I recently upgraded my gaming PC with a new motherboard, GPU, and CPU about three months ago. Everything was running smoothly until about two days ago when it started crashing randomly while playing Arma Reforger. The first couple of crashes came with a loud noise, and half the screen went black. I tried reinstalling the drivers using DDU twice, which seemed to help for a couple of hours, but then it crashed again—this time freezing on the last frame before a restart. The error code I get is DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION (0x133).
The weird part is that the PC runs fine for everything else apart from gaming. Here are my specs: CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X, GPU: Gigabyte Radeon RX 9060 XT (16 GB), RAM: 32 GB DDR4 OLOy (4 sticks) running ~2666 MHz, MSI MAG B550 Tomahawk MAX WiFi motherboard, 500 GB SSD for OS, 1 TB WD_BLACK NVMe SSD for games, plus some additional storage. I'm using an 850 W PSU and an air CPU cooler that's been repasted, along with four case fans. Any thoughts on what might be causing this?
2 Answers
It sounds like a potential driver issue or maybe a hardware problem. Have you checked all your USB devices? Sometimes peripherals can cause conflicts. You mentioned an external HDD; try disconnecting it and see if the crashes stop. Also, make sure all your drivers, especially for your GPU, are fully updated—sometimes the latest fixes can resolve those DPC errors.
If the crashing only happens during gaming, it could also be heat-related. Make sure your cooling is adequate and your case hasn't collected too much dust. Monitor your CPU and GPU temperatures while gaming and see if they spike before a crash.
I'll definitely keep an eye on the temps while gaming! The cooler is fairly new, but I’ll check for dust buildup just in case.
Good call on the drivers! But if disconnecting the HDD helps, it could be worth checking for any updates for that device as well. Sometimes even an existing device can cause conflicts after other updates.