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causes of blockages or blue screen BSOD errors or DPC Watchdog violations, how to resolve them. Detect and identify the devices or hardware that cause them. How to temporarily disable Watchdog in Windows 8.
Some of those who installed the latest Microsoft Windows 8 operating system, we regularly receive blue screen error messages, then restart the computer forcibly.
Blue Screen Error Messages (BSOD), also known as Blue Screen of Death, are present in all versions of Windows.
They are an alert and a method of protecting the system and equipment from damage.
For example if an unknown device tries to start a thread, an error code is triggered which stops the process immediately.
In another article of this site is treated in more depth on them: Blue screen errors in Windows
Windows 8 the most frequent is: "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION" with the code 133.
DPC stands for "Deferred Procedure Call".
Occurs when a system monitoring process of errors called Watchdog, detects a DCP process extending more than allowed.
Generally stuck by an IRQL (Request for interrupting the execution of a program, sent by a device to the CPU).
Extended DPC values are said to be caused by poor or poorly written drivers.
The Quick Start for Many Watchdog Errors
One of the causes of the "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION" error on many computers fully compatible with Windows and its updated drivers is the "Quick Start" functionality introduced in Windows 8.
In those cases, that everything works correctly.
• In the Control Panel, open Power Options
• In the left panel choose: "Choose the behavior of the start / stop button".
• Scroll down and uncheck the box: "Enable Quick Launch".
• If it is not possible to uncheck it, use the link above: "Change the configuration currently unavailable".
• Save changes.
Most Common Causes of Watchdog Errors in Windows 8
The main causes that triggers Watchdog are errors due to incompatibility of hardware or devices with Windows 8.
All the latest equipment are not fully compatible with Windows 8.
The chipset on your motherboard may not support the requirements of this system.
Video adapters
Video cards, including modern ones, need to update their driver, even though they are included in the database of drivers that Windows has.
Windows 8 to run smoothly requires the video adapter (either a card or is integrated in the motherboard) support the function: "Unified Shaders".
You can check if your case is available by consulting the documentation or by using the small application called GPU-Z. Download it from: www.techpowerup.com.
Look for the Shaders field, if the word "Vertex" appears, the adapter is very old and not fully compatible.
SSD Drive Controllers
In Windows 8 many of the errors that triggers Watchdog, are caused by the SSD (Solid State Drives) disk controllers, even with some fairly recent ones.
It is necessary to update the firmware on the manufacturer's website.
Firmware is device-specific instructions that control its operation, not drivers that are installed in Windows.
To search for an update is necessary to have the exact model of the disk, which can be obtained in the Disk Administrator .
Then do a search on Google: "NumeroModelo firmware"
Wi-Fi adapters
The Wi-Fi adapters in PCI cards, are reputed to cause conflicts in Windows 8, in those cases it is necessary to use one that works by USB.
How to identify cause and prevent blue screen error messages
To solve any blue screen error, it is necessary to detect the causing device and update the driver.
Open Regedit Registry Editor by typing in the startup screen: REGEDIT and pressing the Enter key.
• Navigate to the following key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Services \ Wd
• In the right pane give two clicks to the "Start" value, set it to 4 and press "OK"
• This disables the service.
• To return to its normal value give it the value 0
Before making any changes to the Registry it is recommended to save the key to modify first.
To do so in the "File" menu choose "Export .." and save it to the Desktop or other easily accessible place.
To return the key to its usual values it will only be necessary to make two clicks on the saved REG file.