How to check which driver is faulty. How to identify problematic drivers using Driver Verifier. Custom driver check

We have already talked about. But how to install a driver for old equipment if it does not support PnP technology? And how can you diagnose the operation of the drivers? Let's take a look at these topics in this article.

Installation of old equipment

If you do not have software for equipment from the manufacturer (in other words -) and the device does not support, open Device Manager, right-click on the computer name at the very beginning of the list and select Install old hardware, Then Further. Then you can go one of two ways: either the computer will try to identify the connected device itself, or you yourself select the class of the device and, with hope in your soul, will look for your equipment in the list of available ones. And if you find it, then you're in luck. If not, then you need to follow the instructions

Driver operation diagnostics

Equipment conflicts

Driver conflicts are becoming less and less common these days. But they meet. Usually, conflicts arise when two entities require the same resources. And all the wars on Earth were for the sake of possessing some kind of resources! So do not be surprised that this weakness is also present in computer components. To find out if the device has any conflicts, you need to diagnose the operation of the driver. To do this, go to Device Manager, select Devices. Next, in the context menu, select Properties and open tab Resources. Below you will find the field List of conflicting devices, where you can find out if there are conflicts or not. If there are any, the "Change" button is activated, where you, as a judge, will divide the resources between the conflicting ones.

System Information

Also, a utility is used to diagnose the operation of drivers. System Information, which you can open by typing in the Run menu msinfo32.
In it you will see three nodes. You can use the following to diagnose drivers:

• The first node has a parameter Conflicts and sharing. In it you will see which equipments use the same resources. Which in turn is a possible cause of the problem.
• In the second node you can find detailed information about the required equipment. And in order to diagnose drivers, it is best to use the parameter Devices with problems.
• In the third node, expanding the parameter System drivers, You can find out about the status of the kernel drivers. This is a very important parameter, because it is focused specifically on the operating system kernel drivers. And restoring a kernel driver is much more difficult than a printer driver. And therefore it is better to diagnose such cases, otherwise you may stumble upon one of the fatal errors.

Driver Check Manager

Another tool for diagnosing drivers is − Driver Check Manager. It allows you to put drivers under load, simulate a lack of resources, in general, put drivers in conditions that are unrealistically difficult for them, in order to identify possible failures. You can call this tool using the menu Run, if you enter there and run the command verifier.

To be honest, this utility has a rather vague interface. It's my opinion. Yes, and she doesn’t really interest me, since even when I’m running virtual machine and a bunch of programs can not load iron above 60%. Therefore, I did not honor this utility with attention. But according to the described functionality, this utility is a very good tool.

DirectX Diagnostics

If you type in the Run menu dxdiag, then you run Diagnostic tool. In the window that opens, there will be 4 tabs: the second is about the screen, the third is about the sound and the fourth is about the input system. Each of them has a note at the bottom indicating the presence or absence of problems. As you can see this remedy diagnoses only these three classes of equipment. Why? Because the main use of DirectX is when creating games. What does the game need? Screen to see what we're playing! Sound to hear the roar of an engine or a shot in the back. And an input system to steer or shoot. And do not care what your printer does not print. That's it.

So good luck with the drivers, and if you need driver diagnostics, then feel free to use any of the above tools. The article also partly relates to the topic of this article, because drivers are software products.

A driver is a program that is necessary for the operating system and various software applications to interact with the hardware devices connected to it. Hardware components such as sound, video cards, printers, scanners and they all need a compatible driver to work properly.

All device drivers are designed for specific operating systems. For example, Windows XP drivers will be different from Windows Vista drivers. Therefore, it is necessary to take extra precautions when installing and updating device drivers, because installing incorrect or incompatible drivers can not only damage the device, but also your system.

Common Causes of Driver Errors

Some common causes of driver errors are listed below:

• You are trying to use a hardware device that is not properly connected to your computer.
• Two or more drivers on the system are incompatible with each other.
• The driver or drivers installed are not compatible with your system.
• There are unnecessary or outdated drivers on the PC.

Steps to Fix Driver Errors
The first step in fixing a driver error is to make sure the device is properly connected to your system. Many devices give connection related errors, so make sure your device is connected to your system properly. Next, you need to make sure there are no driver issues. You can do this using the Device Manager utility that comes with your computer. Windows system. You can open Device Manager by directly running devmgmt. msc from the command lineStart>Completedit. When you open Device Manager, you will see a list of all devices connected to your system. You can easily identify a defective file because it will be marked with a yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside. Right-click on a device to open its properties dialog. In the properties dialog box, check the section Device Status tab General. Drivers are displayed on the Drivers tab of the properties window. Here, perform one of the following tasks:

• Check and Install Driver Updates: Outdated drivers are one of the main causes of driver errors. To solve this problem, click the button Update Driver.The Hardware Update Wizard opens. You can use the wizard to update the driver. It is recommended that you first download the driver update and save it to a convenient location on your hard drive, and then start the update process because the update wizard will ask you to specify a location to install the update.

• Driver rollback: If you started getting an error shortly after installing a new update, then it's likely that the new update is buggy. To fix this problem, click the button Driver rollback to return to your previous driver version.

• Driver uninstallation: If there are problems with your current drivers - missing or corrupted files - then the best thing you can do is click Delete to uninstall the current driver, and then reinstall the driver again.

In case you are not sure what you are doing and if you find the above fixes a bit complicated, then it is recommended that you choose a reliable driver scan tool. Driver scanning tools are designed to check all device drivers and make sure they are not up-to-date. Whenever new updates are available, the driver scanner automatically downloads and installs best updates to your computer.

Sometimes DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION errors like " blue screen" related to hardware may be caused by damage random access memory(RAM). If you're experiencing random computer restarts, boot beeps, or other computer problems (in addition to 0xC4 BSOD errors), it's highly likely that memory corruption is present. In fact, almost 10% of Windows application crashes are caused by memory corruption.

If you have recently added new memory to your computer, we recommend removing it temporarily to make sure it is not causing the DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION error. If this action fixed the BSOD, then that is the source of the problem, and therefore the new memory is either not compatible with some of your hardware or is corrupted. In this case, you will need to replace new memory modules.

If you haven't added any new memory, the next step is to run a diagnostic test on your computer's existing memory. A memory test allows you to scan for severe memory failures and intermittent errors that may be causing your blue screen of death 0xC4.

Although latest versions Windows includes a RAM test utility, I highly recommend using Memtest86 instead. Memtest86 is a testing software based on the BIOS, unlike other test programs that run in a Windows environment. The advantage of this approach is that the utility allows you to check ALL operating memory for DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION errors, while other programs cannot check memory areas occupied by the program itself, the operating system, and other running programs.

Indicates a system driver that is unlikely to be causing the problem (for example, win32k.sys). In this case, you will need a serious analysis of the dump, which requires very deep knowledge and experience in this area. However, you can check the drivers yourself using the checker built into the operating system. Verifier.exe. Although it is covered in detail in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Using the Driver Verifier to Troubleshoot Windows Drivers, the material presented there is presented at a fairly technical level. The following is a brief description of the steps you need to follow to check the drivers.

On this page

Getting Started with the Driver Verifier

On the menu Start - Run(or Start - Search) enter verifier and press Enter. The Driver Verifier will launch. Select an item Create custom parameters (for program code) and press the button Further.

Select individual options from a complete list and press the button Further.

In the next step, check all the boxes except Simulation of a lack of resources and press the button Further.

In the next step, select Automatically select unsigned drivers and press the button Further. If no unsigned drivers are found, go to .

Unsigned drivers

If unsigned drivers are found, you will see a list of them.

Drivers can belong to both devices and applications. Do not close the Driver Verifier window or click the button Further now.

Search for updated drivers

You need to check if there are updated drivers.

1. If you see an application driver in the list, visit its manufacturer's website - the application may have been updated. If there is no updated version, you can try uninstalling the app (you can always reinstall it later). If critical errors stop, it was the cause.
2. If you see a device driver listed and you are running Windows Vista, use the windows updates to search for new drivers. This method works well for Windows Vista because many device manufacturers work with Microsoft to make their drivers available for download through Windows Update. In the control panel, select Windows Update and check for updates for your device driver. If the driver is found, install it.
3. If Windows Update doesn't offer you new drivers, visit the device manufacturer's website. Perhaps new drivers are available there. If you're having trouble finding drivers, check out the forum on the site.

After updating the application or driver, close the Driver Verifier window, pressing a button Cancel(but not Further) . Restart your computer and continue working on the operating system. If the critical error no longer occurs, you have fixed it by updating the driver.

Uninstalling drivers

If no new drivers are found, try uninstalling the driver.

Attention! Removing drivers causes the devices to be inoperable. After a reboot at best operating system will install the appropriate driver from its own driver store. If you are unsure whether to uninstall a particular driver, do not uninstall it.

In device manager ( Start - Search / Run - devmgmt.msc - OK) find the device, right-click on it and select the item from the context menu Properties. Then go to the tab Driver and press the button Delete.

Checking for Unsigned Drivers

Attention! After checking for unsigned drivers, the system may not boot (see below how to proceed in such a situation).

If you don't want to uninstall the driver and/or want to check for unsigned drivers, in the Driver Verifier window, click Further. You will be prompted to select a physical disk.

Ready, then restart your computer. If you see a blue screen with an error after rebooting, the problematic driver has been identified - its name will be included in the error message. Restart your computer and enter safe mode by clicking F8 Start - Search / Run command verifier.exe /reset.

If the system booted normally, the check for unsigned drivers was successful - they are not the source of the problem. You can see a list of verified drivers by running verifier.exe .

Since unsigned drivers are not the cause of the fatal error, you need to check other drivers.

Custom driver check

If no unsigned drivers are found, or if the driver check does not reveal any problems, you will have to perform a custom driver check. In this case, in the window shown below, select the item Select a driver name from the list.

In the next step, you will be prompted to select the drivers to check. Don't select all drivers at once, since checking them will take a lot of time and system resources.

Therefore, the verification may have to be carried out in several stages. The step-by-step sequence for selecting drivers can be as follows:

1. Recently updated drivers or those that typically cause problems (antivirus, firewall, virtual disk drivers).
2. Drivers not supplied by Microsoft.
3. A group of 10 - 15 drivers at a time.

Select the drive where the operating system is installed and click Ready, then restart your computer.

Attention! After checking the drivers, the system may not boot (see below how to proceed in such a situation).

If you see a blue screen with an error after rebooting, the problematic driver has been identified - its name will be included in the error message. Restart your computer and enter safe mode by clicking F8 while loading. After logging in, reset all driver verification options by typing in Start - Search / Run command verifier.exe /reset.

If the system booted normally, the selected drivers were checked successfully - they are not the source of the problem. You can see a list of verified drivers by running verifier.exe and choosing at the first step the item Display information about current tested drivers.

Now select the next group of drivers and check again.

All drivers checked - what's next?

If the verification of all drivers was successful, I must take my hat off to your patience and perseverance. Most likely, the drivers are not the cause of the critical error that occurs on your system. It is possible that the problem lies in the hardware of your computer - for example, in a faulty hard drive or RAM, or the power supply does not have enough power to power all devices. There may be other hardware problems that cannot be detected by checking the drivers either.

The Driver Verifier utility (verifier.exe) is designed to analyze problematic drivers when analysis of memory dumps after a BSOD fails to find the problematic driver. Driver Verifier is a lifesaver in the most problematic situations.

With Driver Verifier you can do:

driver stress test (resource shortage conditions are simulated);

buffer overflow control;

control over errors arising from incorrect operation at a given IRQL;

analysis of input-output errors;

detection of deadlock situations, etc.

The Driver Verifier utility can be very useful when:

the administrator (user) has suspicions that it is this driver that causes the system to crash and he wants to additionally check whether this is actually the case;

driver developers want to test their driver;

when analyzing a dump after a BSOD, it is impossible to find a problematic driver.

One of the most difficult cases of memory dump analysis is the case when the driver mistakenly overwrites data before or after the end of the buffer allocated by it. In such cases, errors occur in the OS kernel (for example, analysis of the dump after the BSOD shows that the error originated in ntoskrnl.exe).

Let's look at a similar case with a specific example. Using the NotMyfault utility, we cause a BSOD - “Buffer overflow”.

The result of the dump analysis using windbg is in the attachment below.

According to the analysis of the dump, we get.

1. Arg1: 00000007, Attempt to free pool which was already freed (there was an attempt to free an already freed pool)

2. IMAGE_NAME: ntkrpamp.exe (the core of the system itself has a relation to this)

It is with such errors that the verifier comes to the rescue.

We start verifier.

Select "Create non-standard settings". Next, select "Select options from a list".

We select everything except “Imitation of lack of resources”.

Then select “Select unloaded drivers for this list” and specify the path to the myfault.sys driver, which is located in the same directory as the NotMyfault.exe program.

Then mark the driver and click "Finish". After that, we need to restart the computer.

We perform all the same steps as at the beginning. Run NotMyfault.exe, select "Buffer overflow" and click "Crash". As you noticed, the crash may not happen immediately, because who and when will try to work with this memory is not known in advance. As you can see in the image below, thanks to the verifier, the system can identify the problematic driver.

Here is an analysis using !analyze –v in windbg.exe of a memory dump after a BSOD.

The verifier program makes it so that the driver being checked uses a special pool instead of the ordinary memory available in the kernel, designed to detect such an error. Thanks to this, you can find the driver that causes the BSOD.

If we look at the results of the analysis, we see the following.

1. DRIVER_PAGE_FAULT_BEYOND_END_OF_ALLOCATION (d6) - this is one of the errors that is generated by verifier

2. IMAGE_NAME: myfault.sys - the driver that caused the problem.

Thus, if the analysis of the memory dump after the BSOD does not allow you to find the “guilty driver”, use the verifier.exe program (install all checks except for lack of memory).

The easiest way to use Driver Verifier (verifier.exe) is to run it with the following parameters:

verifier /standard /driver driver file name

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