Please note: This article explains how to collect crash data from an application crash or TDR. If you are searching for information on how to collect crash data from an unrecoverable Windows system freeze that results in a blue screen of death/system reboot, please visit:
When an application or game hits an error, a crash may occur. The file that is produced when a game or application crashes is called a Windows crash dump file. If you experience an application or game crash, you may be asked by an NVIDIA Customer Care representative for a full Windows crash dump file to help us analyze your issue. Before you proceed to collect Windows crash dump files, please make sure you have performed the following troubleshooting steps and confirmed it does not solve your issue:
1. Enable Debug Mode from the NVIDIA Control Panel menu. This forces the graphics card to run at NVIDIA reference speeds.
2. Set your CPU and system memory speeds to operate at default clock speeds if you are manually overclocking either of them. For the system memory, this may involve changing the memory profile from XMP to Default. While users may find overclocking works for most applications and games, some programs may be more sensitive to overclocking than others.
If troubleshooting does not resolve your issue, please select from one of the folllowing instructions based on the type of bug you are reporting:
Creasting a User-Mode crash dump file when an application/game randomly crashes to Windows desktop
1. To collect User-Mode Crash Dumps, download the file "fulldump.reg " from the Attachments section below and double-click on the file to change your Windows system settings.
2. Reboot your PC
3. Once you are back in Windows, proceed to reproduce the application/game crash
4. After the application/game crashes and you are back on the Windows desktop, press the Windows key and the letter "R" on your keyboard at the same time to bring up the Run window.
5. In the Open field, type the path below and press the OK button to open the CrashDumps directory.
%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps
6. Search for the dmp file associated with your application/game. If there are multiple dmp files, it should be the file with most recent date.
7. If you are unable to locate a crash dmp file in the CrashDumps folder, open a new Windows File Explorer window and navigate to the following directory:
c:\Windows\LiveKernelReports\WATCHDOG
8. Search for any dmp files with the same date as you previous application/game crash.
9. Windows crash dmp files are large in size and therefore can not be directly attached to an email. You will need to upload the file(s) to a file sharing site such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive and then share the URL to download the file with the NVIDIA Customer Care agent. You may reduce the file size by compressing or zipping up the file before uploading it to a file sharing site.
10. If you are sharing driver feedback, you may email the link to download the dump file to driverfeedback@nvidia.com.
11. To restore your Windows system settings, download "minidump.reg" from the Attachments section and then proceed to open the file. Once you have restored your system settings, you have reached the end of this process.
Please note: Certain types of application crashes may occur without Windows creating a crash dump file.
Creating a manual crash dump file when a program freezes or is unresponsive
When you are using a program and it becomes unresponsive, you can manually create a dump file using the Windows Task Manager. Choose from one of the two methods to access the Windows Task Manager.
a) Right-click over the Start icon or Windows Taskbar and select Task Manager from the context menu.
b) On your Windows keyboard, press CTRL + ALT + DEL at the same time. Then select Task Manager.
This will bring up the Windows Task Manager. Find the process for the program that is frozen or unresponsive. Next, right-click over the app and select Create dump file (if you do not see the option, drill down on the app and find the process which is unresponsive from the expanded list). It may take Windows a couple of minutes to complete writing the dump file.
Once Windows notifies you that the file was successfully created, select Open file location. The DMP file will be too large to attach to an email. You will first need to upload the DMP file to a file sharing service such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive and then share the URL to download the file with the NVIDIA Customer Care agent. You may reduce the file size by compressing or zipping up the file before uploading it to a file sharing site. If you are sharing driver feedback, you may email the link to download the dump file to driverfeedback@nvidia.com.
Collecting a Windows dump file after a display driver Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR)
A user may encounter a situation where the graphics card driver becomes unresponsive. In such an event, Windows will make an attempt at a recovery. This process is known as timeout detection and recovery (TDR). During a TDR, Windows will attempt to reset the graphics driver which can cause an application or game to crash in the process. If you see your monitor flicker briefly followed by a TDR error message "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" on your taskbar, this means that the Windows operating system succesfully recovered.
While Windows records a log of the error, this information does not contain sufficient information for us to analyze. You will need to change your Windows settings so that instead of attempting to recover from an unresponsive driver, the operating system will instead go into a bugcheck. Please follow the steps below to disable Timeout Detection and Recovery (TDR).
1. Download the file "TDRLevel1.reg" from the Attachments section below and double-click on the file to change your Windows system settings.
2. Since Windows will no longer attempt to reset the display driver, if the driver becomes unresponsive, the operating system will temporarily freeze followed by a reboot (bugcheck). The temporary freeze may last 30 seconds to a minute as Windows is attempting to record a complete memory crash dmp file. If your PC has a large amount of system memory, the freeze may last longer than a minute as it will take Windows a longer time to write the information to your hard drive.
3. Once you are back in Windows, open File Explorer and navigate to the directory below:
c:\Windows
c:\Windows
4. Look for the file memory.dmp. The file will be quite large in size. You will need to upload the file to a file sharing site such as Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive and then share the URL to download the file with the NVIDIA Customer Care agent. You may reduce the file size by compressing or zipping up the file before uploading it to a file sharing site.
6. If you are sharing driver feedback, you may email the link to download the dump file to driverfeedback@nvidia.com.
7. To change your system settings and default back to Timeout Detection and Recovery when a driver becomes unresponsive, download the file "TDRLevelRemove.reg" from the attachments section below and double-click on the file to apply the settings. Once you have restored your system settings, you have reached the end of this process.
Attachments
- File Type regminidump.reg (337 bytes)
- File Type regfulldump.reg (337 bytes)
- File Type regTDRLevel1.reg (282 bytes)
- File Type regTDRLevelRemove.reg (252 bytes)