How To Fix DPC Watchdog Violation Error In Windows 10

You are playing a game or watching one of your favorite movies or in the middle of some important work on the system and it suddenly shows you a blue screen with an error (screenshot mentioned below). Has this ever happened to you? This blue screen is called DPC Watchdog Violation, which is a common issue in Windows 10. What triggers it could be some corrupted system files, hardware incompatibility issues, or unsupported SSD firmware.

Since watchdog violation error is a common issue with Windows 10, many users have reported this in the past. This error is actually a repeat of Windows 8 when it was released. In the initial stage when this violation popped up, the reason behind that was unsupported SSD firmware which was incompatible with Windows 10 resulting in this situation. So the big question here is, how do we fix this issue?

You don’t need to worry about it as we have got the way to fix DPC watchdog violation for windows 10 for you right here. First, let’s understand what triggers this watchdog violation in the first place:

Trigger Points For DPC Watchdog Violation Windows 10

1. In case your device’s drivers are outdated or not installed properly. The time you try to use a feature that doesn’t have its supported driver installed in the system properly, the system probably will pop up with the above blue screen.
2. Incompatible hardware can also be a factor as well. Either you installed a new and latest hardware to your old system recently or the external hard drive isn’t supporting Windows 10 in your PC.
3. Sometimes corrupted system files can also be a reason we get this watchdog violation error on Windows 10, but the weightage of this trigger point is way less than the others.

Let’s walk you through the fixing steps/solutions For DPC Watchdog Violation Error:

Solution 1: Fix Cables

Sometimes this kind of error can be fixed by rechecking the cables if those are properly connected. If all the cables are properly plugged in, you may want to check the health of the disks.

Solution 2: Remove All External Devices on Your Computer

Removing or disconnecting all the external devices from your PC might help you to get rid of DPC Watchdog Violation Windows 10 error. If you have any external solid-state drive, printer, or scanner connected to your system, remove them and restart your computer.

Afterward, start connecting one device at a time to check which one had a problematic issue. As soon as the DPC Watchdog Violation error occurs after connecting one of the devices, remove it to fix the problem. After that, you can connect to other devices.

Solution 3: Change SATA AHCI Controller

You yourself can also change the SATA AHCI Controller to fix the DPC watchdog violation on windows 10.

AHCI (Advanced Host Controller Interface) is a hardware mechanism that allows the software to communicate with Serial ATA (SATA) devices (such as host bus adapters).

Steps to follow:

1. Launch Device Manager in Windows 10 (press “Windows key” and “X” simultaneously)
2. Tap on Device Manager from the menu
3. Search for IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers section and click on “Standard SATA AHCI Controller”. Follow this by clicking on “Properties”
4. Click on tab “Driver” and then “Driver Details”
5. Check if the driver address ends with “iaStorA.sys”. If yes, exit the window and if it ends with “storahci.sys”, go back a step and click on “Update Driver”
6. Follow this step by tapping on “Browse my computer for driver software” and then “Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer”.
7. Now click on “Standard SATA AHCI Controller” and update this driver on your system.
8. Once it gets installed on the system, restart your PC and now there is no need for you to worry about it.

Solution 3: Update The Outdated Drivers

One more reason for the DPC Watchdog Violation error is outdated drivers for your hardware devices. Verify that all the system has all the right and latest drivers and update the ones which don’t.

If the driver address ends with storahci.sys in the properties of the SATA AHCI controller driver, you should update your driver (mentioned above with the screenshots).

Now there are two ways to update your pc drivers as below:

Manually Update The Drivers – Search for the most recent version of the appropriate driver and update it manually by visiting the manufacturer’s website.

Automatic Update The Drivers – I prefer this option as it’s easy, faster, and hasslefree where you won’t have to go and find the drivers. You just need to run the Smart Driver Care on your PC and rest will be taken care of automatically.

Steps To Follow:

1. Install and run the Smart Driver Care on your PC

2. Click on “Scan Now” and it will give you a list of drivers that are outdated and need to be updated.

3. Click on “Update All” and it will automatically download all the available drivers on your system.

See Also: 5 Best Driver Update Software For Windows – 2020

There is one more solution to get rid of the DPC watchdog violation error on windows 10 as below:

1. On condition that you recently updated Windows 10 and after that, your system started giving you blue screen error, we advise you to uninstall the most recent updates.

2. Go to “Control Panel” and find “Programs / Programs and Features”

3. Tap on “View Installed Updates”, right-click on the latest update and click “Uninstall”.

Above are some of the ways which can help you to get rid of the watchdog violation error on your pc. We will suggest you keep your PC updated with the required latest driver versions so that you won’t have to face this issue in the first place.

What Do You Think?

Was this blog helpful and informative for you? Please share if you are using some other way to deal with the same issue and we can add that here so that it can reach out to more readers.