Question Synthetic watchdog timeout and hypervisor error BSOD

[DScorpion]

Hello, friends.
I installed a clean version of Win 11 Pro. And during work I regularly encounter the problems (BSOD) mentioned above:
Synthetic watchdog timeout (amdppm.sys)
stop code hypervisor error

First the image freezes, and then BSOD is shown. Often hypervisor error occurs when closing an application. For example, Google Chrome.

I changed the RAM - does not help. Virtualization is enabled in BIOS. But in the Win component settings Hyper-V is disabled. I tried to turn on the verifier. It didn't help and I didn't see any additional information during the BSOD. But it seems that when it was turned on, errors appeared much more often. And the computer slowed down a lot.

I read all similar topics on this forum, but still did not find a solution. I have been suffering with this computer for a long time and I am in despair. Please help me solve this problem.

Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990FX, rev.2 (it has an Asus TPM 1.2 module, so the computer officially meets the requirements for Win 11 and I was able to install this system without any problems )
Processor: AMD FX-8370
Video card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 950
RAM: Kingston, KHX1866C10D3/4G, 4 items (16 Gb)

Last minidumps here

 

[johnbl]

Windows 10 Kernel Version 26100 MP (8 procs) Free x64

2014 CPU CPU speed 4014MHz
2016 BIOS

old problem driver:
RTKVHD64.sys Tue Jun 14 03:51:52 2016
Realtek HD audio driver had a bug where it responded to other audio devices DMA requests and would crash the other driver. Generally it would crash the nvidia gpu sound driver. You will want to update this driver or disable it if you do not use it.
disable the nvidia sound driver if you do not get sound to your monitor from the GPU HDMI cable. most likely unrelated to your hypervisor crashing. I would expect that to be to old bios/cpu . will take a quick look at the other bugchecks.
note: windows build/files looked good.



3: kd> !sysinfo machineid
Machine ID Information [From Smbios 2.7, DMIVersion 0, Size=2511]
BiosMajorRelease = 4
BiosMinorRelease = 6
BiosVendor = American Megatrends Inc.
BiosVersion = 2901
BiosReleaseDate = 05/04/2016
SystemManufacturer = To be filled by O.E.M.
SystemProductName = To be filled by O.E.M.
SystemFamily = To be filled by O.E.M.
SystemVersion = To be filled by O.E.M.
SystemSKU = SKU
BaseBoardManufacturer = ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC.
BaseBoardProduct = SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0
BaseBoardVersion = Rev 1.xx
3: kd> !sysinfo cpuinfo
[CPU Information]
~MHz = REG_DWORD 4014
Component Information = REG_BINARY 0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
Configuration Data = REG_FULL_RESOURCE_DESCRIPTOR ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,ff,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0
Identifier = REG_SZ AMD64 Family 21 Model 2 Stepping 0
ProcessorNameString = REG_SZ AMD FX-8370 Eight-Core Processor
Update Status = REG_DWORD 0
VendorIdentifier = REG_SZ AuthenticAMD

 

[johnbl]

so far most of the bugcheck are the same, one where a timer was not called.
go into bios and see if the system time and date are correct.
you might have a simple problem where a battery backup failed on your motherboard. it might be a cr2032 battery directly on the motherboard. Lasts about 5 years.

Since your system is old, you might also boot into bios and check the voltage level if your bios will show them. 3.3V 5Vand 12V
(I think they should be +/- 5 to 10 percent of the reference voltages)

I would start with the voltages, it looks like something low level in the chip support is calling the bugcheck. There is some code being called outside of a known driver. There might be cpu patches for the old cpu.
0: kd> !sysinfo cpumicrocode
Initial Microcode Version: 00000000:06000852
Cached Microcode Version: 00000000:00000000
Processor Family: 15
Processor Model: 02
Processor Stepping: 00
Note: Cached Microcode Version is not detected!
I did not see a microcode dll being loaded for known cpu issues

the system called amdppm.sys told the cpu to shutdown.
it is the amd primary processor module driver. it should be installed with the cpu chipset package from amd.
looks like you have the Microsoft generic version
FileVersion: 10.0.26100.2454 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

edit: check the system time, and the power supply voltages in bios. old machine: you might blow out dust from cpu, gpu, and psu and motherboard. dust can be very conductive.

note: did not see your cpu on the supported list for windows 11. you might want to confirm but I think cpus from 2016 were the earliest cpus that were supported.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...rted/windows-11-22h2-supported-amd-processors

 

[beyondlogic]

Hello, friends.
I installed a clean version of Win 11 Pro. And during work I regularly encounter the problems (BSOD) mentioned above:
Synthetic watchdog timeout (amdppm.sys)
stop code hypervisor error

First the image freezes, and then BSOD is shown. Often hypervisor error occurs when closing an application. For example, Google Chrome.

I changed the RAM - does not help. Virtualization is enabled in BIOS. But in the Win component settings Hyper-V is disabled. I tried to turn on the verifier. It didn't help and I didn't see any additional information during the BSOD. But it seems that when it was turned on, errors appeared much more often. And the computer slowed down a lot.

I read all similar topics on this forum, but still did not find a solution. I have been suffering with this computer for a long time and I am in despair. Please help me solve this problem.

Motherboard: Asus Sabertooth 990FX, rev.2 (it has an Asus TPM 1.2 module, so the computer officially meets the requirements for Win 11 and I was able to install this system without any problems )
Processor: AMD FX-8370
Video card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 950
RAM: Kingston, KHX1866C10D3/4G, 4 items (16 Gb)

Last minidumps here

try replacing the 2032 battery in the motherboard sounds like it may have died or on the way out. if you haven't changed it its been in there for 14 years lol and done a good job.

 

[DScorpion]

johnbl, thank you for your answer! I also thought about the sound driver. But at the time of the last failure, I removed the Realtek driver. This is the latest dump by time.

The time in the BIOS is correct, it is automatically taken from Win, as I understand it. I bought this motherboard two months ago. It is not new. The seller said that he replaced the battery. If the time in the BIOS does not reset when the power is turned off, does this mean that the battery is OK? Or is it better to buy a new one anyway?

I downloaded the Realtek drivers from the Asus website. But they are for Win10. Unfortunately, I could not find other drivers for the integrated sound card. If I download new drivers from Realtek, then during installation they cause an error. And without drivers, the front panel with the headphone jack does not work.

 

[DScorpion]

try replacing the 2032 battery in the motherboard sounds like it may have died or on the way out. if you haven't changed it its been in there for 14 years lol and done a good job.

The seller said he replaced it before selling it. I thought that if the time in the BIOS doesn't reset, then everything is fine. Do you think this isn't an indicator of a good battery?

 

[beyondlogic]

The seller said he replaced it before selling it. I thought that if the time in the BIOS doesn't reset, then everything is fine. Do you think this isn't an indicator of a good battery?

i would still replace it that battery is needed for a proper functioning motherboard.

i would pull the battery out wait about 3 minutes then put the new battery in that will reset the bios to defaults so you can rule any stupid changes the seller implemented.

 

[DScorpion]

i would still replace it that battery is needed for a proper functioning motherboard.

i would pull the battery out wait about 3 minutes then put the new battery in that will reset the bios to defaults so you can rule any stupid changes the seller implemented.

I reset the BIOS settings several times. Both with the battery and with the jumper.

 

[beyondlogic]

I reset the BIOS settings several times. Both with the battery and with the jumper.

if the battery is low it wont keep time properly and wont keep settings properly either.

 

[beyondlogic]

The seller said he replaced it before selling it. I thought that if the time in the BIOS doesn't reset, then everything is fine. Do you think this isn't an indicator of a good battery?

update all your drivers as well

https://www.asus.com/uk/supportonly/sabertooth%20990fx/helpdesk_download/

 

[DScorpion]

update all your drivers as well

https://www.asus.com/uk/supportonly/sabertooth%20990fx/helpdesk_download/

I updated the motherboard BIOS right after purchasing it. But there are problems with the drivers for the sound card. johnbl wrote that the whole problem is in them. These drivers are for Win10. But where to get Realtek drivers for Win11 for my built-in sound card, I don't know.

 

[beyondlogic]

I updated the motherboard BIOS right after purchasing it. But there are problems with the drivers for the sound card. johnbl wrote that the whole problem is in them. These drivers are for Win10. But where to get Realtek drivers for Win11 for my built-in sound card, I don't know.

you can try the latest driver here from 2024 it is for windows 10 but it might work since its newer

https://www.realtek.com/Download/List?cate_id=593&menu_id=298

 

[johnbl]

be sure to read the last note in my above post.
windows 11 support for cpus start for cpus released in 2017.
your cpu was older. you might find a old amd driver will not bugcheck your system. I think the Microsoft driver is stoping the system.

 

[Mimdf]

Hi there,

A synthetic watchdog timeout error in a hypervisor environment, leading to a hypervisor error like a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), typically indicates a communication breakdown between the virtual machine and the hypervisor. This can happen due to various reasons, such as a misconfigured virtual machine, outdated or incompatible virtualization software, or even hardware issues.

One common root cause of this error is the virtual machine not responding within the expected timeframe, triggering the watchdog timer to force a reset. This could be due to high resource utilization within the virtual machine, causing it to become unresponsive to the hypervisor's requests.

To troubleshoot this issue, you can start by checking the resource utilization of the virtual machine, ensuring that it has enough CPU, memory, and disk resources allocated. It's also advisable to update the virtualization software and drivers to the latest versions to avoid compatibility issues.

Furthermore, examining the hypervisor logs for any specific error messages related to the watchdog timeout can provide valuable insights into the underlying issue. In some cases, adjusting the watchdog timer settings or disabling it altogether may help mitigate the problem, although this should be done cautiously as it can impact system stability.

Overall, synthetic watchdog timeout errors in a hypervisor environment can be challenging to diagnose, but by carefully analyzing the system logs, monitoring resource usage, and keeping the software up to date, you can effectively troubleshoot and resolve this issue.

 

[DScorpion]

be sure to read the last note in my above post.
windows 11 support for cpus start for cpus released in 2017.
your cpu was older. you might find a old amd driver will not bugcheck your system. I think the Microsoft driver is stoping the system.

Yes, I read it carefully. Everything inside the system unit is perfectly clean. The computer is mine, I clean it regularly. Only the motherboard is new.

Recently, MS has relaxed the requirements for processors. Therefore, now the installation of the official image is without problems. I create it in Media Creation Tool

Please tell me, what happened to the last dump 011925-27406-01.dmp? This failure occurred after the Realtek driver was removed. It occurred when I closed Google Chrome.

 

[DScorpion]

Now it's gotten worse. I can't even log into Windows. When I boot my computer I see:
1. Or a black screen with a cursor. The cursor responds to mouse movement.
2. Or an endless bootloader.
3. Or a bootloader freeze and, after a minute, one of two BSODs.

 

[DScorpion]

so far most of the bugcheck are the same, one where a timer was not called.
go into bios and see if the system time and date are correct.
you might have a simple problem where a battery backup failed on your motherboard. it might be a cr2032 battery directly on the motherboard. Lasts about 5 years.

Since your system is old, you might also boot into bios and check the voltage level if your bios will show them. 3.3V 5Vand 12V
(I think they should be +/- 5 to 10 percent of the reference voltages)

I would start with the voltages, it looks like something low level in the chip support is calling the bugcheck. There is some code being called outside of a known driver. There might be cpu patches for the old cpu.
0: kd> !sysinfo cpumicrocode
Initial Microcode Version: 00000000:06000852
Cached Microcode Version: 00000000:00000000
Processor Family: 15
Processor Model: 02
Processor Stepping: 00
Note: Cached Microcode Version is not detected!
I did not see a microcode dll being loaded for known cpu issues

the system called amdppm.sys told the cpu to shutdown.
it is the amd primary processor module driver. it should be installed with the cpu chipset package from amd.
looks like you have the Microsoft generic version
FileVersion: 10.0.26100.2454 (WinBuild.160101.0800)

edit: check the system time, and the power supply voltages in bios. old machine: you might blow out dust from cpu, gpu, and psu and motherboard. dust can be very conductive.

note: did not see your cpu on the supported list for windows 11. you might want to confirm but I think cpus from 2016 were the earliest cpus that were supported.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/w...rted/windows-11-22h2-supported-amd-processors

Thank you for your answer!

This is new minidumps. All these errors happened today when I couldn't even log in. Realtek sound card driver was already uninstalled yesterday. I am attaching a screenshot from the BIOS with voltages. The time and date are correct.

 

[johnbl]

basically here is what I see:
service is running a generic host process
it looks like it is doing cleanup on virtual address space allocations
a memory manager internal routine attempts to delete
a virtual address ,
then attempts to delete a range of page table entries
then the hardware virtualization module tries to flush the list of entries.
something tries to read some hive entry (registry)
and fails control is transferred to this location outside of any file:
0xfffff804`197a0000
the system does not like it and calls a non maskable interrupt and it forces the system to shutdown via bugcheck.
(non maskable interrupt is one that can not be turned off)

everything happened very fast (23 seconds)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:00:23.162

here is what I would do next, turn off fast boot in bios, delete the pagefile.sys. this will force the system to create a new one rather than bugchecking while reading one that is corrupted.
if you can get the system to boot, I would tell windows not to make a pagefile.sys on your drive. This will force windows to take some of your memory and create a internal pagefile in RAM
and may allow you to boot. After you can boot up, you will want to check to see if there is a firmware update for your actual drive, see if you can apply a update for your chipset drivers for your disk.
you can use crystaldiskinfo.exe to read the drive info and firmware level and then google to see if it can be updated.

also, installing the old chipset drivers from your motherboard vendor might not have the code leading to the bugcheck. Even getting the amd chipset drivers directly from amd might not have the code that leads to the bugcheck. IE it could just be the Microsoft generic version that bugchecks.
also, most of these old cpus had many security updates that patch a core in the cpu to prevent hacks.

You might also change the memory dump type to kernel or see if you have a file memory.dmp. It is much bigger and has a lot more info in it. Problem, is this is a fast panic memory dump so it may not get created.

will take a quick look at the other bugchecks

second bugcheck: basically
amdppm makes a call to advanced configuration power interface
amdppm!AcpiCStateIdleExecute
it reads something from the hives (registry)
does not like the result and tells calls the hypervisor library and request the system cpu shutdown.

acpi spec is updated over time. the current version is 6.4
it makes calls to your bios but your bios will not have the proper tables since it is so old. you might install the version that matches your motherboard amdppm.sys. at least it will be the version that will match your bios specs.

You might also be able to turn off sleep states in your bios to prevent the calls

this shows the various known bugs in older versions.
https://uefi.org/htmlspecs/ACPI_Spec_6_4_html/Frontmatter/Revision_History.html

I am not even sure what spec level was out in 2014/2016

looks like all of the bugchecks start from a call from amdppm.sys
to acpi interface that tells the hypervisor library to shutdown the cpu.

interface specs for acpi tables must have changed so the current generic version of amdppm.sys just will not work with the old bios from 2016. only real hope would be to install the old chipset driver from 2016, or turn off the functions if you can. (C states). I think there might be a registry setting to also turn it off. ( I have used it as a work around for certain bugs in new CPUs releases) will see if i can find it.
found it by google this "how to disable amdppm.sys transitions"
got this for the registry setting:
To disable amdppm.sys transitions, you can follow these steps:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run window.
2. Type "regedit" and press Enter to open Registry Editor.
3. Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\amdppm.
4. Right-click the Start key and change the Value data to 4.
5. restart computer

it should lock the cpu to one speed. not a good solution and you do not have much time before your system bugchecks

acpi spec:
revision 5.1 was released in July 2014. (your motherboard firmware)
revision is 6.5 release in aug 2022 (version from generic windows 11 file you are using)
most version updates are .1 each release update

 

[DScorpion]

basically here is what I see:
service is running a generic host process
it looks like it is doing cleanup on virtual address space allocations
a memory manager internal routine attempts to delete
a virtual address ,
then attempts to delete a range of page table entries
then the hardware virtualization module tries to flush the list of entries.
something tries to read some hive entry (registry)
and fails control is transferred to this location outside of any file:
0xfffff804`197a0000
the system does not like it and calls a non maskable interrupt and it forces the system to shutdown via bugcheck.
(non maskable interrupt is one that can not be turned off)

everything happened very fast (23 seconds)
System Uptime: 0 days 0:00:23.162

here is what I would do next, turn off fast boot in bios, delete the pagefile.sys. this will force the system to create a new one rather than bugchecking while reading one that is corrupted.
if you can get the system to boot, I would tell windows not to make a pagefile.sys on your drive. This will force windows to take some of your memory and create a internal pagefile in RAM
and may allow you to boot. After you can boot up, you will want to check to see if there is a firmware update for your actual drive, see if you can apply a update for your chipset drivers for your disk.
you can use crystaldiskinfo.exe to read the drive info and firmware level and then google to see if it can be updated.

also, installing the old chipset drivers from your motherboard vendor might not have the code leading to the bugcheck. Even getting the amd chipset drivers directly from amd might not have the code that leads to the bugcheck. IE it could just be the Microsoft generic version that bugchecks.
also, most of these old cpus had many security updates that patch a core in the cpu to prevent hacks.

You might also change the memory dump type to kernel or see if you have a file memory.dmp. It is much bigger and has a lot more info in it. Problem, is this is a fast panic memory dump so it may not get created.

will take a quick look at the other bugchecks

second bugcheck: basically
amdppm makes a call to advanced configuration power interface
amdppm!AcpiCStateIdleExecute
it reads something from the hives (registry)
does not like the result and tells calls the hypervisor library and request the system cpu shutdown.

acpi spec is updated over time. the current version is 6.4
it makes calls to your bios but your bios will not have the proper tables since it is so old. you might install the version that matches your motherboard amdppm.sys. at least it will be the version that will match your bios specs.

You might also be able to turn off sleep states in your bios to prevent the calls

this shows the various known bugs in older versions.
https://uefi.org/htmlspecs/ACPI_Spec_6_4_html/Frontmatter/Revision_History.html

I am not even sure what spec level was out in 2014/2016

looks like all of the bugchecks start from a call from amdppm.sys
to acpi interface that tells the hypervisor library to shutdown the cpu.

interface specs for acpi tables must have changed so the current generic version of amdppm.sys just will not work with the old bios from 2016. only real hope would be to install the old chipset driver from 2016, or turn off the functions if you can. (C states). I think there might be a registry setting to also turn it off. ( I have used it as a work around for certain bugs in new CPUs releases) will see if i can find it.
found it by google this "how to disable amdppm.sys transitions"
got this for the registry setting:
To disable amdppm.sys transitions, you can follow these steps:

1. Press Win + R to open the Run window.
2. Type "regedit" and press Enter to open Registry Editor.
3. Go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\amdppm.
4. Right-click the Start key and change the Value data to 4.
5. restart computer

it should lock the cpu to one speed. not a good solution and you do not have much time before your system bugchecks

acpi spec:
revision 5.1 was released in July 2014. (your motherboard firmware)
revision is 6.5 release in aug 2022 (version from generic windows 11 file you are using)
most version updates are .1 each release update

Thank you very much for your reply and help!

I checked SSD drives. There are no new firmware on them.

I disabled the swap file and reboot.

And while I was writing this answer, I got BSOD again. Here is its minidump. Unfortunately, I did not find memory.dmp in the Windows folder.

I already read about disable amdppm.sys transitions. But I think it's a bad solution.

You wrote that the problem was initially in the Realtek audio driver. But now it has been removed. Could the driver have left something that continues to cause BSOD? Could this problem be related to an old battery on the motherboard?

P.S.
I understand that the processor is quite old. But there are many examples when Win11 works stably on much older models under the AM3 socket.