Many users have reported the occurrence of the BSOD error ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC while booting up their windows. This BSOD error is generally triggered by a routine called DPC (Delayed Procedure Call), that attempts to perform an illegal operation. Main reasons that are found to be behind this error are faulty memory, damaged system drivers, incompatible software, conflicting hardware, virus attacks etc.
How To Boot Into Windows In Safe Mode
When you get a Blue Screen of Death error, most of the times, you will be forced to restart the machine. It might show the same error message again when it restarts and ask you to restart again. In such cases, you will be left with no option but to boot into your windows in safe mode. If you’re stuck like this, please follow the steps below to safe boot into your windows.
1. Shut down your PC completely. Now press the power button to turn it on. The moment you see the manufacturer’s logo on the screen, long press the power button for 4 seconds to turn off your PC again. Repeat this process until the ‘Preparing Automatic Repair’ screen appears instead of the manufacturer’s logo screen.
2. After Preparing Automatic Repair screen and Diagnosing your PC screen, the Automatic Repair will come up. Click on Advanced options button.
3. From the Choose an option screen, as next, click on the Troubleshoot option.
4. Click on the option Advanced options next.
5. From the Advanced options windows, you have to now click on the tab Startup Settings.
6. As next, click on the Restart button at the bottom right corner of the window.
7. Finally, to boot into windows in safe mode, either press the number key 4 or the number key 5 as per your choice.
The system will now restart and windows will boot in safe mode. You can now try out the methods listed below one by one to fix the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD problem.
Method 1: Scan Memory Using Windows Memory Diagnostic Tool
Faulty system memory modules can always cause BSOD errors. ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD error is definitely not an exception to this. Please follow the steps below to run windows memory diagnostic tool to check for issues with system memory.
1. In windows start menu search bar, type memory diagnostic. Click on Windows Memory Diagnostic from the results.
2. When the Windows Memory Diagnostic window launches, click on the option Restart now and check for problems (recommended). This will restart your machine.
Once the system restarts, it will run a scan for memory module problems. When the process finishes, if there are any errors found, you will be able to see the error report and be able to take appropriate actions accordingly.
3. If you could not view the memory diagnostics results for some reason, then you can view them from windows event viewer manually.
Press WIN + R keys together and type in eventvwr in the Run dialog box to launch Windows Event Viewer.
4. Navigate to the path Windows Logs –> System. Under the Actions window, click on the option Filter Current Log.
5. Click on the Filter tab. As next, from the Event Sources dropdown menu, enable the checkbox MemoryDiagnostics-Results. Hit OK button for the filter to list all the memory diagnostics logs.
6. Click on the latest event log result from the filtered results and check if the diagnosis was a pass or a failure. If it was a failure, please follow the measures suggested in the diagnosis result description to fix the memory issues.
For more information on analyzing errors using Windows Event Viewer, please refer to our article How to use Event Viewer to analyse errors in Windows 10.
Method 2: Update System Drivers
Damaged or corrupted system drivers are often the cause for the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD error. Hence it is very important to keep the system drivers installed in your machine updated all the time.
1. Press the keys WIN + R together to open Run dialog box. Type in devmgmt.msc and hit Enter key.
2. Expand the section of the drivers that you want to update. Here in this example, I’m updating the Graphics card driver and hence I have expanded Display adapters section.
Once the driver section is expanded, right click on your driver and then click on the Update driver option.
3. As next, click on the option Search automatically for updated driver software as shown in the screenshot below.
Windows will now search for suitable driver updates and install them if any new updates are found. Repeat these steps for all the major drivers to update them to the latest version.
Once done, restart your machine and check if your BSOD problem is fixed or not.
Method 3: Updates Windows OS
Updating your windows from time to time is very important to keep your system healthy. To fix the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD issue, please try updating your windows following the steps below:
1. Bring up the windows Settings app by pressing the WIN + I keys together. Click on the tab Update & Security.
2. In the left window pane, click on the option Windows Update and in the right window pane, click on the Check for updates button.
3. Windows will now look for new updates available. If any new updates are found, they will be downloaded and installed.
4. If any new updates were downloaded, the button Restart now will now be active. Click on it to restart your machine and for the changes to take over.
Once the system restarts, check if the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD issue is resolved or not.
Method 4: Run Full Scan Using Windows Defender / Third Party Anti-virus Software
You can run a system wide full antivirus scan to eliminate the possibility of a malicious attack being the reason for the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD error that you are facing. In this method, a full scan is done using Windows Defender, however, you can use any good anti virus software that is installed in your machine for this purpose.
1. Bring up the windows Settings app by pressing WIN + I keys together. Click on Update & Security option.
2. In the left window pane, click on Windows Security and in the right window pane, click on Virus & threat protection.
3. Under the Virus & threat protection section, click on the link Scan options.
4. Click on the radio button associated with the option Full Scan next and then click on the button Scan now.
5. Windows Defender will now scan for any malicious files present in your machine and suggest you possible solutions if such files are located. Follow onscreen instructions in that case to fix the malicious files.
Restart your PC once the scan is complete and check if the BSOD error is fixed.
Method 5: Perform System File Checker Scan
Corrupt registry files can be the reason why ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD error occurs. System File Checker (SFC) is a powerful utility that can be used to find and repair the corrupt system files in your machine.
1. Type cmd in windows start menu search bar. Right click on Command Prompt and click on Run as administrator option.
2. Now type in the following command in command prompt and hit Enter key.
sfc /scannow
Restart your machine once the scan completes. Check if the issue is resolved.
Method 6: Run CHKDSK Command Utility
ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD error can be caused because of issues with hard disk drives as well. If there are any bad sectors in your hard disk, through running the CHKDSK utility, they can be found and fixed.
1. Type in cmd to windows start menu search bar. Right click on Command Prompt and then click on the option Run as administrator.
2. As next, type in chkdsk C: /f /r /x and then hit Enter key.
chkdsk C: /f /r /x
Parameters:
- C: – Drive to scan. Replace C: with D: if you are scanning Drive D instead of Drive C
- /f – This parameter will attempt to fix any errors that are found
- /r – This parameter will look for bad sectors and recovers any readable information
- /x – This parameter will forcefully dismount the volume that you are about to check before the scan begins
When you get the prompt Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the system restarts? (Y/N), press Y and then hit Enter key as shown in the screenshot below:
On your next system restart, your drive will be scanned and the errors that are found will be fixed. Repeat this process for all the drives present in your machine. Check if your BSOD issue is resolved or not.
Method 7: Perform System Restore
You can try out this method only if you already have the system restore functionality enabled in your machine. If it is already enabled. then you can restore the system settings to a version, for which a system restore point was created, before the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD error happened for the very first time.
1. Open Control Panel using Windows Start Menu Search bar. When it opens up, use the control panel Search button to launch the Recovery settings.
2. Click on the link Open System Restore.
3. Click on Next button when the System Restore window opens.
4. As next, enable Show more restore points checkbox first.
Now select a restore point before the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD error happened for the very first time. Click on Next button once done.
5. Click on the Finish button to start the system restoration process. If you want to change the restore point, you can click on the Back button and choose a different system restore point.
Once the process finishes, restart your machine and check if the issue is resolved or not.
Method 8: Reset Your Windows OS
You can try resetting your windows as a last resort. Ensure to make it your last option as this will delete all files from your system partition. Also, it is recommended to back up the data before proceeding with system reset.
1. Hold down the SHIFT key and click on the Restart option. This will open up the startup repair options.
2. From the Choose an option window, click on the Troubleshoot tab.
3. Click on the option Reset this PC.
4. As next, click on the option Remove everything.
5. Next, click on Only the drive where Windows is installed. After that, choose Just remove my files and then click on Reset button. Follow the onscreen instructions after that to complete the reset process.
Hope one of the above methods fixed the ATTEMPTED SWITCH FROM DPC BSOD issue for you.