Windows 7 How to read memory dumps?

[BetaMac]

Ok, I've been getting random BSOD's lately on my Win7Ult 64b, and cant find the root of the issue. I've got my memory dumps, and dl'd Windebug to read them., but truthfully I'm at the extent of my knowledge at this point. I know I'm looking for a faulty driver somewhere, from what my BSOD tells me, but the dumps are... well quizzing. How can i make sense of what they're telling me?

 

[BetaMac]

that is truly an excellent tool and i can see how it has shown you the cause of your bluescreen problems, but to find the cure it's then that some assumptions are being made ?

This is true. The software didnt automagically lead me to realize I had a power issue. What I did was, once installed and running, my spikes triggered the software to tell me to check and turn off all extra peripherals, see if that resolves anything. Yes it did, firstly with my onboard soundcard (which I had enabled, though really didn't need it), then with my onboard LAN (which is MOST needed!). Out of both, my LAN caused the most issues when turned on and off. So, at this point, I had to either leave LAN off, or go through the process of manually turning on and off when needed, which, like turning your food manually in the microwave, would never happen! So now I had to find ways to improve my system as is, which I turned to some Win 7 optimizing strategies found online. Most didn't work until I found the Power one. I was lucky I had DPC running, else I never would have seen the dramatic change! That was it. I did a few tests to see how much it affected my issue, and turned on the onboard soundcard, changed a few settings to what they were, NOTHING affected my system, it was now rock solid. The Power settings affected my system pretty much 100%. That's HUGE.

As I understand it the overall power options in windows are mostly triggered reactions to timers or button presses such as sleep and hibernate etc but in amongst the advanced options there are settings which make specific power management changes , these are normally accessible from device manager ?

Control panel > Power Options. The only thing I saw related to device usage in Device manager was enabling or disabling specific hardware. Power profiles were mostly for Laptop users. I cant see why this makes any sense. I'm still trying to read why and how Win7 handles these profiles for tower setups with power supplies. Is the proc handled separately from the sleep and hibernate profiles? And if so, why when the computer is on and being used, the system doesn't give me full power unless I set it in Hi Performance mode? This really doesn't make sense!! But it exists, and everything I've tried made ZERO difference, except changing the power profile! I don't have one of Intels new fancy *** Core i5 and i7 procs either, so no turbo and the advanced power savings those procs offer. I have a simple Core 2 duo E4500 @ 2.20 ghz. No overclock. Gigabyte G33 MoBo. 6 gigs memory.

EDIT: What I've come up with is the device is supposed to be bus powered, firewire 400. However, with laptops, the FW buss isn't powered enough, so they have an aux power supply to use the device with laptops. My tower (mind you with an excellent T.I. firewire chip!) should be enough in its Balanced power profile!! I'm assuming High performance mode gives extra juice to everything, I know it makes your screen brighter, which I don't need, as well as to FW and USB busses. That's the only thing I can come up with.

 

[ickymay]

I'm assuming High performance mode gives extra juice to everything, I know it makes your screen brighter, which I don't need, as well as to FW and USB busses. That's the only thing I can come up with.

this is the assumption I am struggling to give creedance to ? my knowledge of windows power options tells me that it doesnt give extra or less juice to any devices and I am not sure what you mean "makes your screen brighter" unless you mean the ability to limit the brightness, which saves power but isn't achieved by lowering the power to the gfx card, although it does result in lower power consumption ?

the power to the FW and USB buss is I think controlled by the motherboard southbridge chip and the total available power is simply a function of the available amperage on your 5v rail in your power supply ?

I do however reserve the right to be wrong here and I am in no way suggesting your problem hasn't been cured by changing your power options, but the explanation just doesn't fit with my understanding of the role or abilities of windows power options

 

[BetaMac]

I am not sure what you mean "makes your screen brighter" unless you mean the ability to limit the brightness, which saves power but isn't achieved by lowering the power to the gfx card, although it does result in lower power consumption ?

Ok, I guess I should say that the Balanced power savings lowers screen brightness, in which such profiles work for laptops users, akaik. The Hi perf profile doesn't exactly make the screen brighter, nor gives extra juice as I stated, it keeps the screen and other busses at their regular power, Balanced and lower profiles essentially make it dimmer, and since I had been on a balanced profile, switching to the Hi profile made the screen brighter. I'm not squared on how this is done, perhaps Win7 tell the gfx to lower brightness? Like I said, I'm pretty sure these profiles are mainly for laptop users. Towers and such really have no need for these profiles, or at least shouldn't, unless you're very green and cant stand the thought of any extra juice being used. Its the only thing that makes sense.

the power to the FW and USB buss is I think controlled by the motherboard southbridge chip and the total available power is simply a function of the available amperage on your 5v rail in your power supply ?

Yup, I agree completely, though they have to throttle down somewhere to lessen the flow of voltage (not amperage? I think voltage is the most used regulation of power in computers, I could be wrong.) in any way possible. The only way I can think of is by lowering the voltage and/or cutting voltage off completely in non essential peripherals, including monitor, FW and USB, wLAN. As I said before, I KNOW Laptops have lower powered busses, though I don't have one to test the idea, I've read plenty of reviews in which external devices require aux power supplies when used with laptop, though they would perform correct w/o a ps on a tower system. From what I've read FW 400 can vary on how much juice it pulls, 24-30 volts, 7-8 watts. But Apples laptops can drop as low as 9v, in effort to save battery life. Thats a pretty big decrease! I've no info on how much my fw card pulls, but it must need a full 24-30 volts, and as such, I can only get that by making my busses full juice (Hi perf) or perhaps by plugging in the aux ps.

I do however reserve the right to be wrong here and I am in no way suggesting your problem hasn't been cured by changing your power options, but the explanation just doesn't fit with my understanding of the role or abilities of windows power options

As do I, lol, and I know youre not taking any credibility from me! But if the power profiles are looked at from a savings point of view, (regardless of the 'Hi Perf' profile) it makes sense. Its misleading to regard the Hi Perf profile as High performance. Its not, it just regular performance, and the other profiles are lower power. If these profiles are looked at from a laptop POV it all fits. There has to be ways to cut down on battery drain. Where this fits with my fw card, well, I'll say the company that makes it made it a juice hog, as I've rarely read on any device that needs more juice than a tower puts out if the Balanced profile is the default and it is, i just did a reformat and it was switched on.

From an article I've read on Win 7 power profiles:

Optimize your power settings

The display and hard disk on your mobile PC are the two biggest consumers of battery power. By choosing a power plan (called a power scheme in Windows XP) you can extend your battery life. A power plan is a collection of hardware and system settings that control how your mobile PC manages power.
Windows 7

Windows 7 has two default power plans:

• Balanced: Automatically balances performance with energy consumption on capable hardware.
• Power saver: Saves energy by reducing your computer’s performance where possible.

Note it doesn't state anything about the High Perf profile. It exists, don't know why the article states there are only two profiles. Unless it exists on win7ultimate 64 bit (mine)versions? Which ver of win7 are you using and do you have the Hi Perf option?
All in all, I think this is important to know for us that have external devices, if we're having interrupts in the stream of data, corrupted data (ext HDs), or just general instability on an ext device that should just... work!

 

[ickymay]

your link doesn't work

I believe all windows 7 version have the three power plans

so at this point in time without changing any other variables if you changed your power plan back to balanced you will get a bluescreen crash ?

what is your power supply make and model ?