Newbie help: How to debug W7 blue screens' dumps with WinDbg?

[Gene E. Bloch]

At least you were able to reproduce the symptoms quickly. Mine is so
random and rare.

In that case, yes.

In the situation I mentioned in this or another recent thread, where the
memory tested OK but wasn't, the crashes were infrequent and random, so
that even after a couple of well-behaved weeks with new memory, I was
still nervous...

 

[Char Jackson]

Yeah. The $64 question...

Hey! That question used to be worth $64,000. What'd you do with the
other $63,936?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$64,000_Question

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Hey! That question used to be worth $64,000. What'd you do with the
other $63,936?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_$64,000_Question

When I was in junior high, the program was on the radio and was called
"The $64 Question". Things have changed...

You young whippersnappers just don't appreciate the value of a dollar

 

[Roy Smith]

When I was in junior high, the program was on the radio and was called
"The $64 Question". Things have changed...

You young whippersnappers just don't appreciate the value of a dollar

This just goes to show that Mr Jackson must not have read the Wikipedia
article he posted a link to, as it starts off discussing the original
radio show from the early 50's. Sorry I don't remember the show myself
as I wasn't born until 1959...


--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Thunderbird 6.0.2
Monday, September 26, 2011 9:21:28 PM

 

[Char Jackson]

When I was in junior high, the program was on the radio and was called
"The $64 Question". Things have changed...

Let me guess, it was on the radio because TV hadn't been invented yet?
;-)

You young whippersnappers just don't appreciate the value of a dollar

Walking through a mall a few years ago with my then-young nephew, I
noticed a dollar bill on the floor and pointed it out to him. He
responded, "It's only a dollar", so I grabbed it myself! Heck, I'm not
too proud to pick up a penny, let alone a dollar.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Let me guess, it was on the radio because TV hadn't been invented yet?
;-)

Invented, but not really existing.

We would walk down the street, go onto a certain porch, and look under
the window shade to see some flickers on the far side of the room.

We didn't know the people in that house.

A couple of years later, my folks got a TV set. We used to watch, inter
alia, "Kukla, Fran, and Ollie".

Walking through a mall a few years ago with my then-young nephew, I
noticed a dollar bill on the floor and pointed it out to him. He
responded, "It's only a dollar", so I grabbed it myself! Heck, I'm not
too proud to pick up a penny, let alone a dollar.

 

[Ant]

I just got another crash (started pausing, didn't see any proceesses
hogging in task manager showing all processes), starting shutting dfown
programs, Windows froze including its mouse cursor, went behind my
computer to unplug my analog headphone connection, Windows came alive
(this trick sometimes work), disabled my onboard sound driver through
Device Manager, tried to use Windows a few minutes, blue screened with
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT with a full memory dump (8 GB!), rebooted, etc. I
checked out the 8 GB memory.dmp file out with WinDbg which didn't seem
to be different. I posted its results and from WhyCrash:
http://pastie.org/2602658 ... This is annoying. I need more clues.

I wonder if upgrading to SP1 would fix it. :/
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[Paul]

I just got another crash (started pausing, didn't see any proceesses
hogging in task manager showing all processes), starting shutting dfown
programs, Windows froze including its mouse cursor, went behind my
computer to unplug my analog headphone connection, Windows came alive
(this trick sometimes work), disabled my onboard sound driver through
Device Manager, tried to use Windows a few minutes, blue screened with
PFN_LIST_CORRUPT with a full memory dump (8 GB!), rebooted, etc. I
checked out the 8 GB memory.dmp file out with WinDbg which didn't seem
to be different. I posted its results and from WhyCrash:
http://pastie.org/2602658 ... This is annoying. I need more clues.

I wonder if upgrading to SP1 would fix it. :/

You mentioned VMWare.

One thing I've noticed, is when you install virtual machine software,
some kind of drivers or shims are installed, to give the software a way
to interact with the machine. And that would be at a fairly low level.

I really didn't think about this, until one day, I was preparing a floppy,
and it was running really really slow. On a hunch, I started VPC2007 and
even without running any virtual machines, the floppy returned to normal
operation. And so what I witnessed, is that a driver or something installed
by that package, was able to screw things up, even with the rest of their
software not running.

There is mention here of running "Driver Verifier with Special Pool enabled"
but I have no idea what that means.

http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=334

*******

As an alternative approach, take a clean disk, install the same OS
you're using currently, and test with that. If the basic clean OS
falls over, without VMWare, then you've eliminated at least one
possibility.

Paul

 

[Ant]

I just got another crash (started pausing, didn't see any proceesses

You mentioned VMWare.

One thing I've noticed, is when you install virtual machine software,
some kind of drivers or shims are installed, to give the software a way
to interact with the machine. And that would be at a fairly low level.

So it can still cause problems when I am not running VMs (e.g., reboot
and idled at 64-bit W7's login screen)? I noticed I haven't had problems
in the beginning with this machine and VMware Workstation v7.x. I do
need VMs to do my work. I guess I could uninstall it during a vacation
or something to leave my computer idled for a week.

I really didn't think about this, until one day, I was preparing a floppy,
and it was running really really slow. On a hunch, I started VPC2007 and
even without running any virtual machines, the floppy returned to normal
operation. And so what I witnessed, is that a driver or something installed
by that package, was able to screw things up, even with the rest of their
software not running.

There is mention here of running "Driver Verifier with Special Pool enabled"
but I have no idea what that means.

http://www.osronline.com/article.cfm?article=334

Yeah, it is a bit technical. Now which drivers should I aim for? Hmm!

As an alternative approach, take a clean disk, install the same OS
you're using currently, and test with that. If the basic clean OS
falls over, without VMWare, then you've eliminated at least one
possibility.

Yeah, maybe a clean install. Or maybe I should upgrade to SP1. Hmm!

Currently, I uninstalled RealTek driver and using MS' default driver. I
don't need the fancy stuff from RealTek. I know this W7 came with it so
I doubt this would make a difference. It has been over two days so far.
We'll see...
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[Char Jackson]

Yeah, maybe a clean install. Or maybe I should upgrade to SP1. Hmm!

IMHO, you should have upgraded to SP1 months ago.

 

[Ant]

IMHO, you should have upgraded to SP1 months ago.

Why? MS still support it. What does SP1 have? Will it fix my hard
crashes? I noticed Windows Update (can get other updates just fine)
doesn't offer me SP1 so I'd have to download the full upgrader manually.
--
"We have to break with what must be broken with once and for all... and
we have to take the suffering upon ourselves... Freedom and power--power
above all. Power over all the tumbling vermin and over all the
ant-hill!" --Fedor Dostoevsky
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Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Char Jackson]

Why? MS still support it. What does SP1 have? Will it fix my hard
crashes? I noticed Windows Update (can get other updates just fine)
doesn't offer me SP1 so I'd have to download the full upgrader manually.

As a general rule, I don't like to see people resist keeping their OS
current. I don't understand the mindset. I think it's dangerous for
that individual and dangerous for the Internet community as a whole.

 

[Ant]

As a general rule, I don't like to see people resist keeping their OS
current. I don't understand the mindset. I think it's dangerous for
that individual and dangerous for the Internet community as a whole.

SP0 is still current and supported. I will upgrade when MS drops its
support. Now, if SP1 will fix my problems then I will try it. But then
it might make it worse. I didn't see any SP1 release notes that would
fix my problem.
--
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Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Geoff]

SP0 is still current and supported. I will upgrade when MS drops its
support. Now, if SP1 will fix my problems then I will try it. But then
it might make it worse. I didn't see any SP1 release notes that would
fix my problem.

So let me get this straight... you won't upgrade to SP1, supported and
recommended by Microsoft, but you stay on SP0 because it's supported
by Microsoft? Then in the same breath you come to Usenet for support
about blue screens in a Microsoft supported product? Interesting.

I recommend a complete reinstall of the operating system, followed by
a complete upgrade of the system to include all Microsoft service
packs and hot fixes.

If the system still bluescreens after that, you have a hardware
problem. Throw out the system and buy a new one.

 

[Ant]

If the system still bluescreens after that, you have a hardware
problem. Throw out the system and buy a new one.

Already? It is not even two years old!
--
"God is a mean kid sitting on an ant-hill with a magnifying glass, and
I'm the ant." --Bruce Nolan (Bruce Almighty movie)
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( ) If e-mailing, then axe ANT from its address if needed.
Ant is currently not listening to any songs on this computer.

 

[Geoff]

Already? It is not even two years old!

Free advice is worth what you pay for it.

 

[Roy Smith]

Already? It is not even two years old!

The age of any piece of hardware has no bearing on when it will fail.
It's possible that you could have had a voltage spike which could have
fried something in your PC, and it would have happened regardless of
the age of the system. There are a number of other things that could
have happened as well... so just because something is only x number of
days/months/years old has no relevance except for warranty coverage.

 

[Char Jackson]

SP0 is still current and supported. I will upgrade when MS drops its
support. Now, if SP1 will fix my problems then I will try it. But then
it might make it worse. I didn't see any SP1 release notes that would
fix my problem.

For the record, I think that holding off on SP1 until you're forced to
upgrade is a ridiculous position to take. I don't see any sense or
logic in that, at all.

Will bringing your OS up to date fix your problems? I don't know, but
I can't see wasting time trying to troubleshoot issues when you're not
otherwise up to date. Just my opinion, FWIW.