Solved Crash dump initialization failed

Hi!

I have installed Win8 Pro now several times, and have been debugging it since with the help of suggestions from this forum. Currently the machine works great. It is fast, and does not use too much system resources. Unfortunately it was rather unusable after the previous installations. The 1st serious problem I ran into was running the SF Diagnostic Tool. Initially I was unable to find the generated info, or to be able to click the OK button.

I have 1 system error left, and I am open to suggestions as whether no to care, or where to look for appropriate suggestions. The error exists since the 1st startup of Win8. Apart from UEFI etc there are no installation choices I have made (so far).

The MS Systernals tool "psloglist -f e" reports:

System log on \\LABBIE-HANS:
[2789] volmgr
Type: ERROR
Computer: Labbie-hans
Time: 4-2-2013 07:06:44 ID: 46
Crashdumpinitialisatie is mislukt!

This translates nicely into" Crash dump initialization failed", and gives me the creeps. Looking for solutions I found that people increased their page file. I did that, but the problem remained, and even worse,the Win8 startup time and shutdown time increased both considerably. I intend to reduce the page file again, but have not done so yet.

The error message is only displayed during a cold or warm (reboot) startup.

2 questions:

1. How to solve?
2. How to test that dumping indeed does not work?

Kind regards, and thanks in advance,

Hans Lodder

First, here's a start on how crash dumps are generated: BSOD Crash Dump Generation

Next is my experience. I've been doing BSOD analysis for at least 9 years and have come to the conclusion that this type of error isn't very important to most people. It is frustrating to those of us who do BSOD analysis - but it's, quite frankly, just not worth the effort to troubleshoot (because BSOD's are infrequent for most people - and we usually don't have the time to troubleshoot this when someone's in the middle of their system crashing).

I would be more concerned why the system crashes - rather than if a crash dump was generated.

FWIW - you can test it by setting the system up to manually generate a crash dump and seeing if a dump file is generated. Here's the registry entries that need changing/creating:

KEYBOARD CRASHES
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters
For USB keyboard (Press Ctrl-ScrLK-ScrLK to initiate the STOP 0xE2 crash):

CrashOnCtrlScroll

REG_DWORD

0x1

USB Keyboard crash w/Ctrl/Scroll Lock/Scroll Lock

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
For PS2 keyboard (Press Ctrl-ScrLK-ScrLK to initiate the STOP 0xE2 crash):

CrashOnCtrlScroll

REG_DWORD

0x1

PS2 Keyboard crash w/Ctrl/Scroll Lock/Scroll Lock

Click to expand...

Now on to the crashes....

Karen's Power Tools were developed prior to Win8 coming out. Please uninstall them.
Just FYI - Karen passed away about 2 years ago. She is sorely missed.

Please run Hard Drive diagnostics on ALL of your hard drives. Here's a procedure and links: Hard Drive Diagnostic Procedure

There aren't many more clues as to why the system is shutting down. I'd suggest using a temperature monitoring utility such as this free one: HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis Tools

And I'd suggest running the rest of these diagnostics: Hardware Diagnostics

Good luck!

Hi Usasma!

Thank you for your fast response! Indeed, there is little to work with, only the cryptic binary code of volman.

I will execute all your suggestions and post the results in this thread. This might tske a copuple of days, because currently I am traveling a bit.

Thanks gain!

No problem! I'm notified by email when anyone replies to this topic, so I'll find out when you do.
Good luck!

Hi Usama!

With your help I solved it! Since yesterday I had no more system error messages! I am so glad. Let me go through your suggestions.

>> First, here's a start on how crash dumps are generated: BSOD Crash Dump Generation

2 problems for me:

1. In my Dutch version Desktop is called Bureaublad, which meant that SF8 created a new directory. It took me some time to find it.
2. I was not able to click OK, because the button remained hidden behind the main window.

...

>> I would be more concerned why the system crashes - rather than if a crash dump was generated.
>>
>> FWIW - you can test it by setting the system up to manually generate a crash dump and seeing if a dump file >> is generated. Here's the registry entries that need changing/creating:
>> KEYBOARD CRASHES
>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\kbdhid\Parameters
>> For USB keyboard (Press Ctrl-ScrLK-ScrLK to initiate the STOP 0xE2 crash):
>>
>> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\i8042prt\Parameters
>> For PS2 keyboard (Press Ctrl-ScrLK-ScrLK to initiate the STOP 0xE2 crash):

Both keys were already present. My keyboard has no Scroll Lock key, so with the help of the screen key board I tried to generate a dump file. No luck though. I edited the directory of the dump file and got a system complaint that the swap file was too small. I checked and it was managed by the system. I performed a warm boot, the page file (not the swap file) increased even further to more than 6 GByte. But still nothing, on none of the possible dump types.

...

>> Karen's Power Tools were developed prior to Win8 coming out. Please uninstall them.

I replaced it with the free MS tool Rich Copy.

>> Please run Hard Drive diagnostics on ALL of your hard drives. Here's a procedure and links: Hard Drive >>
>> Diagnostic Procedure

I run the WD Data Life Guard Diagnosis utility. It passed all tests.

>> There aren't many more clues as to why the system is shutting down. I'd suggest using a temperature >> >> >> monitoring utility such as this free one: HWiNFO, HWiNFO32 & HWiNFO64 - Hardware Information and Analysis >> Tools

I run HWINFO64. Temp 40 Celsius. No other problems.

>> And I'd suggest running the rest of these diagnostics: Hardware Diagnostics
>>
>> Good luck!

Most test won't work, because I have UEFI support enabled. I tried MemTest86 earlier, and the system reported that it could not find EFI support, and went on with normal booting.

I noticed 1 other strange thing: Although I frequently asked for a system restore point, only 3 have actually been made, and a long time a go, at that.

The solution:

1. Since the 1st time Win8 Pro come up it reported the event of Crash Dump Initialization failed.
2. Every cold boot or warm boot since then it kept reporting this.
3. The page file was large enough to accommodate a full memory dump, although this should be irrelevant for a mini dump.

As this must be happening very early in the boot sequence it had to be a file corruption or a permission problem.

After testing your suggestions I checked MS Technet very thoroughly, and there are quite a number of issues with event id 46. MS reported that under certain circumstances the install program fails to set the permissions right. Several persons suggested running in an elevated command window several times the command "sfc /scannow". I did, and it found many errors. It was able to correct them the first time.

Then I enabled again the IObit Smart Defrag 2.7 program. This was disabled by sfc. The error immediately returned. Disabling immediate helped.

Since then I rebooted (warm an cold) many times, but the error did not come back.

Recap of actions:

1. Win 8 Pro memory check: I was unable to find the results.
2. chkdsk /r: I was unable to find the results.
3. Manually set the page file size: no change.
4. Tried to execute the MemTest86: Would not run.
5. Checked the Win 8 install report: no entries.
6. Checked the System Restore Points: only 3 (old) entries.
7. Run WD Data Life Guard: passed.

I think these were the most important.

So thanks again for your support and encouragement.

Kind regards,

Hans Lodder