Reading the minidump file

from Sins Forums
Now and then Sose crashes and makes a nice minidump file.
Has anyone figured out how to read the things im trying to figure out whats going on and hoping for a clue in the dumps.
I mean i know it is probably vista going nuts as usual but still.

technical
8,019 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Well, if you have the source code for the project you can see exactly where the crash occurred. Without the source, I hope you are good at reading assembly without a symbol table.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
You're supposed to send the minidump in to [email protected] so they can read it.
Groupy 2 - Organize multiple applications into grouped tabs on your Windows desktop
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
yeah i know i should send it to them to read it but then again i bet they get loads of them all day ^^

Thnx for the quick replys though guys ^^ ill just send them the last one and delete the rest of them since they are 6 meg each
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
heres how they look if you dont have the symbol files, there not exactly impossible to guess what went wrong without the symbol files, im using "debugging tools for windows"
Code
  1. FAULTING_IP:
  2. +fffffffff842daa0
  3. f842daa0 ?? ???
  5. EXCEPTION_RECORD: ffffffff -- (.exr ffffffffffffffff)
  6. ExceptionAddress: f842daa0
  7. ExceptionCode: c0000005 [B](Access violation)[/B]
  8. ExceptionFlags: 00000000
  9. NumberParameters: 2
  10. Parameter[0]: 00000000
  11. Parameter[1]: f842daa0
  12. Attempt to read from address f842daa0
  14. DEFAULT_BUCKET_ID: APPLICATION_FAULT
  16. PROCESS_NAME: Sins of a Solar Empire.exe
  18. FAULTING_MODULE: 7c900000 [B]ntdll[/B]
  20. DEBUG_FLR_IMAGE_TIMESTAMP: 0
  22. ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - [B]The instruction at "0x%08lx" referenced memory at "0x%08lx". The memory could not be "%s".[/B]
  24. READ_ADDRESS: f842daa0
  26. BUGCHECK_STR: ACCESS_VIOLATION
  28. THREAD_ATTRIBUTES:
  29. LAST_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 0042f8cd to f842daa0
  31. STACK_TEXT:
  32. WARNING: Frame IP not in any known module. Following frames may be wrong.
  33. 0012fe4c 0042f8cd 3c23d70a 006b8b68 003f29f0 0xf842daa0
  34. 76b44e5b 0f0076b6 0077a785 dca4e800 052bffff Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire+0x2f8cd
  35. 00143d83 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 0xf0076b6
  38. FAILED_INSTRUCTION_ADDRESS:
  39. +fffffffff842daa0
  40. f842daa0 ?? ???
  42. POSSIBLE_INVALID_CONTROL_TRANSFER: from 0042f8c8 to 0042daa0
  44. FOLLOWUP_NAME: MachineOwner
  46. MODULE_NAME: hardware
  48. IMAGE_NAME: hardware
  50. STACK_COMMAND: .ecxr ; kb
  52. BUCKET_ID: CPU_CALL_ERROR
  54. Followup: MachineOwner
  55. ---------
  56. *** Possible invalid call from 0042f8c8 ( Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire+0x2f8c8 )
  57. *** Expected target 0042daa0 ( Sins_of_a_Solar_Empire+0x2daa0 )


i would guess the game trying to use a section of memory that was never available in the first place of the game tried to use the same part of the memory twice.
sometimes you will get a really easy one where it mentions one of the .dll files that are for your graphics card or soundcard and its stupidly obvious what the cause is when that happens.
i always check out game .dmp files just to see if the cause is something on my end that can easily be fixed.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
yeah this is looking nicely indeed but i gues most crashes are mem issues ill try and see what my dumpfiles tell me thnx
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
if you use debugging tools for windows (which you can download on the MS site somewhere just google search) , click open > crash dump once its loaded and the dump file info loads type "!analyze -V" in the text field without the qoutes.

most of it probably is memory related issues but you can get lucky and it will just be your soundcard or graphics card drivers causing the problem.