2007-05-16 08:07:02 · 7 answers · asked by ™ ♥♥♥ 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
When a computer generates a dump, it is giving you the contents of its memory at a specfic time (the memory that's on the motherboard, not the drive); it's generally displayed/printed in hexidecimal (base 16) format. For someone who knows how to read a dump, this can tell them where a program crashed, and the contents of registers and variables, and help them in diagnosing what is wrong that caused the crash in the first place.
The kind of dump you see to day most often is the dreaded "blue screen of death," which is generally a dump of video memory, but it serves the same purpose for someone who knows how to use it.
2007-05-16 08:10:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Ditto the first and third answers above. I was a systems programmer in "the old days". A dump helped diagnose system problems because one who was familiar with, not only the content of programs, but their locations in memory, could determine what program was running, and when, and could determine, for example, what, for instance, a program had for, say, the value in its "register 8". (Assembler programs on an IBM mainframe work with 16 "registers".) So that, certain math operations won't work if performed with an incorrect pair of numbers in two "registers..."
The system programmer might then be able to determine where to change assembler program instructions in order to prevent the problem in the future.
2007-05-16 15:24:40 · answer #2 · answered by fjpoblam 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
In the "old" days when a mainframe program would "blow up", (maybe due to trying to add a number to a bad field), a ream of paper would come out. On that would be the contents of the mainframe computer in hexadecimal language. A programmer could then see all the values for his program and what might have happened. Now that we have debugging tools, a dump is no longer needed.
2007-05-16 15:11:02 · answer #3 · answered by I'm all yours 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
you most likely mean a memory dump.
memory dumps are completely useless to the modern computer user, but still hold value to power users and support agents.
It provides a snapshot of the contents of all of a system's memory so that it can be examined for errors that caused a big enough error to crash a piece of 3rd party software and/or the operating system.
2007-05-16 15:41:49 · answer #4 · answered by guitarjeff1112 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be a junkyard for computers but what I suspect you are looking for is a complete removal of all data on a computer.
2007-05-16 15:11:00 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 4⤋
its held in my backyard where very nice people like you donate their old pcs to me!
2007-05-16 15:31:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
those little black spots on your carpet behind the tower.....hehehe
2007-05-16 15:11:22 · answer #7 · answered by megasparks0101 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋