When I Hit the PAUSE button on WinDBG, by which process does the debugger
actually “Halt” the target system, and bring up the debugger?
I.e., Let’s say I have a misbehaving ISR, running at high IRQL. When I
press “BREAK” (Which will send a signal to the serial port), how does that
somehow preempt the current HIGH-IRQL thread, and pop up the debugger? And
usually, I can even press “KV” and I Will see my driver’s ISR on the
stack… How does that work? Is it basically polling the serial port
for activity at an extremely high IRQL timer, so it cannot be “Blocked” by
missbehaving DIRQLS?
Under what situations will I see the case where when I hit “Break”, the
debugger will NOT break in, because the system is busy doing something
else? I.e., how do you figure out what is wrong in the case where you
press “Break” but the system will not “Break” in anymore? (Therefore we
have to figure out if we have a software problem, or the hardware is
actually “Stuck/Hung”)
Thanks,
James