After installing the latest windows 10 updates we were presented with a reboot loop, with the blue screen of death.
The error presented was KMODE EXCEPTION NOT HANDLED What failed aswNetSec.sys
We were unable to boot into safe mode initially, which complicated the issue.
Before i was tasked with the issue the user had attempted a system repair and system restore to a previous restore point, but it was still throwing the above error. and failing with the restore.
After some troubleshooting i was able to determine the user/hive seemed ok, i was able to boot to safe mode with command prompt supplying the user login information.
aswNetSec.sys looks to be a security related system file / driver and a quick search online indicated that it is related to Avast, other users also experiencing similar issues. We knew this would need to be uninstalled however first we need to be able to boot into safe mode.
From command prompt we issued the commands
- sfc /scannow
- chkdsk /f (we had to schedule to chkdsk as the drive was in use)
We were now able to use the recovery functions to boot into safe mode graphically, and uninstall Avast.
Now we are able to boot back into windows without issue.
Note: ensure you install some antivirus, perhaps a update from avast and reinstall the product from that.
Let me know if you have encountered a similar issue and your fix