Fix: TIMER_OR_DPC_INVALID BSOD Error On Windows

When Windows encounters a situation where system security and integrity are compromised, the system crashes, generating a STOP error, also known as a bug check. It’s the same scenario with the TIMER_OR_DPC_INVALID bug check, which has a value of 0x000000C7.

This BSOD occurs if a kernel timer or DPC object is found in a memory location where they’re not permitted. In most cases, a faulty third-party driver tries to free a memory location occupied by the timer or DPC without canceling them. Additionally, if the driver tries to request an invalid processor number, that can also lead to this BSOD.

Ultimately, what all of this means for a user is that you must single out the problematic driver and troubleshoot it accordingly to resolve this error. We’ve detailed how you can do this in the sections below.

How to Fix TIMER_OR_DPC_INVALID

BSODs generally have similar causes and fixes, like faulty hardware and drivers. However, depending on the exact STOP code, certain fixes will be more effective. For instance, in the case of TIMER_OR_DPC_INVALID, it’s almost exclusively caused by bad drivers. As such, the best way to resolve this BSOD will be to root out said driver and try to fix it.

Find the Problematic Driver

The details of the bugcheck can be viewed both via the Event Viewer logs and from the dump file located at %SystemRoot%\Minidump or %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP.

Event Viewer Logs

Here’s how you can check the logs in Windows Event Viewer:

Press Win + R, type eventvwr.msc, and press Enter.
Expand the Windows Logs > System tabs.
Click on Filter Current Log from the right pane.
In the Event Sources section, select Bug Check and press OK. Alternatively, you can also enter 1001 in the All Event IDs field.
Note the date and time of the bugcheck event and click on Clear Filter from the right pane.
Now, sort by Date and Time and locate the events from Step 5.
First, select the Event and check if the General and Details tabs provide any useful information, such as Driver Names.
If not, check the events before and after the bugcheck to get hints on what could’ve been the issue.

Analyze Dump File

The Event Viewer logs generally won’t provide enough info to determine the faulty driver. You should also download the WinDbg Preview App from the Microsoft store and use it to analyze the dump files. Here are the necessary steps for this:

Open the WinDbg Preview App and press CTRL + D.
Navigate to %SystemRoot%\ or %SystemRoot%\Minidump and open the dump file.
Select View > Command and enter !analyze -v.
Check the MODULE_NAME and Probably caused by sections afterward to determine the culprit.
If you have additional dump files, analyze the rest similarly to get more information.

Run Driver Verifier

Driver Verifier simulates various conditions, such as low memory, for instance, to stress the drivers and detect any unintended behavior. Do keep in mind that Driver Verifier is meant to be used by developers on test systems. On production systems, normal users should only use this as a last resort if nothing else has resolved the issue.

We recommend creating a system restore point before running Driver Verifier and only testing non-Microsoft drivers. With all that said, here are the necessary steps for this:

Press Win + R, type verifier, and press Enter.
Select Create Standard Settings to go with the default selection of tests. Alternatively, you can select Create Custom Settings as well. But if you choose the second option, we recommend not including the Randomized Low Resource Simulations and DDI Compliance tests.
On the next screen, pick Select driver names from a list.
Select the drivers you wish to test. Testing only one or a few drivers at a time is a good idea. We recommend starting with any recently installed or updated ones, ones with problematic history, or any others that you suspect.
Press Finish and restart your system.
Use your PC as usual afterward. Soon, Driver Verifier will detect a violation and generate a bugcheck. Check the dump file created by this bugcheck with steps from the section above to get further details about the faulty driver.

Troubleshoot Faulty Driver

Once you’ve singled out the faulty driver, you can update, roll back, or uninstall it as necessary. As the problematic driver will differ from system to system, we’ll take the network driver, which is a common culprit, as an example for the steps listed below. You should adjust as appropriate.

Update Driver

First, you should try updating the driver via the Device Manager. Here’s how you can do so:

Press Win + R, type devmgmt.msc, and press Enter.
Expand the Network Adapter section.
Right-click the Network Adapter and select Update Driver.
You have two options here:
- You can select Search Automatically for Drivers > Search for updated drivers on Windows Update to download recent drivers via Windows Update. Generally, these drivers won’t be the latest ones, though.
- If you’ve manually downloaded driver files from the manufacturer’s site, you can select Browse my computer for drivers and browse for the files manually.

The second way to update drivers is through the manufacturer’s software. For instance, in the case of graphics drivers, NVIDIA has GeForce Experience, and AMD has AMD Adrenalin.

Roll Back Drivers

If the BSOD started after you updated a certain driver to the latest version, rolling back to the previous build would be a better option. Here’s how you can do so:

Press Win + X and select Device Manager.
Expand the Network Adapters section and double-click the Network Adapter.
In the Driver tab, click on Roll Back driver.
Pick any reason for rolling back and proceed with the rollback.

Uninstall Driver

If the current driver files are corrupt and you can’t roll back, uninstalling is a viable option. This will remove the driver files from your system and revert the driver to an old and generic one provided by Microsoft. Here are the steps for this:

Open the Device Manager once again and expand the Network Adapter section.
Right-click the Network Adapter and select Uninstall Device.
Enable the Attempt to remove the driver for this device option and proceed with the on-screen instructions.