Repeating "Clock_Watchdog_Timeout" BSOD - can you assist?

[SpyderTracks]

Thanks, Spyder. I was not aware that that facility existed. (Bet you've heard THAT one before).

There were 3 "optional updates" available. I have downloaded & installed them.

I'll reboot & see how it goes.

The only other thing is what anti virus are you using? If you're just using windows defender, that's good, that's all you need. 3rd party AV's just cause many issues and are totally irrelevant since windows 7, they actually decrease security, not improve it.

If you're using a 3rd party AV, it's worth uninstalling it fully, but you have to use the official uninstaller from the vendor, can't uninstall it through the normal method in windows.

Then, just as a last precaution, I would load powershell as administrator and run the following commands:

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Note the DISM cmd could take some time depending how much corruption is found.

If you're still getting the BSOD after that, don't put up with it, it doesn't include what warranty you chose in your specs, but no matter what, you're covered for labour for 3 years, and whatever parts warranty you selected.

You can raise an RMA through your main PCS account, login and on the right you've got the Returns / Request and RMA

It does mean sending the laptop back, but an issue like this can get worse over time if it is a hardware issue with the CPU, it's best to get it looked at sooner rather than risking your warranty expiring or it starting to affect other components. Even if your parts warranty has expired, it's worth getting a quotation from PCS to see if it's worth them fixing. Hopefully you chose a decent warranty though in which case you're fully covered.

 

[PeterE]

The only other thing is what anti virus are you using? If you're just using windows defender, that's good, that's all you need. 3rd party AV's just cause many issues and are totally irrelevant since windows 7, they actually decrease security, not improve it.

If you're using a 3rd party AV, it's worth uninstalling it fully, but you have to use the official uninstaller from the vendor, can't uninstall it through the normal method in windows.

Then, just as a last precaution, I would load powershell as administrator and run the following commands:

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Note the DISM cmd could take some time depending how much corruption is found.

If you're still getting the BSOD after that, don't put up with it, it doesn't include what warranty you chose in your specs, but no matter what, you're covered for labour for 3 years, and whatever parts warranty you selected.

You can raise an RMA through your main PCS account, login and on the right you've got the Returns / Request and RMA

It does mean sending the laptop back, but an issue like this can get worse over time if it is a hardware issue with the CPU, it's best to get it looked at sooner rather than risking your warranty expiring or it starting to affect other components. Even if your parts warranty has expired, it's worth getting a quotation from PCS to see if it's worth them fixing. Hopefully you chose a decent warranty though in which case you're fully covered.

Wow! Now THAT is a mind-blower.

1. I am using ESET NOD32 anti-virus, & have done for years. It is due for renewal this month, so I will cancel the auto-renewal. I will also uninstall as you have advised. Can you point me to a link explaining what you have said about 3rd party AVs being unnecessary since Windows 7?

2. I will load powershell & run the command you advise.

3. Re Windows Defender: does it require activating, or is it already humming away in the background? Do I uninstall the 3rd party AV first & then activate WD, or the other way around?

Incidentally, I had a BSOD during the typing of this response, but again there was no .dmp file to be found in the C:\Windows folder.

 

[Martinr36]

3. Re Windows Defender: does it require activating, or is it already humming away in the background? Do I uninstall the 3rd party AV first & then activate WD, or the other way around?

Uninstall ESET, and Windows defender will take over and do a perfect job

 

[ubuysa]

If you're getting 0x101 BSODs then the ONLY way to resolve them (without guessing) is to upload the FILE C:\Windows\Memory.dmp each time you get a new BSOD.

 

[SpyderTracks]

1. I am using ESET NOD32 anti-virus, & have done for years. It is due for renewal this month, so I will cancel the auto-renewal. I will also uninstall as you have advised. Can you point me to a link explaining what you have said about 3rd party AVs being unnecessary since Windows 7?

There is no conclusive article stating this, but those that work in the industry generally all use windows defender by default for their customers. 3rd party AV know this as their subscriber base has fallen off a cliff so there is a lot of paid content out there falsely hailing their supremacy which is simply false. Windows Defender started being included with windows at the tail end of Windows 7.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus

An effective antivirus that's best for techies

uk.pcmag.com

Windows Defender vs third-party antivirus

Microsoft Defender – formerly known as Windows Defender – now covers a broad range of home, enterprise and cloud security and antivirus solutions. Let's | Trusted Reviews

www.trustedreviews.com

3. Re Windows Defender: does it require activating, or is it already humming away in the background? Do I uninstall the 3rd party AV first & then activate WD, or the other way around?

Once you've fully uninstalled Nod32, Defender will activate and take over automatically

It doesn't look like ESET do a proper uninstaller tool which is concerning

[KB5547] Uninstall your ESET home and small office product for Windows on Windows 10 and later

support.eset.com

 

[PeterE]

Once again, thanks guys (inc Martinr36) for your assistance.

1. ESET NOD32 has now been uninstalled. After rebooting, I had a message from ESET asking why I had uninstalled, etc. So it is now OFF my computer.

2. In reply to ubuysa: I understand what you are saying, but (with respect) I can only repeat - after the BSOD there was no .dmp file in the C:\Windows folder. It is not there.

3. Thanks for the links, Spyder: I will read up on them.

4. I will now proceed with the powershell & sfc /scannow & Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth commands.

Update:
1. sfc scan - "no integrity violations"
2. Dism scan - "restore op completed successfully".

 

[ubuysa]

2. In reply to ubuysa: I understand what you are saying, but (with respect) I can only repeat - after the BSOD there was no .dmp file in the C:\Windows folder. It is not there.

And that in itself is a problem. If you're seeing repeated BSODs and you're not writing dumps then you have a problem. To properly write dump ALL of the following must be true...

• The page file must be on the same drive as your operating system
• Set page file to "system managed"
• Set system crash/recovery options to "Automatic memory dump"
• Windows Error Reporting (WER) system service should be set to MANUAL
• User account control must be running

In addition, the following can also prevent you seeing dumps...

• SSD drives with older firmware do not create dumps (update the drive firmware)
• Cleaner applications like Ccleaner delete dump files, so don't run them until you are fixed
• Bad RAM may prevent the data from being saved and written to a file on reboot, so if all else fails test your RAM

Without a kernel dump, you can't tell what's causing these 0x101 BSODs.

 

[PeterE]

HI guys:

I've not had a BSOD in the past 2+ weeks, but as the laptop couldn't write dumps anyway, it wouldn't make any difference if I had.

But: I'm still having audio / visual problems which I thought were tied-in with the BSOD problem.
AUDIO: when playing audio files in whatever software - usually VLC - the sound "drops" for a couple of seconds every 10-15 mins or so before resuming. It also "drops" for a second whenever I adjust the volume;
VISUAL: when playing videos - whether in VLC or any other software, or even online (YouTube, etc), the picture "drops" / "blanks" for a few seconds before resuming.

Also, sometimes during the loss of sound / pic there is what can only be described as a "grating" noise coming from the laptop. Sounds like hardware rather than software. Plus, the fan on the laptop occassionally gets really loud, especially when a video is playing in VLC. Again, I'm thinking hardware (?)

There is nothing wrong with the software - I uninstalled & re-installed to be sure. And anyway, these faults are occurring when audio & visual is running other than via software, ie., online (video / audio websites). It's not just some files that don't play properly - the problem occurs with all / any audio / visual file, and (as I said) online too.

I'm thinking that I might have installed a dodgy driver from here:

Intel® Driver & Support Assistant

This application provides driver and software updates for your Intel hardware.

www.intel.com

The icon for this site, hidden in the taskbar, regularly advises that "updates are available" and I have downloaded the software in order to keep the laptop up-to-date. Could this be the reason for the ongoing audio / visual "hiccups" - which I thought were part of the BSOD problem?

Does this sound like something that I can resolve at this end? I've only had the laptop since late last year & I have been careful with it. But the audios / visuals are definitely not performing properly. Does it need looking at?

 

[ubuysa]

It's clear that all is not well there. You talk about audio and visuals not performing properly and you still can't write dump files. As I've already said, the CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT BSOD is most usually caused by a bad CPU.

If this were mine I'd backup all the user data, clean install Windows from bootable media (deleting all existing UEFI partitions), run Windows Update repeatedly until no more updates are found, check in Device Manager for any devices missing drivers (a yellow triangle with a black exclamation mark next to them) and download and install these drivers from your PCS account. Then test the laptop thoroughly - without installing any other software or plugging in any external hardware. If you get BSODs in that state then it's definitely a hardware problem.

 

[PeterE]

Thanks, ubuysa - that's what I thought you'd advise.

Just one question about the clean install. When I do it, will there be an option saying "delete all existing UEFI partitions", or is that something I do at some other point in the process? I have Windows 11 on a USB boot drive, but I've not used it before. I want to do this properly.

 

[Martinr36]

Just one question about the clean install. When I do it, will there be an option saying "delete all existing UEFI partitions"

if you select the custom install, just about the first screen you come to is where you delete the partitions

 

[Martinr36]

Just to be sure check out this video

 

[PeterE]

Thanks Martinr36.

My BIOS looks nothing like the one in the video.

With the USB stick installed, I'm through to a screen offering me a choice of:
System Vol Info
Boot
EFI
Sources
Support
Bootmgr.efi

Which is the correct option?

 

[ubuysa]

Thanks Martinr36.

My BIOS looks nothing like the one in the video.

With the USB stick installed, I'm through to a screen offering me a choice of:
System Vol Info
Boot
EFI
Sources
Support
Bootmgr.efi

Which is the correct option?

None of the above! You have to boot the Windows installation media - that means you have to make the USB drive the first device in the boot order, you must do that in the BIOS. Typically, in laptops, you need to select the BOOT option and you'll find the boot order list in there. On laptops you typically use specific keys to move items up and down in the boot list. You want the USB drive at the top - first in the order.

You'll know when you've successfully booted the installation USB because you'll see a screen asking you to confirm the language and version and then a screen with a big blue INSTALL button.

Just one question about the clean install. When I do it, will there be an option saying "delete all existing UEFI partitions", or is that something I do at some other point in the process? I have Windows 11 on a USB boot drive, but I've not used it before. I want to do this properly.

Once you've clicked the big blue INSTALL button you'll see a screen with a couple of options - choose CUSTOM INSTALL (I think it's the lower of the two).
Then you'll see a screen showing your two drives (labelled drive0 and drive1) and the partitions on these drives. BE SURE TO CORRECTLY IDENTIFY YOUR WINDOWS SYSTEM DRIVE (the 1TB drive). You will NOT be touching your 4TB drive at all.
On your Windows system drive there will be several partitions, typically 4, but sometimes only 3. Delete ALL these partitions, one by one, using the Delete button at the bottom, until the whole of that drive is listed as 'unallocated space'.
Click this 'unallocated space' to highlight it and then click the Next button. The installer will do everything necessary.

 

[PeterE]

Thaks ubuysa.

Re advanced options - optional updates. There are 3 driver updates. Should I upload them? Microsoft's blurb is unless there is a specific problem, automatic updates will keep the drivers up to date.

Device manager is showing that all the disk drives (x3) are OK. Nothing to update.

 

[ubuysa]

Post a screenshot of that optional update page

 

[PeterE]

Hope this is OK.

 

[ubuysa]

Yes, install all three of those. Just check the boxes and click Download & Install.

The first two are (of course) updates for your Bluetooth and WiFi drivers.
The third one is an update for your chipset driver and it's not impossible that this update may fix your BSODs.

 

[PeterE]

Great. All done. Optional updates installed & re-booted.

Earlier today you said:
"Then test the laptop thoroughly - without installing any other software or plugging in any external hardware. If you get BSODs in that state then it's definitely a hardware problem."

What is the best way to test the laptop thoroughly? Given that the problem was audio / visual?

As advised earlier, I have no additional software uploaded, nothing at all, just Windows 11 & all the updates. I've never used MS Edge nor Bing. Are there things I can find with them to "test" the laptop?

Apologies for all the questions - you guys have have been incredibly helpful. I just don't want to have got this far only to screw it up & have to go through it all again. I want to get it right.

ADDED NOTE: I have run the following in the Windows Command Prompt:-
sfc /scannow - "Windows Resources Protection found corrupt files & successfully repaired them";
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth - OK
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth - OK
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth - OK

Anything else I should do?

 

[ubuysa]

You never actually said what caused the BSODs, I got the impression that they were random?

You need to use it as much as you can. Open Edge browser and play some YouTube videos, download a few large files (perhaps for software you intend to install - just don't install it yet). Find some free music and download it. Play it on the laptop.

There are lots of things you can do with it in this vanilla state, most of them will not be useful or interesting but you need to make it work as much as you can in this state for the next couple of days.

We need to be certain that it's stable in this state before doing anything else.