MCintosh MA7900 USB Driver causing Windows10/11 Crash

After three days of working fine, Windows 11 just crashed as usual with "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION" stop code 0x133.

I implemented the plan of downloading and installing the CEntrance universal audio driver and it appears that the installer completes fine but the this driver is not connecting to the MCintosh DAC.

First, installed the driver on top of the existing MCintosh driver to see if the device manager "Sound, Video and Game Controllers" shows the new driver associated with the MCintosh. The old CEntrance driver was still present.

Second, used device manager to uninstall the old MCintosh CEntrance driver. Run the new CEntrance driver installer utility. It completted fine. However, the MC7900 was not showing on the display the bit/rate 32/192k. This is an indication that the new CEntrance USB DAC driver for the device is not loaded.

In conclusion the new universal CEntrance driver versin 9.6 downloaded is not compatible with the MC7900 DAC.

Installed the old MCinstosh driver back and Windows is playing music over the USB to the MC7900 with the expectation that the intermittent problem is still present.

This intermittent Windows crash "DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION" stop code 0x133 when using the MC7900 USB DAC is very difficult to resolve.

It seems to me that this is a class problem and perhaps no one else in the planet is crazy to use the Windows operating system to play music using the USB DAC on the MC7900.

I may have to give up and use the laptop internal audio port to play music which is not as good as using the DAC on the MC7900.

I appreciate your support services. I

Any new idea or suggestion?

I got frustrated after three years with this problem and replaced the laptop with a new hp laptop running Windows 11 dedicated to play spodify and youtube music only.

The WHATCHDOG error still happens. I may have to buy an external DAC or dump the MCintosh MC7900 to fix this problem or just use the laptop headphone output connected to the AUX port on the MC7900.

Any ideas or suggestion to fix this problem?

I have a MA12000 with internal DAC 2. I was streaming from an iFi Zen Stream via USB. One day it stopped working. The McIntosh guy that handles this stuff basically told me that the DAC 2 never breaks down and it must be a driver problem. So, why did it work in the first place? In the end and after no help from McIntosh my dealer replaced the board. So lesson one would be that the manufacturer won’t help. I streamed via a MacBook Pro, but that was sonically inferior to Zen Stream with iFi’s top power supply. So, streaming from a computer is not ideal. Second, it took so long to resolve that I purchased a Holo Zen Stream KTE and that was a major improvement. Lastly, I upgraded to an Aurender N20 and this, along with proper cabling brought my digital more in line with analog. So, upgrade streamer first. Buy with a solid return policy. I think that you need to spend $1000-$1500 and more to upgrade the DAC. Unfortunately, both upgrading streamer and DAC are important upgrades. I didn’t sense that you wanted to improve the sound, but we’re only looking for reliability. If that is the case then you are stuck with upgrading the DAC.

Thanks for your input Vonh. I agree with you that the MFG does not provide much help with this matter. It looks like, I might be the only person in the planet using a Windows PC connected to the MA7900 USB to play music. You are correct, my primary goal is reliability when using the MA7900 internal DAC over the USB port. As it is right now, the USB port is useless unless the user has an Apple PC which does not require a driver and pray that it works fine. Your feedback is great and it helps me narrow the price range for an external DAC upgrade.

@jmiqui - I created an account just to respond to this thread. You are not alone, I too (am one of the "crazies") that hook up a McIntosh to their PC. This exact same issue happens for me using my MHA100 connected to my Windows 11 PC. same issue existed when I had windows 10. It happens randomly and is most definitely driver related. My PC will ALWAYS crash at some random point once the mcintosh is turned on. if the mcintosh is off and connected via usb, i get random "USB unrecognized errors" that pop up once in a while. 

I found this thread just googling DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. I also have a Mcintosh c2600 that i had connected to the same PC via usb and never had any issues. It's specifically only when my MHA100 is connected. It drives me insane each time it crashes. 

I spoke to a guy named Chuck at McIntosh and they are aware of the issue. No fixes. Not sure if they will update the driver ever, unfortunately. Good luck.