DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

L

ltonkin

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Joined
Jun 13, 2019
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I have been having issues with my laptop since mid April, the computer stops responding and then goes to the BSOD with the error code DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. I don't do anything intensive, mainly browsing and using Office programmes. The only significant change that I had made to the system was to remove and reinstall Office 365 because I kept getting an error message that my account was not verified and I had previously had a work copy of Office on my machine before purchasing my own licence. Removing existing copies of Office and reinstalling was suggested as the fix and this has worked for the Office 365 error message, however it was after this that the issue started.

I googled the code and tried various tutorials, ran disk scans, checked drivers, downloaded software that was supposed to check drivers and fix issues etc etc and nothing worked. I tried posting to the Microsoft forum and after posting various logs, didn't actually get an answer. I took the laptop to my local computer repair shop and they tested all the hardware and were not able to replicate the issue.

Of course as soon as I got it home, it started happening again. I then started removing programmes and also my usb mouse and printer software, performed various types of resets and finally did a full factory reset and only added back in software that I used all the time i.e. chrome, office and the mouse, still crashed. Did another reset and added Firefox instead of Chrome, and didn't reconnect the mouse, I think the crashes seemed to stop at this point, but eventually it crashed again.

I took it back to the repair place and they decided to replace the hard drive, they had fitted an SSD about 12 months ago after a drink spill caused some damage, and there have been no issues with it, but they thought the error messages pointed in that direction and it was still in warranty. Rather than wiping the laptop, they cloned it and reinstalled the clone after replacing the hard drive

I got the laptop home on Friday and it crashed again twice within 24 hours. I spoke to the repair place and decided to do another full factory reset and only installed Chrome, Office and Adobe, still crashed. Did another reset and didn't install anything, still crashed twice in about 4 hours following the reset, the only difference being this time I got DRIVER POWER STATE FAILURE as the error code.

Today I have added in a couple of extensions to Edge and downloaded the programmes specified in your post to capture the files to upload. Interestingly, it has not crashed in the 2 hours that I've been using it today, however, the crashes have always been quite random in timing, so I doubt that the issues has been resolved. I have also set up Driver Verifier but have not yet restarted to set that running. It has been feeling quite laggy, as if something else is going on in the background, I didn't think the Driver Verifier started till after the restart, so don't think it is this.

Attached is the Sysnative file and also a text file from Speccy I tried to publish it, but it would not connect to publishing server.

I've since run Driver Verifier and the laptop seemed to be fine, it did not crash all day, however it has gone into melt down today, it literally crashes within minutes of starting up, I'm not able to do anything with it. I've managed to stop Driver Verifier and also run Sysnative again with the latest minidump files, also attached, it is the one labelled (1). I've was going to attempt another complete reset, but it won't let me do that, it says it cannot find the Window Recovery Environment.
 

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I'm starting to think there's an issue common with older Toshiba laptops and newer versions of Windows 10. You're having the same bugcheck code, DPC timeout duration, and suspected culprit as some others I've seen in forums. All of them were Toshiba laptops, if I remember correctly. I know you have a post on Bleeping Computer regarding this problem but it's not clear to me whether your system was fine with older versions of Windows 10 and only started recently having the problem or if you've always had the problem since upgrading from Windows 8.x. Can you clarify?
 
Hello

I have been fine with previous versions of Windows 10, it is just recently that it started happening.

I've had the laptop since April 2016, it came with Win 8 pre-installed and I updated it to Win 10 almost immediately, so its had a good 3 years on Win 10.

I don't specifically remember updating the operating system immediately before the crashing started as I was focused on sorting out the Office issue.

Thanks 🙂
 
Does "Apps & features" show Intel Rapid Storage Technology as installed on your computer?

edit: It looks like you might have reinstalled Windows 10 on your computer going by a recent reply on the Bleeping Computer thread. If so, I'd suggest not installing anything from Dynabook/Toshiba and trying to only rely on what comes with the Windows 10 installation media or updates from Windows Update. That includes NOT installing Intel Rapid Storage Technology. Please let us know how it goes.
 
Last edited:
Hello
I've checked and don't have this installed, but as you say, have done a completely fresh reinstall.

There was definitely an additional Intel programme that showed up in the programme list after I downloaded the driver from Dynabook for the APCI thing, however I can't remember what it was called.

Since reinstalling Windows 10 last night, I've had one BSOD but that seems quite mild after the totally FUBARed situation yesterday!

Is it worth uploading the details of that crash report?

I downloaded the HD Tune app and it was running when the crash happened, I hadn't figured out what I was supposed to be looking for on that test, but nothing seemed to be showing up with a massive red flag. I then ran the RAM test recommended on the posting notes on this site, and left that running overnight, the results came back with zero errors.

Other than that, I haven't downloaded anything in addition to Windows 10, however will need to download Office at some point, and hopefully Chrome and my usb mouse as using the trackpad isn't great.
 
Office and Chrome shouldn't be a problem. I basically would avoid installing security software or system/device drivers other than what Microsoft offers - at least while testing.

If the crashes continue please rerun the Sysnative collection app and make the zip available for download as you did before. It can be helpful to look at several dumps to try and spot a pattern. If they continue to be DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION bugchecks we would need to look at the MEMORY.DMP file (assuming the first parameter of the bugcheck is 0x1 like it was before) to have any real hope of knowing what went wrong. So please make those available via the OneDrive as you did in the Bleeping Computer post.

Ntoskrnl.exe and Hal.dll are usually very busy and are probably victims of the problem rather than culprits. Please do let us know how it goes
 
Cool, thanks for getting back to me and explaining further, everything is still fine 🎉. I'm going to wait a bit longer before adding anything else though.

If the crashes do start again, where do I find the information showing the first parameter of the bugcheck? I'm hoping it won't be necessary 🙏, but as the memory.dmp files get overwritten, it would be good to know what to look out for. Cheers
 
In the Event Viewer system logs you'd need to locate the bugcheck entry for the crash. It should look something like this:
Code: 
Event[48]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: Microsoft-Windows-WER-SystemErrorReporting
  Date: 2019-06-12T00:44:03.534
  Event ID: 1001
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: DESKTOP-N2KU3RA
  Description:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck.  The bugcheck was: 0x00000133 (0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000001e00, 0xfffff80230b6e350, 0x0000000000000000). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\MEMORY.DMP. Report Id: 2486947e-609c-46b7-8ad7-01918a8cf6e1.

Where it says "The bugcheck was: 0x00000133 (0x0000000000000001" is what you'd see if it was the type of crash to which I'm referring.
 
OK, so it was completely fine all day yesterday. I put it in sleep mode overnight, but when I came to use the laptop this morning, it had shut down, I have it plugged in and I'm sure I have the power setting to stay in Sleep forever if plugged in.

I check the minidump folder first and there was nothing in there, but I've gone into event viewer and there was a Critical event at 1.20am this morning. There are lots of Errors and Warnings before and after the Critical event, the Critical event itself says Event ID 41, and I can't see one that says The computer rebooted from a bugcheck.

The text in the Critical entry says...

- System
- Provider
[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
[ Guid] {331c3b3a-2005-44c2-ac5e-77220c37d6b4}

EventID 41

Version 6

Level 1

Task 63

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x8000400000000002

- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2019-06-15T10:24:53.576851000Z

EventRecordID 1511

Correlation

- Execution
[ ProcessID] 4
[ ThreadID] 8

Channel System

Computer DESKTOP-MJ44H8A

- Security
[ UserID] S-1-5-18

- EventData
BugcheckCode 307
BugcheckParameter1 0x1
BugcheckParameter2 0x0
BugcheckParameter3 0x0
BugcheckParameter4 0x0
SleepInProgress 4
PowerButtonTimestamp 0
BootAppStatus 0
Checkpoint 16
ConnectedStandbyInProgress false
SystemSleepTransitionsToOn 1
CsEntryScenarioInstanceId 0
BugcheckInfoFromEFI true
CheckpointStatus 0


There is also no Memory.dmp file

I've just looked at the advanced power settings and it is set to turn the Hard disc off after 20 minutes even when plugged in, could this be causing what looks like a crash? It seems a bit odd, I'm sure that before all this started happening, I could leave it in sleep overnight and it would respond instantly when I moved the cursor the next day.

Could this turning the hard drive off appear like a crash, or is that too simplistic?

47776
 
I've double checked the Event Viewer and there is no entry for Bug Check after this latest crash, there is an Eventlog entry Event ID 1001 which says 'Audit events have been dropped by the transport. 0'

- System
- Provider
[ Name] Microsoft-Windows-Eventlog
[ Guid] {fc65ddd8-d6ef-4962-83d5-6e5cfe9ce148}

EventID 1101

Version 0

Level 2

Task 101

Opcode 0

Keywords 0x4020000000000000

- TimeCreated
[ SystemTime] 2019-06-15T10:24:57.207797500Z

EventRecordID 8831

Correlation

- Execution
[ ProcessID] 1704
[ ThreadID] 2340

Channel Security

Computer DESKTOP-MJ44H8A

Security

- UserData
- AuditEventsDropped
Reason 0
 
Also, I've just noticed that the Critical event is at 11.24am this morning, but an earlier event says 'The previous system shutdown at 01:20:02 on ‎15/‎06/‎2019 was unexpected.'

I can't remember exactly when I put it into Sleep mode but I was watching a film (not on the laptop) till quite late, so could have been around that time.
 
Please run the Sysnative collection app and make its output available for download. It should collect the event logs at least so they can be reviewed. Also, please check to see if there's a folder named C:\Windows\LiveKernelReports as some live kernel dumps end up there rather than in the minidumps folder but I don't think the Sysnative app retrieves them.
 
Hello
Attached is the sysnative file. There is a folder called LiveKernelReports but there is nothing in it. There is also a Logs folder with various different sub folders and I can see that there are reports in some of these that were created today.
 

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The system log suggests there was a crash however the dump file creation failed.
Code: 
Event[144]:
  Log Name: System
  Source: volmgr
  Date: 2019-06-15T11:24:53.374
  Event ID: 161
  Task: N/A
  Level: Error
  Opcode: N/A
  Keyword: Classic
  User: N/A
  User Name: N/A
  Computer: DESKTOP-MJ44H8A
  Description:
Dump file creation failed due to error during dump creation.
The dump file creation process uses the pagefile and will fail if the pagefile isn't large enough to hold the memory dump. That's not the only reason it could fail but it's one reason. According to the msinfo32 report your dump file is set at 1.88 GB so since your system has 8 GB of system memory it may not have been big enough. If that was the problem Windows 10 is supposed to temporarily set the pagefile to a larger size so that the next crash will successfully create a memory.dmp file. Do you know if there has been more than one crash? Has the system become unstable again even after it restarted?
 
Hello, I'm not aware of any other crashes, I've double checked the Event Viewer and there are only the two critical events listed, the one on the 13th just after the clean install of Windows 10 and the one in the early hours of this morning (15th).

There is a memory.dmp file for the crash on the 13th, is that of any use?

I checked the dump file creation settings and it is set to automatic memory dump.
 
It might be worth looking at the memory.dmp from the 13th so please make it available if you can. I'd be very interested in one generated after you did the reinstall of Windows 10.
 
The one on the 13th is the one just after the reinstall. I've uploaded it to OneDrive, it is called MEMORY2.dmp, here is the link...

Windows dump files

There is a load of other stuff in there, minidump files from before the reset, mostly from when it was going nuts and crashing every time I started up. The minidump folder only keeps five files (is that normal?) and so to prevent losing all the info I started copying them to OneDrive. MEMORY1.dmp is from the 12th June, when I started the post on bleepingcomputer.
 
Another crash that happened while the machine was in sleep mode or resuming from it. The sysnative file is attached and the MEMORY.dmp file is currently being uploaded to OneDrive, it will be labelled MEMORY3

I haven't updated any drivers or new programmes.
 

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It's not a fix but a possible workaround which might be worth trying is setting the computer to where it never goes through a sleep/cycle if that is what seems to be triggering it with the current drivers on your system. That would include disabling Fast startup so that the system actually fully shuts down when using the physical power button or telling it to shutdown from the menus. That's actually not an uncommon problem for Windows 7 era computers but less so for those designed for Windows 8.x. Since you're using an SSD the boot time shouldn't suffer too much. I feel like we may be at the mercy of Dynabook/Toshiba as to when (or if) they get around to fixing the issue which could actually be a UEFI/BIOS bug. Windows 10 is getting more and more aggressive with each iteration about trying to save power so newer versions could be trying to use power saving functionality which older versions weren't and perhaps Dynabook/Toshiba's implementation of that functionality is bugged. ACPI stands for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface so it's a possibility though I don't know for sure.
 

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