I have a vista SP1 based Toshiba M400. As we tend to regularly dogfood software builds internally I also assist with self hosting any software builds I am interested in. These builds are not perfect and sometimes they cause laptops to hang, deplete resources etc...

I've not done much to generate crash dumps and have always had one "helpfully" created for me. I have had the "pleasure" of having to use the instructions in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/244139 article for servers in the past but never used it on a laptop. When I recently had the need to use crashonctrlscroll I was annoyed to discover my laptop had no right Ctrl key. I figured I'd use a USB keyboard but as per http://support.microsoft.com/kb/944564 the feature is not available using USB keyboards. At least not on Windows Server 2008. Not sure if it applies to Vista too but it wouldn't surprise me if it did.

I unlocked my session from last night only to see the spinning donut (although it wasnt spinning) and the desktop as it last was. No response to keyboard and mouse input. I just tried to use the normal Ctrl +Function+ F12 and was "pleasantly" surprised when it did do the crash dump. Note my M400 needs Fn + F12 for scroll lock. I didn't have a USB keyboard attached although I do have the steps from the 1st KB applied.

So there you go. You can generate crash dumps on laptops running Vista even without the right Ctrl.

HTH

M