Analyzing a System Dump

After you select a system dump for formatting, the Analyze pull-down menu for system dumps offers four selections. Each selection displays its own menu selection. The menu selections are: System, Process, Threads, and Synopsis.. Note that this option is shown only after you open a system dump file.

It is important to note that the output from the Analyze option needs to interpreted with care. Some options are precise since they follow control block chains. The Physical Device Driver Chain and Kernel Heap are examples of control block chains. Other options depend on correct symbols being loaded. Options that display stacks are more speculative in what they display.

The following System Dump Analyze selections are available:

System

The System menu display the following options:


• Physical Device Driver
  
• Virtual Device Driver
  
• Interrupt Stack
  
• Program List
  
• Window Info
  
• Open files
  
• Heap Info
  
• Memory
  
• Trace
Process
The Process menu display the following options:

Process Info

Thread Chain

Module Table

Local Descriptors

Memory Objects
Threads
The Threads menus dumps stacks related to a given thread. The following menu is displayed:

Ring 3 / Stack Trace

Ring 2 / Stack Trace

Ring 0 / Stack Trace

Call Gate
Synopsis
This offers a miscellaneous collection of options, the most important of which is the Trap Screen display. The following menu is displayed:

System Synopsis

Process Synopsis

Trap Screen Info

Semaphore Analysis

Desktop State

When you analyze a system dump, a command line will be shown at the bottom of the PM Dump Facility dump formatter display. You can use the formatter commands as a fast way to find specific data. Refer to the PMDF document in the Troubleshooting folder for a list of system dump commands.

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