Known Scenarios Where WER or Dump Creation May Fail
1.Insufficient Disk Space:
If the configured dump type is set to full or kernel and the target volume lacks sufficient space, Windows Error Reporting (WER) may silently fall back to generating a minidump or fail to create a dump altogether
2.: Registry Misconfiguration:
WER relies on specific registry keys under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps
. If these keys are missing or misconfigured (e.g., incorrect values for DumpFolder
, DumpType
, or DumpCount
), dump creation may fail intermittently.
- Application Exit Timing;
If the crashing application exits too quickly or the crash is not properly detected by WER, the dump may not be triggered. This is especially common in fast-failing services or background processes.
4.Customer Process Interference;
If a custom process attempts to create a dump while WER is also active, contention or timing issues may occur, preventing successful dump generation. This dual-handling can lead to inconsistent results.
- Dump Type Limitations;
Minidumps contain limited diagnostic information and may not be sufficient for analyzing certain types of crashes. Configuring WER to generate full dumps can improve reliability and provide more comprehensive debugging data.