Patent ID: 7734905

Claim:
A method for preventing an operating system scheduler in a computer system from crashing as a result of an uncleared periodic interrupt, comprising the steps of: generating a periodic interrupt using a real-time clock (RTC) residing on a chipset; checking a status register associated with the RTC in firmware residing on the chipset to determine whether the periodic interrupt is pending; entering a flag indicating the periodic interrupt is pending into the status register associated with the RTC in the firmware residing on a CMOS chip, if the status register indicates no periodic interrupt has been pending; attempting to handle the periodic interrupt using an interrupt handler associated with the RTC, if the periodic interrupt is pending; generating a system-management interrupt (SMI) with a basic-input-output system (BIOS) residing on a memory unit coupled to the chipset, if the periodic interrupt is pending after a preset interval of time elapses; clearing any pending periodic interrupts from the status register with a firmware SMI handler residing on the memory unit, if the periodic interrupt is pending after the preset interval of time elapses; and updating a scheduler timer associated with the operating system.