Any modern operating system is a very complex set of different software modules that work together in different combinations. They may contain errors or they may conflict with each other or with a running program. As a result, a crash occurs, and Windows stops working, showing the well-known “blue screen of death”. Why this happened will help to understand the memory dump of Windows 10, and in other versions it also works. By default, they are usually not created, so they need to be included, and for the study use special programs that will extract useful information in a clear form.
Configure memory dump.
Why do I need a memory dump Windows
In fact, this is a "snapshot" of RAM, its contents at the time when the failure occurred. This content is written to a separate file, which is called a dump. Analyzing it, you can understand what went wrong, and in which part of the program the problem occurred. When everything is normal and no failures occur, the system does not create any files with the contents of the memory. Therefore, this function does not affect the performance. But it is necessary to happen a fatal error that causes the appearance of a "blue screen", how to create such a file. This is a special tool that helps developers fix such problems. Regular users can also use this to find out which programs are causing the system to crash. But keep in mind that for this you need to have some knowledge of the operation of computers and software, otherwise all this information will be completely useless. An ordinary user of the level “I can turn on-print-off” in her will simply not understand anything.
Configuring the creation of memory dumps for Windows errors
To view and configure, for example, to increase the memory dump Windows, consider the 7th version - it continues to be popular. And in other versions it is done in a similar way. To do this, you can right-click on the icon "My Computer" and select "Properties." You can go the other way - go to the "Control Panel" and select "System". In any case, the same window will open. Next, select the “Additional system settings” item on the left, and in the small window that appears, go to the “Advanced” tab. Here in the section “Download and Restore”, click on the “Parameters” button.
Next we are interested in the area "System Failure" Here you need to enable the checkbox “Write event to system log” and then select the dump type from the list. In total it is of three types:
- Small dump - its volume is only 256 kb, only the most general information is recorded there.
- Kernel memory dump - the state of various programs at the time of failure for one processor core is recorded here. File size - about 33% of the total available RAM. There is useful information here that allows you to identify the cause of the failure, but it is not very much.
- A full dump is a copy of all RAM, and the file size will be equal to its size. Here you can find anything if you wish. Such a dump is created when switching to hibernation mode - the entire contents of the RAM is simply saved to the hard drive, and when you turn on the computer, it continues to work from the same place.
In Windows of newer versions there is a mode “Automatic memory dump” - you can choose it, and that will be quite enough. As you can see, setting up a memory dump in Windows 7 is easy. It will be recorded only in case of failures, and does not affect the operation of the system.
How to open a dump file
When a crash occurs and a new file is created with a report on the problem, you need to somehow open it and find out what is written in it. The file has the dmp extension, but the built-in tools for opening it are inconvenient and can be accessed from the command line. By the way, the system saves this file in its folder. How to open a memory dump file with dmp extension? To do this, there are various utilities, including from Microsoft, for example, Microsoft Kernel Debuggers. It can be downloaded for free from the official site, but you need to consider whether a 32-bit or 64-bit version is needed. In this program, you can open the memory dump files that are in the system folder and watch their contents in the form of decryption. Of course, the information is very specific and designed for professionals.
There is another popular utility - BlueScreenView. It is very simple and easy to use. But the output information is not so easy to understand, but with some technical knowledge it is quite possible. In red, the program highlights the problematic parts of the code that caused the blue screen, for example, certain drivers. This greatly facilitates the work of analysis.
How to remove a memory dump file
Can I delete them at all? Yes, they are merely proprietary information for further analysis. If they have already been viewed or are not needed, then they can be removed in the simplest way - to the trash. Otherwise, they gradually accumulate and begin to occupy a lot of space on the hard drive, especially if a complete copy of the RAM is removed. Of course, searching manually and deleting all these files is not a very pleasant task. Therefore, you can use any disk cleaning utility, even the built-in Windows, noting there "Delete system files." When it works, all dumps will be deleted too. The system itself does not use these files and their removal is completely safe.