Windows VM BSOD DRIVER_VERIFIER_DMA_VIOLATION (0xE6) after the IOMMU detected an illegal DMA transaction

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

• A Windows 10 VM suffers a BSOD
• Microsoft analysis of memory dump states:
  0: kd> !devstack ffffe78743e84360
  !DevObj           !DrvObj            !DevExt           ObjectName
  ffffe78745342050  \Driver\e1i68x64   ffffe787453421a0  NDMP1
  ffffe78743e86d50  \Driver\ACPI       ffffe78743b8e400 
> ffffe78743e84360  \Driver\pci        ffffe78743e844b0  NTPNP_PCI0008
!DevNode ffffe78743e8a640 :
  DeviceInst is "PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_10D3&SUBSYS_07D015AD&REV_00\3&218e0f40&0&08"
  ServiceName is "e1i68x64"
  
  
• Analyzing the device identifiers and driver information provided in the kernel debugger
  *   **VEN_8086**: This is the Vendor ID for **Intel Corporation**.
*   **DEV_10D3**: This specific Device ID corresponds to the **Intel 82574L Gigabit Network Connection**, which is the physical hardware modeled by the VMware **E1000E** virtual adapter.
  
  
• In Windows environments, **`e1i68x64.sys`** is the specific driver filename for the **Intel(R) PRO/1000 PCI-E Network Connection** (the E1000E).
  
  
• Windows Server 2022 BSOD (BugCheck 0xE6) – LSI_SAS PCI Device on VMware VM

Environment

vSphere 8

Cause

The  E1000Edriver is performing illegal DMA transactions.

The IOMMU is reporting the fault, the source is the legacy E1000E adapter which is known to have compatibility and performance issues with newer Windows Server versions.

 

Resolution

• Replace the E1000E with the vmxnet3 adapter.
• Ensure that vmwaretools is the most current (12.0  or newer).
• The system should stabilize once moved to the VMXNET3 adapter, as it handles DMA mapping more efficiently and is natively supported by VMware's hypervisor.