Windows Hardware Error Architecture
DownloadWindows Hardware Error Architecture
|
The Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA), introduced with Windows Vista, extends the hardware error reporting mechanisms of previous versions of Windows and brings the mechanisms together as components of a coherent hardware error infrastructure. WHEA takes advantage of the additional hardware error information available in today's hardware devices and integrates much more closely with the system firmware.
As a result, WHEA provides the following benefits:
| • | Allows for more extensive error data to be made available in a standard error record format for determining the root cause of hardware errors. |
| • | Provides mechanisms for recovering from hardware errors to avoid bugchecking the system when a hardware error is non-fatal. |
| • | Supports user-mode error management applications and enables advanced computer health monitoring by reporting hardware errors via Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) and by providing an API for error management and control. |
| • | Is extensible, so that as hardware vendors add new and better hardware error reporting mechanisms to their devices, WHEA allows the operating system to gracefully accommodate the new mechanisms. |
This paper provides information to help system designers understand basic issues about hardware errors, the firmware/operating system relationship, and information about error handling and the WHEA architecture components.
This information applies for the following operating systems:
Windows Vista
Windows 2008
Microsoft Windows Server 2003
Included in this paper:
| • | Introduction to the Windows Hardware Error Architecture |
| • | Hardware Errors and Error Sources |
| • | Relationship between Windows and the System Firmware |
| • | Windows Hardware Error Handling |
| • | Components of WHEA for Windows Server 2008 |
| • | Error Handling Differences Among Windows Versions |
| • | Resources |
