Frequent DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION BSOD on Windows 8

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I am having frequent Blue Screens of Death on my new Windows 8 Dell XPS 13 UltraBook. The specifics:

Hardware (screenshot of device manager with what I think are the most relevant items expanded):

enter image description here

Software: OS: Windows 8 Applications: Web browsers, development tools (Prolog, Eclipse, etc..)

More specificically, BSOD occurs almost always on every third time I try to log in to my machine on startup. As I type my password in or just after I have finished typing my password, I get the BSOD always with "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION". At times, it also happens every second time but has never happened on consecutive times that I log in. I have no idea if that has any relevance or is even a valid pattern.

To diagnose the issue, I downloaded WhoCrashed and it told me this:

On Sun 2013-03-24 2:52:26 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\032413-6218-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7A040) 
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x0, 0x281, 0x280, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
company: Microsoft Corporation
description: NT Kernel & System
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue. 
The crash took place in the Windows kernel. Possibly this problem is caused by another driver that cannot be identified at this time. 

On Sun 2013-03-24 2:52:26 PM GMT your computer crashed
crash dump file: C:\Windows\memory.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: usbmac64.sys (USBMAC64+0x5B96) 
Bugcheck code: 0x133 (0x0, 0x281, 0x280, 0x0)
Error: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\usbmac64.sys
product: --
company: --
description: NDIS 5.0 driver
Bug check description: The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem. This problem might be caused by a thermal issue. 
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: usbmac64.sys (NDIS 5.0 driver, --). 
Google query: -- DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION

I am not quite sure how to proceed. I used Dell System Detect to check if I have all the updated drivers for my machine and I do.

Appreciate any input on this.

EDIT: Added a link to all the .dmp files relevant to this issue here

karancan

Posted 2013-03-24T15:12:27.510

Reputation: 296

ignore those buggy tools. Open the dmp files with Windg. if you're unsure, upload all dmp files, so that I can look at them. – magicandre1981 – 2013-03-24T17:19:19.003

"Probably caused by ntoskrnl.exe" is what one of the .dmp files tells me. However, here is a link to all the .dmp files that are relevant to this issue

– karancan – 2013-03-24T17:50:01.583

Answers

4

The crashes are caused by the driver USBMAC64.SYS

*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION (133)
The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL
or above.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, A single DPC or ISR exceeded its time allotment. The offending
    component can usually be identified with a stack trace.
Arg2: 0000000000000281, The DPC time count (in ticks).
Arg3: 0000000000000280, The DPC time allotment (in ticks).
Arg4: 0000000000000000

Debugging Details:
------------------


DPC_TIMEOUT_TYPE:  SINGLE_DPC_TIMEOUT_EXCEEDED

CUSTOMER_CRASH_COUNT:  1

DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID:  WIN8_DRIVER_FAULT

BUGCHECK_STR:  0x133

PROCESS_NAME:  svchost.exe

CURRENT_IRQL:  d

TAG_NOT_DEFINED_c000000f:  FFFFF880009C5FB0

LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER:  from fffff8035a9dd6ef to fffff8035a884040

STACK_TEXT:  
nt!KeBugCheckEx
nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string'
nt!KeUpdateRunTime
hal!HalpTimerClockInterrupt
nt!KiInterruptDispatchLBControl
nt!KeAcquireSpinLockRaiseToDpc
ACPI!ACPIDispatchIrp
USBMAC64
0x0
0x0
0x0


IMAGE_NAME:  USBMAC64.SYS

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  0x133_DPC_USBMAC64+6b68

BUCKET_ID:  0x133_DPC_USBMAC64+6b68

    Loaded symbol image file: USBMAC64.SYS
    Image path: \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\USBMAC64.SYS
    Image name: USBMAC64.SYS
    Timestamp:        Fri May 25 11:35:13 2012

This seams to be the driver for MosChip 7830 HighSpeed USB-Ethernet Adapter. Look if there is an update.

magicandre1981

Posted 2013-03-24T15:12:27.510

Reputation: 86 560

Turns out there hasn't been a driver update for the Ethernet dongle in a while. Looks like I'm switching to a Dell Ethernet dongle instead. – karancan – 2013-03-24T20:37:39.367