I replaced the original hard drive in my Toshiba E45W-C4200X with an SSD, but the laptop freezes and eventually crashes with a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION blue screen. This happened with both a 1 TB TeamGroup SSD and a 250 GB Toshiba TR150 SSD, and Windows was freshly installed each time. I have a minidump available for analysis. What should I check next?
2 Answers
The crash may be related to the laptop's firmware or storage controller rather than either SSD. Update Windows fully and check Toshiba/Dynabook's support page for the latest BIOS version for this model. An outdated BIOS can cause compatibility problems after switching from a hard drive to an SSD.
A failing dedicated GPU can sometimes cause repeated watchdog crashes. If you can boot into Safe Mode, temporarily disable the discrete graphics device in Device Manager and test a normal boot. If the crashes continue, the SATA controller, storage driver, or motherboard is a more likely suspect.
If the dump analysis points away from the graphics driver, I would focus on the SATA controller and chipset drivers instead. Since two different SSDs behave the same way, the common hardware or firmware is more suspicious.
Would disabling the dedicated GPU just leave me with a black screen? This laptop only has the dedicated graphics device.