Chapter 14. Crash Dump Analysis

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Almost every Windows user has heard of, if not experienced, the infamous "blue screen of death." This ominous term refers to the blue screen that is displayed when Microsoft Windows crashes, or stops executing, because of a catastrophic fault or an internal condition that prevents the system from continuing to run.

In this chapter, we'll cover the basic problems that cause Windows to crash, describe the information presented on the blue screen, and explain the various configuration options available to create a crash dump, a record of system memory at the time of a crash that can help you figure out which component caused the crash. This section is not intended to provide detailed troubleshooting information on how to analyze a Windows system crash. This section will also show you how to analyze a crash dump to identify a faulty driver or component. The effort required to perform basic crash dump analysis is minimal and takes a few minutes. Even if an analysis ascertains the problematic driver for only one out of every five or ten crash dumps, it's still worth doing: one successful analysis can avoid future data loss, system down-time, and frustration.

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    Microsoft Windows Internals
    Microsoft Windows Internals (4th Edition): Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Windows XP, and Windows 2000
    ISBN: 0735619174
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2004
    Pages: 158

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