Windows Hardware Error Architecture Explained

Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) is an operating system hardware error handling mechanism introduced with Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 as a successor to Machine Check Architecture (MCA) on previous versions of Windows.^[1] The architecture consists of several software components that interact with the hardware and firmware of a given platform to handle and notify regarding hardware error conditions.^[2] Collectively, these components provide: a generic means of discovering errors, a common error report format for those errors, a way of preserving error records, and an error event model based up on Event Tracing for Windows (ETW).^[3]

WHEA "builds on the PCI Express Advanced Reporting to provide more detailed information about system errors and a common reporting structure."^[4]

WHEA allows third-party software to interact with the operating system and react to certain hardware events. For example, when a new CPU is added to a running system—a Windows Server feature known as Dynamic Hardware Partitioning—the hardware error component stack is notified that a new processor was installed.^[5]

In contrast, Linux supports the ACPI Platform Error Interface (APEI) which is introduced in ACPI 5.0.^[6]

See also

• Machine-check exception (MCE)
• Reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS)
• RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and safety)
• High availability (HA)
• Blue screen of death

Notes and References

1. Web site: Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) design guide. Microsoft Docs. 14 March 2023 .
2. Web site: Components of the Windows Hardware Error Architecture. Microsoft Docs. 14 March 2023 .
3. Web site: Introduction to the Windows Hardware Error Architecture. Microsoft Docs. 14 March 2023 .
4. Book: Sosinsky, Barrie. Microsoft Windows Server 2008: Implementation and Administration. John Wiley & Sons. 2008. 11. 978-0470174593.
5. Book: Mark E. Russinovich. David A. Solomon. Alex Ionescu. Windows® Internals. Fifth. 2009. 441. Microsoft Press . 978-0735625303.
6. Web site: APEI Error INJection — The Linux Kernel documentation. 2020-12-17. www.kernel.org.