The dreaded blue screen of death (BSoD) has been around since Windows 95. It is scary in a way that this blue screen can happen anytime without the user expecting it and there is no way to recover from this blue screen other than restarting the computer. Obviously the biggest problem is actually when you are working on something important and haven’t got a chance to save it. An unexpected blue screen will just cause you to lose all or some parts of your work depending on how often it is being saved. Other than that, the blue screen on an older Windows does look a bit scary with all the text and technical information on screen. Fortunately the blue screen on Windows 8.1 doesn’t look so frightening.
When Windows reboots after a blue screen, it will point to two files: a dmp and an xml file that lays out all of your computer's devices and drivers. I used Notepad and told it to open the.dmp file. The file is mostly binary, but I was able to do a find (ctrl + f) on '.sys'. DMP Inspection is the first true inspection tool for metal additive manufacturing with 3D visualization and automated post-build analysis of in-build data. Speed up the validation process with 3D visualization, root-cause-analysis and correction in one single software solution.
Anything can cause a blue screen in Windows. It can be from an unstable driver for a hardware device, 3rd party software such as an antivirus/firewall, or even a rootkit based malware. It can also be caused by an attacker exploiting or in another word “nuking” an unpatched Windows. Hardware such as memory, CPU and motherboards that are failing can also randomly cause blue screen.
Visit the home page dmp.com. Alternative software FREE. The remote programming software for compatible Bosch control panels. Remote Security Certificate. Remote Link User Guide (LT-0565) DualCom Communicators Version 191 Technical Update (TU-1076) CellCom-LTE-V Series Universal Alarm Communicators Version 172 Feature Update (TU-1070) If you have any additional questions, please contact DMP Inside Sales at 877-757-4367 or InsideSales@DMP.com. Visit buy.DMP.com to place an order 24 hours a day.
If the blue screen is caused by software, an inexperienced computer technician will have to spend more time to determine the culprit by going through the process of elimination of disabling all 3rd party programs that startup automatically, enable them one at a time and test until they experience the blue screen. However with the right tools in hand, it can quickly reveal which software is possibly causing the blue screen so you can work towards fixing the problem. Here we have 3 free software that can do that.
1. BlueScreenView
BlueScreenView is a small and portable tool developed by NirSoft that is capable of quickly showing you which file caused the blue screen. All you need to do is download the program, run it and it will automatically analyze the minidump files that are created during the blue screen. The top pane shows the dump files while the lower pane shows the offending files that caused the crash. If the blue screen is caused by a third party program, the driver file should be listed in the lower pane.
The drivers that are found in crash stack will be highlighted and those are the files that you should pay attention to. Double clicking on the driver file listed at the lower pane will show every detail about the file such as the stack addresses, size, time stamp and etc. We can see that it was a system file driver belonged to “Resplendence WhoCrashed Crash Dump Test” that caused the blue screen.
It is also possible to generate an HTML report for sharing or logging purposes. Do take note that you’ll need to download a separate 64-bit version of BlueScreenView if you intend to run it on a 64-bit version of Windows.
2. WhoCrashed
WhoCrashed Home Edition also does pretty much the same thing as BlueScreenView except it tries to be more user friendly. You’ll need to click the Analyze button to start analyzing the minidump files and scroll down to see the crash dump analysis report. It shows you which file probably caused the blue screen and the bug check description helps the user to understand better. As you can see from the screenshot below, it says that the crash appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
The Home Edition is free for home use only. You’ll need to purchase the Pro version if there is a need to run WhoCrashed in a commercial environment and displaying dump details, kernel stacks and loaded modules. Although WhoCrashed comes in a setup installer, it can actually run as a portable program by simply copying the program’s folder to a USB flash drive and run the executable file.
3. Manually Analyzing Minidumps
Debugging a program to locate the bug so that the problem can be fixed is not an easy task and not something every IT person is capable of. The 2 tools mentioned above are made to be user friendly so that both beginner and expert can tell which offending driver might have caused the blue screen. Although there are quite a few good third party debuggers, WinDbg, a free debugging tool by Microsoft is commonly used to analyze the minidump file and it involves command line usage.
If you do not have WhoCrashed or BlueScreenView at hand, a simple solution is to analyze the memory dump file online. All you need is a web browser with an internet connection to visit the webpage, upload the .dmp file and wait for a few seconds for a report to be automatically generated. Follow the simple steps below to analyze minidump file online.
3a. Visit OSR Online webpage
3b. Click the “Browse” button and select the .dmp file which is normally located at C:WindowsMinidump. If UAC is enabled, you need to copy the .dmp file from the Minidump folder to another location such as Desktop otherwise you’ll receive an error message saying that “You don’t have permission to open this file.”
3c. Once you’ve selected the .dmp file to analyze, click the “Upload Dump” button. The file size of a minidump .dmp file is normally quite small at around 150KB to 300KB so the upload won’t take very long.
3d. On the analysis report, take note of the MODULE_NAME and IMAGE_NAME which shows the file or program that caused the crash in Windows.
Additional Notes: If it is a file from a third party program or a driver for a hardware device, updating or disabling it can stop the blue screen from happening. If it a file from Windows, there are chances that one of the hardware such as memory, CPU or mainboard is failing. You should run a memory test first since it is easy to do that by pressing the Start button and type mdsched which will run the Windows Memory Diagnostic program.
You might also like:
Download Sony Memory Card File Rescue Software for Free3 Ways to Test your RAM with Microsoft Windows Memory Diagnostic9 Automated Online Sandbox Services to Analyze Suspicious File’s Behavior2 Ways to Analyze Behavior of Sandboxed Application in Sandboxie5 Online Tools to Automatically Analyze the HijackThis Log File
Raymond,
The command to run the Windows Memory app is mdsched
The update at end of article is missing the letter “c”
Thanks again for documenting your notes!!!
I’ve referred to your site for years.
Thanks for pointing the typo out, it’s only been there about four years…
ReplyGood Job bro!
ReplyIt seems WhoCrashed does a better job than BlueScreenView.
ReplySadly, OSR Online is no longer available.
ReplyAlexey,
Two years late, but I created an online dump file analysis website called DebugLearn debuglearn.com
You can submit your dump file online for analysis. (I’ve never used OSR online but I imagine the functionality is mostly the same.)
ReplyBlueScreenView is lightweight and easy to use. You just unpack it out of the zip and double click on the exe similar to sysinternal tools like process explorer.
ReplyWhoCrashed is not work if you are into Domain computer
ReplyHi Raymond,
Will this work on all Windows lappys/PCs?
You mentioned Windows 8 at the top, just wondering if it’ll work on Windows 7 as well?
Probably more to the point which Windows OS systems will it work on?
Thanks for all the info, greatly appreciated. :)
ReplyYes, it works on all Windows 7 computers and any Windows that produces a dump file, which is all versions in the last 15+ years (XP – 10).
ReplyDmp Entre Software
These softwares listed looks like they are from Windows 95 days! VERY ugly UI’s
ReplyDebugging software is not supposed to look pretty, their not for the average consumers….
ReplyThis user looks like he learned about computers after the introduction of the iPhone. VERY oblivious of what’s important.
Replythanksssssss so much…..
you know microsoft and others want so big volume and money…
blue screenview…. simply and wonderful
Thanks for the useful share ;).
ReplyThanks for share
Replynice pick Raymond !
Replythanks.
didn’t knew about this stuff
Dmp Software
Leave a Reply
Download Digiday’s complete WTF Programmatic guide,including 11 explainers detailing the ins and outs of programmatic advertising.
Data now informs almost all aspects of digital media, and data management platforms have emerged to help marketers, publishers and other businesses make sense of it all. Here’s a primer — in as plain English as possible — on what DMPs are, and what they actually do:
What is a data management platform ?
In simple terms, a data management platform is a data warehouse. It’s a piece of software that sucks up, sorts and houses information, and spits it out in a way that’s useful for marketers, publishers and other businesses.
This sounds like a database. Is it more?
In theory, DMPs can be used to house and manage any form of information, but for marketers, they’re most often used to manage cookie IDs and to generate audience segments, which are subsequently used to target specific users with online ads. With the rise of ad tech, advertisers now buy media across a huge range of different sites and through various middlemen, including DSPs, ad networks and exchanges. DMPs can help tie all that activity and resulting campaign and audience data together in one, centralized location and use it to help optimize future media buys and ad creative. It’s all about better understanding customer information.
Got it. But this sounds a lot like what a DSP does.
A DMP is used to store and analyze data, while a DSP is used to actually buy advertising based on that information. Information is fed from a marketer’s DMP to its DSP to help inform ad buying decisions, but without being linked to another technology, a DMP can’t actually do much. On the publisher side, DMPs can also be linked to supply-side platforms and other technologies that can help them sell their ads for more. In those cases, the DMP is storing publisher information on its readers.
They still sound similar. Why are DSPs and DMPs separate, then?
Have you seen the Lumascape? But that’s for a “WTF Are VCs Doing?” feature. Like many areas in advertising technology, the lines between DMPs and DSPs are beginning to blur. A growing number of DSP providers now offer their clients DMP technology too. Those companies say it’s easier and more efficient for marketers to use one platform instead of two. The counter to that argument is that standalone DMPs make marketers’ data more portable, making it easier to feed into a wide range of DSPs.
Who uses DMPs?
Agencies, publishers and marketers all use DMPs. Agencies use the technology to collect and analyze the data collected from their client campaigns, which is sometimes pooled across multiple clients to create vast and rich datasets. In an attempt to take closer control of their data, some clients have begun licensing their own DMP technologies and managing those platform themselves. Meanwhile, a growing number of publishers are also making use of the technology as a way to help them better understand their reader information and extract more value from it as a result. Think of how The Wall Street Journal’s user information is valuable for an financial-services ad campaign targeting high-net-worth individuals.
Dmp Software Solutions
What are the major DMPs?
Vendors that sell DMP technology to the digital media world currently include Adobe, Krux, Lotame, Aggregate Knowledge, BlueKai, CoreAudience, Knotice, nPario and X+1. Some of those providers also offer DSP technology.