Reporting Crashes

How do I find this dump-file which is needed for my bugreport / petition?

System Crashes / Blue Screen

If your crash is a blue screen type crash (or your computer reboots randomly) then this is a crash of the windows kernel and not any application running on your computer. These can be caused by faulty drivers, hardware issues or serious application errors. To help us to help you to find the cause of this, we need to see the "minidump" file generated by the bluescreen. These files are typically stored in %SYSTEMROOT%\minidumps, which for most people is C:\Windows\Minidump. If you can find a .dmp or .mdmp from the time of the crash, and attach it to a bug report, this is the fastest way for us to help you or bring the problem to the attention of the developers. If there are no files in this directory, follow these steps (the steps may vary depending on your version of windows and system configuration):

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel.
2. Double-click System.
3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
4. In the Write debugging information list, click Small memory dump (64k).

After enabling this, the next time your PC crashes a dump file should be saved.

Application Crash

If the crash does not affect the system, but instead brings up a windows error report "exefile has caused a problem and needs to close" for example, then this is an application crash. This is possibly EVE itself crashing, but still could be a third party application causing EVE to crash. To enable us to help you with this, or to bring this to the attention of the developers in the quickest way possible, we again need a .dmp file. This type of .dmp is different and will be created in most cases directly by EVE. In other cases you have to use other ways, which vary depending on your version of windows.

EVE-client generated minidump

1. Create a shortcut to the eve.exe file.
2. Right click on the shortcut and select properties, then select the Shortcut tab
3. Add /minidump to the target line, so it should be "eve.exe /minidump"
4. Run logserver while playing eve.
5. When eve crashes, you will get a messagebox telling you that eve crashed and where the crashdump is stored
6. Attach both the .lbw and .dmp to the bug report or petition after you have zipped them (it's not possible to attach a .dmp to a bug report without zipping).

Other methods

Windows XP

The first thing that needs to be done is to check that DrWatson (the Windows default debugging tool) is the current system debugger and this is done by running "drwtsn32 -i". After this has been done, run "drwtsn32". This should present you with a configuration screen. On this screen, make a note of the "Crash Dump" option. This is the path that crash dumps will be stored for you. Also, enable the "Create crash dump file" option and select "crash dump type" as "mini". Then the next time eve crashes, navigate to the folder that was specified above and attach the .dmp file to the bug report. Or if it is too large, contact a bug hunter.

Windows Vista

The DrWatson tool was removed in Windows Vista and replaced by the "program solution centre". So, the most reliable way to create a .dmp file in Windows Vista, is when EVE crashes, and you are presented with the dialog that is telling you that EVE crashed, do not click ok. Instead, follow these instructions:

1. Start Task Manager. To do this, use one of the following methods:
   • Right-click an empty area of the task bar, and then click Task Manager.
   • Press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC.
2. Click the Processes tab.
3. Right-click the name of the process that you want (EVE should be called "exefile.exe"), and then click Create Dump File.
4. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type your password or click Continue.
5. Look in the following folder: C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Local\Temp for the dump file.
6. When you receive a message that states that the dump file was successfully created, click OK.

Then you may click ok on the dialog that told you Eve crashed. Then navigate to the above path and attach the dump file to your bug report or petition.

Sources

• Capturing Application Crash Dumps
• Microsoft: How to create a user-mode process dump file in Windows Vista