Most of the people know when the Windows system is hung, it may generate a ‘memory dump file’ and the dump file normally is located under C:\Windows\ directory. This dump file is named as “memory.dmp” (this setting is set by default in Windows). This configuration is basically provided in-depth information on why the system goes down, and what is the cause of the system hung. For those technical support guys, sometimes you may need to deal with dump file and send it to service provider such as Microsoft for further investigation.
But how about programs that hung? Can I also do something for that, so that I got some ideas on troubleshooting? Or at least I got something that can send to the program’s support team on the hung errors? YES, you can do that! In order to do create a memory dump for a program, you will need to download a tool called ADPlus.
ADPlus is part of the component in Windows Debugging Tools. You can download this program via this website: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx
After that, execute the installer winsdk_web.exe. The installer will prompt a warning message if your computer do not equipped with .Net Framework 4.0. Just click on OK to proceed with the installation. During the installation, ensure that “Debugging Tools for Windows” option under Common Utilities is selected.
After the installation is done, you are ready to go. You will need to launch the ADPlus first before you execute the program you want to debug. Please refer to below simple steps to debug a program:
- 1. In order to start ADPlus, just open an command prompt, and browse to directory C:\Program Files\Debugging Tools for Windows (x86)\
- 2. Launch the program that you want to debug
- 3. At the command prompt, type ADPlus -crash -pn "Process Name" -o C:\CrashReport
- 4. Simulate the crash of the program, and You Are Done! Just browse to the C:\CrashReport to get the dump file that generated by the ADPlus.
You will need to create a directory in your computer first before you issue a –o command, the ADplus will return error if the folder is not created (based on above scenario will be C:\CrashReport folder)
If you are interested and want to give a try, but you do not want to harm your program, you can go to Citrix website and download a tool called TestDefaultDebugger. This simple exe will basically simulate a program crash on the system. After you execute it, a warning message will prompt you to send error report to Microsoft… Oppss!! Here is the link: http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX111901
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Hi Juan,
thank you very much for your quick response & all the clarification.
lets hope for more & more valuable tips & tricks from you :)
keep up the good work
wish you a nice day ahead
Thanks & Regards
alan
thanks for this info!
would be fun if you can investigate more onto the analysis part of the crash.
Thanks for the comments.
Sriranga – Thanks for sharing the little MSI for those who do not want the full package.
mara, Peppino – I will try to compile a post on analyzing the dump file created in the future.
Alan – this can be use on 3rd party program, I did it for my Warcraft launcher, and it is working fine. I haven’t try it to tackle on virus issue, if the virus is attacking certain program, maybe we can use the tool to track it, or else if attacking the system, I personally do not think it will help, but you can always give a try!
Thank you Juan, for an interesting read and congratulations on your Blog, nice to know that the excellence of the posts here continues, and of interest to the many readers, as it is such a high standard expected now..
What do you use to analyze the program memory dump?
Congrats Juan for your first post in blog :).
A very good demonstration of sharing your knowledge. It would be a nice issue and well explained article. Thanks a lot for your first ever post. I’ll expect more articles from you as well as Ray and Paul.
Hi Juan,
Nice tip!! Congrats for your first post in blog :)
I have few question: can it be used or useful in case of any 3rd party programs for ex: cleaner, adobe…..etc?
does this helps in troubleshooting any virus related issues?
It would be nice if you could write some article explaining how to read from Windows memory dump what is the issue.
Congrats, Juan/Paul for this first post!
nice article paul, seems interesting. ill give it a go.
and congrats on your first blog :)
A very warm welcome Juan and congratulations to being elevated to the peerage !
Thank you for this offering, though I confess it went a little over my head. However …. I have downloaded the SDK and will now cautiously explore. What WOULD be massively useful to those IT persons like me who are perfectly competant in what they do for others but who simply do not have YOUR level of expertise (if I couldn’t rectify a problem I would simply reinstall) …….. would be a simple tutorial on how to investigate a crash using a tool such as this.
Once again – welcome – I am sure we will all find you as valuable as we have Raymond and Paul.
Thank you Juan for sharing a useful tips. Congrats for your first post in blog :).
Welcome Jaun to Raymond.cc Family!!
Nice article… :-)
Thx a lot!!!
Thanks for the info.
Good idea! But can you use BlueScreenView to examine the memory dump? Or do you have to use Debugging Tools for Windows?
Hi Raymond,
Nice article. However, You need not download the whole of 371 MB file just to obtain a crash or hang dump.
Any of the old ones from here:
microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/installx86.mspx#b will do just fine.
For instance, this one here is just 16MB msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols/debuggers/dbg_x86_6.11.1.404.msi