Tag Archives: Vista

My First Windows 7 Beta BSOD and How to Analyze It

While I was testing out Homegroup using a newly installed Dimension 8300, I got my first BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) of Windows 7 Beta. Unfortunately, the system rebooted automatically by default, I was not able to take a screenshot. There is one thing strange about the memory dump. The advance system settings shows that the memory dump file is saved as C:\Windows\MEMORY.DMP by default. However, I couldn’t find the dump file. Instead, I found the file is created under C:\Windows\Minidump. Maybe it’s just a bug, but anyway, if you cannot find the file under Windows, try the Minidump subfolder.

I was wondering if the old way of analyzing memory dump still works, so I tried it and it did work. Here are the steps.

Download and install the Debugging Tools for Windows from this link. My installation is a 32bit one, so I downloaded the 32 bit version 6.10.3.233.
Download and extract the debugging wizard (debugwiz.exe) from Windows BBS. There is a note on the site saying this tool does not work properly with Vista 64 bit. My guess is it probably does not work with Windows 7, either.
The debug wizard relies on a registry key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\DebuggingTools to find the binary files for the debugging tools. This key is not generated by the debugging tools installer any more. You have to enter the key manually using regedit.exe .

Otherwise, you can just merge this registry file.
Right click on the debugwiz.exe extracted in step 2 and select Run as administrator.
Click on the Browse button and pick the memory dump file.
There is one more step before you try to generate the analysis log. The Command String is not correct. Check the Advanced checkbox and change the string from c:tempdebuglog.txt to c:debuglog.txt .
Click on Generate log and the analysis log will be generated and saved in c:debuglog.txt .

Ok, you now have a analysis log, but it’s filled with jargons. What can you do? I usually only look for the line that starts with “Probably caused by”. In this case, the acutal line is

Probably caused by : memory_corruption ( nt!MiFindNodeOrParent+5 )

I know then the cause is probably due to bad memory module. On most cases, it’s usually a system file or a driver. You have to find the proper update for the offending file or uninstall the software which uses that file to fix your system.

Microphone Problem under Windows 7 and Vista

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After I installed the Realtek audio driver on my MacBook under Windows 7 Beta, I could hear music just fine. However, I found that I could not record anything through the microphone. I checked my other MacBook under Vista, and the microphone didn’t work, either. I checked another laptop with Windows 7 Beta, and still, the microphone did not work. I then realized that none of the built-in microphones under Vista and Windows 7 Beta worked.

Some tweaking about the microphone properties got it to work. Here are the steps:

Click on Start (the Windows icon) and type sound.
Click on Sound under Control Panel.
Click on Recording tab. Select Microphone and click on Properties.
Click on Levels tab. The default Microphone Boost is set to 0. Increase it.

Close all the dialog boxes, and the microphone will be ready for use.

[Note: Not all drivers have this settings. I have tested this on Realtek and Sigmatel drivers]

MacBook Realtek Audio Driver for Windows 7

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When I installed Windows 7 Beta (Build 7000) on my early 2008 MacBook yesterday, the audio driver did not work. The driver provided by Boot Camp is not the right one. Using the hardware id, I learned that the audio card is made by Realtek. I downloaded the driver directly from Realtek and it worked. Here is the download link. The one I downloaded is Vista Driver (32/64 bits) Driver Version R2.14. Extract the files and run the setup.exe.

BTW, if you are looking for some older versions, you can use this ftp site.

ftp://202.65.194.211/pc/audio/

This is a mirror site used by Realtek. Note that the download speed is kinda slow, so be patient.

[Update: 11/16/2009]

The ftp site is protected by password now. It’s not working unless you know the username and password.

[Update: 4/4/2011]

If you have problems following the link, please try to use Internet Explorer to download the driver.

How to Add Windows XP to Windows 7 Boot Manager

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A reader has asked about how to add Windows XP to Windows 7 Boot Manager. Here are the steps. You do this when you cannot boot to Windows XP after installing Windows 7 or Windows Vista.

Open an elevated command prompt.
Type the following to create a boot loader for Windows XP.
bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"
Type the following to set the device to where Windows XP is installed. I used D: in this example. Replace it with the drive letter of your XP installation.
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=D:
Type the following to set the path.
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
Type the following to add this boot loader to the boot up screen.
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
Reboot the computer.

[Update: 3/11/2009] Some readers have reported that they still have problems after following these steps. I have tried to reproduce the error and fix it. The error I got is different, but it’s similar in nature. Please see this post about how I fixed the problem.

[Update: 11/9/2010] I have a new post about doing this using EasyBCD.

Synaptics Touchpad Driver for Windows 7

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When I installed Windows 7 Beta on my Acer Ferrari 3400, the Synaptics Touchpad was recognized as a PS/2 compatible mouse. I missed the scroll function of the touchpad driver. Since the Windows 7 is just beta, there is no dedicated driver for it.
However, I found that the driver for Vista is working just fine. You can download Synaptics drivers from the company’s web site.

http://www.synaptics.com/support/drivers

A tip for downloading drivers from the web: always download the driver from the official site or the manufacturer’s web site. There are a lot of other sites that offer drivers downloads. Those downloads may be infected by spyware, so be careful when using those drivers.

[Update: 6/1/2009]

I just installed the Vista 64 bit driver on my Windows 7 RC 64 bit machine. The version I downloaded is v10.1.8. After installation, all the settings are available. Here are some screenshots:

[Update: 9/9/2009]

I tried this on Windows 7 RTM, and it works, too. The version is the same: 10.1.8. Here is a screenshot:

[Update: 10/22/2009]

Synaptics now has the driver certified for Windows 7. The version is v14.0.3

[Update: 10/27/2009]

If the driver does not work for you, you can try to uninstall the device first, reboot, and try the installation again. Here is my post about how to uninstall a device on Windows 7.

[Update: 1/28/2010]

Not all touchpads are made by Synaptics. Please see this post about identifying your touchpad. I also have a post about the Alps touchpad, which is being used on a lot of Dell laptops.

Windows 7 Auto-Tuning

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When Microsoft first published Vista, the network feature “Auto-Tuning” has created a lot of headache among the users. So, does Windows 7 have this feature enabled? Yes, you bet.

You can follow the same steps like the ones in this post to disable it. Here is the screenshot of the commands.

If you find your network performance is lagging, you might want to turn off auto-tuning and see if it improves.

How to Add Vista to Windows 7 Boot Manager

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[Update: This is for adding Vista to Windows 7 Boot Manager. For adding Windows XP, please see this post.]

Ok, you have installed Windows 7 Beta on your Vista machine, and you cannot boot to Vista any more. What can you do? This is exactly what I ran into. Let me tell you how to fix it.

My testing machine was set up to dual boot Windows XP and Vista. XP was on C: drive and Vista was on D: drive. When I installed Windows 7 Beta, I installed it on C:. After the installation, I could only boot to Windows 7. The boot option for booting to Vista on my D: drive was gone. The boot manager for Windows 7 is the same as Vista. Therefore, I was able to figure out a way to add Vista to the boot manager. Here are the steps:

1. Invoke a command prompt with Administrator priviledge. If you don’t know how to do it, please follow the steps in this post. The instructions are for Vista, but they are the same.

2. Type the following to list the current boot manager settings.

C:>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=C:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {current}
resumeobject            {59cad9f2-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}
displayorder            {current}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence        {59cad9f4-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              Windows
resumeobject            {59cad9f2-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}
nx                      OptIn

3. Type the following to create a Boot Loader based upon the default boot loader.

C:>bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Vista"
The entry was successfully copied to {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b}.

4. Type the following to change the device to D: drive. Note that the identifier is the one generated by step 3. This id is different for every boot loader. You have to replace it with the actual output when you create the boot loader.

C:>bcdedit /set {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b} device partition=D:
The operation completed successfully.

5. Type the following to change the osdevice to D: drive

C:>bcdedit /set {59cad9f6-de83-11dd-9d9e-c59ac6c2613b} osdevice partition=D:
The operation completed successfully.

When you are done, reboot the machine and you’ll see the option to boot to Vista.

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Technology blog for power users and admins