"Rey Santos" <ReySantos@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C246BA43-1CBC-4379-BDA2-422712B67744@microsoft.com...
> How to read the small memory dump files that Windows creates for debugging
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315263
A new piece of critical information happened last night. One recent change
is I was given the gift of a Flip Video camcorder (a USB flash based
device). After lots of rebooting and experiementing, it seemed that it only
BSOD at boot time when the Flip was connected.
The problem with that theory is the Flip doesn't install any software on
your hard drive. The Flip software is resident on the Flip flash drive and
stays there. Nothing from it runs at boot time.
So it seemed likely that the Flip was somehow causing a Windows USB driver
(Intel I think) to crash and I might be able to find an update if I knew the
driver name.
While I wouldn't recommend the procedure for everyone, I happen to be a
programmer and have used WinDbg a couple of times before, but never to
diagnose kernel or driver crashes. After reading the information you linked
me too and after a couple of hours of downloading tools and symbol files for
XP SP3, the WinDbg call stack pointed me to a driver named PQV2i which I
just happen to know is the PowerQuest V2i Protector, which is part of Norton
Ghost or an old copy of Drive Image 7. I located the driver file:
06/03/2003 03:52 PM 123,957 PQV2i.sys
Of note here is that I can't ever remember installing Norton Ghost and the
file is dated 2003. It can't possibly still be used for anything so there
was no point in loading it at boot time.
While I was there, I found 2 more files, another PowerQuest one, and one
associated with a LinkSys device I no longer have. These were from 2003 as
well.
06/03/2003 03:52 PM 46,900 PQIMount.sys
04/10/2003 06:43 PM 636,416 PRISMUSB.sys
So I renamed all 3 to *.old to prevent them from loading at boot time.
Bingo. I've now rebooted 3 times with the Flip connected and no BSOD. So I
think, I hope, the BSOD of death are fixed and I no longer have to worry
about leaving the Flip connected.
Being able to track down which driver was involved was the key. I sure
which MS could figure out how to better report that on the BSOD screeen.
Thanks very much for the help Rey!
Bruce.