I'm dealing with a persistent CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT blue screen that occurs only in Forza Horizon 5. The game usually crashes at the end of the loading screen when entering the map or near the end of the built-in benchmark loading process.
My system has a stock Ryzen 5 5600G in an HP ProTower 285 G8 MT with a proprietary motherboard. The BIOS is reportedly up to date, XMP and overclocking are unavailable, Windows Memory Diagnostic found no errors, and temperatures stay below 80°C during gaming, although synthetic CPU tests can reach about 95°C. Other demanding games, including PUBG PC, run normally.
The logs show Kernel-Power Event 41 after the freeze, a Service Control Manager Event 7000 error for a missing Sentry service, and a DistributedCOM Event 10010 involving the Windows Game Bar presence service. I have already tried lowering graphics settings, disabling ray tracing, capping the frame rate, using borderless mode, changing process priority, restricting CPU affinity, reinstalling graphics drivers with DDU, disabling Fast Startup, clearing temporary caches, removing the Sentry service, changing Windows power limits, and attempting to remove Xbox components.
The crash seems related to Forza's DX12 loading and multithreaded asset streaming, so I'm wondering whether this is more likely to be a software or driver problem, mixed-memory instability, processor power management, or a limitation of the HP motherboard and its power delivery. Are there any other diagnostics or fixes I should try before replacing the motherboard, case, and power supply?
2 Answers
The most useful next step is to inspect the actual minidump files rather than relying only on Event Viewer. Event 41 just records that Windows restarted after a hard lockup, and the Sentry and Game Bar errors may only be unrelated background errors. Check C:WindowsMinidump and configure Windows to create small memory dumps if none are being saved. Several dumps may show whether the failures consistently involve processor power management or a particular driver.
The dumps reportedly show crashes occurring under Processor Power Management. Recheck the HP support page for the exact ProTower model and install the newest BIOS available for that machine, then install current AMD chipset drivers directly from AMD. Also verify the memory configuration: mixed RAM kits or mismatched modules can pass a basic memory test yet still become unstable under a specific game’s workload. Test each module and, if possible, run a matched kit at conservative default settings.
I tested the memory and CPU with OCCT without reproducing the crash, although the case has limited airflow during the longer CPU tests. So far, Forza Horizon 5 is still the only application that triggers the blue screen.