We all get into the panic mode when we see the deadly blue screen of death (BSOD) flash on a Windows PC. This is usually a sign of a very serious problem with the hardware, software or both. If you are lucky, then the problem is related to just some of the Windows settings or it is about an outdated device driver. And in the severe cases, the problem could point at the motherboard or the RAM faults. So when you see a BSOD in your Windows PC, do not get scared and lose all hope. Instead, you should analyze the problem using the memory dump that Windows saves in these events.
There are more than one ways of analyzing the memory dumps in Windows 10. For some of these, you have to download and install some of the third party software like WhoCrashed. It is a small application that can analyze the memory dumps to tell you which program or driver has caused the BSOD. It can also show you the detailed description of the error codes displayed on the BSOD screen.
You can launch WhoCrashed and under the Dump files, you will see all the memory dumps in a list. This list contains the full memory dump file (memory.dump) and the mini-dumps created by Windows during the crash. The number of memory dump files is an indication of how many times your system has crashed recently.
In order to analyze these memory dumps, you can just click on the Analyze button. WhoCrashed will run the analysis on these dump files and will create a report that you can go through to see the possible causes of the crashes. In addition to the files involved in the crash, it will also give details about the crash codes. In the report, you can find links that you click on to google about these files and learn more about them.
The application also makes it very easy for you to properly configure Windows to save the memory dumps in case of crashes. You can find these options under the Tools menu and configure Windows to save the mini-dumps or prevent automatic rebooting so that you can see all the details on the BSOD screen.
It also comes with a tool called Crash Dump Test that can be used to initiate a system crash so that you can test your Windows settings related to saving the memory dumps. You should save all of your work before trying this tool.
Conclusion: WhoCrashed makes it very easy to analyze the memory dumps created by Windows when your system crashes and shows you the dreaded blue screen of death (BSOD). It can also be used to fine tune and test Windows settings related to saving dumps in case of a crash.
You can download WhoCrashed from http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed.