Bsod : Dpc watchdog violation

I have been getting a BSOD being caused by a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION.

I used driver easy to try and update all of the system drivers, ran a check disk, and changed the rapid start up feature to off (power setting I believe), but the issue still persists.

I have gotten this error a few times with youtube and steam; I can consistently get the error when my oculus headset is plugged in and I am running thru the oculus setup tutorial.

Also, installs of software thru oculus or steam seems ot cause the BSOD Watchdog violation; after the BSOD the software installed by steam or oculus appears to function properly (until the next DPC_WATCHDOG violation event).

Any help would be appreciated

Ran a memtest:
Results: The Windows Memory Diagnostic tested the computer's memory and detected no errors

Ran memtest 86 v 5.01 overnight: 1st pass on 128 GB of memory passed with no errors. I'm going to let it continue for 8 passes as was recommended in a previous thread.

Hello RobB,

Let us know how the testing works out. DPC watchdog violation is a particular type of crash that is usually caused by bad drivers. DPC (deferred procedure call) is a mechanism which allows high-priority tasks to defer required but lower-priority tasks for later execution as determined by the interrupt handler. If the time taken for one of these deferred tasks takes too long or hangs then the DPC_Watchdog_Violation 0x133 bugcheck occurs. The first argument in the BSOD bucgcheck is either a 0 or 1 and this tells us if it is a single DPC (0) or an accumulation of DPC calls (1).

In your case all the 0x133 errors have a 1 as the first argument and so we deduce that more than one driver is probably responsible for the crash. It would be nice if the crash dump revealed what these drivers were but unfortunately it does not since all have a ZEROED_STACK_0x133 error. This means that there is nothing we can debug in the stack.

In this case the best thing you can do is run Driver Verifier and select drivers to test to identify any that might be bad. please follow the tutorial carefully and make sure you have backups and restore points in case you get stuck.

Diagnostic Test

 DRIVER VERIFIER

   Warning

Please make a backup of your important files and get your rescue media or create one.
Please create a restore point.

Please read and run driver verifier.

If you suspect a driver is causing a problem but do not have a clear idea which one it is then Driver Verifier stresses your drivers and will crash your pc if any driver fails due to a violation.

Driver verifier should be performed for a max of 48 hours, or until you have a bluescreen, whichever comes first.

If driver verifier has found a violation and you can't get back into windows normally, try to boot into safe mode and reset driver verifier from within safe mode, or in the troubleshooting options open command prompt and type verifier /reset.

   Note

Your system will act very sluggishly while driver verifier is enabled, this is normal as your drivers will be being subjected to heavy testing in order to make them crash.

Should I just end the memtest 86 v5.01? At the rate it is analyzing the 128 GB memory, it will take 2 - 2.5 days to complete. It sounds like the driver test may be more productive at this point?

My first approach would be to check the drivers. RAM testing might be required later but, as you realise, 8 passes is going to take a very long time!

Driver Verifier caused a crash. WHat is the next step? Should I send the memory dump that is in the C:/Windows dir?

Please post a new set of files which will contain the mini-dump and should allow us to see which driver caused the crash.

Does the dump collection program that collects this info and zips it pull in the mem dump in the windows folder?

RobB said:

Does the dump collection program that collects this info and zips it pull in the mem dump in the windows folder?

No the memory.dmp file is too large to zip and upload. You can only share it via Dropbox, OneDrive or other cloud based folders. Generally it will not be needed unless we specifically ask for it.