Blue Screen of Death errors or Stop errors are indications that something’s wrong with your computer. So when you encounter one, you must find out what the root cause of the problem is before it gets out of hand. One of the BSOD errors you might encounter on your Windows 10 computer is the “DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL or SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED, Netwtw04.sys failed” error.
As you know, system files or .sys files are some of the essential parts of the Windows operating system. It is a repository of system driver settings used by the Windows operating system in order to communicate with the connected hardware and devices. They are essential for the normal functioning of the operating system. A lot of Windows 10 users are facing this particular Blue Screen of Death error whenever they open an app or disconnect external devices from the system.
The Netwtw04.sys file is a part of the Intel PROSet/Wireless Wi-Fi software. And so when you might encounter two kinds of Stop errors for the Netwtw04.sys driver file such as:
- “DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL What failed: Netwtw04.sys.” – This kind of error message signifies that a kernel-mode driver tried to access pageable memory at a process IRQL that was too high.
- “SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED What failed: Netwtw04.sys” – This error message indicates that the root cause of the error might be incompatible drivers with the operating system. In general, the root cause of the Netwtw04.sys BSOD error might be due to several reasons such as corrupted files, incorrect device driver configuration, malicious programs, outdated drivers, bad drivers, corrupted Windows Registry as well as some damaged or corrupted system files.
Whichever of the two error messages you got, you can try the troubleshooting options given below to fix the “DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL or SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED, Netwtw04.sys failed” BSOD error.
Option 1 – Try to rollback your Network driver
If you have updated the driver software as of late and you suddenly got this BSOD error, you might have to roll back the device driver – in other words, switch back to the previous working version. To do that, follow 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 it.
- Next, select the driver entries that are labeled appropriately other than anything in the context of the WAN Miniport.
- Then select each one of them and double-click to open a new mini window.
- After that, make sure that you’re on the Driver tab and if you are not, just navigate to it then click the Roll Back Driver button to switch back to the previous version of your Network adapters.
- Now restart your computer to successfully apply the changes made.
Option 2 – Try to update the Network drivers
If the present Network driver is giving you a headache that is the “DRIVER IRQL NOT LESS OR EQUAL or SYSTEM THREAD EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED, Netwtw04.sys failed” BSOD error, then you need to update the Network drivers. To do so, here’s what you have to do:
- 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 it.
- Then right-click on each one of the Network drivers and update them all.
- Restart your PC and see if it helped in fixing the BSOD error.
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.
Option 3 – Try running the System File Checker Scan
The SFC or System File Checker scan could detect and automatically repair damaged system files that could be causing the Netwtw04.sys failed BSOD error. SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files to good system files. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.
- Tap Win + R to launch Run.
- Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
- After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow
The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:
- Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
- Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
Option 4 – Run the DISM Tool
The DISM tool is another command-line tool in the Windows operating system that could help users fix various corrupted system files. To use it, follow these steps:
- Open the Command Prompt as admin.
- Then type in this command: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
- The DISM command you entered will repair the corrupted system image. Do not close the window if the process takes a while as it will probably take a few minutes to finish.
Option 5 – Run the CHKDSK Utility
Running the CHKDSK utility might also help you resolve the Netwtw04.sys failed BSOD error. If your hard drive has issues with integrity, the update will really fail as the system will think that it’s not healthy and that’s where the CHKDSK utility comes in. The CHKDSK utility repairs hard drive errors that might be causing the problem.
- Open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
- After opening Command Prompt, execute the following command and hit Enter:
chkdsk /f /r
- Wait for the process to be completed and then restart your computer.