Windows 10 HLK Client goes into an endless reboot cycle when running an HLK compatibility test

Question

Hello,

I hope I am posting in the right forum...

I am beginning my journey into Windows 10 driver certification, and I have a lot to learn. 

The current issue I am having relates to my HLK client (where the target hardware and driver are installed). The client enters an endless loop during the middle of a test. I am not able to recover the client by rebooting. I have to restore the client machine to a point prior to running the HLK tests in order to reboot the machine into a usable state.

The test I am running comes from the Windows 10 HLK compatibility test list, and it is automatically selected by the HLK studio for the target (my driver) I selected.

I am sure I am running a driver built with the right version of the WDK/SDK toolkit, VS2015, and I know the HLK matches the right build version (1607) of Windows 10.

Please see the attached image, it shows the test, "DF - InfVerif  INF Verification" and the step in the test where it the test hangs is "Reboot computer [Legacy Client]". By "hangs", I mean the test never times out, and I am not able to recover the client- the client hangs during boot up, and eventually tries to reboot again to recover, but never recovers. The client hangs during its reboot, then reboots and hangs up again, this goes on forever.

The driver I am trying to certify is developed in-house and provides a proprietary interface to the system on which it runs. That said, the hardware it runs on is a commercially available fiber channel card. This card has a windows certified driver for it, but I cannot use this. For what it's worth, my in-house driver runs fine on Windows 7.

As a sanity test, I ran the failing HLK test over the certified driver that comes with the card, and the test runs fine. So that means to me that there is a legit issue with my version of the driver.

I would really appreciate any insight into where I might start looking to understand why my client hangs and continuously reboots.

Thanks very much in advance!

Answer 1

I did some more digging, and I suspect I have some driver code checker warnings that may be contributing to my problem here. I will post again once I have these issues resolved and have retested my driver.

Answer 2

I am running into the exact same problem - a constant reboot cycle during that part of the test.  Were you able to resolve this?  Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 3

Most probably, there is a problem in the driver.

You should setup a kernel debugger on your tested machine, and enable Driver Verifier on your driver (no need for HLK).

Most probably the issue is generated by Driver Verifier checks.