Microsoft Surface Pro (2017) BSOD PDC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT pdc.sys with Trend Micro Anti Virus

Anonymous
2017-12-16T02:29:14+00:00

Hi,

I've been getting bluescreens for a few days now after a while of doing nothing.

The tablet is currently unused next to me but is on and the display is off, eventually comes just the said BSOD and the part restarts.

Have current Surace Pack on Win10 and current updates.

What could be the PDC_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT?

The triggering file is pdc.sys.

Surface | Surface Pro | Power and battery

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Anonymous
2018-01-29T05:01:53+00:00

My Company is experiencing the exact same issue with our Surface Pro Fleet of Devices (1796 & 1807); Trend has been fairly helpful but still yet to confirm a proper fix & it's currently not on the Developers Radar for future fixes.. The "workarounds" suggested & that I've deployed to a few Surfaces are proving successful. 

Trend Micro's Response: 

As per checking deeper on the DMP files that was collected, as per our Developers; the issue is because Behaviour Monitoring is unable to handle events from sleep mode. So indirectly, it leads to PDC.sys, or DAM.sys to BSOD.

--CUT--

PROCESS ffffbe830f8e8640 SessionId: 0 Cid: 196c Peb: d48258b000 ParentCid: 0368 DeepFreeze DirBase: 126388000 ObjectTable: ffffce8bc4bc6480 HandleCount: 2212. Image: TMBMSRV.exe

--CUT--

Suggested Action Plan to apply for testing, provided by Trend Micro: 

  1. Rename AEGIS drivers and create a folder with same name

c:\windows\system32\drivers\tmcomm.sys

c:\windows\system32\drivers\tmactmon.sys

c:\windows\system32\drivers\tmevtmgr.sys

(ps: Take tmcomm.sys for example, rename it as tmcomm.sys.bak, then create a folder named tmcomm.sys)

  1. Create the following registry key entry: 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\aegis]

PowerMonitorTime=dword:0x10

Still awaiting for further development & feedback from Trend but have yet to experience a BSOD with the above mentioned Action steps followed.

Note our case is still opened with Trend Micro, I'll post updates as they occur.

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Anonymous
2018-01-03T12:18:56+00:00

I uninstalled Trend Micro Anti Virus and the problem went away.  We are now using Symantec Antivirus.

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Anonymous
2018-03-14T10:21:25+00:00

I can confirm applying just the registry key from the above posts fixes the BSOD/Crash on the 3 Surface books I have updated to 1709 with the latest driver pack 18_015_00 16299 (64 bit)  . 

  1. Create the following registry key entry: 

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\TrendMicro\aegis]

PowerMonitorTime=dword:0x10

I have logged the call with Trend to find out what exactly the key does before I roll it out and if there is a fix/patch due to be released.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-01-19T22:40:35+00:00

    *Disabled Connected Standby and set High Performance*

    Both Surface Pro’s are currently on “High Performance” power plan and haven’t blue screened once since making the registry change. I haven’t tried any other power plan (yet) to be honest so I can’t say for sure if the problem is specifc to a certain powerplan.

    It would appear that since the 1709 fall creators update, the power plans are somewhat “locked down” and things like CPU performance are throttled. I discovered this when running a bench mark test on both SP’s and the results were “under par” with a side note that the CPU is not running at 100% and to change it in the control panel, but these settings were no where to be seen. It was then that I noticed there was only one power plan “Balanced”.

    I had sent many dmp logs to Trend whilst never really paying much attention to the PDC driver failure until discovering that PDC was “Power Dependency Coordinator” then it started it make sense.

    Trend obviously has a hard time handling this power management in some way, shape or form.

    After weeks of pulling hair out, it was just a case of changing the value of a reg key! I’m not sure who I’m more frustrated with, Microsoft for removing the power options or Trend for not having tested this more thorougly.

    I’ve informed Trend of this “fix” but they’ve gone verry quiet all of a sudden.

    Ah well, sorted now. :)

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  2. Sumit 44,431 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2018-01-05T11:49:18+00:00

    3rd party AVs would always encounter problems with Windows 10-keeping in mind the servicing model of Windows 10 where 2 major upgrades are released every year.

    This is why we recommend Defender because the incompatibility stuff has been tested

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