PC crashing because of DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
So yesterday and today my PC has crashed four separate times. Each time the system just froze and then Windows put up a message saying that a problem has been encountered and it needs to restart. It gives the causes as "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION".

I don't know what this is exactly, tried Googling it and it sounds like it might be something to do with hardware.

This is my old, 2013 PC that I have already had a lot of problems with. I posted another thread about previous issues here: https://www.pcspecialist.ie/forums/threads/problem-with-graphics-monitor-after-sleep-mode.80957/

That turned out to be a problem with the monitor (which I got fixed and seems to be working fine now) and the RAM. One of the RAM sticks died and I removed it (currently running on 12 GB of RAM). I just recently (~1 month ago) reinstalled the operating system, (Windows 10 clean install).


Here's my specs again:

Case: COOLERMASTER HAF 922 MID TOWER GAMING CASE
CPU: Intel Core™i7-3770k Quad Core (3.50GHz @ max 4.60GHz)
Motherboard: ASUS P8Z77-V PRO/THUNDERBOLT: PCI-E 3.0 READY,WIFI, SLI, X-FIRE
Memory (RAM): 12GB KINGSTON HYPERX GENESIS DUAL-DDR3 2133MHz X.M.P(3 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card: 2GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 680 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready
1st Storage Drive: 480GB INTEL 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Storage Drive: 2TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD2002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive: 12x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW
Memory Card Reader: INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply: CORSAIR 850W PRO SERIES HX850-80 PLUS GOLD MODULAR (£138)
Processor Cooling: Corsair H100i liquid cooler
Monitor: ASUS PB278Q 27-inch (1440)
Speakers: Studiophile AV 40 (pair) Speakers
OS: Windows 10 Home 64-bit

I have a new PC on order from PCS, but it won't arrive for ages. So at the moment I need to fix this PC.
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
Don't think so. Though I plug my USB webcam in and out every few days when doing some online stuff. It's not a new webcam though, I've been using it for over a year now.

Both of the crashes yesterday happened when I was using the Webcam on Discord and in a Steam game. But both of the crashes today happened when I was just browsing the internet and he webcam was not plugged in.
 
jamiephillips909

jamiephillips909

Godlike
update-external-harddrive-driver-windows10.jpg

Somthing to try would be seeing if there's a update to the drives using device manager.
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
Tried updating the drivers, it does nothing. Just says I already have the latest drivers.

Hmm, just to be safe I'm going to buy an external hard drive and back everything up.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
A DPC_WATHDOG_VIOLATION BSOD happens either because a deferred procedure call (DPC) was running for too long, or because an interrupt service routine (ISR) was running for too long.

An ISR gets executed when a hardware interrupt occurs, it's the mechanism by which an asynchronous process (a disk read for example) notifies the OS that it has completed - they are the 'front end' of the interrupt mechanism. They are implemented by the driver for the specific hardware device. ISRs run disabled and must be as short running as possible, that's why there is a watchdog timer to keep an eye on them.

A DPC is a lower priority task that is used to handle the main processing when an interrupt has occurred. The ISR will schedule the DPC to run when there are no higher priority tasks on the dispatch queue. They are the 'back end' of the interrupt mechanism and are also implemented in the driver code for the specific hardware device. The DPC must also be short running because it's low priority, that's why there is a watchdog timer to keep an eye on them.

Form the above you can see that this BSOD is almost always either a bad driver or possibly a bad device.

There should have been a kernel dump written for that BSOD, you should find it in the file C:\Windows\Memory.dmp, upload that file to the cloud somewhere with a link to it here. It should enable us to identify the failing driver.
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
ubuysa said:
A DPC_WATHDOG_VIOLATION BSOD happens either because a deferred procedure call (DPC) was running for too long, or because an interrupt service routine (ISR) was running for too long.

An ISR gets executed when a hardware interrupt occurs, it's the mechanism by which an asynchronous process (a disk read for example) notifies the OS that it has completed - they are the 'front end' of the interrupt mechanism. They are implemented by the driver for the specific hardware device. ISRs run disabled and must be as short running as possible, that's why there is a watchdog timer to keep an eye on them.

A DPC is a lower priority task that is used to handle the main processing when an interrupt has occurred. The ISR will schedule the DPC to run when there are no higher priority tasks on the dispatch queue. They are the 'back end' of the interrupt mechanism and are also implemented in the driver code for the specific hardware device. The DPC must also be short running because it's low priority, that's why there is a watchdog timer to keep an eye on them.

Form the above you can see that this BSOD is almost always either a bad driver or possibly a bad device.

There should have been a kernel dump written for that BSOD, you should find it in the file C:\Windows\Memory.dmp, upload that file to the cloud somewhere with a link to it here. It should enable us to identify the failing driver.
Click to expand...
Ok thanks for the info.

So I need to identify what the problem is, drivers or hardware.

There is a folder inside C:\Windows called "Minidump" is that where I would find the files?
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
Oh, sorry I found a file called MEMORY.DMP. But it is 927 mb so don't think I can just upload it easily.

Edit: I am currently trying to backup all my data on an external hard drive. Which may take hours (~2 TB to copy over). Just hope the computer doesn't crash again during backing up.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Hibernian said:
Oh, sorry I found a file called MEMORY.DMP. But it is 927 mb so don't think I can just upload it easily.

Edit: I am currently trying to backup all my data on an external hard drive. Which may take hours (~2 TB to copy over). Just hope the computer doesn't crash again during backing up.
Click to expand...
Upload it to the cloud (Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive etc.) and post a link to it here. Make sure to make it public.

927MB is pretty small for a kernel dump, they can often be 1.5GB.

We need to see it to stand any chance of locating the failing driver.
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
Something really weird just happened. While just on the internet on Google Chrome, the system froze up for a few seconds, then the screen went all pixelated and blocky for a second. Then it went black and the computer fans seems to have restarted (or something), then the system returned to normal (it did not restart or shutdown).

It didn't seem to interrupt the file transfer that I have going from the D drive (HDD) to the external backup drive. But man, the computer is unstable.

I will try to work out how to upload the file.
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
When I click on the memory.dmp file to try to upload it to Dropbox it just gives me a message saying I do not have permission to open this file.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Hibernian said:
When I click on the memory.dmp file to try to upload it to Dropbox it just gives me a message saying I do not have permission to open this file.
Click to expand...
1. Are you using an Administrator account? If not then switch to one.

2. Try and copy the file to the desktop and upload it from there.

That yoh can't access it suggests that there are operating system issues there. TBH a clean install might be the fastest way to a solution.
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
ubuysa said:
1. Are you using an Administrator account? If not then switch to one.

2. Try and copy the file to the desktop and upload it from there.

That yoh can't access it suggests that there are operating system issues there. TBH a clean install might be the fastest way to a solution.
Click to expand...
This is a clean install. I clean installed WIN10 a month ago.

I don't know what level of administrator access I have. I am the only user, but WIN10 is extremely annoying on this front.
 
H

Hibernian

Silver Level Poster
I copied the file to desktop and it worked fine. Asked me for Admin permission, which I gave. But Dropbox doesn't seem to want to upload it.
 
ubuysa

ubuysa

The BSOD Doctor
Hibernian said:
This is a clean install. I clean installed WIN10 a month ago.

I don't know what level of administrator access I have. I am the only user, but WIN10 is extremely annoying on this front.
Click to expand...
In which case yoh probably have a hardware problem. The dump might tell us where but my guess now would be the graphics card.
 
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