How to fix the ‘DPC Watchdog Violation’ error on Windows 10

How to fix the ‘DPC Watchdog Violation’ error on Windows 10 DPC surveillance violation errors used to be very common in Windows 10. They seem to happen less now but still do. The cause may be incompatible drivers, incompatible hardware, or file corruption within Windows, usually around the drivers. If you see DPC surveillance breach errors in Windows 10, I’ll show you how to fix it.

DPC stands for Deferred Procedure Call. It is a system within Windows that allows high priority tasks to interrupt the task queue. Essentially, it allows something that Windows deems important to jump to the front of the queue, keeping tasks of lower priority until that process is complete. Watchdog is a software tool that searches for bugs and errors within Windows.

See also our article How to fix Critical Process Died Error in Windows 10

A violation error means that the Watchdog had to wait longer than it considered acceptable for a response from the operating system. To protect the system, Watchdog forces a blue screen error and closes Windows.

FIXING DPC SURVEILLANCE BREACH ERRORS IN WINDOWS 10

If you see DPC surveillance breach errors, you first need to find out what has changed recently. Have you added any new hardware? Did you update any drivers? Did you add any programs like file cleaners or driver agents? Windows updated? If you made changes right before the errors started, this is where we started.

DPC errors cause a blue screen. Restart your Windows computer and try the following. Your computer should charge normally, if only for a minute or two.

If you added new hardware:

Remove the hardware if possible and try again. If it’s a replacement component, replace the old component if you still have it. If the error disappears, check the hardware compatibility with Windows 10 or completely remove the driver for the old component before adding the new one.

If you updated the drivers:

Identify which drivers you updated and surround them with backups. Start with minor components like audio, printers, mouse, keyboard, and work with graphics and motherboard drivers. Roll back a controller and retest. Repeat until Windows works again. The last driver you removed is probably the candidate.

To roll back a controller, do this:

1. Right-click on the Windows Start button and select Device Manager.
2. Now Select the device option which you want to updated and right click and select Properties.
3. Select the Controller tab and select Revert Controller.

If you performed a Windows update:

1. Right-click on the Windows Start button and select Settings.
2. Select Update & security and View update history.
3. Look at which Windows updates were installed when the errors started.
4. Select the update to take to the Windows website that describes it.
5. Now Click on Select Uninstall updates and click to remove one or more of them.

SSD DRIVE ERRORS AND DPC SURVEILLANCE WATCH

A common cause of DPC surveillance violation errors in Windows 10 are SSD drives. If you recently added a new drive, you may not have the correct driver installed. This issue was largely fixed shortly after Windows 10 launched, but occasionally it still looms.

1. Right-click on the Windows Start button and select Device Manager.
2. Select the SSD you installed and right click.
3. Select Update Driver Software and Browse.
4. Select now Let me choose from a list of devices show there.
5. Select “Standard AHCI SATA Driver” from the list and install it.

If neither of those steps worked, there may be corruption or damage to the file within the Windows operating system. We need to verify that.

First, we should test drive checking to make sure it’s not a drive error causing DPC failure.

1. Type “cmd” in the Search Windows box, right-click Command Prompt and select Open as administrator.
2. Type K CHKDSK C: / F / R and press Enter.
3. Let the process complete.

CHKDSK is a disk checking application built into Windows it will scan your C: disk for errors. If you have multiple drives then repeat this for all of them and replacing in Drive C: with D:, E: etc. It will take a while, but it is still a useful tool to check the status of the unit.

WINDOWS 10 ERRORS CAUSING DPC SURVEILLANCE VIOLATION ERRORS

This is rare but it happens. It is easy to discover since Windows has built-in tools to verify the integrity of files.

1. Type “cmd” in the Search Windows box, right-click Command Prompt and select Open as administrator.
2. Type “sfc / scannow” and press Enter.
3. Allow the process to complete.

This process may take a while to complete but there is a progress counter inside the window. SFC, System File Checker will check and verify Windows 10 files and replace any damaged, missing or corrupted files. If there are problems with your installation, this should fix it.

Conclusion

Hopefully now the blue screen of How to fix the ‘DPC Watchdog Violation’ error on Windows 10 death won’t reappear on your Windows10 computer. If you any problem above method please ask in the comments.