| Previous | Next |
| STATUS_INVALID_DEVICE_OBJECT_PARAMETER | STATUS_DRIVER_BLOCKED_CRITICAL |
STATUS_MCA_OCCURED
Use the hardware error record, not the NTSTATUS name, to identify the failing component
STATUS_MCA_OCCURED reports a machine-check condition. Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA) provides the operating-system framework for hardware error sources, records and events. The NTSTATUS value is only a high-level indicator; the useful evidence is the WHEA error record and the sections populated by the reporting hardware or firmware.
A machine check can describe processor-core, cache, memory hierarchy or other platform error information depending on the architecture and error source. Do not infer “bad CPU” from the symbolic name alone. WHEA records use structured error information and Windows logs hardware error events so that severity and source-specific data can be examined.
What to preserve
- The complete WHEA event or crash-dump error record, including severity and every section descriptor.
- Processor, bank/source identifiers and status/address information when the record provides them.
- Firmware version, processor microcode context, memory configuration and whether corrected errors preceded the failure.
- Reproducibility under the same workload and hardware configuration before replacing components.
Clearing the event log or immediately changing several firmware settings destroys correlation. First classify the error from WHEA data, then use the platform vendor's documentation and hardware diagnostics for the component actually named by the record.
References
- Microsoft: Introduction to WHEA
- Microsoft: WHEA hardware error events
- Microsoft: WHEA definitions
- Microsoft Open Specifications: NTSTATUS values
Looking for a different code? Search another status or error code.