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sirvinniei
3 Posts
0
2192
April 27th, 2020 12:00
Alpha R1, BSOD when gaming
Hi,
I've had my alienware alpha for quite some time, but since a few months I have been getting blue screens of deaths (video scheduler internal error). These BSODs always occur when playing games. Ironically the games it occurs frequently at aren't the most graphical intensive. I've had a lot of crashes with Crypt of the Necrodancer for example, which is just a small indie game (I've played most AAA games without a problem). It happens with quite a few games albeit specific games, so I don't think the game is the problem.
Because it happened with specific games I thought it would have to do with my storage, so I replaced my hard drive with an SSD, but still these errors occured.
Apart from that my PC is still the R1 basic configuration with 8gb RAM. My graphic drivers are all updated with the NVIDIA program
These two files seem to be causing the crashes (according to BlueScreenView):
Spoiler
==================================================
Filename : watchdog.sys
Address In Stack : watchdog.sys+41a0
From Address : fffff802`52790000
To Address : fffff802`527a6000
Size : 0x00016000
Time Stamp : 0x21474799
Time String : 11-9-1987 02:45:13
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
File Description : Watchdog Driver
File Version : 10.0.18362.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\watchdog.sys
==================================================
==================================================
Filename : dxgmms2.sys
Address In Stack : dxgmms2.sys+2a4e9
From Address : fffff802`542f0000
To Address : fffff802`543ca000
Size : 0x000da000
Time Stamp : 0x5e39f19c
Time String : 5-2-2020 00:35:08
Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating System
File Description : DirectX Graphics MMS
File Version : 10.0.18362.778 (WinBuild.160101.0800)
Company : Microsoft Corporation
Full Path : C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\dxgmms2.sys
==================================================
==================================================Filename : watchdog.sysAddress In Stack : watchdog.sys+41a0From Address : fffff802`52790000To Address : fffff802`527a6000Size : 0x00016000Time Stamp : 0x21474799Time String : 11-9-1987 02:45:13Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating SystemFile Description : Watchdog DriverFile Version : 10.0.18362.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800)Company : Microsoft CorporationFull Path : C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\watchdog.sys================================================== ==================================================Filename : dxgmms2.sysAddress In Stack : dxgmms2.sys+2a4e9From Address : fffff802`542f0000To Address : fffff802`543ca000Size : 0x000da000Time Stamp : 0x5e39f19cTime String : 5-2-2020 00:35:08Product Name : Microsoft® Windows® Operating SystemFile Description : DirectX Graphics MMSFile Version : 10.0.18362.778 (WinBuild.160101.0800)Company : Microsoft CorporationFull Path : C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\dxgmms2.sys==================================================
Just tell me if you need any more info
Thanks
Alienware-Joe
671 Posts
1932
0
Posted April 27th, 2020 15:00
Thank you for reaching out to us. Could you please send @DELL-Cares (via private message) your Service Tag so we can look into this. Please avoid posting your tag on public places of the forum as it is part of private important information.
sirvinniei
3 Posts
1918
0
Posted April 27th, 2020 22:00
@Mary G Thanks for your response. I downloaded all my drivers from the Dell website and updated my video drivers via the official Nvidia Geforce Experience launcher. Would it be wise to reinstall them all? Or just my graphics driver? I've never had problems before in the years beforehand, but perhaps a bad update might be the cause.
Edit: I downloaded support assistant and it upgraded 2 intel drivers. Also I manually downloaded the bios upgrade and graphics driver (which were marked as urgent on the driver page). I will try to recreate the BSOD later today to see if it made any difference.
Still I'm a bit in doubt about the graphics drivers. The latest drivers on the dell website are from may 2018, Nvidias latest drivers (detected by geforce experience) are from this month. Would older drivers really be more stable?
@Alienware-Joe I've sent my serial number to Dell Cares
Mary G
6 Operator
•
20095 Posts
1939
1
Posted April 27th, 2020 13:00
Blue screens are usually caused by bad drivers. Reinstall your video drivers that you download from Dell Downloads for your model. It's important to get all your drivers from Dell and not those from other manufacturers. Dell customizes the drivers for your exact model.