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Feb
05

Reading and Troubleshooting the Windows Minidump (.dmp) File

Posted under Desktops, Laptops, Servers by ifoundafix

The other day while browsing the Internet I Found A Fix for a recent problem I was having. The issue is described as follows;

My Computer kept getting the BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). I needed to be able to analyse the windows minidump file to fully understand what was causing the computer to randomly reboot.

The solution and description to this error is set out below;

1. Download and install the http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx debugging Tools from Microsoft.
2. Locate your latest memory.dmp file – for example; C:\WINDOWS\ Minidump\Mini081505-01.dmp or whatever
3. Open a CMD prompt and cd\program files\debugging tools for windows\
4. You should see the following; c:\program files\debugging tools>
5. Type the following:

Firstly

kd -z C:\WINDOWS\ Minidump\Mini081505-01.dmp(or replace with the path to your dump file)
(it will output loads of information)

Secondly

.logopen c:\debuglog.txt

Thirdly

.sympath srv*c:\symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Fourthly

.reload;!analyze -v;r;kv;lmnt;.logclose;q

You will now have a debuglog.txt in c:\, open it in notepad and read it carefully. I recommend looking out for PROCESS_NAME: X

You should type X into Google and find out what this process is related to. Whatever is causing the problem you should then install, remove, update, etc accordingly.

I would like to acknowledge the assistance and thank Techspot for their solution which can also be found here

I hope you too have Found A Fix!

 

 

  1. jason Said,

    Amazing! You have just saved me from 4 days of headaches with the blue screen reporting on no_more_irp_stack_locations (0x035 error).

    The cause of it was the Prio (Process IO) software, which ran fine for 1.5years and finally just died on me. I uninstalled it, and everything is back to normal.

    Thanks Heaps!! :~D

  2. Pete Said,

    Could you achieve the same results by physically connecting the failing C drive to another (working) computer, then copy the dump file and analyze it? This would save having to enter all that command prompt code.

  3. admin Said,

    I would imagine so but if the hard drive is failing, I would suspect that is your problem and I’d recommend you clone or image the hard drive to a new one before bothering with dump files, etc.

  4. Reading and Troubleshooting the Windows Minidump (.dmp) File « Travis J. Gosselin Said,

    […] http://www.ifoundafix.com/2008/02/05/reading-and-troubleshooting-the-windows-minidump-dmp-file/ […]

  5. Filip Said,

    Hi,i tried to open “cd\program files\debugging tools for windows\” with CMD,but when i type that,i get a message “C:\Users\Iva>cd\program files\debugging tools for windows\
    The system cannot find the path specified.
    What should i do??

  6. admin Said,

    You should type cd\ first.

  7. Swaminathan Said,

    Thank you very much for your contribution it is very helpful

  8. Scott Forsyth Said,

    Great troubleshooting steps! Thanks for taking the time to publish it. This worked perfectly for me. I grabbed a .dmp file from Windows Server 2008 and was able to read it on Windows 7 and find out the cause of a blue screen.

  9. Mukesh Chauhan Said,

    Thanks for publishing these steps.

    However, can these command be used from a batch script? Is there any way? I want to prepare a utility which gives me output of !analyze -v command. To execute at customer site instead of doing it manually..

    Really appreciate your help.

  10. MICHAEL Said,

    Thanks for this great tutorial!

    For me it was found at:

    c:\program files\debugging tools for windows [b] (x64)[/b]

    I imagine it’s the same for other 64-bit users… maybe try that Filip?

  11. MICHAEL Said,

    er, I meant
    program files\debugging tools for windows (x64)\

  12. JailBreak Said,

    Hi

    Great how to, I manage to debug my dump file easily.

    Thank You

  13. Reading and Troubleshooting the Windows *.dmp file (minidump) | Waiting you out, find you anywhere Said,

    […] to. Whatever is causing the problem you should then install, remove, update, etc accordingly. VIA – ifoundafix Like this:LikeBe the first to like this […]

  14. Tim Said,

    Thanks for the details. I have two servers that are getting blue screens and not finding much on why. Ones giving a PROCESS_NAME: DataCollectorS and another one is giving PROCESS_NAME: WmiPrvSE.exe.. Google isn’t helping much on DataCollectorS. Wondering if you have some insight.

  15. navjeet Said,

    The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x00000096 (0x8a7486c8, 0x8055b1fc, 0x8055b1c0, 0x8056bdc2). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini011212-01.dmp.what to do (strats daily once)

  16. Debugging BSOD | The-IT-Blog Said,

    […] goes to “I found a fix” and […]

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