Troubleshooting Of Common Problems

Some common Windows problems don’t fall into any category other than "common Windows
problems." They include the following:
General Protection Faults (GPFs) A general protection fault (GPF) happens in Windows
when a program accesses memory that another program is using or when a program accesses
a memory address that doesn’t exist. Generally, GPFs are the result of sloppy programming.
To fix this type of problem, a simple reboot will usually clear memory. If GPFs keep occurring,
check to see which software is causing the error. Then find out if the manufacturer of the software
has a patch to prevent it from GPFing.
Illegal Operation Occasionally a program will quit, apparently for no reason, and present
you with a window that says This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut
down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor. An illegal operation error usually
means that a program was forced to quit because it did something Windows didn’t like. Windows
then displays this error window. The name of the program that quit appears at the top
of the window, along with three buttons: OK, Cancel, and Details. The OK and Cancel buttons
do the same thing: dismiss the window. The Details button opens the window a little farther
and shows the details of the error, including which module experienced the problem, the
memory location being accessed at the time, and the registers and flags of the processor at
the time of the error.
System Lock-Up It is obvious when a system lockup occurs. The system simply stops responding
to commands and stops processing completely. System lockups can occur when a computer
is asked to process too many instructions at once with too little memory. Usually, the cure for
a system lockup is to reboot. If the lockups are persistent, it may be a hardware-related problem
instead of a software problem.
Dr. Watson Windows 2000 and Windows XP include a special utility known as Dr. Watson.
This utility intercepts all error conditions and, instead of presenting the user with a cryptic
Windows error, displays a slew of information that can be used to troubleshoot the problem.
Failure to Start GUI Occasionally, the Windows GUI won’t appear. The system will hang
just before the GUI appears. Or, sometimes, the Blue Screen of Death (BSOD)—not a technical
term, by the way—appears. The BSOD is another way of describing the blue-screen error
condition that occurs when Windows 2000/XP fails to boot properly or quits unexpectedly.
Because it is at this stage that the device drivers for the various pieces of hardware are installed,
if your Windows GUI fails to start properly, more than likely the problem is related to a misconfigured
driver or misconfigured hardware. Try booting Windows in safe mode to bypass
this problem.

Option (Sound Card, Modem, SCSI Card, or Input Device) Will Not Function When you
are using Windows, you are constantly interacting with pieces of hardware. Each piece of
hardware has a Windows driver that must be loaded in order for Windows to be able to use
it. In addition, the hardware must be installed and functioning properly. If the device driver
is not installed properly or the hardware is misconfigured, the device won’t function properly.

Cannot Log On to the Network (Option—NIC Not Functioning) If your computer is
hooked up to a network (and more and more computers today are), you need to know when
your computer is not functioning on the network properly and what to do about it. In most
cases, the problem can be attributed to either a malfunctioning network interface card (NIC)
or improperly installed network software. The biggest indicator in Windows that some component
of the network software is nonfunctional is that you can’t log on to the network or
access any network service. To fix this problem, you must first fix the underlying hardware
problem (if one exists) and then properly install or configure the network software.

Application Will Not Install We’ve all experienced this frustration. You are trying to install
the coolest new program, and, for whatever reason, it just won’t install properly. It may give you
one of the previously mentioned errors or a cryptic installation error. If a software program
won’t install and it gives you any of the errors we’ve mentioned (such as a GPF or illegal operation),
use the solutions for those errors first. If the error that occurs during install is unique to
the application being installed, check the application manufacturer’s website for an explanation
or update. These errors generally occur when you’re trying to install over an application that
already exists or when you’re trying to replace a file that already exists but that another application
has in use. When you’re installing an application, it is extremely important that you first
quit all running programs so the installer can replace any files it needs to.

Application Will Not Start Once you have an application successfully installed, you may
run into a problem getting it to start properly. This problem can come from any number of
sources, including an improper installation, a software conflict, or system instability. If your
application was installed incorrectly, the files required to properly run the program may not
be present, and the program can’t function without them. If a shared file that’s used by other
programs is installed, it could be a different version than should be installed that causes conflicts
with other already-installed programs. Finally, if one program GPFs, it can cause memory
problems that can destabilize the system and cause other programs to crash. The solution
to these problems is to uninstall and reinstall the offending application, first making sure that
all programs are closed.

Invalid Working Directory Some Windows programs are extremely processor intensive.
These programs require an area on the hard disk to store their temporary files while they
work. This area is commonly known as a working directory, and its location is usually specified
during that program’s installation. However, if that directory changes after installation
and the program still thinks its working directory is in the same location, the program will
issue an error that says something such as Invalid working directory. The solution is to reinstall
the program with the correct parameters for the working directory.