Crash dumps and memory dumps in memoQ TMS

Sometimes your computer or server might stop working or crash. If that happens, it’s really useful if you can send our support team a crash dump or memory dump. These files help us understand what went wrong and speed up the investigation.

This guide shows you how to set up Windows to save these files automatically for memoQ TMS.

A crash dump is a type of memory dump that Windows creates automatically when an application crashes. It contains information about what the program was doing at the time of the crash.

It usually contains:

  • the program’s memory

  • the call stack

  • information about threads and processes

Crash dumps help developers understand why the crash happened.

A memory dump is a file that contains the contents of memory at a specific moment.

Memory dumps can be created:

  • when a program crashes (crash dump)

  • manually by a developer

  • when the entire operating system crashes (for example a Blue Screen)

Types of memory dumps include:

  • Mini dump – small file with basic crash info

  • Full dump – complete memory snapshot

  • Kernel dump – memory used by the OS kernel

Where you can find a it?

In our setup, crash dumps are saved in:

Copy 
C:\ProgramData\MemoQ Server\Log

This folder already exists on memoQ TMS servers and normally contains server log files.

The system keeps up to three dump files in this folder.

What you can do?

  • Configure Windows to save crash dumps

    Crash dump settings are stored in the Windows registry.

    The main registry location is:

    Copy 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps

    The following settings control how dumps are created:

    Setting Type Description
    DumpFolder REG_EXPAND_SZ Folder where dump files are saved
    DumpCount REG_DWORD Maximum number of dump files to keep
    DumpType REG_DWORD Type of dump file

    Dump type values:

    1. Mini dump

    2. Full dump

    For troubleshooting memoQ TMS, we recommend sending a Full dump. Mini dumps rarely contain enough information for proper investigation, so in most cases we’ll ask for a Full dump before we can continue.

  • Create settings for memoQ TMS

    To apply the settings only to memoQ TMS, create the following registry key:

    Copy 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\MemoQ Server.exe

    Then add these values:

    Copy 
    DumpFolder = C:\ProgramData\MemoQ Server\Log
    DumpCount = 3
    DumpType = 2

    This configuration means:

    • dump files are saved in the memoQ TMS log folder

    • Windows keeps up to three dumps

    • each dump is a full memory dump

Stopping memoQ TMS manually doesn’t create a crash dump. Windows creates a dump file only if the application crashes and saves it in the configured folder.