BSOD troubleshooting

[Guest]

Hi,

I've been having a devilish problem with getting the blue screen of death on
my computer, but it has been unrepeatable and random. I now seem to have
found some sequence that gets it to happen within 10 min or so. I'm really
kinda fed up with the difficulties in tracking down this issue so am willing
to actually call/pay someone for help and support.

Does anyone have any suggestions of who to call at Microsoft or maybe some
other place that would be able to help out with this type of issue. The BSOD
always says that it is an unknown driver that is causing the problem. I need
to talk to someone knowledgeable about troubleshooting BSODs. Tier 1 level
support isn't going to be able to help with this. I myself am a software
developer that has been in the business for 20 years now, so I don't need
someone that's going to waste my time with silly requests to reinstall
Windows, formatting my HD, or the ridiculous finger pointing that Tier-1
support people often try to pull.

Thanks in advance, Derek

 

[Will Denny]

Hi

Try Jim Eshelman's web page:

http://aumha.org/win5/kbestop.htm

 

[NewScience]

What kind of network connection do you have? If you have DSL, T1 or
Broadband ... then you're sitting pretty.

I'm a software developer as well and used to debugging crash dumps (UNIX)
and could never seem to get a handle on Windows BSOD Crash Dumps. And MS is
no help ... as you can see with the canned message.

If you have a fast internet connection, download the Windows Symbols Package
for Windows XP ... it's quite large.
Once downloaded and installed, you can then download the Windows Debugging
Toolskit to get WinDbg.

After you have all the items, you can use WinDbg on the crash dumps (either
under C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP or C:\Windows\MiniDump).

It will report the Stack Trace and the offending process or processes
causing the BSOD.

You do need to modify the shortcut's Target item in Properties as follows:

"E:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows\windbg.exe" -v -y
"SRV*C:\Winxp\System32\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols" -i
"c:\winxp;c:\winxp\system32;c:\winxp\system32\drivers" -z
"C:\WinXP\MEMORY.DMP"

NOTE: my software is installed on my E: Drive partition.

-v = verbose
-y
"SRV*C:\Winxp\System32\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols" =
instructs WinDbg the place to look for Symbols locally and the internet
server if the symbols are not present or out-of-date (or new software from
MS).
-i "c:\winxp;c:\winxp\system32;c:\winxp\system32\drivers" = place where
drivers and system files are located locally
-z "C:\WinXP\MEMORY.DMP" = where the crash DUMP is located (this can be left
off - put most of the BSOD are in C:\WinXP - my location of C:\Windows - so
I have it hard coded there. You can always use the File | Open Crash Dump
File to chose the dump file location.

You can always use the File | ... to set any of the above items.

Once everything is loaded ... your off and running.

Let me know if you need any additional help. Just seek on www.Microsoft.com
for the above packages and remember to download the appropriate package for
you processor type.