W 7 crashes

I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable for
months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with a blue
screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it restarts
W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and though I say
yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.

The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?

Advice appreciated.

Jeff

d wrote:
> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable for
> months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with a blue
> screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it restarts
> W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and though I say
> yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>
> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?
>
> Advice appreciated.
>
> Jeff

memtest86+ downloads, about half way down this page.

http://www.memtest.org/

RAM can fail, out of the blue. I pulled a computer out
of storage the other day, fired it up, and two of
three RAM sticks were defective. There were good
when the computer was put in storage.

I would carry out a RAM test, for at least one pass,
before doing any further diagnostic or investigation
work.

*******

There are various tools for reading minidump files.
So first you'd want to locate where any dump files
were put, and then look for a tool to read them.
The dumping program is tiny - I think the "dumpchk"
I used to use was only 5KB or so. Look for files
ending in .dmp . I don't know what a complete
dump would look like, if that's what was generated.

dumpchk.exe
Windows 2000 Dump File Verifier
5,120 bytes

I got that tool from a WindowsXPSupportTools download.
Maybe there is something more recent.

I've never had a blue screen in Windows 7, so don't have
any crash dump material to work with. I suppose, using
one of the Sysinternal tools, I could artificially
create a crash dump and work with that.

HTH,
Paul

On 7/10/2011 12:02 PM PT, Paul typed:

>> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable
>> for months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with
>> a blue screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it
>> restarts W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and
>> though I say yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>>
>> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
>> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?
>>
>> Advice appreciated.
>>
>> Jeff
>
> memtest86+ downloads, about half way down this page.
>
> http://www.memtest.org/
>
> RAM can fail, out of the blue. I pulled a computer out
> of storage the other day, fired it up, and two of
> three RAM sticks were defective. There were good
> when the computer was put in storage.
>
> I would carry out a RAM test, for at least one pass,
> before doing any further diagnostic or investigation
> work.
>
> *******
>
> There are various tools for reading minidump files.
> So first you'd want to locate where any dump files
> were put, and then look for a tool to read them.
> The dumping program is tiny - I think the "dumpchk"
> I used to use was only 5KB or so. Look for files
> ending in .dmp . I don't know what a complete
> dump would look like, if that's what was generated.
>
> dumpchk.exe
> Windows 2000 Dump File Verifier
> 5,120 bytes
>
> I got that tool from a WindowsXPSupportTools download.
> Maybe there is something more recent.
>
> I've never had a blue screen in Windows 7, so don't have
> any crash dump material to work with. I suppose, using
> one of the Sysinternal tools, I could artificially
> create a crash dump and work with that.

WinDbg would be better if the user knows computers well:
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtoo...g/default.mspx ... It can
be very technical though.
--
"He who dislikes aardvarks was an ant in his former life." --unknown
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

On 7/10/2011 11:17 AM PT, d typed:

> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable for
> months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with a blue
> screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it restarts
> W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and though I say
> yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>
> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?

Paul, what errors do the blue screens say (take a digital camera of them
if you have to)? Be sure to tell W7 not to autoreboot after the blue
screens.
--
"He who dislikes aardvarks was an ant in his former life." --unknown
/\___/\ Ant @ http://antfarm.ma.cx (Personal Web Site)
/ /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net
| |o o| |
\ _ / If crediting, then use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link.
( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

Paul <> wrote:

> memtest86+ downloads, about half way down this page.
>
> http://www.memtest.org/
> I would carry out a RAM test, for at least one pass,
> before doing any further diagnostic or investigation
> work.

I'd second that for your first step.


--
XS11E, Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project:
http://twovoyagers.com/improve-usenet.org/

On 7/10/11 3:09 PM, Ant wrote:
> On 7/10/2011 11:17 AM PT, d typed:
>
>> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable for
>> months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with a blue
>> screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it restarts
>> W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and though I say
>> yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>>
>> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
>> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?
>
> Paul, what errors do the blue screens say (take a digital camera of them
> if you have to)? Be sure to tell W7 not to autoreboot after the blue
> screens.
I will take a digital camera picture the next time it happens.

What should I do to tell W7 not to reboot after the blue screens? I do
not remember exactly if I told it to restart or if it did it on its own.

Thanks for helping. Will do the memtest Paul suggested first. Hope I do
not need to go to DUMPCHK or WinDbg.

On 7/10/11 3:02 PM, Paul wrote:
> d wrote:
>> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable
>> for months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with
>> a blue screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it
>> restarts W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and
>> though I say yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>>
>> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
>> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?
>>
>> Advice appreciated.
>>
>> Jeff
>
> memtest86+ downloads, about half way down this page.
>
> http://www.memtest.org/
>
> RAM can fail, out of the blue. I pulled a computer out
> of storage the other day, fired it up, and two of
> three RAM sticks were defective. There were good
> when the computer was put in storage.
>
> I would carry out a RAM test, for at least one pass,
> before doing any further diagnostic or investigation
> work.
>
> *******
>
> There are various tools for reading minidump files.
> So first you'd want to locate where any dump files
> were put, and then look for a tool to read them.
> The dumping program is tiny - I think the "dumpchk"
> I used to use was only 5KB or so. Look for files
> ending in .dmp . I don't know what a complete
> dump would look like, if that's what was generated.
>
> dumpchk.exe
> Windows 2000 Dump File Verifier
> 5,120 bytes
>
> I got that tool from a WindowsXPSupportTools download.
> Maybe there is something more recent.
>
> I've never had a blue screen in Windows 7, so don't have
> any crash dump material to work with. I suppose, using
> one of the Sysinternal tools, I could artificially
> create a crash dump and work with that.
>
> HTH,
> Paul
Thank you. Will do the memchk.

On Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:15:23 -0400, "" <> wrote:

>On 7/10/11 3:09 PM, Ant wrote:
>> On 7/10/2011 11:17 AM PT, d typed:
>>
>>> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable for
>>> months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with a blue
>>> screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it restarts
>>> W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and though I say
>>> yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>>>
>>> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
>>> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?
>>
>> Paul, what errors do the blue screens say (take a digital camera of them
>> if you have to)? Be sure to tell W7 not to autoreboot after the blue
>> screens.
>I will take a digital camera picture the next time it happens.
>
>What should I do to tell W7 not to reboot after the blue screens? I do
>not remember exactly if I told it to restart or if it did it on its own.
>
>Thanks for helping. Will do the memtest Paul suggested first. Hope I do
>not need to go to DUMPCHK or WinDbg.

Not to reboot:

Right-click My Computer, Properties, Advanced System Settings, Advanced Tab, "Startup and
Recovery" Settings button, and un-check "Automatically Restart", click OK, Apply, OK

While you're at it, Right-click My Compute again, select "Manage", expand "Event Viewer", and
"Windows Logs", click "System" and see if there are any "disk" errors.

BSOD can be caused by driver problems, hard drive problems, memory problems and even overheating
problems. The above "System" and ""Application" logs can help pinpoint the cause.

Unk

On 7/10/11 3:02 PM, Paul wrote:
> d wrote:
>> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable
>> for months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with
>> a blue screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it
>> restarts W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and
>> though I say yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>>
>> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
>> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?
>>
>> Advice appreciated.
>>
>> Jeff
>
> memtest86+ downloads, about half way down this page.
>
> http://www.memtest.org/
>
> RAM can fail, out of the blue. I pulled a computer out
> of storage the other day, fired it up, and two of
> three RAM sticks were defective. There were good
> when the computer was put in storage.
>
> I would carry out a RAM test, for at least one pass,
> before doing any further diagnostic or investigation
> work.
>
> *******
>
> There are various tools for reading minidump files.
> So first you'd want to locate where any dump files
> were put, and then look for a tool to read them.
> The dumping program is tiny - I think the "dumpchk"
> I used to use was only 5KB or so. Look for files
> ending in .dmp . I don't know what a complete
> dump would look like, if that's what was generated.
>
> dumpchk.exe
> Windows 2000 Dump File Verifier
> 5,120 bytes
>
> I got that tool from a WindowsXPSupportTools download.
> Maybe there is something more recent.
>
> I've never had a blue screen in Windows 7, so don't have
> any crash dump material to work with. I suppose, using
> one of the Sysinternal tools, I could artificially
> create a crash dump and work with that.
>
> HTH,
> Paul
Reporting back.
Ran memtest 4.0 from a CD. Turns out I have 6GB (not 4) installed.
(Forgot that and I believe W7 really only uses 4 anyway).
No errors found.

So I guess I need to go to the next steps.

In the past couple of weeks I have been installing/uninstalling several
free video editing programs. Although I have a virus checker (Avast) and
ran virus check and malware checks relatively recently, I wonder if one
of these install/uninstalls messed things up. I'm mentioning it in case
that is meaningful.

I searched my W7 system partition for .dmp files and found a whole
bunch. Most are program related ones with many from vstudio, a video
editing program I tried recently. Others were Firefox and Foxit related
but much older.

One is c:\Users\myname\AppData\Local\Temp\Crash.dmp dated 6/23/11

Sorted by last modified, the 3 most recent all ones, created same time
today are:
c:\Users\All
Users\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQue\Kernel_0_0_cab_11d57e53\numbers..dmp

c:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\WER\ReportQue\Kernel_0_0_cab_11d57e53\numbers..dmp

C;\Windows\Memory.dmp

What should I do next?

On 7/10/11 4:34 PM, Unk wrote:
> On Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:15:23 -0400, ""<> wrote:
>
>> On 7/10/11 3:09 PM, Ant wrote:
>>> On 7/10/2011 11:17 AM PT, d typed:
>>>
>>>> I have Windows 7 home premium 64 bit, 4GB RAM, which has been stable for
>>>> months. Then, in the past week I've had 2 (maybe 3) crashes, with a blue
>>>> screen notifying me that it was preparing a crash dump. When it restarts
>>>> W7 it asks me if I want it to search for a solution and though I say
>>>> yes, the popup disappears and nothing happens.
>>>>
>>>> The first crash was such a rare event I just ignored it, but now I am
>>>> concerned. How does one explore the reason for repeated crashes?
>>>
>>> Paul, what errors do the blue screens say (take a digital camera of them
>>> if you have to)? Be sure to tell W7 not to autoreboot after the blue
>>> screens.
>> I will take a digital camera picture the next time it happens.
>>
>> What should I do to tell W7 not to reboot after the blue screens? I do
>> not remember exactly if I told it to restart or if it did it on its own.
>>
>> Thanks for helping. Will do the memtest Paul suggested first. Hope I do
>> not need to go to DUMPCHK or WinDbg.
>
> Not to reboot:
>
> Right-click My Computer, Properties, Advanced System Settings, Advanced Tab, "Startup and
> Recovery" Settings button, and un-check "Automatically Restart", click OK, Apply, OK
>
> While you're at it, Right-click My Compute again, select "Manage", expand "Event Viewer", and
> "Windows Logs", click "System" and see if there are any "disk" errors.
>
> BSOD can be caused by driver problems, hard drive problems, memory problems and even overheating
> problems. The above "System" and ""Application" logs can help pinpoint the cause.
>
> Unk
>
Thank you.

Stopped the automatic restart and noticed that the kernel memory dump is
listed as
%SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP

Checked
""Windows Logs", click "System" and see if there are any "disk" errors".
All it had was benign informational items about the Service Control
Manager getting started.

Checked
""Windows Logs", click "Applications""
and only found 2 warnings, both for Google update which I know I am
blocking.

"BSOD can be caused by driver problems"
The only driver change I did was to install a W7 driver for the EasyCAP
USB device. Wonder if that might be the cause. Any way to find out
without uninstalling it?
http://www.amazon.com/EasyCAP-DC60-C.../dp/B002H3BSCM
I forget where I got the W7 64 bit drivers.

I'll check my drives but I think they will be fine too.

What else should I do, and thanks for all the expert help.

Jeff