PDF-XChange Co Ltd :: Knowledge Base :: How do I create a crash dump file and send it to PDF XChange for investigation?

KB459
Sep 23, 2024 02:03 PM

How do I create a crash dump file and send it to PDF XChange for investigation?

Symptoms

I have a repetitive crash and support at PDF-XChange has asked me to send them a crash dump file.

Solutions

These Dump files can be very large, and may not fit into an email, you can send a download link if you have a personal sever (such as dropbox), or the support team will create a secure file drop location for you.

Our Support Team will either have asked you to Create a Process dump or a Crash dump depending on your exact issue. This article is specific to “Crash Dumps”. If you have been asked to create a “Memory Dump” or a “Process Dump” please see this KB: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowledgebase/584-How-do-I-create-a-memory-dump-file-and-send-it-to-PDF-XChange-for-investigation

Creating Crash Dump Files

This process is can be performed in a few ways, we have prepared steps for experienced users who wish to know exactly what is being changed in the "hands-on method". We have also included much simpler "hands-off method" for users who wish to quickly finish the process. Please follow the steps in your desired section.

If the application is Crashing, this means Closing entirely without any warning or error message first appearing, you will be asked to create a "Crash Dump". Please follow the steps in one of the next two sections for these cases.

Crash Dump Registry Edit (Hands-on method)

By default Local Dumps are disabled in Windows. We need to both enable them and set them to FullDumps. We will also specify a subfolder in which to store these dumps so as to keep them separate from other dumps and make them easy to find.

Open regedit.exe and navigate to this location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting

If LocalDumps does not exist under Windows Error Reporting, you must create it by right clicking on Windows Error reporting-->New-->Key: be sure to name the new key "LocalDumps". This will enable crash dumps (specifically mini-dumps) globally for all applications.

We want to create per application settings for PDF-XChange and set that to full dumps so we must create another subkey for these settings. Right click the Key "LocalDumps" --> New --> Key and call this key "PDFXEdit.exe". This allows us to create dump settings specific to this executable. For getting full dumps of our other applications replace PDFXEdit.exe with the executable name that is crashing (PDFXTools.exe, PDFXCview.exe, pdfSaverL.exe, pdfSaver.exe, TrackerUpdate.exe, etc).

For details on creating per application dumps see this Microsoft article.

The default is to create mini-dumps and we need full-dumps, so within the PDFXEdit.exe key create a REG_DWORD called DumpType and give it a value of 2:

Also in the PDFXEdit.exe key, create a new "Expandable String Value" item called DumpFolder and give it the value "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps\PDFX"

Now your crash dumps will be full dumps in the folder "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps\PDFX"

2. Restart the machine

This is crucial to the process working, if you do not restart the reg key will not go into effect. Please save and close all open documents beforehand.

3. Reproduce the crash

4. Locate the crash dump file

Go to file explorer and type %LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps into the address bar. Look for the subfolder that matches your product, find the most recent (order by date modified)

5. Send the Crash dump to support

6. If we provided you with a link to Upload the files to, please do so now, and then send an email to support@pdf-xchange.com letting us know it is present (if not, please email us to receive one such upload link).

7. (Optional) Stop logging crash dumps for PDF-XChange products

To stop saving crash dumps for PDF-XChange products simply remove the per application sub-keys of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps or apply this reg key to do the same. https://www.pdf-xchange.com/StopLoggingPDFX.zip

Crash Dump Registry File (Hands-off method)

Download and extract the registry key from the appropriate ZIP archive(s) below. Right click and select Open (depending on your version of Windows, the option may be Run or Merge instead):

Product	Executable name	Reg file	Dump Folder
PDF-XChange Editor	PDFXEdit.exe	https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFX_FullDump.zip	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps\PDFX
PDF-Tools	PDFXTools.exe	https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFT_FullDump.zip	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps\PDFT
Standard Print Driver	pdfSaver.exe	https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFS_FullDump.zip	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps\PDFS
Lite Print Driver	pdfSaverL.exe	https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFSL_FullDump.zip	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps\PDFSL
PDF-XChange Viewer	PDFXCview.exe	https://www.pdf-xchange.com/PDFV_FullDump.zip	%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps\PDFV

Now your crash dumps will be full dumps in the Dump Folder listed above.

2. Restart the machine

This is crucial to the process working, if you do not restart the reg key will not go into effect. Please save and close all open documents beforehand.

3. Reproduce the crash

4. Locate the crash dump file

Go to file explorer and type %LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps into the address bar. Look for the subfolder that matches your product, find the most recent (order by date modified)

5. Send the Crash dump to support

7. (Optional) Stop logging crash dumps for PDF-XChange productsTo stop saving crash dumps for PDF-XChange products simply remove the per application sub-keys of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps or apply this reg key to do the same. https://www.pdf-xchange.com/StopLoggingPDFX.zip

If you have been asked to create a “Memory" or “Process” Dump please follow these instructions instead: https://www.pdf-xchange.com/knowledgebase/584-How-do-I-create-a-memory-dump-file-and-send-it-to-PDF-XChange-for-investigation

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