Question Random BSODs

[railtrace]

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?

 

[ubuysa]

I don't like leaving you hanging and I really do want to help, but you need to settle on a fixed hardware and software configuration if you want assistance in diagnosing the problem. None of us can troubleshoot a moving target. 😉

Are you still having issues?

 

[railtrace]

Thanks, it's fixed now though. Faulty Nvidia driver was the problem

 

[ubuysa]

Well that's good news! How did you establish that it was the graphics driver?

 

[railtrace]

I did go on Microsoft forums😳... Not that I don't trust you and this forum though

 

[ubuysa]

Any chance you could post the link? I like to learn whenever I can, especially when someone else fixed something that I couldn't! 😉

 

[railtrace]

Eh ok, but apparently after some usage it's still having problems. It was mostly around debugging minidumps still😳 I'm thinking of reinstalling Windows now, though that will always be a last resort
What is ntkrnlmp.exe though?
SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION BSOD a few moments after booting into desktop - Microsoft Community

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks.

Ntkrnlmp.exe is the multiprocessor component of the Windows kernel. The reason you typically see ntoskrnl (the Windows kernel) and ntkrnlmp (the multiprocessor kernel) in minidumps is that problems caused by third party drivers are generally not discovered until the driver returns control to the Windows kernel and it discovers the driver screw-up. Because the kernel (and kernel-mode drivers) run in a privileged mode the normal error recovery handlers aren't available, so the kernel generates a BSOD. Incidental, the BSOD is done to protect your data, something unusual and unexpected has occurred and to prevent data corruption the kernel generates a memory dump and halts the system - displaying the blue screen of death.

If you're still running the SSD from the other PC (you swapped SSDs you said) then I would advise a reinstall. I notice that you didn't mention that in your Microsoft post - but that is important information. You cannot take a Windows system from one PC and expect it to work flawlessly on a different PC.

 

[railtrace]

Oh ok, thanks. Each drive is now in the PC they belong in, and it does boot properly now, just barely useable.
What does pci.sys do?

 

[ubuysa]

It's a Windows driver (so it's not at fault) that manages the high-level access to PCIe devices. It will call on the lower level drivers for each specific PCIe device. Again, you often find that it's the Windows drivers, like pci.sys, that detect errors made by lower level drivers when control returns to the Windows high level driver (or the kernel).

If that were my system I would do a fully clean reinstall, deleting all system drive partitions in the installer. I don't think even you are now entirely sure what state that system is in....