Dpc_watchdog_violation

I'm getting this BSoD about every 5th or 6th boot. Has to be related to having just fitted another 4GB RAM as it never happened previously. The RAM is exactly the same make, size and type and I've tested it with Win 10's built in memory checker. It has also been in use previously in the laptop's twin without issues. BlueScreenView doesn't point to any one driver but does highlight ntoskrnl as the active process in memory when the crash occurred. The system file checker doesn't find anything and internet searches haven't provided any pointers either.

Any magicians here?

 

Your running latest mobo firmware yeh?

Any dumps?

 

It has the latest bios but I need to revisit Lenovo to see if there is anything else but because of previous upgrades 7-8.1-10 it doesn't recognise the system. I might try just swapping the two sticks to start with as it's definitely connected with adding additional ram. Anyway, need get some gardening done first.

Re dumps there is one for each occurrence and BlueScreenView is seeing them. As I said it reports ntoskrnl.exe as the active process.

 

Copy the dumps to your Desktop, zip and attach them, please.

 

Hi Satrow, got BSoD on first restart. Here's the dump, and one from yesterday. Ignore the unrelated files, don't know how they got there!

 

Have you checked that you have any audio problems ? I have found audio drivers have given me problems at times-dodgy lead ?

 

A few .lnks are the least of your worries.

Are you a Time Lord? - the driver dates range from 1986! to 2103!!!, causing the debugger to throw a host of errors because the drivers don't match up with anything known to the MS server.

Check the clock/Bios/battery/magnetic field/gravitational pull, etc., 'cos I've never seen dates like those in a crash dump before.

If it's still under warranty, send it back (or forward, depending on what time you're at now).

 

BlueScreenView shows exactly the same info. I can't explain it, the laptop is six+ years old, has latest BIOS, the battery and CMOS battery are both fine, and it performs well. It might be the cause of the intermittent BSoDs though I guess. It has a twin - I'll take a look at that.

@baklogic, no sound issues, same crap as always

 

Modified dates in the twin for the same files are normal, so seems something has happened to this system, though apart from the BSoD it is performing normally. I'll try restoring an image.

 

Restored 8 day old image - dates are normal so something has happened in the last few days. Just have to wait now and see if we get any BSoDs.

 

I'm looking at another dump with the same date spread that's erroring out with the MS server, let's see if Harry can make any sense of what happened there.

Hold back from updating until we can get a handle on the cause.

 

Too late - image restored last night

 

Too late to block updating it, in case that was the trigger?

 

It had already updated to 1903 when the image was created, so as the dates are ok after restore it doesn't look like it was the update, but something since.

 

After the restore I've just had another BSoD and now the dates are all crazy again, but look at the bottom line! Nirsoft!! I use Nirsoft's EasyBCD as boot manager so I can also boot a few bootable DVD ISOs as well as Win 10. This is just me being lazy as I can just as easily boot these ISOs off of a flash drive using Grub4DOS. I'll remove EasyBCD and keep you in the picture but first I need to restore the image again.

 

That's NeoSmart not Nirsoft, he makes BlueScreenView and a tonne of other excellent utilities.

 

Thanks satrow. I guess this is how perfectly innocent ppl used to get hanged at the gallows Looks like something already in the system is screwing up these dates and causing BSoDs. I'm thinking of reverting to 1809 and seeing how it goes.

 

I'd try another image restore but keep it offline until you've done a couple of reboots and scrutinised the running software/startups with Autoruns. Check the MS site for any gotcha's related to 1903 too.

 

Yeah, I could do that at any time, but this laptop is a busy machine - I need it to be available and problem free, as it has been for a long time with Win 10.1809. So I've reverted it to 1809 with a one month old image and I'll let it take its own time updating to 1903. Last time I used the Update Assistant and all was well up until I added more memory. It's possible that not waiting for 1903 to be offered but just getting it may have caused issues, but it won't this second time.

If there are any interesting developments I'll let you know and thanks a lot for your help with this.

 

Have you removed the additional RAM?

 

Perhaps I should, as I have been relying on the fact the additional 4Gb ram was from the laptop's twin, where it has been problem free for 6+ years and is not giving any memory errors in normal use. However if it also blue screens now it's back on 1809 then I shall reluctantly have to do as you are suggesting but the twin is quite happy on 2 x 4gb.

 

Getting same occasional bluescreen on 1809. This is taking up too much time so have to put up with it for now, it's ok just restarting it when it happens.

 

Upload the dumps, please?

 

Will do so later - life is calling

 

Sorry satrow, no can do. 1809 has updated to 1903 during the day and all dump files have been removed, even those in Windows.old. Obviously I'll post any new ones that may appear.

 

Yeah, W10 - expect the unexpected

 

I have my fingers crossed here as I've done a mixed dozen shutdowns/hibernations without issue. Startup time is greatly improved too. Let's hope it lasts.

 

Very good signs