The Crashdump utility dumps the contents of memory to a Crashfile on the drive. The information in this file can be studied to determine the cause of the crash. The system must be properly installed and configured for Crashdump to work.
You can add switches to your BOOT.INI file to cause debugging output to be sent to a COM port even before the operating system loads. The switches should be added to the end of the line specifying the location of the files for the operating system you want to debug; these lines are listed in the [operating systems] section of the BOOT.INI file. The switches are as follows:
/NODEBUG
This is the default; no debugging information will be collected or transmitted during installation.
/DEBUG
The customary switch to enable debugging. The last standard COM port found will be used, unless a port is specified with the /DEBUGPORT=COMx switch.
/DEBUGPORT=COMx
Sends debug output to the specific COM port.
/BAUDRATE=nnnnn
Specifies the baud rate at which data is sent through the COM port, for remote debugging using a modem. Default is 19200.
/CRASHDEBUG
Enables a certain amount of stack pages to be accessible via the debugger. For remote debugging using a modem, the default number of stack pages is 9600. The pages are accessible only after the system encounters a fatal error and begins checking for bugs.
/SOS
Use this switch to show the names of the drivers as they are loaded during system startup. This information can be distracting during routine startups, but if startup is failing while loading drivers this switch allows you to find out which driver is triggering the failure.
/NoSerialMice
Disables the serial mouse detection on certain COM ports. It is mostly used to exclude ports used by Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) system. The detection signal causes some UPS units to power down, thereby turning off the computer.
You can use multiple /NoSerialMice switches. The format is /NoSerialMIce=[COMx | COMx,COMy,COMz,...]
Normally, Windows NT sends a detection signal to each port in order to recognize hardware attached to that port. However, some UPS units using serial monitoring implementations respond to the detection signal by turning off. If this happens, use the /NoSerialMice switch in the BOOT.INI file to prevent the system from sending this signal to the COM port to which your UPS unit is connected. For more information about BOOT.INI switches, see "Obtaining Debugging Information" earlier in this chapter.