PC Gives BSoD With Error "Worker Invalid"

[Syntthetix]

The title pretty gives the entire explanation of the basic idea here, but here's the weird part about the crash: For most people with this problem, their PC crashes at random intervals. For me, it ONLY crashes if I'm playing Overwatch. I can sometimes play the game for a couple hours without a crash, but usually it crashes after a couple matches. If anybody knows of possible solutions for this, I would really appreciate it. By the way, I'm pretty tech savvy, so I can handle any advanced fixes that may take some computer knowledge.

 

[frog]

Did you try installing the latest version of your video card drivers and other hardware drivers which may of release a fix for crashing problems?

Sometimes updating to a new version of a hardware driver can cause computer crashes when playing some games, and using some programs.

 

[28142]

That error usually appears from a corrupted file or drive, as it's only on Overwatch I think it's something battle.net related or Overwatch related. So I'd update your drivers to the newest version, reinstall Overwatch/Battle.net, reinstall your drivers (that's if the other 2 options haven't worked).

Another thing could be something messed up in the registry, so I'd suggest scanning with CCleaner to just check everything out in that department.

May I ask what OS you're using? Also has this been happening since you first installed Overwatch? Because if so then something probably happened during install that messed up.

EDIT: Totally forgot this one thing. Go to command prompt and type:

chkdsk /f

That'll check for any bad sectors on your drive. (It's a good thing to run that command somewhat often anyway.)

 

[frog]

You can also try using DISM Windows image repair in the command line by using these commands.

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Source

 

[Syntthetix]

That error usually appears from a corrupted file or drive, as it's only on Overwatch I think it's something battle.net related or Overwatch related. So I'd update your drivers to the newest version, reinstall Overwatch/Battle.net, reinstall your drivers (that's if the other 2 options haven't worked).

Another thing could be something messed up in the registry, so I'd suggest scanning with CCleaner to just check everything out in that department.

May I ask what OS you're using? Also has this been happening since you first installed Overwatch? Because if so then something probably happened during install that messed up.

EDIT: Totally forgot this one thing. Go to command prompt and type:

chkdsk /f

That'll check for any bad sectors on your drive. (It's a good thing to run that command somewhat often anyway.)

Sorry about the really late reply! I'm using Windows 10 Home, the OS runs fine in general. These crashes have not been occurring since I first bought and downloaded Overwatch, it's only within the last few months. I've reinstalled Overwatch at some point, but that didn't fix the problem, and I do occasionally get the BSoD when I'm not playing it. Running chkdsk came up with no errors, so my HDD isn't a problem. The frequency of this crash as gone down a little within the last couple weeks, but that's the only event that's happened over the last month.

 

[frog]

Sorry about the really late reply! I'm using Windows 10 Home, the OS runs fine in general. These crashes have not been occurring since I first bought and downloaded Overwatch, it's only within the last few months. I've reinstalled Overwatch at some point, but that didn't fix the problem, and I do occasionally get the BSoD when I'm not playing it. Running chkdsk came up with no errors, so my HDD isn't a problem. The frequency of this crash as gone down a little within the last couple weeks, but that's the only event that's happened over the last month.

Have you tried clean installing Windows 10?

Software like antivirus, and firewall software maybe having problems with Windows 10 and causing BSOD problems.

Sometimes, bad RAM or other broken computer parts may cause BSOD error.

 

[28142]

Have you tried clean installing Windows 10?

I'd say flashing your OS would be the last option you do.

Sorry about the really late reply! I'm using Windows 10 Home, the OS runs fine in general. These crashes have not been occurring since I first bought and downloaded Overwatch, it's only within the last few months. I've reinstalled Overwatch at some point, but that didn't fix the problem, and I do occasionally get the BSoD when I'm not playing it. Running chkdsk came up with no errors, so my HDD isn't a problem. The frequency of this crash as gone down a little within the last couple weeks, but that's the only event that's happened over the last month.

That's interesting, did you do anything just before this started to happen? New antivirus, firewall, changed some windows settings, got a new piece of hardware (this can be anything from a new mouse/headset/keyboard to more RAM)? Anything like that? Alternatively, have you done anything recently just before it started doing it less frequently?

I honestly wouldn't say that it's something to do with bad hardware in general just because it doesn't happen to anything else. What's your antivirus/firewall?

Another couple of commands you can try are:

sfc /scannow

and

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Run those in Command Prompt in admin mode and if there's any issue in general then it'll pick it up.
If that last commands picks up something then run

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

then afterwards:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

(I know Frog said about that before, but that's the order to do them in)

Also, this issue is common with RAM problems, but because of the nature of your issue it's unlikely that this is the problem but it's worth checking anyway just in case of other issues that could be hiding. Windows Memory Diagnostic is a tool that's hidden in windows already and it'll test your RAM checking for any errors in it. Just hit the Windows Key + R and type in "Windows Memory Diagnostic" then hit enter. Go through the steps and it'll restart your computer and test your RAM. Here's a tutorial on how to do that, it explains it much better then I can (On windows 10 you have to go through event viewer to get the logs from what I see so it'll just be easier to give you that link)

 

[Syntthetix]

I'd say flashing your OS would be the last option you do.



That's interesting, did you do anything just before this started to happen? New antivirus, firewall, changed some windows settings, got a new piece of hardware (this can be anything from a new mouse/headset/keyboard to more RAM)? Anything like that? Alternatively, have you done anything recently just before it started doing it less frequently?

I honestly wouldn't say that it's something to do with bad hardware in general just because it doesn't happen to anything else. What's your antivirus/firewall?

Another couple of commands you can try are:

sfc /scannow

and

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth

Run those in Command Prompt in admin mode and if there's any issue in general then it'll pick it up.
If that last commands picks up something then run

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

then afterwards:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

(I know Frog said about that before, but that's the order to do them in)

Also, this issue is common with RAM problems, but because of the nature of your issue it's unlikely that this is the problem but it's worth checking anyway just in case of other issues that could be hiding. Windows Memory Diagnostic is a tool that's hidden in windows already and it'll test your RAM checking for any errors in it. Just hit the Windows Key + R and type in "Windows Memory Diagnostic" then hit enter. Go through the steps and it'll restart your computer and test your RAM. Here's a tutorial on how to do that, it explains it much better then I can (On windows 10 you have to go through event viewer to get the logs from what I see so it'll just be easier to give you that link)

Well I've run Memtest86 and I know for sure that my RAM is all good. As for new/changed hardware, I did overclock my CPU at one point, but I never really considered that to be the issue since I brought it back to stock speed/voltage very soon after. The overclock wasn't providing any kind of performance boost, so I just undid it completely. Now, since every other aspect of my PC is perfectly fine, I think that the overclock, even though it was pretty minor and very short term, may have caused some instability in the CPU. My guess would be that the bad OC caused the CPU to be unstable, so now it crashes under stress that's well below its usual threshold. Luckily my birthday is coming up in just two and a half months, so I can get myself a new and much better CPU then. My GPU also shouldn't be the problem, since I just upgraded from a GTX 750 to a GTX 1060, and the problem was happening well before then. From what I can tell, there's no way anything other than the CPU is causing this problem, so hopefully upgrading from an FX-4300 to an FX-8350 will fix everything. If not, the only thing left is my PSU which should be in good condition.

 

[28142]

Well I've run Memtest86 and I know for sure that my RAM is all good. As for new/changed hardware, I did overclock my CPU at one point, but I never really considered that to be the issue since I brought it back to stock speed/voltage very soon after. The overclock wasn't providing any kind of performance boost, so I just undid it completely. Now, since every other aspect of my PC is perfectly fine, I think that the overclock, even though it was pretty minor and very short term, may have caused some instability in the CPU. My guess would be that the bad OC caused the CPU to be unstable, so now it crashes under stress that's well below its usual threshold. Luckily my birthday is coming up in just two and a half months, so I can get myself a new and much better CPU then. My GPU also shouldn't be the problem, since I just upgraded from a GTX 750 to a GTX 1060, and the problem was happening well before then. From what I can tell, there's no way anything other than the CPU is causing this problem, so hopefully upgrading from an FX-4300 to an FX-8350 will fix everything. If not, the only thing left is my PSU which should be in good condition.

Overclocking can cause issues, even if you've done it before and nothing went wrong. From what you've said it does seem like an issue from you overclocking your CPU. But this happened to one of my friends before with Overwatch, it wasn't an issue with their CPU is was an issue with their PSU, due to the amount of power overwatch needs from your graphics to run. So from the overclocking you must have done something to the PSU.

Asked another friend about this and he suggested to take out the graphics card and play Overwatch without it for a bit, if it doesn't crash then, then it's the PSU. And to check the temperatures while playing with the graphics card, as it's probably overheating.

"Worker invalid" BSoD is usually due to ram, but depending on what the BIOS is set to it can kick out that BSoD when it overheats as well.

 

[Syntthetix]

Overclocking can cause issues, even if you've done it before and nothing went wrong. From what you've said it does seem like an issue from you overclocking your CPU. But this happened to one of my friends before with Overwatch, it wasn't an issue with their CPU is was an issue with their PSU, due to the amount of power overwatch needs from your graphics to run. So from the overclocking you must have done something to the PSU.

Asked another friend about this and he suggested to take out the graphics card and play Overwatch without it for a bit, if it doesn't crash then, then it's the PSU. And to check the temperatures while playing with the graphics card, as it's probably overheating.

"Worker invalid" BSoD is usually due to ram, but depending on what the BIOS is set to it can kick out that BSoD when it overheats as well.

As far as I can tell, the PSU shouldn't be the issue. My temperatures don't go too high, even if I try to play something intense like Overwatch or Titanfall 2, regardless of the beefy GPU. Also, I checked my PC build on PC Part Picker to see the power requirement on it, and it only came out to 329W. My PSU is a 480W, so I doubt the overclock caused the PSU to have trouble supplying enough power. Besides, when I did that OC, I barely increased the voltage since it was a very minor OC (about 400mHz). It was still within the stock voltage range actually. Maybe it would have been easier if I included this in the first place, but here's a link to my build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dHt8XH I made that absolutely as accurate as I could, so you can find all my specs from that.

 

[28142]

As far as I can tell, the PSU shouldn't be the issue. My temperatures don't go too high, even if I try to play something intense like Overwatch or Titanfall 2, regardless of the beefy GPU. Also, I checked my PC build on PC Part Picker to see the power requirement on it, and it only came out to 329W. My PSU is a 480W, so I doubt the overclock caused the PSU to have trouble supplying enough power. Besides, when I did that OC, I barely increased the voltage since it was a very minor OC (about 400mHz). It was still within the stock voltage range actually. Maybe it would have been easier if I included this in the first place, but here's a link to my build: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/dHt8XH I made that absolutely as accurate as I could, so you can find all my specs from that.

It's probably worth checking though, what are the normal tempuratures and what tempurature is it when it bluescreens? Then have a look at the tempuratures when you've taken the graphics card out (and see if it crashes then).

 

[Syntthetix]

It's probably worth checking though, what are the normal tempuratures and what tempurature is it when it bluescreens? Then have a look at the tempuratures when you've taken the graphics card out (and see if it crashes then).

I'll try to check the temperatures when normally running the PC. However, I can't check the temperatures and see if it crashes without the GPU since I don't have any integrated graphics. It just doesn't seem like my GPU is the problem since the BSoD still happened when I had my old GTX 750. Not exactly an intense card.

 

[28142]

If you take out the graphics it should swap to defult. And I wasn't saying the GPU is the problem, I was saying the PSU might be the issue, and take the tempurature of when you're playing Overwatch as well else there's nothing to compare it running normally to.

 

[Syntthetix]

If you take out the graphics it should swap to defult. And I wasn't saying the GPU is the problem, I was saying the PSU might be the issue, and take the tempurature of when you're playing Overwatch as well else there's nothing to compare it running normally to.

Looks like my normal running temperatures without stress are 35 Celsius on the GPU, about 45 on the CPU and I don't seem to have any way to monitor PSU temps. As for the temps when under stress from Overwatch and similarly intense games, the GPU hits 60 to 65 and the CPU hits about 65 as well. According to multiple sources, the max temp for my CPU should be around 60 to 63, so that could be slightly problematic. My GPU is well within the temps that are okay for it, so that's not a problem at all.

 

[28142]

Looks like my normal running temperatures without stress are 35 Celsius on the GPU, about 45 on the CPU and I don't seem to have any way to monitor PSU temps. As for the temps when under stress from Overwatch and similarly intense games, the GPU hits 60 to 65 and the CPU hits about 65 as well. According to multiple sources, the max temp for my CPU should be around 60 to 63, so that could be slightly problematic. My GPU is well within the temps that are okay for it, so that's not a problem at all.

Try and re-create the blue screen and monitor the temp that it reaches just before it blue screens. Judging by those tempuratures it could reach a tiny bit higher occasionally and then it shuts down. From you first post you said

I can sometimes play the game for a couple hours without a crash, but usually it crashes after a couple matches.

so I'm guessing from everything that's been said, it's overheating, most likely because of your PSU.

 

[Syntthetix]

Try and re-create the blue screen and monitor the temp that it reaches just before it blue screens. Judging by those tempuratures it could reach a tiny bit higher occasionally and then it shuts down. From you first post you said so I'm guessing from everything that's been said, it's overheating, most likely because of your PSU.

That would definitely make sense. I'll see if I can do some monitoring, hopefully that'll work. Thanks for all the help with figuring this out, I just hope I can get this all fixed up fairly soon

 

[28142]

That would definitely make sense. I'll see if I can do some monitoring, hopefully that'll work. Thanks for all the help with figuring this out, I just hope I can get this all fixed up fairly soon

No problem :3

I'm intrested to see what the exact cause is though, as like I said before that BSoD really only appears when something is wrong with the RAM, it's quite rare to have it happen for other issues.

Hope it gets sorted out soon though!

 

[frog]

Could your BSOD errors be caused by broken components like capacitors, resistors, wires, etc on your video card, RAM, and motherboard which fail under heavy load?

I have a very old PC where one of the RAM slots are broken, and would BSOD occasionally until I remove the RAM, and ran the computer with only one stick of RAM instead of two . But, the Stick of RAM work well on another old PC with a working RAM slot.

 

[28142]

Could your BSOD errors be caused by broken components like capacitors, resistors, wires, etc on your video card, RAM, and motherboard which fail under heavy load?

I have a very old PC where one of the RAM slots are broken, and would BSOD occasionally until I remove the RAM, and ran the computer with only one stick of RAM instead of two . But, the Stick of RAM work well on another old PC with a working RAM slot.

If it was something like that, it wouldn't cause these kind of issues. And we've already figured out that the RAM has nothing to do with it.

Try and re-create the blue screen and monitor the temp that it reaches just before it blue screens. Judging by those tempuratures it could reach a tiny bit higher occasionally and then it shuts down. From you first post you said

I can sometimes play the game for a couple hours without a crash, but usually it crashes after a couple matches.

so I'm guessing from everything that's been said, it's overheating, most likely because of your PSU.

^ This is what I said a bit further up, and that's what I'm pretty sure is the issue. Something happened when they overclocked their computer and that's causing the issues.

 

[Ashkil]

Pretty late to this, but as was said a bit earlier, it's plausible this is temperature related. A BSoD could be the OS shutting down to rapidly cool the temperature. If you/others still face this problem after trying out the other solutions, might be worth taking the laptop/PC apart, dusting it out and replacing the thermal paste under the fan.