Question Random BSODs

railtrace

Prominent
Apr 7, 2023
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I'm using the latest version of Win11, and I keep getting random BSODs (have been not so much lately, but still once in a while) with the same stop code "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION". I've asked on Microsoft forums and watched some tutorials but none of these are helping. Any ideas?
 
The DPC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT bugcheck happens because one or more DPCs (the driver back-end) ran for too long. All five dumps reference the same third-party driver in their call stack; amdgpio2.sys...
Code:
1: kd> knL
 # Child-SP          RetAddr               Call Site
00 ffffa781`03d78458 fffff800`46627b3f     nt!KeBugCheckEx
01 ffffa781`03d78460 fffff800`46626984     nt!KeAccumulateTicks+0x23f
02 ffffa781`03d784c0 fffff800`46626863     nt!KiUpdateRunTime+0xf4
03 ffffa781`03d78680 fffff800`46624a8e     nt!KiUpdateTime+0x13e3
04 ffffa781`03d78940 fffff800`4662429a     nt!KeClockInterruptNotify+0x3de
05 ffffa781`03d789f0 fffff800`467453fe     nt!HalpTimerClockInterrupt+0x10a
06 ffffa781`03d78a20 fffff800`4682b4da     nt!KiCallInterruptServiceRoutine+0x19e
07 ffffa781`03d78a60 fffff800`4682bd47     nt!KiInterruptSubDispatchNoLockNoEtw+0xfa
08 ffffa781`03d78ab0 fffff800`aef92935     nt!KiInterruptDispatchNoLockNoEtw+0x37
09 ffffa781`03d78c40 00000000`00000008     amdgpio2+0x2935
0a ffffa781`03d78c48 00000000`00000000     0x8
This is a component of the AMD chipset driver package.

I suggest that you either visit the support site for you particular PC and look for a chipset driver update there, or you use the AMD Driver & Support tool to look for chipset driver updates.
 
Welp, just got a BSOD. Same error code. Was looking at TechPowerUp when it happened. I did update the chipset driver before, I have no idea why it's happening. I'll upload the minidumps again.
Is this what I'm supposed to install? (Picture in the zip alongside the minidumps)
Since I think I probably installed the wrong thing before lol
 
I suggest you look at your network adapter driver and see whether there is an update available for it. This appears to be the problem driver.



I guess you might want some justification for me pointing at the network driver, so I'll try and explain why I am saying that. This particular BSOD is a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION, but there are two types of DPC watchdog violation. One has an argument 1 value of 0, indicating that a single DPC ran for too long. These are quite easy to analyse because the driver is on the call stack. The other type, which has an argument 1 value of 1, is where a collection of DPCs ran too long as a group, and you can't debug these from a minidump. Your BSOD is the second type with an argument 1 value of 1 - that's why I asked for the full kernel dump.

A kernel dump contains all the WMI trace structures, so I dumped all the DPC trace records to a file that the Windows Performance Analyzer (WPA) can read, and then used WPA to look at the duration of each of the DPCs that were running when the watchdog timer popped. Here is the relevant WPA display...


By sorting the list of DPCs on the maximum run time column the longest running DPCs appear at the top (and I've done that in the above display). The longest running DPC is ntoskrnl.exe, this is the Windows kernel of course and that's not causing our problem. The next longest running is tcpip.sys, and it runs for over 3 times longer than the next longest running DPC.

You can see in the graphs at the top that tcpip.sys (the second graph down) contains several periods of long running, much longer than any other DPC. This very long running tcpip.sys driver is what's causing the cumulative time for all DPCs to be exceeded.

The tcpip.sys driver is a Microsoft driver and so is not the root cause, we need to look lower down in the networking driver stack at the third-party network adapter driver - and that's what I've suggested you do.
 
Ah, Ok. The version of that driver that you had installed was only from Feb this year...
Code:
5: kd> lmDvmmtkwl6ex
Browse full module list
start             end                 module name
fffff806`8ec00000 fffff806`8ed99000   mtkwl6ex   (deferred)             
    Image path: \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\mtkwl6ex.sys
    Image name: mtkwl6ex.sys
    Browse all global symbols  functions  data
    Timestamp:        Fri Feb 17 03:33:37 2023 (63EED971)
    CheckSum:         0019D81E
    ImageSize:        00199000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4
    Information from resource tables:
I wonder then, whether it's perhaps a different networking driver that's at fault?

Looking through your drivers I can see that you have both Windscribe VPN and Proton VPN. Were either of them active, either via their client or via a browser extension, during these DPC BSODs?

I notice also that you have the IOMap64.sys driver installed, this is a component of a few ASUS tweaking products. Are you using an ASUS tool to tweak your CPU/GPU/RAM?
 
I can't exactly remember what I was doing during the BSODs, but I only use Proton VPN as a backup and I don't think I was using Windscribe at that time. I do normally have Windscribe open through the desktop client though. I sometimes use it through an edge extension, but I definitely wasn't during the BSODs.
I do use Armoury Crate (a built-in software for some Asus laptops) to tweak CPU and GPU settings, and I think it does sometimes automatically does overclocking...?
According to AMD, my CPU has a locked multiplier, and my GPU is the Max-Q variant, so I'm not very sure.
 
It's really important that you test your PC without either of the VPNs active at all. Ideally I would prefer to see them uninstalled (and then a reboot), even temporarily, so that we know that none of their drivers are interfering.

I'm no overclocking expert either, but with any BSOD it's important that any CPU/GPU/RAM tweaks you have applied are removed. These kinds of teaks can introduce instability that leads to BSODs.
 
Ok, I'll try. Armoury crate (or maybe some other software) does automatically adjust the CPU multiplier according to load, it's 1.5GHz right now (base clock is 3.3GHz), I don't think I could change that. Uninstalling the VPNs would be a pain but sure. Also, I'm pretty sure that I was not doing anything resource intensive during the BSODs, so the CPU should have been underclocking and the GPU might not be active at all.
 
OH NO SOS
MY LAPTOP WON'T FUNCTION ANYMORE
takes a while to boot up, Windows loads slowly, and BSODs with stop code SYSTEN_SERVICE_EXCEPTION
i was just using it (on low battery, if that affects anything), and then it just died without a signal.

*breathes* Ok, so I opened my laptop, and found out it was in tablet mode and that my keyboard and touchpad aren't usable. I then restarted it, and it took forever, Windows was slow, and a few seconds after I entered my desktop, it BSODed. After that, I restarted it again (without waiting for the thing to reach 100% since I didn't want to wait), and got the BSOD again. Now it's out of battery, I'll plug it in when I get home and check again.

also dont ask me for minidumps or memory.dmp since my laptop doesnt even boot properly
 
took forever to boot, got a BSOD again. same error code SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION.
Edit: I.noticed that it only happens when I enter the desktop.
Edit: I put another m.2 drive into my laptop from aolder laptop and booted into it, and now I have access to most files.
 
Last edited:
1. Is it possible to upload the dump from that recent BSOD?

2. Using a Windows system from a different laptop is not ideal, the drivers may well not be right. I'm not happy troubleshooting with that 'other NMVe drive' installed because we'd be troubleshooting an entirely different (and possibly incompatible) Windows system.
 
2. Using a Windows system from a different laptop is not ideal, the drivers may well not be right. I'm not happy troubleshooting with that 'other NMVe drive' installed because we'd be troubleshooting an entirely different (and possibly incompatible) Windows system.
Well, I know it's not ideal, but I do have access to my files on my problematic drive, and that's the only reason I've used it. I've removed the other drive already, and I haven't got any BSODs with the second drive on. I can upload the dumps, I copied them out yesterday.
 
Well, anything I tell you about these dumps is invalid now, because you're running a completely different Windows system!

You had Driver Verifier active in all those dumps - which are identical. I don't remember you telling us you had enabled it, or anyone asking you to enable it?

The problem in all those dumps is a Microsoft filter driver called gamefltsys...
Code:
...
ffffc98b`bde46f28  fffff805`15932fac nt!KeAreAllApcsDisabled+0x1c
ffffc98b`bde46f30  ffffcf0f`a97c4d00
ffffc98b`bde46f38  ffffcf0f`bb308b58
ffffc98b`bde46f40  ffffc98b`bde47040
ffffc98b`bde46f48  ffffcf0f`bb308a16
ffffc98b`bde46f50  00000000`00000000
ffffc98b`bde46f58  fffff805`150012af FLTMGR!FltvPostOperation+0x2ff
ffffc98b`bde46f60  ffffcf0f`00000051
ffffc98b`bde46f68  ffffcf0f`b8086bd0
ffffc98b`bde46f70  ffffcf0f`b827eff0
ffffc98b`bde46f78  fffff805`850c5930 gameflt+0x15930
ffffc98b`bde46f80  ffffcf0f`00000001
ffffc98b`bde46f88  ffffcf0f`00000000
ffffc98b`bde46f90  ffffcf0f`59d1c9c8
ffffc98b`bde46f98  ffffcf0f`c2e16ab0
ffffc98b`bde46fa0  ffffcf0f`00000104
ffffc98b`bde46fa8  00000000`20000059
ffffc98b`bde46fb0  00000000`00000000
ffffc98b`bde46fb8  00000000`00000000
ffffc98b`bde46fc0  ffffcf0f`a97c4db8
ffffc98b`bde46fc8  ffffcf0f`bb308bf8
ffffc98b`bde46fd0  ffffcf0f`bb308b58
ffffc98b`bde46fd8  ffffcf0f`bb308b68
ffffc98b`bde46fe0  ffffcf0f`a97c4b80
ffffc98b`bde46fe8  fffff805`14fa8a34 FLTMGR!FltpPerformPostCallbacksWorker+0x344
ffffc98b`bde46ff0  ffffcf0f`bb308a00
ffffc98b`bde46ff8  ffffcf0f`00080009
ffffc98b`bde47000  00000000`00000000
ffffc98b`bde47008  ffffcf0f`bb308a70
ffffc98b`bde47010  00000000`00040293
ffffc98b`bde47018  fffff805`158424bb nt!KeQueryCurrentStackInformationEx+0x8b
....
The gameflt.sys driver is a driver related to Microsoft Gaming Services and there do seem to be issues with this driver and Windows 11, which you can see if you do a web search. I don't think that was necessarily the problem with your earlier BSODs, but it's all moot now anyway.

I really don't know what you want us to do for you now? Everything we have explored is now invalid.
 
I did take them from the original drive though... Sorry if you think I wasted your time, thank you for your time previously. You can just forget about this, it's irrelevant now.