Strange "Dumprep" Crash

We've had two fatal system crashes this week while using AOL. The system freezes in blue screen, requiring a manual shut off and restart. Upon reboot, I notice a new entry in the startup tab of msconfig: It's named "dumprep 0 -k" and it's listed as %systemroot%\system32\dumprep 0 -k.

After a day, the entry disappears (at least the last one did).

Any idea what this is, what it means, and what I should do about it? We're using a Dell Inspiron 500 m with 512 RAM and XP home.

 

As quoted from site:
http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist_d.htm

Windows Error Reporting Dump Reporting Tool. Found on Windows XP/2003. It shows as a startup item whose execution line usually reads as "KernelFaultCheck" %systemroot%\system32\dumprep 0 "“k. DUMPREP creates memory dump reports that you can send to Microsoft if you answer "Yes" when prompted to send such reports. In our experience this entry only shows up for the first time after your PC has experienced a Windows XP "dump" crash, or an Office XP or Internet Explorer 6 crash where you were prompted about sending the crash results to Microsoft.

Recommendation :
It is our experience that having Error Reporting set to ON only causes more crashes. The mind boggles at this : in both Netscape and Internet Explorer our experience shows that if you turn error reporting ON, you will crash often in either browser, if not sometimes always !! You’ve guessed it, avoid Error Reporting like the plague. In both Windows XP and Windows 2003 turn it OFF by opening the SYSTEM icon in the Control Panel, choosing the ADVANCED tab, and then clicking on Error Reporting.

 

Wow! So Ann, if I read that right, it seems to be saying that the crashes may be the result of windows error reporting itself.

Can I safely assume, then, that there's not some other flaw in my system that the dumprep and crashes are responding to?

 

Okay, ya' got me! ......guilty of not fully reading the "cut and paste" I supplied. If so I would have edited or written my own recommendation. Obviously this snippet reflects the opinion of the writer, not the paster. In any case the gist is not that error reporting causes the original crash and dumpfile but causes additional crashes while trying to send the nfo.

Again this is the opinion of the original writer not mine. Although I have turned my error reporting off [with the option of notifying me when an error occurs]. It had nothing to do with an increase in crashes. I just found it annoying. I have used Dr Watson to climb all over these dump files and am usually able to gleam enough nfo from the files to figure out what is ******** up.

Your crashes, of course, can come from anywhere, anytime, and any direction, flawed or otherwise. The value of the dumpcheck file is dependant upon many factors. I was just trying to give you a reference and answer to your primary question. How deeply you wished to delve into the "dumpcheck" file would have been up to you based on your own personal quest or further questioning.

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This is a good article that may also include the nfo you needed to understand why the url appeared and disappeared:
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cach...gforWER.doc+dumprep&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=UTF-8

Additional nfo here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/home/using/productdoc/en/sysdm_fault_reporting_overview.asp

Need more????....See:
http://search.microsoft.com/search/...0&c=&st=b&qu=windows+xp+error+reporting&na=54