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Windows Hardware Error Architecture

Updated: May 25, 2006


File name: whea_overview.doc
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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
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