How to Read Blue Screen of Death Minidump Files
1. The first thing you must do ultimately is have your computer encounter the Blue Screen of Death. If you've already been having this issue in the past, that is fine as you may already have the Minidump file on your computer.The first thing you must do to get this minidump is click Start, go to run and type C:\Windows\Minidump and hit enter. This should bring up a new window. Copy the most recent Minidump and paste it to your desktop.
2. Next you need the program that is capable of reading the minidump file. The program you need is Debugging Tools for Windows and it can be found here on Microsoft's webpage: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx
3. After you installed the Debugging Tools for Windows next you need your operating systems. You can find them here: http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/symbolpkg.mspx#dAlways download the latest symbols for your operating system.
4. After you install the symbols, run Debugging Tools for Windows. The first thing you must do is locate the symbols path. You can do this by clicking File at the top left, and then Symbol File Path. Now in this window click Browse. What you must do is locate the Symbols folder. The installation from Step 3 should by default install to C:\Windows\Symbols. So once you locate the Symbols folder and hit ok, it should look something like this:Once you have the symbol file path displayed, hit ok.
5. Now you drag and drop the minidump file into Debugging Tools for Windows. The file will begin to process. It will cease shortly after. Once the file stops, you will see a !analyze -v in blue. Click that, and Debugging Tools for Windows will now begin to process the minidump so that you can read it.