DPC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT

The DPC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT bug check has a value of 0x00000102. This indicates that The DPC watchdog routine was not executed within the allocated time interval.

Important

This article is for programmers. If you're a customer who has received a blue screen error code while using your computer, see Troubleshoot blue screen errors.

Cause

This bug check typically means that either an ISR is hung at an IRQL that is below clock level and above dispatch level, or a DPC routine is hung on the specified processor.

For example for StorPort Miniport drivers, StorPort.sys handles I/O completions in a routine that runs at DISPATCH_LEVEL and that serially calls the I/O completion routines of all IRPs that have just completed. If I/O completion routines singly or together take too much time, the keyboard and/or mouse may stop responding. It is also possible that the Windows DPC Watchdog timer routine will decide that the StorPort routine has taken excessive time to finish.

Resolution

A kernel driver in the storage stack can reduce the problem's likelihood by efficient coding of the driver's I/O completion routine. If it is still not possible to do all necessary processing in the completion routine in enough time, the routine can create a work element for the I/O work, queue up the element to a work queue and return STATUS_MORE_PROCESSING_REQUIRED; a worker thread of the driver should then find the work element, do the work and do IoCallerDriver for the IRP to ensure the IRP's further I/O processing.