Edit

WHEA Changes for Windows 7

  • Article

Starting with Windows 7, the following changes have been made to Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA):

  • A new error record format (WHEA_ERROR_PACKET_V2) is used to report a hardware error in Windows 7 and later versions of Windows. The previous error record format (WHEA_ERROR_PACKET) has been renamed to WHEA_ERROR_PACKET_V1, and is only used to report a hardware error in Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1.

    Starting with the Windows 7 Windows Driver Kit (WDK), WHEA_ERROR_PACKET is a macro that, depending on the build target, references either the WHEA_ERROR_PACKET_V1 or WHEA_ERROR_PACKET_V2 structures.

    For more information about this change, see WHEA_ERROR_PACKET.

  • Various Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) data types have been renamed in the Windows 7 Windows Driver Kit (WDK). For more information about these changes, see Renamed WHEA Data Types.

  • WHEA supports Predictive Failure Analysis (PFA) for Error Correction Code (ECC) memory. Through PFA, WHEA can monitor one or more ECC memory pages that have encountered previous errors. When too many errors have occurred, WHEA attempts to bring the memory page into an offline state.

    A platform-specific hardware error driver (PSHED) plug-in can extend WHEA's PFA support by performing PFA itself on ECC memory. In this way, the plug-in must decide when to bring a memory page into an offline state.

  • Additional WHEA error-specific hardware errors have been defined. For more information about these errors, see WHEA Hardware Error Events (Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista SP1 and Later).