Microsoft Error Reports?

[Alex2507]

I've heard that you shouldn't send error reports to Microsoft. I'm not sure if it's true or not.
Do you guys send them and why?

 

[MUDSHARK]

I have sent them before. In one case Windows 98 ere software was attempting to use a dedicated driver of Xp. At least it gave me a clue.

 

[cbraver]

Probably people say not to send them because you are sending Microsoft information about what you are doing. But, I honestly could care less if Microsoft knows I'm using IE to look at Audioholics, and maybe it will help them make their next operating system not suck as bad as Vista.

 

[masak_aer]

It doesn't and hasn't do me any good nor bad so far. So i could really care less. I click either one depending on my mood and the day.

 

[MDS]

I almost never choose to send the error report but there is no real harm in doing so. It doesn't collect any personal information, it is mainly just a stack trace and the values of the registers at the time of the crash.

Unless there is something obvious, like a null pointer, I don't think it does much good anyway. To track down those kinds of problems you need to know exactly what the user was doing and have a good reproducible scenario to use for debugging. If the problem occurs frequently you are better off submitting an actual bug report to MS with a description of what you were doing at the time...and how many people actually bother with that?

 

[jamie2112]

If you had a Mac you wouldn't have that problem.

 

[masak_aer]

If you had a Mac you wouldn't have that problem.

I don't want to comment on this at first...but can't help it..

 

[Alex2507]

If you had a Mac you wouldn't have that problem.

Dude, I barely got the use of this 3 year old eMachines T5026 under hand. It's my first one and I'm not crazy about figuring out new stuff. Maybe my first laptop will be a Mac just so that I know something about each. Actually, maybe I do like figuring out new stuff. I just like to gripe about it too.

I almost never choose to send the error report but there is no real harm in doing so. It doesn't collect any personal information, it is mainly just a stack trace and the values of the registers at the time of the crash.

Unless there is something obvious, like a null pointer, I don't think it does much good anyway. To track down those kinds of problems you need to know exactly what the user was doing and have a good reproducible scenario to use for debugging. If the problem occurs frequently you are better off submitting an actual bug report to MS with a description of what you were doing at the time...and how many people actually bother with that?

The error report always tells me about a problem with a device driver. It's been doing that since the beginning. It use to restart but I finally did what you described here:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30058
And now I just get the "encountered a problem" message and don't send Microsoft anything. I'm all done with them telling me that my stuff is messed up. My drivers are current as far as I know. This scenario might come up anywhere from 1-8 times a month. Not a real problem.

I'll just continue to not send as it's quicker and sending has done nothing so far.

 

[Halon451]

I've clicked either one in the past, and I've never really been able to tell if it made a difference or not, if the information just goes somewhere to a Microsoft server buried in the hills someplace.

Yeah, it would easy to just go out and get a Mac, but the problem is the world operates on Windows, so either way you're going to be faced with having to deal with Microsoft in your life. How many businesses can you think of that don't run their networks off Windows based server systems?

 

[Mort Corey]

How many businesses can you think of that don't run their networks off Windows based server systems?

Me (that's one so far) Novel is just too stable to throw away.

Mort

 

[Halon451]

Me (that's one so far) Novel is just too stable to throw away.

Mort

Okay, so you're the one.

 

[darien87]

I never send them, because I figure Microsoft doesn't give a damn anyway. What are they gonna do, call me up and tell me how to fix it? Not bloody likely.






Macs rule!! Too bad they're so damn expensive or I'd have one. I grew up using Apple 2's and had a 2GS in college. I'm in the printing industry, so all the computers in the art department are Macs. But I'm an account manager, so I have to use a PC. Lame.

 

[Jack Hammer]

It depends on my mood. I'm not sure there is much they can do with my error data on its own. I figure what they do is look for some sort of common denominator from the types of errors recieved so they can figure where to make future improvements. Kind of like a market research survey, maybe.

Jack

 

[MDS]

The error report contains a stack trace and the value of the registers in the function that caused the crash. If your error reporting settings are set to create a dump file, it includes the dump as well. This is the kind of error report that is usually sent to the Level 2 support people. They can determine which DLL contains the function and which line of code caused the trap. If it gets fixed, you'll get the fix the next time patches or service packs are released.

This is typically what I see on the few occasions I've encountered a fatal error: LEA EAX, [EDX] which means 'load effective address of the contents of the EDX register'. The EDX register is zero. That's a null pointer and will result in a general protection fault (trap).