In various embodiments, a technique can be provided to address debug efficiency for failures found on an operational system. The approach can make use of an existing pin on a memory device with added logic to respond to a trigger signal structured different from a signal that is normally sent to the existing pin on the memory device such that the memory device performs a normal or routine function of the memory device in response to the signal. In response to detecting one or more error conditions associated with the memory device, a system that interfaces with the memory device can generate the trigger signal to the memory device. In response to receiving the trigger signal, the memory device can dump an error log of the memory device to a memory component in the memory device. The error log can later be retrieved from the memory component for failure analysis.