Thread: Classifying a Crash and why the "Send to Microsoft" report is important!

At one time or another we have all received that annoying popup box that asks if we would like to submit a crash report to Microsoft. If you receive one of these popup boxes while trying to run/play LOTRO, please submit the report.

When a crash report is generated and it is sent to Microsoft and us (Turbine) as well. These reports are extremely important and should always be submitted; it only takes about thirty seconds to complete. These reports help us to isolate hotspots (problem areas) easier then gauging the problem from forum posts. Every time you are given the opportunity to send in a crash report to Microsoft you should, even if you think it is related to a problem you have had before.

When you submit these reports they are anonymous however if you would like to help correlate things like hardware ect to a crash please feel free to create a post regarding it.

Crashes are never fun, but it would help everyone (users, tech support and developers) if we classify these crashes appropriately.

A couple facts to lay down straight off:

- Crashes are a symptom not the problem
- Crashes have multiple varieties, so simply stating a "crash" is not specific enough
- Posting certain information helps diagnose the problem


So... let's use the following jargon:

CTD = Crash to Desktop, This is the situation where the game stops functioning and returns you to the regular windows desktop. This can occur with error dialog windows or the Windows Error Reporting dialog. (If you do get the WER dialog, please please please submit)

Things to post for a CTD:

- From the WER dialog details: Crashing module, Crash type and offset
- Any noticed similarities between crashes (i.e. doing the same thing causes a crash)
- dxdiag information


BSOD = Blue Screen of Death, This is the Microsoft Windows error condition where the Operating System determines its a fatal situation.

Things to post for a BSOD:
- Exact error information either copied down from the BSOD itself or from the Microsoft Windows Event Viewer (System section)
- dxdiag information

Spontaneous Reboots

For reboots:
- Make sure it's not a BSOD (check Start->Control Panel->System->Advanced->Startup and Recovery->Automatically restart)
- If it is a spontaneous reboot - it's likely hardware related in some way...Verify:
- Your PS is beefy enough
- Your vid card is functioning properly (try swapping it?)

For reboots, definitely post:
- dxdiag



If we determine more information is needed, we may request the data from msinfo32 (System Information) from your machine. If so, a TS representative or developer will contact you on where to send it.