How To See Windows Crash Logs

Computers crash and freeze. Your Windows PC may have automatically rebooted itself, likewise. If so, it probably experienced a blue screen of death when you lot weren't looking. The beginning step in troubleshooting is finding more specific error details.

RELATED: What to Exercise When Windows Won't Boot

The steps we're going to cover should help you lot narrow down and identify issues with your PC crashing or freezing. For example, the tools here may signal the finger at a specific device driver. This could mean that the device driver itself is buggy, or that the underlying hardware is failing. Either way, it will give you a place to get-go searching. Still, the steps we're roofing in this commodity are intended for diagnosing a PC where you tin can at least get Windows to showtime. If Windows—or your PC itself—wont showtime, check out our guidance on what to do when Windows won't boot, instead.

Check the Reliability Monitor

RELATED: Reliability Monitor is the Best Windows Troubleshooting Tool You lot Aren't Using

The Windows Reliability Monitor offers a quick, user-friendly interface that displays contempo system and awarding crashes. It was added in Windows Vista, and then it will exist present on all modern versions of Windows.

To open it, but hit Offset, blazon "reliability," and then click the "View reliability history" shortcut.

The Reliability Monitor window is arranged by dates with columns at the right representing the nigh recent days. You tin come across a history of events for the last few weeks, or you can switch to a weekly view. The column for each day shows events recorded for that day.

If Windows crashed or froze, you'll see a crimson circumvolve with an "X" representing the failure. Click that 24-hour interval's column and you'll see more information at the bottom. Critical events are typically what you're actually looking for hither, but the other information tin can be useful as well. For example, the history volition show when yous installed software, so you might be able to see whether crashes started occuring after the installation of a item app.

If yous see an interesting upshot listed, double-click it to open up a details window with more data. Here, nosotros can see that Windows had trouble starting due to trouble with a difficult disk.

Yous can use the "Bank check for solutions to all problems" link at the bottom of the window for some assist. Notwithstanding, in our experience, this characteristic isn't very helpful and rarely finds actual solutions. In a best case scenario, information technology might advise you lot to install updated hardware drivers.

Actually, the Reliability Monitor is more useful for giving yous an idea of when crashes or other major events happened, seeing other events that surrounded those crashes, and getting a start on narrowing down possible causes.

RELATED: Using Effect Viewer to Troubleshoot Problems

And in case you're wondering, the Reliability Monitor pulls its data from the same outcome logs that the venerable Event Viewer uses. So, if you're more comfortable using Event Viewer, yous tin go even so information.

View Blue Screen Crash Dump Details

RELATED: Everything You Need To Know About the Blue Screen of Death

When Windows encounters a blue screen mistake, it dumps the memory files to a local file that sometimes contains useful data for troubleshooting those errors.

For a user-friendly mode of examining these, we recommend NirSoft's free BlueScreenView utility. This tool displays a list of saved dump files. You tin click whatever dump file to come across the information it contains. In particular, the bulletin in the "Bug Check String" and "Bug Cheque Code" columns are useful. These evidence the same message that's displayed on your screen when the bluish screen itself appears. Search for the message or lawmaking online and you lot'll oftentimes find information that tin help yous identify and solve your bodily problem.

The list of drivers at the bottom of the window may also be helpful. For example, the blue-screens may consistently implicate a particular driver file, such as your graphics hardware driver. This may betoken in that location'due south a problem with that specific driver. Or, that specific driver may exist crashing because the underlying hardware itself is damaged. Either way, it can help signal you in a more than specific direction.

But Why Is it Crashing?

The above tools can help you get more of a handle on your problem. With a specific crash message from the blue screen in hand, you tin can at least perform a spider web search to observe what might be going on. It'southward a much better starting point than looking for generic information about why a reckoner crashes or freezes.

If your estimator just crashed or froze once, don't sweat it. Goose egg is completely perfect—a issues in Windows or a hardware driver could have acquired the crash, and yous may never see information technology again. If your computer is crashing regularly and consistently, it'south time to whorl up your sleeves and starting time figuring out the trouble.

RELATED: 10+ Useful System Tools Subconscious in Windows

The Memory Diagnostics tool congenital into Windows can also aid. Information technology tests your memory to ensure everything is working properly. If your retentiveness is damaged, this can cause system instability and blue-screens.

Ultimately, it's impossible to requite advice that will solve every problem. The tools can will help you narrow downwardly your problem to a more specific error message or hardware driver, giving y'all a starting bespeak for troubleshooting. Merely not every problem can be fixed with some troubleshooting steps. Your computer may have a hardware trouble and in that location may be nil you tin can do about it across replacing or fixing the hardware itself. As Windows becomes more stable, regular system freezes and blue-screens often point to underlying hardware bug.

Source: https://www.howtogeek.com/222730/how-to-find-out-why-your-windows-pc-crashed-or-froze/

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