DWM.exe Crash to BSOD

[roadrabbit149 10]

I was recently plagued with the above crash (cause found by using Fortect) to Black Screen of Death with cooling fans running at max speed. The guidance and hints in most forums did not help. However the problem has been solved and I would like to share my experience.

The problem started whilst running Prepar3Dv5.4.9 together with PMDG's B777 aircraft. So I started with that as baseline. Here are the steps I took with the results recorded for each step:

1. I ran the computer with no main apps running at all - so no P3D and no PMDG. The computer ran perfectly for 12 hours.

2. I did a comparison run with MSFS2020 running - again no failures at all after 7.5 hours.

3. I completed a "repair" of P3D (Having repaired P3D Professional, I actually had to re-download all 'content' files in order to repair P3D Content as well). When I next tried to load the PMDG B777 I got a message informimg me that I needed to activate the B777 Base Package. To do this I had to re-download the files from PMDG. However, I then ran into another problem: the downloads now work from a 'pop-up' (I was unaware of this - thank you Iwebber on this forum). I found that my browser pop-up blocker was active and blocking the download. I rectified this in my browser settings uner 'Security and Privacy'. I was also advised (Thanks to the good folks (thank you Chris M!) at PMDG) to go to "msc.services" and to ensure that "FlexNet Licensing Services 64" was set to 'Automatic' - mine was set to 'Disabled' (again, who knew?!).

Having completed all the above, I then ran and completed a flight from EGLL to CYYZ successfully, with no hiccups.

I believe the problem can occur with other computer 'games' and apps. If so, it should be possible to follow the generic approach suggested by the above to achieve a solution.

Hopefully this will be of help to others who have experienced this DWM.exe failure/crash.

Edited December 28, 2023 by roadrabbit149
clarity