BSOD DPC Watchdog Violation when playing sound

alxrnbrd · 21 Sep 2015

Hello :)

I recently updated my Sony VAIO from Windows 7 to Windows 10. For the last week or so, I have found when playing audio (on sites such as YouTube and Soundcloud), the sound cuts out and the stream pauses, and doesn't reload until I refresh the page. This happens several times on a daily basis. Occasionally, the sound cut-out directly leads to 'DPC Watchdog Violation' BSOD.

I am guessing it's my sound driver that's causing the issue? I am not sure though. If you could offer any assistance to help me stop this issue, that would be great!

Thanks in advance

Attachment 38680

axe0 · 21 Sep 2015

Hi alxrnbrd,

Welcome to the 10forums.

There are a few causes for the crashes.

The Atheros wifi driver is very old.
Please check your manufacturer for driver updates, it needs to be updated.

Code:

3: kd> lmvm athrxstart             end                 module name
fffff801`bb160000 fffff801`bb406000   athrx    T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: athrx.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\athrx.sys
    Image name: athrx.sys
    Timestamp:        Tue Jun 21 10:03:39 2011 (4E00505B)
    CheckSum:         002A5DE2
    ImageSize:        002A6000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

Pretty much all the dumps are indicating memory corruption.

Diagnostic Test

RAM TEST

Run MemTest86+ to analyse your RAM. MemTest86+ - Test RAM - Windows 10 Forums

Note

MemTest86+ needs to be run for at least 8 passes for conclusive results. Set it running before you go to bed and leave it overnight. We're looking for zero errors here. Even a single error will indicate RAM failure.

alxrnbrd · 22 Sep 2015

Thanks for your reply!

I have now updated my Atheros driver to the 2013 version. I also ran MemTest86+ (through the required eight passes), which found no errors or corruption. I recently replaced the two RAM sticks in my laptop so I wasn't expecting to find any errors here.

Since the Watchdog Violation only occurs when playing music, is it not more likely that the problem is down to a sound error/driver?

axe0 · 22 Sep 2015

The sound drivers weren't flagged so far I checked.
Because the issue only occurs when playing music doesn't have to mean the cause is the sound drivers.

alxrnbrd · 22 Sep 2015

Okay :)

Are there any more drivers I should update or anything else I can do to ensure I don't get the violation again?

axe0 · 22 Sep 2015

Could be hard to tell.
With some people the error was solved by just doing the memtest (with zero errors as results)
Others have to clean the connection and update several other drivers.

Watch how it goes and try to play music, if any BSOD occurs use the tool again and upload the zip file.