Determining the Source of the Problem


One of the ongoing mysteries that all computer users experience at one time or another is what might be called the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t problem. This is a glitch that plagues you for a while and then mysteriously vanishes without any intervention on your part. (This also tends to occur when you ask a nearby user or someone from the IT department to look at the problem. Like the automotive problem that goes away when you take the car to a mechanic, computer problems will often resolve themselves as soon as a knowledgeable user sits down at the keyboard.) When this happens, most people just shake their heads and resume working, grateful to no longer have to deal with the problem.

Unfortunately, most computer ills don’t get resolved so easily. For these more intractable problems, your first order of business is to track down the source of the snag. This is, at best, a black art, but it can be done if you take a systematic approach. Over the years, we’ve found that the best method is to ask a series of questions designed to gather the required information and/or to narrow down clues to the culprit. Here are the questions:

  • Did you get an error message? Most computer error messages are obscure and do little to help you resolve a problem directly. However, error codes and error text can help you down the road, either by giving you something to search for in an online database (see “Troubleshooting Using Online Resources,” later in this chapter) or by providing information to a tech support person. Therefore, you should always write down the full text of any error message that appears.

    Tip

    If the error message is lengthy and you can still use other programs on your computer, don’t bother writing down the full message. Instead, while the message is displayed, press Print Screen to place an image of the current screen on the clipboard. Then open Paint or some other graphics program, paste the screen into a new image, and save the image. If you think you’ll be sending the image via e-mail to a tech support employee or someone else who can help with the problem, consider saving the image as a monochrome or 16-color bitmap to keep the image size small.

    Insider Secret

    If the error message appears before Windows XP starts, but you don’t have time to write it down, press the Pause/Break key to pause the startup. After you record the error, press Ctrl+Pause/Break to resume the startup.

  • Does an error or warning appear in the Event Viewer logs? Open the Event Viewer and examine the Application and System logs for errors or warnings. See Chapter 12 for more information on the Event Viewer.

  • Does an error appear in System Information? Select Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information to launch the System Information utility. In the Hardware Resources\Conflicts/ Sharing category, look for device conflicts. See if any devices are listed in the Components\Problem Devices category.

  • Does the onset of the error coincide with a past hardware or software change? In the System Information utility, select View, System History. This displays a history of the changes made to your system in each of the main categories: Hardware Resources, Components, and Software Environment. If you know when the problem began, you can look through the history items to see if a change occurred at the same time and so might be the cause of the problem.

  • Did you recently edit the registry? Improper registry modifications can cause all kinds of mischief. If the problem occurred after editing the registry, try restoring the changed key or setting. (Ideally, if you have previously exported a backup of the now-offending key, you should import the backup. See Chapter 2, “Getting the Most Out of the Registry,” to learn how to back up the registry.)

  • Did you recently change any Windows settings? If the problem started after you changed your Windows configuration, try reversing the change. Even something as seemingly innocent as starting the screen saver can cause problems, so don’t rule anything out.

  • Did Windows XP “spontaneously” reboot? This apparently random behavior is actually built into the system in the event of a system failure (also called a stop error or a blue screen of death). By default, Windows XP writes an error event to the System log, dumps the contents of memory into a file, and then reboots the system. So if your system reboots, check the Event Viewer to see what happened. You can control how Windows XP handles system failures by launching Control Panel’s System icon, selecting the Advanced tab, and then clicking Settings in the Startup And Recovery section of the dialog box. Figure 13-1 shows the Startup And Recovery dialog box that appears. The System Failure section of the dialog box has the following controls:

click to expand
Figure 13-1: Use the Event Viewer to monitor events generated by applications and Windows XP

  • Write An Event To The System Log Leave this check box selected in order to have the system failure recorded in the System log.

  • Send An Administrative Alert If you’re on a network and this option is selected, Windows XP sends an alert message to the administrator of the network when a system failure occurs.

  • Automatically Restart This is the option that, when selected, causes your system to reboot when a stop error occurs. Clear this check box to avoid the reboot.

  • Write Debugging Information This list determines what information Windows XP saves to disk (in the folder specified in the text box below the list) when a system failure occurs. This information—called a memory dump—contains data that can help a tech-support employee determine the cause of the problem. You have four choices:

  • None No debugging information is written.

  • Small Memory Dump (64 KB) This option writes the minimum amount of useful information that could be used to identify what caused the stop error. This 64-KB file includes the stop error number and its description, the list of running device drivers, and the processor state.

  • Kernel Memory Dump This option writes the contents of the kernel memory to the disk. (The kernel is the Windows XP component that manages low-level functions for processor-related activities such as scheduling and dispatching threads, handling interrupts and exceptions, and synchronizing multiple processors.) This dump includes memory allocated to the kernel, the hardware abstraction layer, and the drivers and programs used by the kernel. Unallocated memory and memory allocated to user programs are not included in the dump. This information is the most useful for troubleshooting, so we recommend using this option.

  • Complete Memory Dump This option writes the entire contents of RAM to the disk.

    Caution

    Windows XP first writes the debugging information to the paging file—Pagefile.sys in the %SystemDrive%. (Note that this is not affected if you choose to purge the contents of the paging file at shutdown, as we discuss in Chapter 4.) When you restart the computer, Windows XP then transfers the information to the dump file. Therefore, you need to have a large enough paging file to handle the memory dump. This is particularly true for the Complete Memory Dump option, which requires the paging file to be as large as the physical RAM, plus one megabyte. The file size of the Kernel Memory Dump is typically about a third of physical RAM, although it may be as large as 800 MB. We show you how to check and adjust the size of the paging file in Chapter 11, “Optimizing Performance.”

  • Overwrite Any Existing File When this option is selected, Windows XP overwrites any existing dump file with the new dump information. If you clear this check box, Windows XP creates a new dump file with each system failure. Note that this option is enabled only for the Kernel Memory Dump and the Complete Memory Dump (which write to the same file by default: %SystemRoot% \Memory.dmp).

  • Did you recently change any application settings? If so, try reversing the change to see if it solves the problem. If that doesn’t help, check to see if an upgrade or patch is available. Also, some applications come with a “Repair” option that can fix corrupted files. Otherwise, try reinstalling the program.

    Note

    If a program freezes, you won’t be able to shut it down using conventional methods. If you try, you may see a dialog box warning you that the program is not responding. If so, click End Now to force the program to close. Alternatively, right-click the taskbar and then select Task Manager. When you select the Applications tab, you should see your stuck application listed, and the Status column will likely say Not responding. Click the program and then click End Task.

  • Did you recently install a new program? If you suspect a new program is causing system instability, restart Windows XP and try operating the system for a while without using the new program. (If the program has any components that load at startup, be sure to clear them, as we describe in Chapter 4, “Starting Up and Shutting Down.”) If the problem doesn’t reoccur, the new program is likely the culprit. Try using the program without any other programs running. You should also examine the program’s “readme” file (if it has one) to look for known problems and possible workarounds. It’s also a good idea to check for a Windows XP–compatible version of the program. Again, you can also try the program’s “Repair” option, or you can reinstall the program.

    Insider Secret

    One common cause of program errors is having one or more program files corrupted because of bad hard-disk sectors. Before you reinstall a program, run a surface check on your hard disk to identify and block off bad sectors. We show you how to do a hard-disk surface scan in Chapter 12.

  • Did you recently upgrade an existing program? If so, try uninstalling the upgrade.

    Tip

    When a program crashes, Windows XP displays a dialog box to let you know and asks whether you want to send an error report to Microsoft. If you never choose to send the report, this dialog box can be annoying. To turn it off, launch Control Panel’s System icon, select the Advanced tab, and then click Error Reporting. Select the Disable Error Reporting option. To continue informing Microsoft of problems in Windows XP, but not problems in application programs, leave the Enable Error Reporting option selected and clear the Programs check box.

  • Did you recently install a new device or update a device driver? If so, check Device Manager to see if there’s a problem with the device. Follow our troubleshooting suggestions in Chapter 9, “Installing and Troubleshooting Devices.”

  • Did you recently install a device driver that is not Windows XP– compatible? As we explain in Chapter 9, Windows XP allows you to install drivers that aren’t Windows XP–certified, but it also warns you that this is a bad idea. Incompatible drivers are one of the most common sources of system instability, so whenever possible you should uninstall the driver and install one that is designed for Windows XP. Windows XP automatically sets a system restore point before it installs the driver, so if you can’t uninstall the driver, you should use that to restore the system to its previous state. (See “Recovering Using System Restore,” later in this chapter.)

  • Did you recently apply an update from Windows update? Before you install an update from the Windows Update site, Windows XP creates a system restore point (usually called Windows Update V4). If your system becomes unstable after installing the update, use System Restore to revert to the preupdate configuration.

    Insider Secret

    If you have Windows XP set up to perform automatic updating, you can keep tabs on the changes made to your system by examining the Windows Update.log file, which you’ll find in the %SystemRoot% folder. You can also review your Windows Update changes by going to the Windows Update site (select Start, All Programs, Windows Update) and clicking the View Installation History link.

  • Did you recently install a Windows XP hotfix or service pack? It’s ironic that hotfixes and service packs that are designed to increase system stability will occasionally do the opposite and cause more problems than they fix.

    • If you’ve applied a hotfix, you can often remove it using Control Panel’s Add Or Remove Programs icon. Look for a “Windows XP Hotfix” entry in the Change Or Remove Programs list. If you have multiple hotfixes listed, make sure you remove the correct one. To be sure, check with either the Microsoft Security site or the Microsoft Knowledge Base, both of which we discuss later. Note, however, that many hotfixes cannot be uninstalled. You can try using System Restore to revert to a recent restore point, but there’s no guarantee this will work.

    • If you installed a service pack and you elected to save the old system files, then you can uninstall the service pack using Control Panel’s Add Or Remove Programs icon. Look for a “Windows XP Service Pack” entry in the Change Or Remove Programs list.




Insider Power Techniques for Microsoft Windows XP
Insider Power Techniques for Microsoft Windows XP (Bpg-Other)
ISBN: 0735618968
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 126

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