Question BSOD Code 133: DPC Watchdog Violation while playing Apex Legends

[AlexT37]

Hello everyone, I'm having issues playing Apex Legends (so far no other games but I have not given hardly any time to other games since building this system). It takes hours, but eventually I will get a BSOD with code 133 for DPC Watchdog Violation. Also, each time it seems that a minidump creation is failed, but I do get a MEMORY.dmp. That analysis is listed below, but unless I am doing something wrong it seems inconclusive, at least to my untrained eyes. I have tried Memory Debugging, dskchk, checking all drivers, redownloading Radeon drivers, even returned and replaced the NVMe boot drive with a clean install of Windows as of yesterday, but last night I got the BSOD again. This is really bugging me as it is a new machine that works wonderfully otherwise. My specs are below as well as the WinDbg analysis of the MEMORY.dmp file. If you need any other information, please let me know and I will do my best to gather it for you.



System Specs:



CPU: Intel i9-10850K

MOBO: Asus Z490-A Prime

GPU: Asus Radeon RX 6900 XT Reference

RAM: G.Skill Ballistix 2x16GB 3600 CL16

SSD: Inland 1TB QLC NVMe SSD

PSU: EVGA 750GT

COOLER: Noctua NH-D15S

CASE: Fractal Meshify S2

Windows Version: 10.0.19042

WinDbg MEMORY.dmp Analysis link:

MEMORY.dmp Analysis - Google Docs

 

[Colif]

i edited your post, the main body didn't need to be in quotes and your links to your post... the edit one just opened a new post dialog for me to make own thread, and the other somehow did same but with a quote of your thread, which also isn't helpful.

can you give me a link to your thread on tenforums just so I don't repeat their suggestions

can you give us any minidumps you have?

1. copy from c:/windows/minidump to another folder
2. upload copies form new folder to file sharing website
3. show link here

 

[AlexT37]

https://www.tenforums.com/bsod-cras...n-while-playing-apex-legends.html#post2131468

Actually, after a long discussion with someone on Reddit, we came to the conclusion that something had been going wrong with minidump creation on my end. I had no minidumps created, only memory dumps that seem to be full of errors. So we made sure that the system would next time create a minidump, and I'm currently trying to get the system to crash as it had been doing in order to get a successful minidump creation.

 

[Colif]

Seems Phillc43 on Tenforums thinks its your ram speed.

 

[AlexT37]

Yes, and as I just replied I am a bit miffed that this is the case, I mean why the hell did I buy the nice RAM to not run it at its specified speed. Is it only Ryzen that can handled OC'd RAM?

 

[Colif]

QVL on motherboard shows it can run up to 4000

but it appears CPU can only run 2933 according to its specs.

but I see it matched with 3200 ram... I will check as i am not sure.

 

[AlexT37]

I believe, although I can be mistaken, that with the 10th gen Intel increased the base supported RAM speeds up to 2933. So that is the maximum speed 100% guarenteed to work. I knew that XMP and RAM overclocking wasn't guaranteed, but I figured I see a lot of people running around 3600 speed, so it wouldn't be too large of a problem.

 

[Colif]

i expect 3200 is fine, but not sure about higher.

I have asked for a 2nd opinion as Hardware isn't my strong point, I don't keep up with this stuff.

 

[AlexT37]

Yeah, but as I replied at that point I'll just stick with stock speeds, 2933 vs 3200 I believe for my uses is a percentage point or two difference. I would rather just run stock and be 100% confident that my RAM speeds are no longer an issue. I figure if I get no crashes in the next week I can be nearly fully confident that the RAM speed was indeed the issue.

 

[Colif]

thats totally reasonable, I was just checking to make sure

 

[AlexT37]

Yeah, shame that I cannot run the RAM at its specified speed, but not a huge deal,

 

[Colif]

No, it is NOT right. Like many people, he is going off the Intel data sheet native default specifications, which is NOT accurate based on the ACTUAL support limitations of the system. Yes, the CPU "can" limit the maximum memory speed used sometimes, but it COMPLETELY depends on the motherboard itself. For example, on some Intel systems the board supports 3200mhz with one CPU and 2933mhz with another. But those are locked chipsets, and it is by design.

It says RIGHT THERE in the motherboard specifications on the motherboard product page:
* 10th Gen Intel® Core™i9/i7 CPUs support 2933/2800/2666/2400/2133 natively, Refer to www.asus.com for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).


But that IS the NATIVE specifications for those CPUs, it is NOT the ACTUAL speed limitation of memory use on that motherboard. They should easily be able to run 3600mhz sticks on that board since it supports up to 4800mhz memory kits, but you have to also keep in mind that regardless of what any motherboard says it supports that as soon as you go beyond two DIMMs you start running into problems (Sometimes, not always by any means) with actually running the full four (Or however many, but this is usually not a big problem on HEDT platforms with quad or higher channel memory architectures) with actually being capable of running at the higher speeds based on the quality of the memory kit, the quality of the specific CPU sample involved and how strong it's internal memory controller is and the quality and capability of the motherboard itself.

I've often seen a board that could not run a four DIMM kit but moving the CPU and memory to another board with the same chipset but higher quality could run that kit at it's advertised full speed with no problems.

And above ALL of these considerations is the consideration of whether or not the memory kit is one that has been fully validated for XMP operation by the motherboard manufacturer or the memory manufacturer, because if it hasn't or if we don't know, then it's always just a guessing game.

 

[AlexT37]

Found something interesting here when looking into it. In the memory support page for the motherboard, seaching for G.Skill 2x16GB kits, it shows a short list of validated kits. The quickest CL16 kit is only 3200MHz, whereas above it is a 3866MHz CL18 kit. Perhaps my kit, being 3600Hz CL16 and in the middle needs to either drop the speed to 3200 and keep the timings, or keep the speed and increase the timings?

Just to be sure, I checked for all brands of kits that are 2x16GB and 3600 to see where the timings are at. All are higher in timings than my kit, except for two Team kits with Samsung memory on them that have timings of 14-15-15-35. So I'm not sure what to make of all this, but it is interesting. What do you guys think? If it ends up being that the memory is the issue I have no problem running lower speeds to increase stability, but I would enjoy more concrete proof.

EDIT: It could also be that XMP is not supplying the right voltage, this also seems to be a problem for some. So there is another element to add. Still, nothing came up on the memory diagnostic I ran, and if there is another diagnostic I could run on my system and memory that would help confirm.