# Machine-check exception

This article aims to help users implement services to actively monitor, log, and report hardware errors. A machine check exception (MCE) is an error generated by the CPU when the CPU detects that a hardware error or failure has occurred.

Machine check exceptions (MCEs) can occur for a variety of reasons ranging from undesired or out-of-spec voltages from the power supply, from cosmic radiation flipping bits in memory DIMMs or the CPU, or from other miscellaneous faults, including faulty software triggering hardware errors.

## Installation

Install the mcelog package. mcelog written by Andi Kleen is one of the tools to gather MCE information.

## Configuration

mcelog's configuration file is located at `/etc/mcelog/mcelog.conf`. See `man mcelog`, `man mcelog.conf` and `man mcelog.triggers` for more information.

Start and enable `mcelog.service`. By default, the service runs mcelog as a daemon.

## See also

- Wikipedia:Machine_Check_Exception
- Wikipedia:Machine_check_architecture
- mcelog Home
- mcelog References

### Hardware documentation

- AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual, Volume 2: System Programming
- BIOS and Kernel Developer's Guide for AMD Athlon™ 64 and AMD Opteron™ Processors

Categories:

- CPU
- Kernel