DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION when in the middle of a game

[familyguy0980]

Almost about a week since this has been happening, my computer gets a BSOD when I'm in the middle of a game. The BSOD error code is: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. I used programs like WhoCrashed and found these two drivers that caused the crash: ntoskrnl.exe and nvlddmkm.sys. I found out that the "nvlddmkm.sys" file was cause by NVIDIA. I don't why this is causing crashes because I recently updated the driver for my graphics card. I can't find the source for the first driver, "ntoskrnl.exe". I also found out that this has happened to my brother's computer where he's been getting the same BSOD error when he's just browsing and playing games.

My specs: CPU: AMD FX 6300 , GPU: NVIDIA GTX 960 ,HDD: 1TB HARD DRIVE (WD) , PSU EVGA 500W , MOTHERBOARD: GA-78LMT-USB3 6.0 (GIGABYTE) WINDOWS 8.1 PRO RAM: 8GB

EDITS
I have reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers which didn't work and still can't figure out what the "ntoskrnl.exe" is.
I found out that ntoskrnl.exe and nvlddmkm.sys drivers crash at the exact same time.

These are the crash reports:
On Mon 1/15/2018 11:10:41 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\011518-31250-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x154EA0)
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x1, 0x1E00, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above. This could be caused by either a non-responding driver or non-responding hardware. This bug check can also occur because of overheated CPUs (thermal issue).
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

On Mon 1/15/2018 11:10:41 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys (nvlddmkm+0x28616b)
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x1, 0x1E00, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 390.65
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 390.65
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above. This could be caused by either a non-responding driver or non-responding hardware. This bug check can also occur because of overheated CPUs (thermal issue).
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 390.65 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: nvlddmkm.sys NVIDIA Corporation DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

 

[Paul NZ]

Thats whats causing it the video driver you installed

 

[ru8178]

Almost about a week since this has been happening, my computer gets a BSOD when I'm in the middle of a game. The BSOD error code is: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. I used programs like WhoCrashed and found these two drivers that caused the crash: ntoskrnl.exe and nvlddmkm.sys. I found out that the "nvlddmkm.sys" file was cause by NVIDIA. I don't why this is causing crashes because I recently updated the driver for my graphics card. I can't find the source for the first driver, "ntoskrnl.exe". I also found out that this has happened to my brother's computer where he's been getting the same BSOD error when he's just browsing and playing games.

My specs: CPU: AMD FX 6300 , GPU: NVIDIA GTX 960 ,HDD: 1TB HARD DRIVE (WD) , PSU EVGA 500W , MOTHERBOARD: GA-78LMT-USB3 6.0 (GIGABYTE) WINDOWS 8.1 PRO RAM: 8GB

EDITS
I have reinstalled the NVIDIA drivers which didn't work and still can't figure out what the "ntoskrnl.exe" is.
I found out that ntoskrnl.exe and nvlddmkm.sys drivers crash at the exact same time.

These are the crash reports:
On Mon 1/15/2018 11:10:41 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\011518-31250-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x154EA0)
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x1, 0x1E00, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above. This could be caused by either a non-responding driver or non-responding hardware. This bug check can also occur because of overheated CPUs (thermal issue).
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time.

On Mon 1/15/2018 11:10:41 PM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP
This was probably caused by the following module: nvlddmkm.sys (nvlddmkm+0x28616b)
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x1, 0x1E00, 0x0, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\nvlddmkm.sys
product: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 390.65
company: NVIDIA Corporation
description: NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 390.65
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above. This could be caused by either a non-responding driver or non-responding hardware. This bug check can also occur because of overheated CPUs (thermal issue).
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: nvlddmkm.sys (NVIDIA Windows Kernel Mode Driver, Version 390.65 , NVIDIA Corporation).
Google query: nvlddmkm.sys NVIDIA Corporation DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

I'm also in the same situation. It happens in the middle of a game and also have almost identical hardware in my computer as yours and under windows 8.1. It just started happening a week ago and really confused what's causing it. I updated all drivers and nothing's working.

 

[cartoondabuddhalover]

The driver for NVIDIA is most likely the culprit of your DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION. I just had the same problem and was troubleshooting this for a few weeks. My case is almost 100% similar on my GTX 1050TI, whereas the system will crash due to the same two drivers.

There can be multiple reasons why the driver is crashing but my solution for my system was to uninstall all graphics drivers and revert back to the 385.41 GeForce Game Ready Driver for my Windows 8.1 @ http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/123217/en-us.
I guess ill be waiting for the next driver release.

:Final solution
If reverting to a previous version doesn't work at all, you should use DDU to delete the graphics drivers, allow windows update to update the driver to the 23.21.13.8813 version. I found this to be a solution on a client's built computer for now. Keep me updated!

DDU can be a great tool to uninstall the drivers quickly in safe mode as well.
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

Malware can also cause the drivers to cause the BSOD, more specifically a malware affecting the NTOSKRNL.exe There are rootkits out there that can do that.

There is kernel mode and user mode of the operating system. The kernel takes care of the most important and critical services of the operating system where the user mode takes care of the application services, in a sense. They are seperated to prevent user applications or programs from crashing the system. The NTOSKRNL.exe is the Kernel mode for the OS that has the ability to directly access hardware and reference memory, where user mode does not have access directly to hardware but rather there is a messenger in between the two called an APC. Most video drivers are segmented into user and kernel mode sections so the result of your crash is most likely the nvlddmkm.sys segmented in the kernel section is failing probably because the hardware abstraction layer detecting some kind of error.

There is also speculation that the NVIDIA High Definition Audio Device running along with your motherboard's audio device can cause the nvlddmkm.sys to crash. Solution for that one, if it is the NVIDIA audio device causing the crash, would be to disable the motherboards audio device while running the NVIDIA audio device. Just wanted to throw that out there because that was a solution for a few cats out there with this exact error.

I would suspect you just have the same driver issue as I.
Follow up with me if this works out for you or if you find a fix and I hope you found this helpful.


Here's confirmation on a bug in the kernel mode driver for NVIDIA: nvlddmkm.sys
http://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4278/~/security-bulletin%3A-multiple-vulnerabilities-in-the-nvidia-windows-gpu-display

 

[ajgarcia1428]

The final updated solution you had for your client's computer solved mine for now. Built system with a DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION causing crash about 30 minutes after start-up and quicker when I started watching movies.. Have left the computer on couple days straight watching movies all day and night with no crash. Will keep ya updated. Thanks