Keep getting the “VIDEO SCHEDULER” bluescreen randomly when opening the game. Using a laptop with an i7 9750H (6 core, 12 thread, 4ghz) and 1660TI, so the specs blow the game out of the water, and I don’t have this issue with any other application. It appears to be because I’m using an external monitor. Can somebody please fix this already? A bluescreen like this shouldn’t have made it to final release when it’s been around since the earliest days of the beta.
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This is not Blizzard’s, or the classic team’s, problem. They are using the graphics APIs within specification. Nothing they do should ever cause a BSOD on a correctly functioning system as modern OSes are designed that way.
VIDEO SCHEDULER would point towards a graphic driver based crash.
It could be that your graphic drivers have become corrupted in some way. Use the third party tool Display Driver Uninstaller (recommended by support) to remove both the Intel Integrated Graphics and Nvidia graphic drivers. Then clean install the latest version of both from your OEM’s support site. If your OEM does not offer such drivers, or the crash still persists, then repeat the uninstall but this time try the latest supported versions downloaded from Intel and Nvidia support sites respectively.
If the crash still persists, then try turning off all displays that are not being used to run Warcraft III while playing. Laptop graphics are more complicated than desktop graphics as often the Intel Integrated Graphics is responsible for all displays with the Nvidia GPU using the displays through it rather than directly. On top of that applications may be assigned to run on either Intel or Nvidia GPUs based on their profiles and workloads with the results composing to the same set of display buffers. Due to this additional complexity it is possible that driver bugs exist that are not present on desktop systems which do not support such functionality.
If this were the case, the issue wouldn’t be replicated across laptop hardware for months, and be isolated to laptops using external monitors. It’s an issue with the game, not my hardware, software, or OS build. I’ve been working with computers for over 20 years and have done my due diligence in troubleshooting whether or not it indeed was a driver or software issue, and I can assure you it is not.
Warcraft III has never BSoDed for me. Now with Reforged or any time within the last 15 years.
This clearly is a driver bug with laptop graphic drivers. Likely for the reason I stated above. How GPUs are used is different on laptops than on desktops.
Care to explain how they could be causing a BSoD then? Maybe write a short demonstration D3D11 application showing the crash. I am sure both Intel and Nvidia would like to see such a thing so they can fix it.
BSoDs are caused by unrecoverable kernel level faults. Blizzard is not a driver developer so should not be running code directly at a kernel level. The only kernel code they should be running is indirectly via API calls which are not their responsibility.
Same here. Alienware 17r3 laptop. Nvidia gtx 970m. Bluescreen only happens when running WCR and while plugged into external monitor. WC3 never crashed before the reforged release. This game is somehow the only game that causes the domino’s to fall, and landing on “Video Scheduler error”. Sometimes it does load. But it is guaranteed to blue screen, if I try changing the resolution. Also if watch a singleplayer cinimatic. It crashes at the end of the video.
WhoCrashed Report:
On Wed 3/18/2020 8:35:18 AM your computer crashed or a problem was reported
crash dump file: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\031820-17890-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: watchdog.sys (watchdog+0x41A0)
Bugcheck code: 0x119 (0xE00, 0xFFFFB18B3FD5C000, 0xFFFFB18B3FDBDBF0, 0xFFFFB18B3FDBDEF0)
Error: VIDEO_SCHEDULER_INTERNAL_ERROR
file path: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\watchdog.sys
product: [Microsoft® Windows® Operating System](Microsoft® - Google Search Windows® Operating System)
company: [Microsoft Corporation](http://www.google.com/search?q=Microsoft Corporation)
description: Watchdog Driver
We should combine resources with all the other people posting about the same exact issue. The devs think it has nothing to do with the game, so I doubt they are going to be helpful at getting to the bottom of this. As far as we know, there is a issue with laptop gpu’s while the hdmi port is in use. Perhaps nvidia needs to update something. I dont recall a nvidia game ready driver, being released for “Reforged”.
It is more likely a general driver bug. All game engines do their graphics slightly differently. It is possible the way Reforged initializes graphics runs into an unreported driver bug. What Reforged is doing might not even be out of API spec (which is where most bugs are expected).
Both Nvidia and Intel graphic drivers can be the cause as their drivers have to cooperate together.
So how does a normal person get to the bottom of this?
I got something!!!
After you said “Both Nvidia and Intel graphic drivers can be the cause as their drivers have to cooperate together”.
I started tinkering. If I disable my Intel gpu in device manager. I am able to play no problem, while on external monitor. I was Alt/tabbing in and out as fast as i could. Quitting and restarting over and over. No issues. So now I know of a work-around, FINALLY! Hopefully this help’s someone else. However it doesn’t answer why it only happens in this game and no other. I tried rolling back my Intel driver. But still had the same problem. 
Warcraft III must be hitting some obscure driver bug that never has been reported. It should not happen but just does.
Maybe reporting this to Intel might help better solve it. Especially seeing how it is affecting many people they may be able to recreate it and work towards a solution.
I can confirm this worked for me! I used to get like 20-30fps in the menu, now I’m getting 60+ and no crashes. I think that the issue may be that for whatever bloody reason, the in-game menu and alleged Chromium extension is prioritizing the Intel graphics over nVidia, and then when the game actually launches it switches over to nVidia. Just a theory.
EDIT: Jesus, I’m actually able to play the game in 4K now without any issues! I’m going to have to go out on a limb here and say that the dedicated GPU probably wasn’t being used at all, and it’s been prioritizing Intel the whole bloody time.
The thought crossed my mind also. Because it always crashed when loading the menu, or alt/tabbing back in. One person told me that they fixed it by manually downloading the latest Intel driver manually. I tried, but it didn’t work for me.
Yeah, all drivers are up to date for me too. It’s a real shame that we had to figure out this fix by ourselves by tens of hours of trial and error rather than anything happening on Blizzard’s end, but at least we fixed it.
Okay I believe I have it working without having to disable the Intel. I did several things, and am not sure if it was 1 or all of them that solved this issue.
Leaving my external monitor plugged in through this whole fix. I don’t know if that matters.
First I removed my ‘Intel HD Graphics 530’ driver. Using “Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU)” Software from Guru3d website. Pretty amazing tool that really wipes it clean.
RESTART
I downloaded ‘NVIDIA Inspector’ Software from Guru3d website. Unzipped it to desktop. It has 2 apps. Run nvidiaProfileInspector. Find Warcraft reforged or Warcraft III, in the dropdown, Then click the delete icon at the top. This removes warcraft reforged from the “Nvidia control panel”. Under Manage 3d settings. This way I could give it a fresh start after I finish with all this.
Downloaded an earlier version of ‘Intel HD Graphics 530’ from my manufacturers website. (dell driver download) for me because I have an Alienware. Installed it.
RESTART
Used (DDU) software to remove my nvidia driver.
RESTART
At this point I can only see on my laptop screen. Updated my ‘Intel HD Graphics 530’ using device manager. Letting windows decide the right one for me. (this is why I downloaded an earlier version from the manufacturer site earlier. So windows would be forced to update and choose).
Right clicked on desktop and saw ‘Intel command center’ or something like that. It was in place of where the ‘nvidia control center’ used to be. So I opened it. It ran through some updates. However I cant remember exactly where. somewhere in there it asked me to click and DETECT MY SYSTEM. It was either settings icon or the gaming icon. This part is fuzzy in my head. It asked me to allow a popup. Then it started to think but never told me what it was doing. NOW I don’t know if it was the intel program or windows in the background on its own. But an Nvidia driver installed itself. My view was back on the big screen.
Opened google chrome. Went to settings / advanced settings, turned on “Use hardware acceleration when available”. Restarted chrome. (This part probably isn’t needed but the whole Chromium menu thing, had me desperate.
Opened up ‘Nvidia control panel’ Somehow It returned on its own when the nvidia driver was installed. Replacing the ‘Intel command center’ that surprised me earlier. It was reinstalled either by windows, or by the intel program while it was runing and update and asking me to wait. Still not sure. Anyway,…go to ‘Manage 3d settings’, and set Global Settings, to “Use High-performance Nvidia processor”.
Still in Manage 3d settings, click ‘Program settings’ tab. Click ‘add’. Then made sure to add “Warcraft III, Chrome Browser, Blizzard Launcher” and set each one to use “Nvidia processor”. Don’t forget to hit Apply at the bottom. Sometimes you have to scroll down. It causes me to forget it and have to redo the steps.
Now it magically works!!!
I had WC3 set to use nvidia processor before all of this. So I am not sure why any of this made a difference. I guess something crucial was reset or refreshed. Now it runs great and doesn’t require me to disable anything before launching. My concern was to undo everything in intel and nvidia. But wanted to make sure I always had at least 1 installed, while working on the other. Thats why my steps could probably be done in a more efficient order.