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

[BoSelecta75]

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

 

[axe0]

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)

*** WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for [URL="http://www.carrona.org/drivers/driver.php?id=nvlddmkm.sys"][COLOR=#ff0000]nvlddmkm.sys [/COLOR][/URL]
*** ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for nvlddmkm.sys

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

0: kd> lmvm nvlddmkmstart             end                 module name
fffff880`04a81000 fffff880`0555a000   nvlddmkm T (no symbols)           
    Loaded symbol image file: nvlddmkm.sys
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\nvlddmkm.sys
    Image name: nvlddmkm.sys
    Timestamp:        [U]Fri Aug 07 05:22:42 2015[/U] (55C42482)
    CheckSum:         00A99ABC
    ImageSize:        00AD9000
    Translations:     0000.04b0 0000.04e4 0409.04b0 0409.04e4

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

 

[BoSelecta75]

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

 

[axe0]

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

 

[BoSelecta75]

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.

 

[BoSelecta75]

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

 

[axe0]

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.

 

[BoSelecta75]

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

 

[axe0]

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.

 

[BoSelecta75]

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

 

[axe0]

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

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.

Please make a backup of your important files and get your rescue media or create one.​

Please create a restore point.​

​

Besides of nvidia, some windows drivers are also mentioned, but that could mean there is another driver giving problems.​

In order to get the driver, we need to stress it out, done via driver verifier. If driver verifier finds a violation the pc will crash.​

​

If driver verifier has found a violation and you can't get back into windows normally, try to boot into safe mode and reset in safe mode driver verifier, or in the troubleshooting options open command prompt and type verifier /reset.​