Got a crash or application freeze? Here's what to do.

Scenario 

You have exhausted all means of providing a set of simple replication steps or example repository for the MooD Support team, and it is likely that there's an environmental issue which is not easy to replicate elsewhere.

You are probably experiencing some form of application freeze (or as we call it 'a hang'), or sudden termination (a crash), which can't be explained by recent modifications to your repository or infrastructure.

What can you do?

All is not lost. By following these instructions, you may be able to send us a Windows Dump file (.DMP) which captures the state of the application. First, we need to identify if you are experiencing a hang or a crash. They are different. 

Privacy Note

You should be aware that a DMP file contains data and memory from the running process you are capturing. The DMP capture does not contain information from other running processes, but may contain information pertaining to the operating system version, computer name, uptime and the file location of the process.

DMP files should follow GDPR and MoD guidelines for the likely content within them, that is, they may contain Personally Identifiable Information, or material which has been classified. Please follow the appropriate handling procedures for such information and inform the MooD Support team of any conditions attached to the data prior to sending.

I think I have a hang

A hang is just an operation that’s taking an unusually long time to complete, maybe the operation is performing lots of calculations, waiting on a database result or network connection. But sometimes it could be a genuine bug. You will find the application is unresponsive but still present in Windows Task Manager. Some MooD services sit in the background waiting for requests, thus we can't assume that an idle process is a hanging process. Nor can we assume a high CPU process is a hanging process. The most obvious hang you can witness is when a visual application shows a white or semi-transparent screen and is unusable but does not terminate.

How do I capture a DMP for a hanging process?

To provide us with a DMP file for diagnostic purposes, you can use Windows Task Manager to create a dump file of the offending process. In this example, we will use MooD.exe as the offending process, but it could be another component of the MooD platform.

The following example is from Windows 7, later operating systems moved this feature to the Details tab.

You will then be informed where the DMP file has been saved.

Please scroll to the end of this article to see how to package up your DMP file for the MooD Support team.

I think I have a crash

Crashes are usually very abrupt and unexpected terminations of the process. You may receive a message on screen that the application is no longer responding or has stopped working. You may witness an APPCRASH event entry in the Windows Event Viewer. You may hear an audible 'ding'. But sometimes, the crash is completely silent. The procedure is different to the above, because we require an extra tool from Microsoft to do this. 

How do I capture a DMP file for a crashing process?

You will need to install the DebugDiag2 tool from Microsoft. Please download the x64 version if you’re running on a 64bit architecture - which is very likely.

The Debug Diagnostics tool requires a time to attach to a process after it starts. Thus, this method isn't always suitable when the process crashes very early in its lifecycle.

Once installed, open the Windows menu and launch DebugDiag 2 Collection.

Choose Crash, and press Next.

Unless told otherwise by MooD Support, you'll probably want to choose the 'A specific process' option. And Press Next.

Choose the application or process which experiences the crash.

Press Next on the dialogs which follow, activate the rule, choose a sensible location for the DMP file, and ignore the question about Symbols.

When the product crashes a set of files will be added to the location above.

Please turn off the rule when finished to avoid affecting the performance of the product.

Please send us the biggest file (the .DMP) file following the steps below.

Preparing your file for transfer to the MooD Support Team.

1. Compress the DMP file, by sending to a compressed ZIP folder.
2. Assess your GDPR/Handling requirements and discuss with the MooD Support team how to securely transfer your file.
3. Provide the Support Team with the exact version of MooD you are using. This is crucial. E.g. 16.085.01