inputted the correct location of the file or its name.

Option 2 – Use a Command Prompt tweak to rename the file

If you don’t want to delete the file and only want to rename it, you can apply some tweaks using the Command Prompt. Make sure to follow the steps carefully.

• In the Start menu, type in “Command Prompt” to search for it or you could also click the search button right next to the Start menu and then right-click on the related result and select the option “Run as administrator”.
• After opening Command Prompt, type in “cd” followed by the path where the file is located with this format – “C:\Folder1\Folder2\Folder3”. However, you have to omit the problematic file this time. To put it simply, the last folder in the command must be the folder where the file is located.
• After inputting the command, tap Enter on your keyboard and then use the set of commands given below. Note that each command is a new line so you need to tap Enter after copying each line.
  • DIR /A /X /P
  • RENAME (the current name of the problematic file) (a non-problematic name)
  • EXIT

Note: Make sure that you only input the current name and the new name separated by a space. You must not write the brackets in the command. If everything goes well, you will now be able to operate the file like you used to before.

Option 3 – Use Command Prompt to delete the file without any extension

This option applies to cases where the affected file does not have any viable extension which means that Windows does not really know what to do with it and it only displays the “Could not find this item. This is no longer located in [Path]. Verify the item’s location and try again” error message. It usually occurs with the files created by browser plugins that are mostly from Mozilla Firefox. To delete these kinds of files, here’s what you have to do:

• Follow the first two steps from the previous option above so you can navigate to the location of the file accurately just be careful in inputting the folders.
• Don’t forget to tap Enter right after each command and then use the next command below so you can delete the affected file which has no extension:

del *.*

• After you’re done, open the File Explorer and then check if the file is now deleted or not.

Option 4 – Try using another workaround without using Command Prompt

This option is a lot like a workaround but it definitely gets the job done for you. It’s ideal for you if you do not want to deal with Command Prompt and only want to do everything in a graphical environment. To get started, follow the steps below.

• Look for the affected file or folder on your PC using File Explorer. Once you found it, right-click on it and select the “Add to archive” option from the context menu.
• Once the archiving options window pops up, look for the “Delete files after archiving” option and make sure that you select it then click OK to start archiving the folder or file. After that, you should now notice the file no longer exists.
• After that, delete the archive file as well.

If you encounter a Blue Screen error that points out to the CMUDA.sys, read on as this post will guide you in fixing it. The CMUDA.sys file is a Windows operating system driver file that is related to the USB Device Audio capabilities of a computer. There are times when this file causes Blue Screen error due to some conflicts in RAM or some incompatible firmware or hard disk issues, corrupted drivers or malware infection, and so on. There are various Blue Screen errors that are related to the CMUDA.sys file such as:

• KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED
• PAGE FAULT IN A NONPAGED AREA
• IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL
• SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED (CMUSBDAC.sys)

In most cases, the CMUDA.sys file usually triggers the SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED Blue Screen error. Although this Blue Screen error may seem complicated, its workarounds are straightforward so you won’t have any problems in following them.

Option 1 – Try to update or rollback your device drivers

If the first option didn’t work for you, then it’s time to either update or roll back the device drivers. It is most likely that after you updated your Windows computer that your driver also needs a refresh. On the other hand, if you have just updated your device drivers then you need to roll back the drivers to their previous versions. Whichever applies to you, refer to the steps below.

• Open the Devices Manager from the Win X Menu.
• After opening the Device Manager, locate the device drivers that are marked with a small yellow exclamation mark icon and right-click on each one to open their Properties. On the other hand, you can also look for sub-entries under Sound, video, and game controllers like the C-Media USB Audio Class
• After that, switch to the Driver tab and click on the Uninstall Device button.
• Follow the screen option to completely uninstall it.
• Finally, restart your computer. It will just reinstall the device drivers automatically.

Note: You can install a dedicated driver on your computer in case you have it or you could also look for it directly from the website of the manufacturer. You can download the as C-Media USB Audio Class driver from the cmedia.com website.

Option 2 – Try to recreate the CMUDA.sys file

The first thing you can try is to recreate the CMUDA.sys file. Every time your Windows 10 PC boots up, it looks for all the system drivers in place and if it is unable to find them, it tries to create them. Which is why if you remove your corrupt driver file, chances are, you might get a fixed file recreated just for you. How? Refer to the steps below.

• Boot your Windows 10 PC in Safe Mode.
• Then open File Explorer and navigate to this location: C:/Windows/System32/drivers
• From there, look for the file named sys and rename it to CMUDA.old.

Note: As you can see, the file’s extension has changed from .sys to .old.

• Now restart your computer and check if the CMUDA.sys Blue Screen error is now fixed.

Option 3 – Run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter

The Blue Screen troubleshooter is a built-in tool in Windows 10 that helps users in fixing BSOD errors. It can be found on the Settings Troubleshooters page. To use it, refer to these steps:

• Tap the Win + I keys to open the Settings panel.
• Then go to Update & Security > Troubleshoot.
• After that, look for the option called “Blue Screen” on your right-hand side and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button to run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter and then follow the next on-screen options. Note that you might have to boot your PC into Safe Mode.

On the other hand, you can also try running the online Windows 10 Blue Screen troubleshooter from Microsoft. It is a wizard that could help you fix any Stop errors related to the CMUDA.sys file and will offer you helpful links as you use it.

Option 4 – Try running the DISM tool

You can try running the Deployment Imaging and Servicing Management or DISM tool to fix the Wdf01000.sys Blue Screen error. Using this built-in tool, you have various options such as the “/ScanHealth”, “/CheckHealth”, and “/RestoreHealth”.

• Open the Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• Then type in the following commands and make sure to hit Enter right after you type each one of them:
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
  • Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
  • exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
• Do not close the window if the process takes a while as it will probably take a few minutes to finish.

Option 5 – Run System Restore

Running System Restore might also help in fixing Blue Screen errors related to the CMUDA.sys file.

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
• Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
• After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed or not.

Due to the latest android malware security analyst, there are alarmingly 5.8 million downloads of applications that will steal your Facebook data, your Facebook login credentials! Russian anti-malware company Dr.Web has found Trojan apps that steal your Facebook login credentials by tricking users into entering their private information in order to eliminate in-app ads. All of the applications have been removed from the play store and cannot be installed anymore but please do check your phone in order to remove them from your phone as well.

List of malware applications:

If by any chance you have any application from this list, consider uninstalling it from your phone for security reasons.

• PIP Photo
• Processing Photo
• Rubbish Cleaner
• Inwell Fitness
• Horoscope Daily
• App Lock Keep
• Lockit Master
• Horoscope Pi
• App Lock Manager

During the investigation, Dr.Web analysts found an additional Trojan app that had previously made its way onto the Google Play Store. Image editing software app EditorPhotoPip had already been removed but could be downloaded through aggregator websites.