Fix Windows 7 SP1 Intermittent Crashes "0x0000007E"

A fix from Microsoft Support is designed to resolve an issue that causes Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 computers to crash intermittently.

The software giant has confirmed the problem, and revealed that affected customers get the following stop error message: "0x0000007E."

Not only the plain vanilla, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 platforms can experience this glitch. It appears, that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 can also crash intermittently.

According to the Redmond company, the full error message reads: “Stop 0x0000007E (parameter1, parameter2, parameter3, parameter4) - SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED”

“The parameters in this Stop error message vary, depending on the configuration of the computer,” Microsoft explained.

The software giant has already identified the source of the problem, and provided details to customers in a knowledge base article.

“This issue usually occurs on a file server, and does not occur when Server Message Block (SMB) Version 2 is disabled,” Microsoft said.

“This issue occurs because of a race condition that is triggered when a NULL lease handle is accessed after the lease spinlock is released.”

In addition to accessing details about the crashes, Windows users can also grab a hotfix from Microsoft Support.

The software giant stresses that Windows 7 customers can come across "0x0000007E" stop error messages that are related to other problems. In this regard, the KB 2528614 hotfix might not end up resolving some Windows 7 crashes.

At the same time, there are bound to be customers with Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2 crashing machines that will recognize the symptoms from this article and who will surely benefit from the hotfix offered by Microsoft.

The company is not providing a manual workaround or an update. According to the software giant the plan is to integrate KB 2528614 hotfix into Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM Build 7601.17514.101119-1850 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) RTM are available for download here.

Windows 7 RTM Enterprise 90-Day Evaluation is available for download here.