Kernel panic: CPU context corrupt - Machine Check Exception

Products

• XOS

Issue/Introduction

Discusses one source of kernel panic: CPU context corrupt - Machine Check ExceptionKernel prints one or both of the following messages:

CPU 0: Machine Check Exception

Kernel panic: CPU context corrupt

The following additional information may be displayed between the above messages:

Bank 3: f20000000002010a

Cause

Machine Check Exceptions may be caused by any of the following conditions

·    System bus errors (error communicating between the processor and the motherboard).

·    Memory errors that may include parity / Error correction code (ECC) problems. Error checking ensures that data is stored correctly in the RAM; if information is corrupted, then random errors occur.

·    Cache errors in the processor; the cache stores important data and code. If this is corrupted, errors often occur.

·    Computer software can also cause errors in this way (normally by corrupting data they are reading or writing). For example, software performing read or write operations to non-existent memory regions which leads to confusion for the processor and/or the system bus.

·    An overloaded internal or external power supply, which can be fixed by upgrading.

Additional information can be found on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machine_Check_Exception

Due to the nature of the issue, environmental parameters such as temperature and the voltage level provided by PSU should be checked before deciding it is a real hardware issue with the board.

 

Resolution

Assuming that there is no corruption of the software binaries, a board exhibiting the above problems might need to swapped.

Workaround

Short term workaround:
If the kernel didn't panic after displaying Machine Check Exception, consider restarting the system as soon as possible to avoid kernel panic.