How to find out why my kernel driver is hanging the system.

mrolle · 26 Dec 2017

I wrote a kernel driver that uses IoConnectInterrupt to register a handler for an interrupt vector. If I don't actually enable interrupts on the hardware, no problem, but with interrupts enabled, the system freezes after a short time. I can't use the mouse or keyboard, not even ctrl-alt-delete. So I have to pull the plug on my PC in order to reboot. There's no minidump.
My question is, what tools can I use to find out what's wrong when the freeze occurs?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I've posted another thread about the strategy I use to select the parameters for the IoConnectInterrupt call, so if there's an answer there that solves the problem, then I won't need an answer to the present thread. However, an answer might be useful to someone else anyway.

zbook · 26 Dec 2017

What happens when the computer is in safe mode?
What happens when the computer is in clean boot?

If you can use safe mode or clean boot then you may be able to have testing options on the next boot.

Without keyboard and mouse the options are very limited.

This tool can be used for boot problems but you will need to use keyboard/mouse to set it up.
Windows performance recorder - Microsoft Community

Microsoft Systernals are additional troubleshooting options.
They also typically require the use of the keyboard/mouse.
Windows Sysinternals - Windows Sysinternals | Microsoft Docs

mrolle · 26 Dec 2017

Thanks.

In safe mode, I can't run my driver, so I can't reproduce the problem.

I don't know what you mean by a "clean boot." If you mean just a normal bootup, then I am doing that already, except that I am running with DSE disabled so that I can run my (unsigned) driver.

I was hoping for a way to tell the system to do a bug check when it gets hung up, perhaps to define a hot key to do it manually. Or even to take a minidump when I cut off the power or hit the reset button on the computer.

Or a tool that can run in the background and periodically snapshot the kernel to a file that I can analyze later?

Also, you have any comments re my other post today about what my driver is doing that leads to the hangup?

zbook · 26 Dec 2017

These may be some additional options:

How to test a driver at runtime using Visual Studio | Microsoft Docs
Microsoft USB Test Tool (MUTT) devices (Windows Drivers)
Tools for Testing Drivers | Microsoft Docs
Tools for Verifying Drivers | Microsoft Docs

mrolle · 03 Jan 2018

I've found another answer. That is to manually cause a bugcheck from the keyboard. Details are at Forcing a System Crash from the Keyboard | Microsoft Docs.
The article mentions that if whatever is spinning in the system is at a higher priority than the keyboard driver, the keyboard driver won't get a chance to crash the system.