How to capture Windows XP error message immediately before Windows shuts down?

Hello Steve

If you won't laugh, I have used the video part of my camera.

Hope that helps.

Egan1288,

Thank you for contacting the Dell Community Forums.  Here are some other things you can check:

1. Go into System Properties (right-click the My Computer icon and select Properties, or double-click the System icon in the Control Panel), and then click the Advanced tab.  From that tab, click the Settings button under the Startup and Recovery section.  In the Startup and Recovery window, find the section marked System Failure, and look for a checkbox that says Automatically Restart.  If that box is checked, uncheck it, click OK.  This will take you back to System Properties. Click Apply (if it is available) or OK (if Apply is grayed out).  This will cause the system to keep the error message onscreen, rather than restarting the next time the problem occurs.
2. If the error messages you're seeing are blue screen errors, Windows may have created minidump files with more information.  These minidump files can be provided to technical support, or you can decode them yourself.  To learn how to decode minidump files, see this article.

On restart, check in event viewer, there may be an error event recorded (unless the error occurred during shut down, but after event logger was already shut down).

To see event viewer, right click my computer icon, click Manage. In the Window that opens, click on the + next to event viewer, then click on applications to see the events. Also repeat for system events. If you see an error event dated from when the crash occurrred, double click on it to open its description. You can try the link for more information. You can also copy the description to your clipboard by clicking on the double page icon (third on the right), then paste here if you want advice about it.

Hi JRosenfeld,

I have recorded the Error Events and Warning Events in both Application and System under Event Viewer in System Tools.

I copied the Events into Microsoft Word 2007.

I have included the Events  in four zip files which contain the Word documents.

Hope you have time to look at them.

Thanks

Sincerely,

Steve

http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/8420.Windows-XP--Application-Event-Viewer-Error-Events.ziphttp://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/4213.Windows-XP-Application-Event-Viewer-Warning-Events.ziphttp://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/5287.Windows-XP-System-Event-Viewer-Error-Events.ziphttp://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/4113.Windows-XP-System-Event-Viewer-Warning-Events.zip

Hi JRosenfeld,

I have recorded the Error Events and Warning Events in both Application and System under Event Viewer in System Tools.

I copied the Events into Microsoft Word 2007.

I have included the Events  in four zip files.

Hope you have time to look at them.

Thanks

Sincerely,

Steve http://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/8420.Windows-XP--Application-Event-Viewer-Error-Events.ziphttp://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/4213.Windows-XP-Application-Event-Viewer-Warning-Events.ziphttp://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/5287.Windows-XP-System-Event-Viewer-Error-Events.ziphttp://en.community.dell.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Discussions.Components.Files/3524/4113.Windows-XP-System-Event-Viewer-Warning-Events.zip

Unfortunately your links don't work. If you want to post a file here you should load it onto any free webserver (Imageshack, for example) and post the URL to the file.

Or just paste the error events (the ones with a red circle with white cross) into your post here (not the information events). You can put the event description onto your clipboard and then past here)

Judging by the error events you provided, your problems appear to be connected with a whole range of applications, including Microsoft Word (Winword12) and printing from that. Also errors with Internet Explorer, your online chat service icq.exe, and Trueimage. Were all those programs running simultaneously?

It is difficult to suggest what might be the root cause for all those errors. Maybe the programs interfered with each other, or It could be a missing or corrupted Windows file or a file in a bad disk sector.

You could try running chkdsk. In Windows Explorer, right click on C:\ drive, click properties, Tools tab, error checking section click on Check Now. To check for system files tick the first box, if you also want to check for bad hard drive sectors check the second box (this will take a very long time if you have a large hard drive). click OK and yes on the warning message that pops up. Restart your PC. Chkdsk will run then load Windows. It will create an information event log (Source column, Winlogon) to say what it fixed.