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Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) is a hardware error handling framework introduced forMicrosoft Windows withWindows Vista SP1 andWindows Server 2008 as a successor toMachine Check Architecture (MCA) on previous versions ofWindows.[1] WHEA 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 onEvent Tracing for Windows (ETW).[3]
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 asDynamic Hardware Partitioning—the hardware error component stack is notified that a new processor was installed.
WHEA builds on existing hardware error reporting mechanisms, including PCI Express Advanced Error Reporting and firmware-provided interfaces such as theACPI Platform Error Interface (APEI), introduced in ACPI 5.0. OnLinux systems, APEI is implemented directly within thekernel[4], whereas Windows integrates APEI error sources through WHEA.[5]
