Crash Analyzer for MSDaRT 6.5
Applies To: Diagnostic and Recovery Toolset 6.5
The Crash Analyzer enables you to debug a crash dump on a Windows-based system and to diagnose related system errors. The Crash Analyzer uses the Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows to examine a crash dump for the driver that caused the system to fail.
Important
The Crash Analyzer attempts to locate the Debugging Tools for Windows on your system. If the directory path dialog box is empty, you must enter the location or browse to the location of the Debugging Tools for Windows (you can download the files from Microsoft). You must also provide a path to where the symbol files are located.
The Crash Analyzer provides a diagnostic result that you can use to decide a course of action. You can use the Services and Drivers utility in MSDaRT to disable the driver that caused the crash.
Note
If you include the Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows and the symbol files on the boot CD for MSDaRT, you can ensure that they will be available when they are required.
How to run open and run the Crash Analyzer
To run the Crash Analyzer
On the MSDaRT Tools menu, click Crash Analyzer .
To analyze a crash you must have:
Microsoft Debugging Tools for Windows.
Symbol Files. For more information about symbol files, see Ensure Access to Symbol Files.
You must select a crash dump file to analyze.
The Crash Analyzer scans the crash dump file and reports a probable cause of the crash. You can view more information about the crash, such as the specific crash message and description, the drivers loaded at the time of the crash, and the full output of the analysis.
You can decide upon an appropriate course of action, which may include disabling or updating the device driver that caused the crash using the Services and Drivers menu on the Computer Management utility in MSDaRT.
Ensure Access to Symbol Files
Symbol files are automatically downloaded during the analysis process. If the system does not have an Internet connection or the network requires the system to access an HTTP proxy server, the symbol files cannot be downloaded.
The following is a list of options that are available for ensuring access to symbol files:
Copy the dump file to another system. If the symbols cannot be downloaded because of a lack of an Internet connection, copy the crash dump file to a system that does have an Internet connection and run the Crash Analyzer Wizard on that system.
Access the symbol files from another system. If the symbols cannot be downloaded because of a lack of an Internet connection, you can download the symbols from a system that does have an Internet connection and then copy them to the system that does not have an Internet connection, or you can map a network drive to a location where the symbols are available on the local network. If you run the Crash Analyzer in a Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE), you can include the symbol files on the boot CD for MSDaRT. For more information about creating a boot CD, see How to Create a Boot CD for MSDaRT 6.5.
Access symbol files through an HTTP proxy server. If the symbols cannot be downloaded because an HTTP proxy server must be accessed, use the following steps to access an HTTP proxy server. In MSDaRT 6.5, the Crash Analyzer Wizard has a new setting available on the Specify Symbol Files Location dialog page, marked with the label Proxy server (optional, using the format "server:port") . You can use this text box to specify a proxy server. Enter the proxy address in the form <hostname>:<port> , where the < hostname > is a DNS name or IP address, and the < port > is a TCP port number, usually 80. There are two modes in which the Crash Analyzer can be run. Here is how you use the proxy setting in each of these modes:
Online mode: In this mode, if the proxy server field is left blank, the wizard uses the proxy settings from Internet Options in Control Panel. If you enter a proxy address in the text box which is provided, that address will be used, and it will override the setting in the Internet Options.
Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE): When the Crash Analyzer is run from the ERD Commander, there is no default proxy address. If the computer is directly connected to the Internet, a proxy address is not required, so you can leave this field blank in the wizard setting. If the computer is not directly connected to the Internet, and it is in a network environment with a proxy server, you must set the proxy field in the wizard to access the symbol store. The proxy address can be obtained from the network administrator. Setting the proxy server is essential only when the public symbol store is connected to the Internet. If the symbols are already on the ERD disk, or if they are accessible locally, setting the proxy server is not required.