Minidump (Grrrrr!!!)

[bob]

Hi,
I've recently been having some problems with XP. I
just did a destructive recovery and reinstalled it the
other day. Now I just installed Halo for PC, and while
playing my computer just force reboots. Another words, it
doesn't like safely do it and save settings and stuff.
Then when it coems back I have an error that says windows
has recovered from a serious error. I DO NOT get that
message everytime I boot up my computer though. Also, it
doesn't happen in the same place of Halo, it is always
different. Here are the two files that it tells me it
wants to send,
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini070403-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\WER9.tmp.dir00\sysdata.xml
My first question is, I know that when XP encounters a
System Fault, it will reboot. What I am trying to find
out is, will it safely reboot, or force reboot. Next,
will deleting the minidump files or disabling and re-
enabling the pagefile fix it?

 

[Bill James]

The program is causing your computer to crash and when the computer crashes there is no safe shutdown. You can disable the automatic reboot from Control Panel, System, Advanced tab. Then when a crash occurs you will get a blue screen with details on what caused the crash, after which you will have to do a manually hard reboot. The blue screen information might give you enough information to troubleshoot the crashes. A quick Google search shows many reports of Halo crashing XP, but I did spend any time looking for a solution. Perhaps you can search out a fix for the problem if it is that common.

The minidump files contain details on the system crash. In other words, it is produced after the crash occurs so deleting it will have no effect on preventing future crashes. The pagefile is not relevant in preventing the crash you describe, with the possible exception being if you have put a maximum size limit on it and that maximum size is too small. Doesn't sound like a factor since others are experiencing the same problem with this program.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User

Win9x VBScript Utilities » www.billsway.com/vbspage/
Windows Tweaks & Tips » www.billsway.com/notes_public/

 

[bob]

Thanks for the info, but for some reason when my computer
crashes, there is no blue screen, it just force reboots,
goes to my Compaq screen, boots up, then I get the
serious error message. Are you saying the blue screen
will only occur if you choose to disable the function?

-----Original Message-----
The program is causing your computer to crash and when

the computer crashes there is no safe shutdown. You can
disable the automatic reboot from Control Panel, System,
Advanced tab. Then when a crash occurs you will get a
blue screen with details on what caused the crash, after
which you will have to do a manually hard reboot. The
blue screen information might give you enough information
to troubleshoot the crashes. A quick Google search shows
many reports of Halo crashing XP, but I did spend any
time looking for a solution. Perhaps you can search out
a fix for the problem if it is that common.

The minidump files contain details on the system crash.

In other words, it is produced after the crash occurs so
deleting it will have no effect on preventing future
crashes. The pagefile is not relevant in preventing the
crash you describe, with the possible exception being if
you have put a maximum size limit on it and that maximum
size is too small. Doesn't sound like a factor since
others are experiencing the same problem with this
program.

 

[Bill James]

To view the blue screen message at the time of the crash you must disable the automatic reboot as previously described.

--

Bill James
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User

Win9x VBScript Utilities » www.billsway.com/vbspage/
Windows Tweaks & Tips » www.billsway.com/notes_public/

Thanks for the info, but for some reason when my computer
crashes, there is no blue screen, it just force reboots,
goes to my Compaq screen, boots up, then I get the
serious error message. Are you saying the blue screen
will only occur if you choose to disable the function?

-----Original Message-----
The program is causing your computer to crash and when

the computer crashes there is no safe shutdown. You can
disable the automatic reboot from Control Panel, System,
Advanced tab. Then when a crash occurs you will get a
blue screen with details on what caused the crash, after
which you will have to do a manually hard reboot. The
blue screen information might give you enough information
to troubleshoot the crashes. A quick Google search shows
many reports of Halo crashing XP, but I did spend any
time looking for a solution. Perhaps you can search out
a fix for the problem if it is that common.

The minidump files contain details on the system crash.

In other words, it is produced after the crash occurs so
deleting it will have no effect on preventing future
crashes. The pagefile is not relevant in preventing the
crash you describe, with the possible exception being if
you have put a maximum size limit on it and that maximum
size is too small. Doesn't sound like a factor since
others are experiencing the same problem with this
program.

 

[Alex Nichol]

I've recently been having some problems with XP. I
just did a destructive recovery and reinstalled it the
other day. Now I just installed Halo for PC, and while
playing my computer just force reboots. Another words, it
doesn't like safely do it and save settings and stuff.
Then when it coems back I have an error that says windows
has recovered from a serious error. I DO NOT get that
message everytime I boot up my computer though. Also, it
doesn't happen in the same place of Halo, it is always
different. Here are the two files that it tells me it
wants to send,
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini070403-01.dmp
C:\DOCUME~1\Owner\LOCALS~1\WER9.tmp.dir00\sysdata.xml
My first question is, I know that when XP encounters a
System Fault, it will reboot. What I am trying to find
out is, will it safely reboot, or force reboot. Next,
will deleting the minidump files or disabling and re-
enabling the pagefile fix it?

You have something that is crashing - and the system's 'automatically
restart' is cutting in. This is probably not of much use. Turn this
off: in Control Panel - System - Advanced, click Settings in the Startup
and Recovery section. There uncheck 'automatically restart'. You may
now get a Blue screen failure instead, but at least will get some
guidance as to what is happening

You can also usefully change the 'write debugging information' to (none)
unless you are actively needing a dump for debugging something, or to
'small dump' if you are getting errors that you wish to report on to
Microsoft.. Those - your two files - only get sent if when you click
Error instead of Settings you have the sending of dumps enabled. They
then go into a general database at Microsoft, which is useful to them in
assessing circumstances of crashes, but will not do anything directly
for you. If you have a broadband, always on connection it would be
worth it, otherwise turn it off, and select that (none)