When ADPlus Can Be Used

ADPlus can create a detailed dump file in a variety of scenarios. This file contains debugging information that you must have to isolate the cause of problems that occur in complex environments.

When Should You Use ADPlus?

You should use ADPlus to capture debugging information if you are experiencing the following problems:

• Processes that stop responding (that is, hang).
• Processes that have 100 % CPU utilization on a single processor computer, 50 % utilization on a dual processor computer, 25 % utilization on a quad processor computer, and so on.
• Processes that fail (that is, crash) or shut down unexpectedly.

When Should You Not Use ADPlus?

You should not use ADPlus in the following situations:

• If you have to troubleshoot an application or process that ends unexpectedly during startup.

  You can use ADPlus only together with processes that start successfully. If you have to troubleshoot processes that end unexpectedly during startup, you should use CDB, WinDbg, or UserDump instead.

• If there is a noticeable performance effect when you use ADPlus in crash mode.

  This performance effect is typically caused by dynamic-link libraries (DLLs) or applications that throw many Microsoft Visual C++ EH exceptions (which occur when you use the C++ throw statement or when you use try/catch blocks). Applications that write lots of information to the debug output stream can also cause a decrease in performance. Frequently, ADPlus does not affect performance noticeably when it is running in crash mode.