[FIX] An Attempt Was Made To Reference A Token That Does Not Exist

Windows comes with many built-in snaps which is managed by Microsoft Management Console (MMC). Device Manager is one of those MMC snap-in which helps you to locate various devices installed on your system. Using Device Manager, you can update existing device drivers, uninstall them etc.

Recently while loading Device Manager on one of our Windows 10 Pro running machine, we got following error:

An attempt was made to reference a token that does not exist.

After researching a bit on this issue, we came to a conclusion that error might be caused by corrupted files on the system. So how to fix this issue? Well, if you’re getting this error, you can try below mentioned suggestions and see if they helps.

FIX: ‘An Attempt Was Made To Reference A Token That Does Not Exist’ In Windows 10/8/7

FIX 1 – General Suggestions

1. First of all, reboot the machine and see if the issue resolves itself.

2. Boot into Safe Mode and check if problem persists.

3. If issue still persists in Safe Mode, it might be cause due to third-party software on your system. Perform clean boot to identify the culprit software and remove it.

4. Run System File Checker scan or run DISM commands to repair file corruption on your system.

5. Make sure you’ve latest Windows Updates installed.

If above mentioned suggestions didn’t helped you, go ahead with FIX 2.

FIX 2 – Via Command Prompt

1. In Windows 10, right click on Start Button and select Command Prompt (Admin). On older Windows editions such as Windows 8/7, you can open Command Prompt as administrator, using search.

2. In the administrative Command Prompt window, type following press Enter key:

for /f %s in ('dir /b *.dll') do regsvr32 /s %s

3. Let the command complete, which may take few moments. Close Command Prompt and reboot the machine then.

After restarting your system, you must be able to open MMC snap-in without any problem.

Hope this helps!