What does this mean?

[camaro]

I was on my comp and had all kinds all stuff running. I got the blue screen of death and I'm using win2k. It said physical memory dump in progress. I waited a min, but nothing so I reset and then it got stock on the boot screen. It gave me this screen I never saw. "choose which drive you want to boot from" I did but it just sat there. So I turned it off and on and then it started fine, but then it checked the integrity off my HD. It was all good. So what could have caused that? Not enough memory maybe?

128MB Infineon, 800TBird, Asus A7V, 30GB IBM 7200rpm, etc

[This message has been edited by camaro (edited 11-27-2000).]

[BC]

What the memory dump meant was that your swap file, the file on the HD that Winders uses to swap information between the HD and RAM, was full. And it was purging the info making more room to do it again. This could take a while depending on the Swap file size. I beleive that it is a percent of your HDD. It is hard on your computer to reset it in the middle of that process but when you restarted after you selected the HDD to boot to and nothing windows fixed itself.

[Gutter Ball]

That is a weird screen eh? It lists a bunch of stuff and you're stuck! Happens pretty often at our school's computer lab(Windows NT). Swap file problem eh? Maybe I'll suggest that to the techs.

[Over Clocked]

You can eaisly change the swap file size. Just go to contol panel --> system --> advanced (I think) --> and it is right there. Change both the min a max to the same value (about 300megs usually). Works wounders for the problem your having!!

[jad1097]

First things first lets explain what a "Memory dump" is.

From W2K using ALT+PRINTSCREEN.
<IMG SRC="http://members.home.net/jad1097stuff/Memdump.gif" border=0>

So that explains that properly.

Now to get rid of memory dumps because they just dump your memory as the name implies. Right click the My Computer icon&gt;Properties&gt;Advanced(TAB)&gt;Startup and recovery (button) There is a drop down menu there with this text above it "Write Debugging Information" select (NONE). That will stop your memory dumps since it really has nothing to do with the swap file execpt writting what is in your memory to the swap file.

Here is it from MS. Seems I should have just looked for this first. http://windows.microsoft.com/windows2000/en/professional/help/sysdm_advancd_startrecover_recovery
To specify what Windows 2000 does if the system stops unexpectedly

Open System in Control Panel.
On the Advanced tab, click Startup and Recovery, and under System Failure, choose which of the following actions Windows 2000 should perform if a Stop error occurs:
Write an event to the system log specifies that event information will be recorded in the system log.
Send an administrative alert specifies that your system administrator will be notified.
Automatically reboot specifies that Windows 2000 will automatically restart your computer.
Under Write Debugging Information, choose what type of information Windows 2000 should record when the system stops unexpectedly.
Small Memory Dump records the smallest set of useful information that will help identify the problem. This option requires a paging file of at least 2 MB on the boot volume of your computer and specifies that Windows 2000 will create a new file each time the system stops unexpectedly. A history of these files is stored in the directory listed under Small Dump Directory.
Kernel Memory Dump records only kernel memory, which speeds up the process of recording information in a log when the system stops unexpectedly. Depending on the amount of RAM in your computer, you must have 50 MB to 800 MB available for the paging file on the boot volume.
Complete Memory Dump records the entire contents of system memory when the system stops unexpectedly. If you choose this option you must have a paging file on the boot volume large enough to hold all of the physical RAM plus one megabyte (MB).
Note

You must be logged on as an administrator to the local computer to change System Failure options.
To open a Control Panel item, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click the appropriate icon.
You must have at least a 2 MB paging file on the computer's boot volume if you select Write an event to the system log or Send an administrative alert.
If you choose either Kernel Memory Dump or Complete Memory Dump and select the Overwrite any existing file check box, Windows 2000 always writes to the same file name. To save individual dump files, clear the Overwrite any existing file check box and change the file name after each Stop error.
The Write an event to the system log option is available only on Windows 2000 Professional. On Windows 2000 Server, this action occurs by default every time a Stop error occurs.
You can save some memory if you clear the Write an event to the system log and Send an administrative alert check boxes. The memory saved depends on the computer, but typically about 60-70 KB is required by the drivers that enable these features.
If you contact Microsoft Product Support Services about a Stop error, they may ask for the system-memory dump file generated by the Write Debugging Information option.

Change the size of the virtual memory paging file

Choosing recovery actions if Windows 2000 stops unexpectedly

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Last updated: February 28, 2000
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[This message has been edited by jad1097 (edited 11-27-2000).]

[denhouse]

This happens from time to time with NT or Win2K. If it continues, say once a week or more, you could have a serious problem. I would check the HD with a utility, just to make sure all is as it should be.
Good Luck

[fisher]

Where do we send the memory dump (or Dr. Watson log) for analysis? No one at microsoft ever seems to want it. What good is it if no one can decipher it. Are there books/articles explaining how to do this?