Performing a Hard Reset through Software in C++

CESD-D-0007

Applies To:

Windows CE 2.11
Windows CE 3.0
Windows CE 4.x .net

Overview:

For the majority of users performing a Hard Reset involves powering down the device, removing all battery cells and leaving the device uninitialised for several minutes.
This article outlines a programmatic approach to Hard Resetting a Handheld PC by using software.

More Info:

The code below demonstrates how to flush the RAM contents and reinitialise a Windows CE hard boot using C++

#include <windows.h>
#include <winioctl.h>
#define IOCTL_HAL_REBOOT CTL_CODE(FILE_DEVICE_HAL, 15, METHOD_BUFFERED, FILE_ANY_ACCESS)
extern "C" __declspec(dllimport)void SetCleanRebootFlag(void);
extern "C" __declspec(dllimport) BOOL KernelIoControl(
         DWORD dwIoControlCode,
         LPVOID lpInBuf,
         DWORD nInBufSize,
         LPVOID lpOutBuf,
         DWORD nOutBufSize,
         LPDWORD lpBytesReturned);
int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
         LPTSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
         {
                  SetCleanRebootFlag();
                  KernelIoControl(IOCTL_HAL_REBOOT, NULL, 0, NULL, 0, NULL);
                  return 0;
         }

Acknowledgements:

With thanks to Monica Erdody for assisting us with this article.