Utility Driver Verifier included in all versions of Windows, starting with Windows XP, and allows you to check drivers, identify problematic drivers that are causing blue screen of death (BSOD — Blue Screen of Death) and record detailed information about the problematic driver in a memory dump for further analysis. The utility subjects the checked drivers to various “ stress tests", simulating various extreme conditions: lack of memory, I/O control, IRQL, deadlocks, DMA checks, IRP, etc. I.e. situations that rarely occur on productive systems are simulated, and driver behavior in them is monitored. The purpose of the utility is to identify situations in which the driver can lead to crash operation of the system with BSOD.
The executable file of the Driver Verifier utility is called Verifier.exe and is located in the %windir%\system32 directory. There are two options for using the utility: from the command line or using GUI.
To enable driver verification mode in Windows 8, launch the Driver Verifier utility by typing
Verifier
From the task list, select Create custom settings (for code developers) and press Next.
Make sure the options are selected Standard settings, Force pending I/O requests And IRP Logging. Click Next.
Next select .
Sort the contents of the table by clicking on the "Provider" column header and select the ones you want to test from the list of drivers. In our example, we will run a check for all drivers that are not developed by MicrosoftCorporation. We selected the drivers: e1g6032e.sys (Intel) and lsi_sas.sys (LSI).
Note. The driver has a digital Microsoft signatures indicates that the driver has been tested in a certain way for stability and its code has not been modified after this. That is why it is not recommended or used.
All you have to do is click Finish and an information window will appear stating that you need to reboot the system for the changes to take effect.
Advice. Driver verification mode can also be enabled from the command line. For example, to run Driver Verifier with standard settings for the myPCDriver.sys driver, the command will look like this:
Verifier /standard /driver myPCDriver.sys
After the reboot, the system boots into driver verification mode. Driver Verifier works in background, performing different kinds testing selected drivers to identify errors. Use your computer as usual and wait for the BSOD to appear. If you know what actions previously caused the system to crash, repeat them. If a BSOD occurs, you need to copy the memory dump file (by default, it is saved in the C:\Windows\Minidump\*.dmp directory) or similar.
Important! After activating driver debugging mode using Driver Verifier, this mode will work until it is forcibly disabled.
If the problem does not recur within 1-2 days, then with a certain degree of certainty we can conclude that the drivers being tested are not the cause of the system crash and the scan mode for them can be disabled.
Advice. Using the Validator Windows drivers significantly slows down Windows operation, so it is not recommended to constantly work in this mode.
You can disable Driver Verifier from the command line:
Verifier /reset
Or from the graphical interface by selecting Delete existing settings.
If you cannot log into the system in normal mode, you can disable debugging mode from safe mode.
If the system does not boot even in safe mode, try removing following keys in the registry in, booting from the boot disk:
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\VerifyDrivers
- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management\VerifyDriverLevel
You can check the current status of the Driver Verifier utility like this.
Points to system driver, which is unlikely to be the cause of the problem (e.g. win32k.sys). In this case, a serious analysis of the dump will be required, requiring very deep knowledge and experience in this area. However, you can check your drivers yourself using the operating system's built-in driver checker. Verifier.exe. Although it is covered in detail in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article Using Driver Verifier to Troubleshoot Windows Drivers, the material presented there is quite complex. technical level. Below is short description actions that need to be taken to check drivers.
On this page
Getting started with the Driver Verifier
On the menu Start — Execute(or Start — Search) enter verifier and press Enter. The Driver Checker will launch. Select an item Create non-standard parameters (for program code) and press the button Further.
Select individual options from full list and press the button Further.
In the next step, check all the boxes except Simulating resource shortages 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 detected, 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 Further Now.
Search for updated drivers
You need to check if there are updated drivers.
- If you see an application driver in the list, visit its manufacturer's website - the application may have been updated. If updated version no, you can try deleting the app (you can always reinstall it later). If the critical errors stop, that was the cause.
- If you see a device driver in the list and you are working in Windows Vista use the center 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. Windows Update. In Control Panel, select Windows Update and check for updates to your device driver. If the driver is found, install it.
- If Windows Update doesn't offer you new drivers, visit the device manufacturer's website. Perhaps new drivers are available there. If you are having problems finding drivers, please visit the Find Drivers, Firmware and Manuals forum on OSzone.net.
After updating an application or driver, close the Driver Verifier window. pressing a button Cancel(but not Further) . Restart your computer and continue using the operating system. If the critical error no longer occurs, you have resolved it by updating the driver.
Removing drivers
If new drivers cannot be found, try uninstalling the driver.
Attention! Removing drivers leads to device inoperability. After a reboot, in the best case, the operating system will install the appropriate driver from its own driver store. If you are not sure whether to remove a particular driver, do not remove it.
In Device Manager ( Start — Search / Run — devmgmt.msc — OK) find the device, right-click on it and select from context menu paragraph Properties. Then go to the tab Driver and press the button Delete.
Checking for unsigned drivers
Attention! After checking unsigned drivers, the system may not boot (described below is how to act in such a situation).
If you do not want to remove 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 after reboot you see blue screen with an error, the problematic driver has been identified - its name will be included in the error message. Enter Safe Mode and reset all driver verification options by entering Start — Search / Run team verifier.exe /reset.
If the system boots into normal mode, the check for unsigned drivers completed successfully - they are not the source of the problem. You can see a list of tested drivers by running verifier.exe .
Because unsigned drivers are not the cause critical error, you need to check other drivers.
Custom driver check
If no unsigned drivers are found or checking them does not reveal any problems, you will have to run spot check drivers. In this case, in the window shown below, select Select driver name from the list.
In the next step, you will be asked to select drivers to scan. 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 could be as follows:
- Recently updated drivers or those that typically cause problems (drivers antivirus programs, firewalls, virtual disks).
- Drivers not supplied by Microsoft.
- 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 (described below is how to act in such a situation).
If after a reboot you see a blue screen with an error, the problematic driver has been identified and its name will be included in the error message. Restart your computer and sign in safe mode by pressing F8 while loading. After logging in, reset all driver verification settings by entering Start — Search / Run team verifier.exe /reset.
If the system boots in normal mode, the check of the selected drivers was completed successfully - they are not the source of the problem. You can see a list of tested drivers by running verifier.exe and selecting the item in the first step Display information about currently verified drivers.
Now select the next driver group and check again.
All drivers have been checked - what next?
If the check of all drivers was successful, I have to take my hat off to your patience and perseverance. Most likely, drivers are not the cause of the critical error occurring on your system. It is possible that the problem lies in the hardware of your computer - for example, a faulty hard drive or random access memory, or the power supply does not have enough power to power all devices. There may be other hardware problems that also cannot be identified by checking the drivers.
So, you have a recurring blue screen of death, and like many BSoDs, it's because a bad driver is to blame. However, the screen does not give you the correct information, either because it does not contain any driver at all, or because it lists a system driver that is acting as false.
Driver Verifier – free utility, included in all Windows versions from Windows XP. It literally checks each of the drivers on your PC until it encounters the issue that is causing the problem, intentionally creating the same blue screen but then writing the information to a log file to help you identify the problem.
Launch Driver Driver
If you're experiencing the same blue screen frequently and you'd like to get proactive and fix it, here's how to use Driver Verifier.
- Click the button Start
- Click " Execute"...
- Enter CMD and press Enter.
- In the new window, enter verifier and press Enter.
On Windows Vista and 7:
- Click the button Start
- Enter CMD in the field and click Enter.
- In the new window, enter verifier and press Enter.
On Windows 8 and 8.1:
- Press the key Windows + X
- Click " Command line"("Administrator") (Windows PowerShell(Admin) in Windows 8.1)
- In the new window, enter verifier and press Enter.
All Windows versions:
- Make sure it's selected setting up user settings (for code developers) .
- Click " Further" .
- Select " Select individual settings" from the full list .
- Click " Further" .
- Deselect low resource system modeling And standby I/O requests. (These two cause unnecessary workload on your PC.) Make sure everything else is selected.
- Double tap " Further" .
- Select " Select driver names" in the list .
- Click " Further" .
- Select all drivers on this screen except those that say Microsoft Corporation under Supplier. It is very unlikely that a Microsoft driver is causing this problem.
- Click " Ready" .
Note. If you can't complete the above steps because the blue screen keeps happening, try booting to .
At this point, you must restart your computer. Then try causing the BSoD again by doing what you did before. Windows adds extra workload to your drivers to help you. If you can't reproduce the BSoD, try running your computer overnight. Once the BSoD appears again, reboot your computer and read the Minidump file.
Reading a dump file
The Verifier driver will launch, blue screen, and write a log file. This log file is located in C:\Windows\Minidump\. Read it and you will see which driver is causing this problem. Try searching for the driver name to see what piece of hardware your PC uses.
So how do you read it? You need a debugging tool, which you can download from Microsoft.
A . Download the SDK, install it, select debugging tools, and deselect everything else.
Please note that debugging tools for previous versions of Windows are no longer available; you will have to send the dump file to a Microsoft technician for analysis.
After installing it, find it on the startup screen. It's called windbg (x64). Launch it.
- Click " File", then " Open failure" .
- Switch to C:\Windows\Minidump\ and open the .DMP file contained inside.
- Look at the bottom of the resulting file where the line says " Probably caused". This is a good indication of which driver is causing this problem.
Fix driver
Update the driver associated with this hardware:
- Click the button Start
- Click Control Panel
- Click " Switch to classic view"
- Double click system
- Go to "Hardware" tab
- Click device Manager
- Click " Update driver."
On Windows Vista and 7:
- Click the button Start
- Click Control Panel
- Double click device Manager
- Find the device causing the problem
- Right click on it
- Click " Update driver."
On Windows 8 and 8.1:
- Press the key Windows + X
- Click Control Panel
- Browse by small icons
- Click device Manager
- Find the device causing the problem
- Right click on it
- Click " Update driver."
Or use our application so as not to be confused with Driver Verifier. Driver Reviver automatically updates all existing drivers on your PC and is especially good at updating underperforming drivers like this one to the latest and greatest version.
After fixing the driver issue, you will want to disable Driver Verifier.
Disable driver verifier
Once you are done using Driver Verifier, you will want to disable it as it is quite hard on your PC while it is running.
On all versions of Windows:
- Re-run Driver Verifier using the steps above.
- Select " Delete existing settings" .
- Click " Ready" .
- Restart your computer again.
Bookmark this article for future reference so that whenever you have a blue screen, you can fix the problem. Also, check out our interactive and enter your error name for more tips on resolving your specific Blue Screen of Death. Good luck!
Sometimes hardware-related DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION blue screen errors can be caused by corrupted random access memory (RAM). If you are experiencing random computer reboots, sound signals When booting or other computer malfunctions (in addition to BSOD errors 0xC4), it is very likely that there is memory corruption. In fact, almost 10% of application crashes on Windows OS are caused by memory corruption.
If you've recently added new memory to your computer, we recommend temporarily removing it to make sure it's not causing the DRIVER_VERIFIER_DETECTED_VIOLATION error. If this action resolves the BSOD, then this is the source of the problem, and therefore the new memory is either incompatible with some of your hardware or damaged. In this case, you will need to replace new memory modules.
If you did not add new memory, the next step is to run a diagnostic test on your computer's existing memory. A memory test will scan for hard memory failures and intermittent errors that could be causing your 0xC4 blue screen of death.
Although latest versions Windows contains a utility for testing RAM, I highly recommend using Memtest86 instead. Memtest86 is a testing tool software BIOS-based, unlike other test programs run in 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.
A driver is a program that is necessary for the operating system and various software applications to interact with hardware devices connected to it. Hardware components such as sound, video cards, printers, scanners and they all need compatible driver for them 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 are installed that are not compatible with your system.
- There are unnecessary or outdated drivers on your PC.
Steps to fix driver errors
The first step in identifying a driver error is to ensure that the device is properly connected to your system. Many devices give connection errors, so check that your device is connected to your system correctly. Next, you need to make sure that there are no problems with the drivers. You can do this using the Device Manager utility that came with your computer Windows system. You can open Device Manager by directly running devmgmt. msc
from the command lineStart>Doneit.
When you open Device Manager, you will see a list of all the devices connected to your system. You can easily identify the defective file because it will be marked yellow triangle with an exclamation point inside. Right-click on a device to open its properties dialog box. In the properties dialog, check the section Device status on the tab Are common. Drivers are displayed on the Drivers tab of the properties window. Here, complete 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 will open. 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 start receiving an error message shortly after installing a new update, then it is likely that the new update is buggy. To fix this problem, click the button Driver rollback to return to yours previous version drivers.
- Uninstalling the driver: 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 little difficult, then it is recommended that you choose a reliable driver scanning 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.
