[SOLVED] BSOD (Clock_Watchdog_Timeout) on brand new pre-built system (NZXT BLD) - how concerned should I be?

[Minaz]

I am aware that all computers BSOD from time to time, but I have a brand new pre-built NZXT BLD that did a Clock_Watchdog_Timeout BSOD while being mostly idle (the web browser was open and a video was paused on it, and that's it). I have installed a couple of diagnostic programs on the hard drive since owning the PC but none of them were running at the time. I have not done anything else software wise other than to run the Windows 10 updater a couple of times to get the most recent updates. Hardware wise, I installed a new 2 new M.2 drives and 2 new SATA HDDs, and to do so I did have to remove the GPU card a few times but of course its back in. I'm not an expert at hardware by any means but I was careful.

There are two yellow exclamation marks in the device manager, (Other) PCI Device and (Other) SM Bus Controller, however, I tried removing them and using windows update as well as third party driver updaters, none seem to resolve this issue. Could these be causing the BSOD in question?

How concerned should I be about this BSOD, I mean is it on the level where I should be requesting an RMA and finding a box to ship the system back, or is it not entirely unexpected and I should calm down and try to find a way to fix it?

 

[Colif]

Clock watchdog is a cpu error.
try updating chipset drivers, they might fix those 2 devices in Device manager

What are specs of the PC?
A bios update on motherboard could help

Brand new PC shouldn't BSOD.
From time to time? my period between BSOD is about 6 years and 2 different PC.

Can you follow option one on the following link - here - and then do this step below: Small memory dumps - Have Windows Create a Small Memory Dump (Minidump) on BSOD - that creates a file in c windows/minidump after the next BSOD

1. Open Windows File Explore
2. Navigate to C:\Windows\Minidump
3. Copy the mini-dump files out onto your Desktop
4. Do not use Winzip, use the built in facility in Windows
5. Select those files on your Desktop, right click them and choose 'Send to' - Compressed (zipped) folder
6. Upload the zip file to the Cloud (OneDrive, DropBox . . . etc.)
7. Then post a link here to the zip file, so we can take a look for you . . .

 

[Minaz]

Hi Colif, I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered and best answer because I believe that the first two steps you laid out has a good potential for solving the problem. If the problem persists, I will repost with the other information.
As an update, when you mentioned the BIOS, I took a look at the firmware and lo and behold it was 3 generations old. I had assumed that the PC being from a major manufacturer of pre-builts and brand new with the latest hardware that they would have done a bios update on their shipping units, if only to avoid these sorts of tech support calls, but no indeed, it was the older version.

With that update, I was now able to find a third-party software to update the chipset drivers (the first two I tried and paid for did not work, but third time was the charm).

This resolved the warnings, and I am not hopeful the BSOD issue will go away.

Thanks again!

 

[Colif]

You shouldn't use 3rd party driver updaters, they often get it wrong and can make things worse.

Is it intel or amd? if intel they have their own updater, AMD not that much harder really.

If you keep getting BSOD, I would contact NZXT,

BIOS versions being old is sadly pretty common with OEM as you may not know how long ago PC actually built.