The only reason I'm unsure it isn't a graceful crash issue is because of a previous user I had this problem with. As explained above his dump files were fine until he updated his drivers and bios. Suddenly the dump files changed from small memory dumps to mini kernel dumps and if it was down to a ungraceful crash wouldn't that be sporadic? Like some dump files would be worse than others.. I mean this was like a switch had been thrown. (I tried asking the user what if anything he changed but he hadn't changed anything settings wise)
The other way I've tried to approach this is to see how one would go about producing mini kernel dumps by design. Which settings would you need to change in order to just produce this type of dump file?
I'm not totally discounting either of your theories as they all sound plausible and I thank you guys for putting up with my incessant ravings.
