debug

As we move toward “Always On, Always Connected” systems, a new category of debugging has emerged: Connected Standby. Bug Check 0x15F: CONNECTED_STANDBY_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT is the modern version of the power state …

Not all BSODs are caused by a “bad line of code” in a driver. Sometimes, the system crashes because a vital organ of the OS—like the System Registry or a …

While many BSODs happen purely in the “dark” of the kernel, Bug Check 0x3B: SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION occurs at the boundary where a user-mode application makes a request to the kernel (a …

For those working in the semiconductor and systems space, many BSODs aren’t caused by a software logic error, but by a breakdown in the communication between the CPU and the …

While we’ve spent a lot of time discussing the Kernel Pool (the heap), there is another critical memory area that is much smaller and far more dangerous: The Kernel Stack. …

In our previous articles, we covered timing and resource deadlocks. Now, we return to the most frequent “bread and butter” of Windows debugging: The Access Violation. When a driver tries …

In our final installment of this introductory series, we move from runaway loops to the opposite problem: The Deadlock. This is where the system isn’t “busy”—it’s “stuck.” Two or more …

In the semiconductor and hardware world, timing is everything. While previous articles focused on memory safety, this one deals with responsiveness. The Bug Check 0x133: DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION occurs when the system …

In our previous article, we looked at IRQL issues. Today, we dive into one of the most challenging areas of Windows debugging: Pool Corruption. When a driver or kernel component …

Mastering the Blue Screen: A Guide to Windows Kernel Debugging The “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) is often viewed with dread, but for a system engineer, it is a goldmine …