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BOOT CAMP 338 (10/08/04)
WHEN XP GOES WRONG... part 5
As we have seen over the
last few weeks Windows XP is chock full of tools that can help PC users repair
or restore a dead or ailing computer. This week we’ll round off this short
series on troubleshooting with a look at a diagnostic utility that can sometimes
help with some of the more obscure problems that afflict XP.
Event Viewer is a little
known program that operates in the background automatically logging the
important goings on inside your computer. These include error messages and
warnings generated by your PC’s hardware, Windows and the programs that you are
using.
Windows XP tackles most
trivial or routine glitches without ever bothering you but when a more
persistent problem arises the Event Viewer can help you or an engineer to
quickly isolate the fault or even suggest a possible solution by interrogating
the huge error message database at the Microsoft Help and Support Centre.
The records kept by
Event Viewer fall into three broad categories. The Application Log relates to
error messages from programs other than Windows; the Security Log keeps tabs on
attempts to logon to your PC and System Log tracks Windows events such as the
times it was booted up and shut down and the successful (or otherwise) loading
of drivers and system files.
It’s worth taking a look
at the Event Viewer to familiarise yourself with its various features, whilst
your Windows PC is working normally...
Double-click Administrative Tools in Control Panel then double-click
Event Viewer and a two-pane dialogue box open with the three event logs
displayed in a familiar directory type layout. Double click on one of the logs
and the contents are shown in the right hand pane.
Events are classified in
one of three ways. A blue ‘i’ on a white background indicates information,
detailing the time, date and nature of a normal event or successful operation. A
black exclamation mark in a yellow triangle warns that something might be wrong
or is about to happen and should be investigated at your earliest convenience. A
white cross in a red circle indicates a significant error message, something
potentially serious may have occurred and it should be checked straight away. If
you see any red error symbols listed during your current session don’t panic,
it’s probably nothing but it is a good idea to save any open files or documents
and ensure that your backups are up to date.
Before we delve into
warning signs and error messages let’s look at some of the other data stored by
Event Viewer. If you want to keep an eye on other people using your PC you can
check the times it was booted up and shut down on the System Log. Event Viewer
records this as the times it started and stopped monitoring your PC, i.e. ‘The
Eventlog Service was started’ or ‘The Eventlog service was stopped’. If other
authorised users need a password to access files on the PC you can also check
the times they logged on and off by double-clicking the Security
Log.
By default Event Viewer
displays everything that happens but as you will see this generates a vast
amount of information, most of it apparently meaningless, but for more detailed
investigations it can be set to only display events of a particular type. To do
that go to Filter on the View menu, on the General tab you can set the size of
log files and how long they are kept, on the Filter tab you can specify the
nature of the event you are interested in
(Information, Warning, Error, Success, Failure), and further narrow your
search by specifying the ‘Event Source’ and ‘Category’ on two drop-down
menus.
If you see any yellow or
red warning symbols you can find out what they mean by double-clicking the
entry. This opens a dialogue box with a brief explanation but most of the time
it will look like complete gibberish. You may be lucky with something more
concise, like ‘Failed to connect to server’ or ‘Error detected on device
Cdrom1’, which might give you an inkling of what has been happening.
If a warning or error
message relates to a previous session and you didn’t notice any problems then it
can usually be safely ignored. However, if the same error or warning message
keeps appearing then it should be investigated. Double-click the most recent
occurrence and click the Help and Support centre web link. You will be shown the
details of the information Event Viewer will send, which in most cases is
perfectly innocuous containing only anonymous technical data. If you have a
firewall on your PC (and if you haven’t, why not?) you may be asked to grant
permission for Event Viewer to access the Internet. You can safely agree and
your error message will be checked to see if there’s match in the MS database,
and a solution and if found the results will be displayed in a few
seconds.
Don’t expect
miracles, Event Viewer is mainly intended for experts and there is a fair chance
that all you will see is yet more gibberish, but this might very well prove
useful to an engineer or a software helpline, so click the print button and keep
it safe.
Next week – XP Service Pack 2
JARGON FILTER
DRIVER
Small
program or data file that tells Windows how to communicate with a particular
piece of hardware, like a mouse, printer, web cam etc.
FIREWALL
Program that monitors an Internet connection, preventing
unauthorised access by hackers. Most firewalls also stop programs on your PC
using your Internet connection without permission
SYSTEM
FILES
Important
files that configure Windows during boot-up, telling the operating system what
settings to use, what software is loaded and the hardware or peripherals
attached to the PC
TIP OF THE WEEK
It’s worth checking the Event Viewer every so often, to keep
an eye on your PC’s general health and a good way to remind you to do just that
it is to use WinAlarm. This handy little freeware program can be set to remind
you to do things with a colour-coded on-screen display and sound at a
predetermined time or date, or repeatedly at daily, weekly, monthly or yearly
intervals. It also has a ‘snooze’ button if you don’t need reminding… The
program is suitable for all recent versions of Windows (98, SE, ME, 2K, XP), its multi-lingual, the
download is 913kb and it can be found at: http://winalarm.neostrada.pl/
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