BSOD - DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION - seems to be linked to GPU

Hi All,

Specs:
Lenovo Z500
Windows 8 x64
i5
6GM RAM
NVIDIA Geforce GT 635M

My laptop has become unusable - extremely sluggish, failed to open a program then opens 4 due to additional requests, mouse lag, task manager takes forever to load, various instances of 100% CPU/MEMORY/DISK usage etc etc

Initially i believed this to be an issue with my GPU drivers so i tried updating them numerous times (many times the installer would fail) - this would then result in BSOD.

I have tried a full reinstall of windows (Took 36 hours due to a cycling of installing updates, failed to configure, reverting changes, installing updates...)

All seemed well with the reinstall until i booted to safemode and installed the latest NVIDIA drivers for my GPU - this resulted in a cycle of BSOD (DPC WATCHDOG VIOLATION) which was only broken by entering safe mode and removing the drivers with Display Driver Uninstaller.

Attached my Zip file.

Thank you for any help!

View attachment 64986

Hi BoSelecta75,

Welcome to the 8forums.
You're not wrong at what you thought.
The cause is a driver from Nvidia named the nvlddmkm.sys (Nvidia Video driver)

But, this driver shouldn't be the cause as they are pretty well updated, or there is somewhere a bug?

Try the solution posted in this thread from Nvidia for a possible solution.
Let me know if it helped or if you have any new bluescreens

Thanks for getting back to me,


The laptop is running perfectly fine with no drivers installed for my dedicated GPU (however i can't play games with the onboard which is the main function of the laptop for me).


I just tried to install the drivers again to go through the suggested fix above. I was immediately confronted with with a BSOD for DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

Upon successfully installing the latest drivers in safe mode I restart and it boots to 'it looks like windows didn't load correctly' and i'm forced to start again in safe mode.


The fix suggested on the NVIDIA forum involves disabling the process NvStreamSVC however when i open a command prompt and attempt to delete it i receive:

The specified service does not exist as an installed service

I then have to remove the drivers in order to get a stable machine to post this reply!

Is there any chance this is a hardware issue with the GPU?

Attached my latest mini dump.View attachment 65064

Thanks again,
Scott

To find out if it is a hardware issue please follow these instructions

FurMark download site: FurMark: VGA Stress Test, Graphics Card and GPU Stability Test, Burn-in Test, OpenGL Benchmark and GPU Temperature | oZone3D.Net
FurMark Setup:
- If you have more than one GPU, select Multi-GPU during setup
- In the Run mode box, select "Stability Test" and "Log GPU Temperature"
Click "Go" to start the test (Looks like it's "BURN-IN test" now)
- Run the test until the GPU temperature maxes out - or until you start having problems (whichever comes first).
NOTE: Set the alarm to go off at 90ºC. Then watch the system from that point on. If the system doesn't display a temperature, watch it constantly and turn it off at the first sign of video problems. DO NOT leave it it unmonitored, it can DAMAGE your video card!!!
If the temperature gets above 100ºC, quit the test - the video card is overheating.
- Click "Quit" to exit

Click to expand...

Hi there - thanks for the quick reply!

Will I be able to run this test with no drivers installed for my GPU? Unfortunately I can't install the drivers and then run it as I get instant BSOD upon restart following driver installation.

Just to confirm; I have downloaded the application and it does not detect my GPU unfortunately.

I wouldn't know, as far as I've searched a test without drivers hasn't been performed.

Before using furmark, if you would upload a new zip file is appreciated. This because the cause is most likely something else.

Sorry - what is it you're asking for me to do?

Running the tool again and upload the created zip please.
Make sure there are dump files in the zip, it often happens that there are no dump files in it.

Hi there - see attached for the zip created yesterday afternoon including dump files.

Further to this i tried an install of an older, 'more stable' driver, from several months ago. Again this caused BSOD crashes and windows then only allowed a boot into recovery mode - I am now working from this recovery so unfortunately these dumps have been lost.

If the attached dumps are insufficient then i will re-install the latest drivers (inevitable crashes) and run the diagnostic again as required.

Thanks again.

Scott

View attachment 65071

BoSelecta75 said:

The fix suggested on the NVIDIA forum involves disabling the process NvStreamSVC however when i open a command prompt and attempt to delete it i receive:

The specified service does not exist as an installed service

Click to expand...

The fix was mentioned for a GPU with drivers and software, you can't disable what is removed.

Furthermore, the cause of the latest crash is due to unloaded (not having installed) the nvidia video driver.

From where exactly are you trying to install the drivers? I assume the manufacturer?

EDIT:
Please read and run driver verifier | Sevenforums.