What does HRESULT 0x801B8005 (WER_E_DUMP_THROTTLED) mean?

 
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WER_E_DUMP_THROTTLED

WER_E_DUMP_THROTTLED is the failure HRESULT 0x801B8005 (signed decimal -2145681403, unsigned decimal 2149285893). Its severity bit is 1, facility is 27 (FACILITY_WER), and the facility-specific code field is 0x8005.

AllStat records the Windows SDK message as “Dump not generated due to a throttle.”

A dump decision, not necessarily total report loss

WER_E_DUMP_THROTTLED states that WER did not generate the requested dump because a throttle applied. The exact wording is narrower than a general submission failure: event parameters or other report material may still exist even though the memory dump is absent. Check the enclosing API and submission result before declaring that no report was recorded.

Why WER limits dump production

Dump capture can consume CPU time, pause or inspect a process, use substantial disk space, and generate large uploads. Windows therefore applies policy and resource controls to some reporting paths. Microsoft documents throttle settings for live reports and exposes WerThrottled as a submission-result state, but public documentation does not define one universal threshold that maps every report type to this HRESULT.

Evidence that identifies the throttle domain

  • report type and the WER_DUMP_TYPE requested;
  • whether the event is an automatic crash, a generic report, or a live-kernel-report path;
  • timestamps and signatures of earlier reports for the same component;
  • WER settings, LocalDumps configuration, queue contents, and available disk space;
  • whether WER_SUBMIT_RESULT reports throttling while metadata remains stored.

Diagnostic steps

  • verify that the expected report entry exists even though the dump file does not;
  • compare the event signature with recently generated dumps to detect repetition;
  • review administrator-defined dump frequency and retention settings;
  • confirm that the application is not creating multiple reports for one incident;
  • test a smaller minidump in a controlled environment if the API allows a dump choice.

Safe recovery

Do not immediately loop on dump generation. Repeated calls can extend the noisy condition that caused throttling. Wait for the relevant policy interval, reduce duplicate reporting, or collect a bounded local diagnostic through an approved debugging workflow. Changing system-wide throttle values should be an administrator decision based on storage, privacy, and operational impact.

Caution about bypass flags

WER_SUBMIT_BYPASS_DATA_THROTTLING is documented for report submission, but its name does not prove that it overrides every dump-generation throttle. Do not treat it as a universal fix for this HRESULT without evidence from the specific WER path and supported Windows version.

Difference from WER_E_TOO_HEAVY

WER_E_TOO_HEAVY says the report was aborted under performance criteria. This code specifically records suppression of dump generation. The difference matters when deciding whether metadata, attachments, or a queued report may still be useful.

Official Microsoft references

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