Prompt Command...

I need some education in usage of the prompt command line. I have been trying to use the d@@n thing for some time and I can't seem to get something to do what it should.

I have tried several times to change directory on my screen. Currently the directory is C:/Documents and Settings/File Name>; I want to change it to G:/System Tools/Support Tools/ which is the path to my new harddrive where I download tools for maintanance and repair of my system. This particular path is listed if you command a search path from the command prompt screen.

If however I try to change the directory to this path, it say's:"The system cannot find the path specified.", Or "The file name, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect."

I can't be wrong every time. Can I?

 

at the command prompt type the following:

G: [Enter]
CD /System Tools/Support Tools [Enter]

 

Thanx that worked. I don't feel quite so stupid today. So first I enter the drive destination and then I enter the the file path to the file I want to access.

Now lets try this: Suppose I want to open a mini-dump file with the tool dumpchk.exe. How do I direct the tool to the particular file and execute it so the file opens and is readable.

 

dumpchk.exe Drive:\Directory\Filename.ext

 

Disregard:

Check out this Article:

How to Use Dumpchk.exe to Check a Memory Dump File

 

OK, Will look at it right now, but before I go, another question.

I tried to send Command Prompt to just the C drive so I could access Windows/Minidump/but, every time I put C: into the command screen, It goes right to the Documents and Settings/File Name/ I can't seem to bypass the default path no matter what I do.

Is this always this hard to use?

 

The Command Terminal always defaults to the users local directory.

 

I already knew that, so tell me how to get it to go somewhere else. I need to learn how to talk computer to the computer, understating the obvious isn't nessisary. So, Tell me where to find a scource of information that will teach me the proper syntax or if you know it tell me.

If I sound a little short here, it is because I spent an hour writing up a very detailed description of what my system is doing only to have my server software dump it in the Ozone somewhere. I am here because my computer isn't working properly, not to waste time that my computer has already seen to. Please don't make it worse by giving answers that tell me what I already know. Tell me what I don't know so I can fix this piece of S#$T.

I spent half a day trying to just get off the starting line, and I am still no farther than I was when I started. My objective is minidumps, and I can't even run the tools.

Syntax is the question, not defaults. Thankyou.

 

The easiest way to learn what you are wanting to know is to go to a book store and buy a book on DOS. The CMD commands are similiar to the old DOS commands and work in the same fashion. I have a "DOS for Dummies" book that I keep handy for reference, as I tend to forget the commands and syntax as I don't use them all the time. Hope this helps!

 

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were asking. The syntax Drive: is just that it changes the active drive. So, when you issue a command of C: is changes to the C: drive and the active directory on that drive. CD is the command to change directories. Syntax is CD \Path example would be CD \System Tools\Support Tools. To go backup one level in the directory tree you would issue the command CD ... CD \ will take straight the the root directory of the drive you are on.

 

This Microsoft article may be of some use to you.

Windows XP Command-line Reference A-Z

 

Well, I have actually already been to the link you gave, and it is really not in depth enough to help a greenhorn like me. It just lists the commands without telling you how to use them properly. I need something that will start with the basics and rapidly get to the indepth stuff.

What I am running into doesn't seem to be usual at all. I've have been told before that to change the command path is just cd, but the XP system seems to be blocking any effort I make to change the default path. If I just put cd at the end of the default path, the computer re-enters the default path, and reposts at the default folder. If I enter cd, and a new path, the computer say's it can't find the directed path.

Can you explain it, or has anyone ever noted this on XP before? What I am being told I can do, isn't working. Any suggestions?

 

This is the Link for the Change Directory Command.

Make sure you are using a \ instead of / in the path statement, and that the path is spelled correctly.

 

Ya Know Shadow, You are like one of those old fashioned Waterpumps, You give the water up but only after a lot of pumping and cussing. This was the stuff I needed to start, and thanks for your time, but I am still a long way from getting the minidump files open. Now I need to figure out how to get the Command Prompt to work with the dumpchk.exe tool. If you have any suggestions I would welcome them. I will try and work it out myself from the information you have given me.

If you see this thread again, it means I got stuck again. Is there a home page to the knowledge base that you have been sending me to that indexes the information on the knowledge base? Seems to be a lot of good information on it. I have the ones you gave me book marked, but I want to see if there is some more I can use to work through these problems.

Again thanks for the help. I'm smiling now.

 

Install the Support Tools by running Setup.exe from the Support\Tools folder on the XP CD-ROM. By default, Dumpchk.exe is installed to the Program Files\Support Tools folder.

Click on Command Prompt in the Windows Support Tools folder. At the command prompt enter dumpchk Drive:\Path\DumpCheckFilename.

Drive = Drive Letter
Path = Full Path
DumpCheckFilename = The name of the Dumpcheck File.

NOTE: The extension for a Dumpcheck file is .dmp

 

Microsoft TechNet Home

Microsoft Help & Support Home

 

If you can't get a handle on the console commands, then use the GUI version:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35246

 

Well, I did run Dumpchk with Command prompt, and this is what I got:

C:/WINDOWS/Minidump>dumpchk mini061605-01
Loading dumpfile mini061605-01
***Debug Client cannot open Dumpfile-error 800 70002

Think maybe because I didn't use .dmp? I don't know if I did or not. It would depend on if it was mentioned as nessissary in the information I was using from Sushi. I will look farther back in the software, and if not then try again.
It would be handy however, if someone has an error code index to see what this error means. Anyone know of a source I would appreciate it.

 

Use these it might work better for you.

Install Debugging Tools for Windows 32-bit Version

Download Windows Symbol Packages

And this Thread:

HOW TO: Debug Memory Dumps

 

OK, will look at these.

I got the first minidump file to open. I don't know if I am reading it right at this time, I am about to check Adrynalyns example to see what he was looking at, but from what I can decipher it looks like it might be an NT module that is the problem.

I have to study more of the dumps, and see, and I Will see what these tools have to offer. I really do appreciate your efforts, Shadow. It doesn't mean I won't chew you out if you aren't paying attention.

I know you are volunteering your time here, but you must agree that this does not relieve you of a great degree of responsability to people like me who come here for some information. It is important that you do read what we are writing for you and know what we are saying.

Since most of us are having a bad day when we do need your help, You may trigger a barely supressed emotional outburst as a result of not reading things carefully and knowing what you are being asked.

In order to put some perspective on it, I actually walked away from my computer for four or five hours before I answered your, How shall I term it,"failure"?, and waited till I had calmed down. If I was still that abrasive after 4 or 5 hours, how do you think I would have been if I had responded right then?

Just so you know, You guys can teach me a lot about computers, but I know for a fact that I can teach you a lot about getting the best out of people. Sometimes you just have to rap them on the head with your knuckles to get there attention. It is not personal, It is jsut getting them to do what they know they are suppose to.

I am sure this thread is not done, so have a nice day, and will see ya later.

 

What do you have Adrynalyne, a scan alert that tells you if someone mentions your name on a link? You were on this posting before I even got an edit done of one word.

 

This is in response to your and Adrynalyne's last post. I agree with Adrynalyne's question marks! Where do you get the idea or thought that anyone on this board has any responsibility to educate you or solve your problems? As far as your mood goes, who cares? I don't! Most people come to this board attempting to find a solution/get help to fix a problem, and they ask for help in a nice manner, and most receive it.

It is apparent that you are a newbie at computers, so why the attitude and the condescending manner?

 

first of all Novice if you are not here to contribute constructive information don't leave anything on this thread. Second, before you were born, I was running work crews and deciding who needed to be taken to school and who didn't. third, I maybe new to computers, but I am not stupid. This is Shadow and me working through some problems, not a childish argument. Stay out of it. Finally, It is not me who is being arrogant and condescending.

Now, back to business. Shadow, I tried to download the symbols, like, eight times, and the downloads are 20 plus hours for a dialup modem, I can't monitor them through the whole process, and so far I have gotten at the most 100 MB of 195 MB before the download terminated.

 

Back in my old day, I had dial-up and have had issues downloading large files. It would start the process get near the end, and bam, lost connection. So, then I discovered (in the 90's) a program that allows you to resume your downloads. Now I don't have issues with downloads since I've moved on to broadband.

So, try TrueDownloader. It is free and should help you with downloading those symbols:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4551

 

On a side note, ye might want to check peoples profiles before ye post things like this. Specifically the age section.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

 

Jarhead, we welcome you to majorgeeks. However, please understand that rudeness is not tolerated here. If you don't want our help, we will not give it. Nobody here on this forum benefits from helping you, they are simply being kind and generous. Time to start showing appreciation, instead of disdain.

On a final note, any further outbursts by anyone in this thread will not be tolerated and the thread will be closed.

Thank you.

 

There is no getting around downloading the symbol packages. They are needed for debugging the dump files. You either have to download and install them before had or set the symbol path in Windbg and wait for them to download when you load the dmp file.

Like the program theefool suggests, that will enable you to restart a download without having to starting all over.

 

Thank you to Thee Fool and the rest of you, I've have tried to be as polite as possible under the circumstances and as far as I was concernded the matter was ended several days ago.

I was actually going to ask if anyone had heard of such a program, but forgot as a result of distractions. I did try to get the download again, and it failed twice more. I tried the last two times after disabling my Spyware Blaster and Spybot protection, and disconnecting my secondary harddrive. Appearantly it didn't help. I take it this is not an uncommon problem for dialup connections.

I will download this program, and then I will take a break for several days, because I have had enough of this for a while. My frustration factor is peaked. I think I'll go fishing and destress for a day or two. Oh, i forgot, no fishing Licence. Rats! Well, I will think of something. Once again, as I said, I do appreciate what you guys are doing here.

 

If you like, you can upload the memory dumps here (zip them first), and I can debug them for you if you want.

 

I think that I would like to do that scince I have tried the dumps myself and each one seems to show a different driver as possible cause.

That is four dumps scince my complete factory restore, and I haven't looked yet at any of them I saved from before I restored yet. I thought I would have one driver on all of them, which makes me think that I might be messing up the file path, scince I don't really understand your tutorial on that part. I installed the symbol files on my G: (secondary slave) drive, and directed the program there to the file where they are. They are in the same file as my debugging tools, though that wasn't where I intended to put them, I goofed on the installation destination. Decided to just leave it that way.

Scince my results seem inconclusive I am not confident My performance was anything like stellar in this endevour.

I will prepare a file for upload, and see if I can at least do that though the last time I tried I couldn't figure it out. It seems simple enough, but I never did get the file to go. I finally just gave up.

My system seems to have trouble uploading these postings if I get too long winded so to keep from losing all of this I will post now and add some later, after I assemble the files to send. I have never done a zip file on this machind before, so it will be a learning experience. Is there even a standard compression program on Windows XP?

 

I don't know if you want to do it, but it has been several days scince we talked about Prompt Cammand, do you want to start another thread that deals with Debugging?

 

By the way, I forgot. I wanted to thank Thee Fool again for the TrueDownloader Program, it works great. Made downloads a whole lot less of a problem. I was confused for just a bit by the right Click on the download button for a while, but once I figured that out it was the single most significant and useful program I have downloaded to date, next to my AVG antivirus.

Only one note, if someone else does use it, they should exit the program every now and then if, like me, they have a fatal error problem, as the program apperantly doesn't send the downloads to the temp file until the download is complete, or you do exit. If you crash during a download, you lose everything back to the last time you exited the program. Just a helpful note.

 

OK, Here goes. This is every thing I have kept record of scince I got this computer in February, and it crashed the very first day. It took me a couple of weeks to figure out how to record this stuff, so the first 10 or so crashes are not recorded.

Hope you can see something here, it's seems pretty random to me so far. Thanx

Well, I spent about an hour waiting and it didn't go.

I went to managed attachments, and clicked, clicked Browse, and went to the file I had created, and clicked upload. The window said "Uploading Files, Please wait." I waited and waited and waited, then it said it could not find server. Go figure.

I think I miight try one file first, and see if that goes, and if it does then try more.

OK, One went. I will try four next. Is there a limit on how much data can be uploaded from me to you?

These are the four scince I did the factory restore.

 

Well, due to each dump being different (and one being unreadable) causes, I'd say you are looking at a hardware problem. Debugging memory dumps are useless for determinign which hardware device is failing, but the most common are:

ram
hard drive


I'd test the ram first.

 

I suspected that was what you would say if you came up with the same results I did, only I thought you would give me some really good news like my CPU was suspect. So, starting where you suggest, what can I do to isolate the problem child. How do I check out my RAM? I hope that is it, because I wouldn't mind changing it to something better. I could use twice what I have right now.

I have actually run some load tests before, and gotten no negative results, but I am willing to try again if you say I should. Point me in a direction, and I will see what I can come up with.

I think I mentioned it before, but to be sure, I have reinstalled all of my original drivers, and updated all of the drivers SysteMax has updated, so drivers are pretty much eliminated don't you think?thanx.

 

I've had best luck with this:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/DocMemory_For_ME_NT_2K_d316.html

I don't suspect drivers, because it seems like a different one each time.

To check the hard disk, I would try scheduling a disk check, checking everything. You can do this by right clicking your drive, choosing properties, and clicking on the tools tab.

If it all comes up clean, I'd start looking at the CPU.

I am quite proficient at determining software problems, but fall short on hardware. If anyone has further suggestions, please chime in.

 

OK, I will do that, but I think I will also send you one more upload, that is from before my restore on the harddrive. Some of my crash files did, as I recall point to a hardware problem, I just have to see what inofrmation I have in my crash files on them.

i haven't looked at that stuff yet myself, because I couldn't access the minidump files from them. Now I can, so I will do that, and send some to you for your opinion. As soon as I look at them and decide what to send, I will get back to you. Once again thanks for the input.

 

Hey, Adrynalyne, I was just looking at those older files, and some of them have sysdata.xml files. Do I need special tools to access them, or will the minidump tools read them too?

 

sysdata.xml is for sending the error reports to Microsoft, iirc. If you want a second opinion on these memory dumps, MS will analyze them for you. It takes them a while though.

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/welcome.aspx

 

Yeah, I have something like 26 crashes already logged there. They haven't gotten back to me on the first as far as I know. Maybe I should go there for something other than just to record new ones sometime when I have time to see if they are doing anything on any of them. Of course the time part is the hard part.

I don't know if this information will help, but I will send it to you any way. I tried to access a minidump and from what I could tell the program said it couldn't. I take it that that is what you meant by unreadable on one before?

There are a few things you can read, that will give you and idea, as to what else I have gotten besides driver errors. So far, I have gotten about 13 driver errors, Six server(AOL) errors, and Four hardware failure errors.

Any ting you can access, maybe you can see something that is pointing to the culprit.

 

Ok, I downloaded the program, and ran it, and after some fumbling around, got it to tell me that I needed to make a boot disk. I made the boot disk, and there was a little trouble doing that appearantly. The computer said cannot copy KERNAL.exe, and copied the rest of the files to boot from.

I rebooted the computer, and the system went to the boot screen, and after the line that say's "boot from CD", it say's "loading FreeDOS" Then "FAT-- KERNAL", don't remember the number, except it wasn't 32, and the system went to running the disk, while the diskdrive(floppy) clicked away, until I was'nt sure if it was doing what it was suppose to do or not.

Utilizing the Pause button, then removing the disk, then Ctrl/Alt/Delete I aborted the process to see if this is what is suppose to be happening or not, and if so, how long does the disk run, and what does it say when it is done? Is there something else I should do, Or is it all there when the system gets done? Thanx.

 

Ok, So I went to the download site and tried using the program you recommended and found it wouldn't work. The fact that it is not for XP might have been the problem, I think. So, after repeated failed attempts, I tried going to the Simmtest website and downloading a version they said was compatible to XP. It is very Different, so thought it might work.

Ran it, created the boot disk, rebooted, and got the following message:

Loading Doc-Mem...
Root Fat KERNAL Go!
Abnormal Program Termination

Tried twice to be sure, same message.

Any ideas???

 

Docmemory off of the simmtester website does indeed work for XP...not sure what the problem is at that point. You could try memtest86+ off of this site, too.

 

Well, I actually did that already, for three hours Memtest86 ran error free, and I previously ran Windows Memory Diagnostic for 2.5 hours and no show of a problem. If you looked at the stuff that I posted you can see the text from the Microsoft error record is suggestive of a Memory problem, and eliminating all doubt of a RAM failure seems nessisary to me, but, I don't see enough information from the results of the tests we have done so far that really eliminates the RAM as the suspect cause.

My failure seems so random that finding the problem may require something to happen during testing that the test can pick up. Unless you think I am expecting too much?

It's been a while since I have had any back to back failures and I keep hoping that during testing something will to expose the flaw. So far no luck.

I am going to try reloading DocMem20 and remaking the boot disk in case something in the download may have screwed up the program, but if you come across a program that is more comprehensive and detailed let me know.

I think I will terminate this thread and start a new one on the hardware forum aand maybe get more input from some hardware experts too. If you find anything you think might be helpful look over there. I'll post the continuing thread here when I start it. thanks for the help so far, and keep up the great job you guys are doing. See ya in hardware.

 

This thread terminates here and continues on the hardware forum under "Hardware indicated Fatal Error" http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=608998#post608998

for those who are following it.

 

Best of luck to ya.

 

hey can someone please tell me the command for delete system32???rolleyes

 

You are always better off starting a new thread about your problems rather than dragging up an old one! Deleting the System 32 folder would probably result in a non functioning computer! It might be better to list your problems and ask for help with them rather than taking this approach.

 

im just wondering what the command is...i know my pc will get screwed up...anyway is it possible to use cmd with remote admin...lke if i get a connection with someone's pc will i be able to use cmd in his pc???