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Scott Jernigan
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Computers crash. No one can change that fact. We live our day-to-day computing lives with the constant threat of a catastrophic computer problem hanging over our heads.
Fortunately, while no one can eliminate the threat of a crash, you can learn to fix these problems when they occur. This lesson covers some of the tools and techniques you’ll need to fix a temperamental computer.
Chapter 2 starts things off with fixing operating system crashes and application crashes. You’ll run into these problems about as frequently as any others on your PC, so knowing how to fix them can save you lots of frustration. We’ll look at driver rollback, patch installation, and using the Programs and Features applet to uninstall troublesome programs.
Chapter 3 takes you through the process of fixing a computer that won’t start or that starts slowly. You’ll look at the various startup modes you can use when you load an operating system that won’t boot normally. Then you’ll learn about the System Configuration utility, which speeds up slow-booting computers.
Chapter 4 rounds out the lesson by teaching you about video and sound problems. These often happen because of driver issues, but there are some unique configuration concerns to look at, as well.
Now let’s get started, shall we?
A frozen screen. No response from the mouse. How many hours of work did you just lose? Crashes can turn love and affection for the PC to distrust and disgust. Windows crashes and application crashes require you to take different steps, so let's look at both.
If you use computers long enough, you'll eventually run into an operating system crash. Often, these result from faulty device drivers. Device driver problems that stop the Windows GUI from loading look pretty scary. Many Windows users have experienced the infamous Windows Stop error, better known as the Blue Screen of Death (BSoD). It appears only when something causes an error from which Windows can't recover.
Buggy device drivers can cause BSoDs. When Windows tries to run a device driver that doesn't work for a particular device, the device responds in a way the OS doesn't expect or know how to handle. To avoid damaging hardware, Windows just stops working and displays a BSoD to let you know why.
The Device Manager in Windows enables you to work with all the drivers installed on the computer. It displays the current status of devices: working, not working, or disabled. You can use this tool to install and update drivers, and to roll back drivers if necessary. Here's how to access it.
But Which Driver's At Fault?
To use this feature effectively, you need to figure out which driver to roll back.
Once you've rolled back the driver, go to the device manufacturer's website to look for new drivers that might fix the problem.
If troubleshooting drivers doesn't work, try installing patches and fixes for the operating system. Typically, Microsoft finds and corrects problems with its software and releases patches on the second Tuesday of every month. Updating the OS prevents malware attacks and can fix errors, or bugs, in the system.
The Internet has enabled Microsoft to make updates available, and Windows Update can grab those updates and patch user systems easily and automatically. Even if you don't want to allow Windows Update to patch a computer automatically, it'll nag about updates until you or the user patches the system. Microsoft provides the Windows Update service for all versions of Windows.
Unfortunately, applications crash even more than Windows does. Many times, the application becomes frozen or unresponsive. Troubleshooting a crashed program means finding a way to shut down a frozen program and then either updating or reinstalling it.
Instead of the Device Manager, use the Task Manager to deal with problem programs. What can you do with this useful tool?
Kill frozen programs: Open the Task Manager by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ESC. To end an unresponsive program, click the Applications tab. You'll see a list of all currently active programs with a status indicator to the right of them. If you see a program that says Not Responding instead of Running, select the program by clicking it. Then click the End Task button at the bottom of the window.
Troubleshoot based on resource use: Click the Performance tab to reveal a handy screen with the most commonly used information: CPU usage, available physical memory, size of the disk cache, commit charge (memory for programs), and kernel memory (memory that Windows uses). A system with a multi-core processor shows two or more graphs for CPU activity, while a system with a single-core processor has a single graph.
Turn off processes that hog memory: If the computer runs sluggishly and the hard drive activity light (one of the blinking lights on the front of your PC case) flickers nonstop, there's a lack of free memory. The memory controller has most likely grabbed some hard drive space to use as virtual memory. If you go into Task Manager and see no available system memory, you'll know that Windows has engaged the page file (in other words, the virtual memory) on the hard drive. To make the PC run faster, you have to start unloading programs . . . but which ones? By going into the Processes tab in Task Manager, you can see which processes use the most memory.
Caution!
Don't shut down processes you don't recognize. The computer might need those programs to function properly.
Once you've used the Task Manager to end any troublesome applications, see if those applications have any patches you can install. Often, applications will have a feature that enables you to download and install a patch from within the application. Check the Help menu for an option called "Check for Updates" or something similar. In XnView, a program that enables you to view graphics and photos, it looks like this.
If the program you use doesn't have such a feature, hop on the Internet and go to the developer's website. To get updates for Adobe Photoshop, for example, go to www.adobe.com. Almost every software company has a link on its home page to a support or downloads page, so look for those words when browsing.
Many sites' support pages have an area where you can type in a product name. If not, you'll probably see a drop-down list of all the company's products. When you've found the download link for the correct patch, right-click the link, select Save Link As (or the equivalent option for your browser), and save the file to an easy-to-find location on your computer. I usually just use my desktop.
When the patch finishes downloading, double-click the executable file. After that, follow the on-screen installation instructions.
If installing a patch doesn't fix the problem, try reinstalling the program. To do this, you'll first need to uninstall the program.
To uninstall a program, use the Programs and Features applet in the Control Panel. When you open that applet, you'll see a list of all the currently installed programs on your system. Depending on the version of Windows you're using, you may need to click Programs before you see the Programs and Features applet.
Select the program you want to uninstall and click the Uninstall button. (The button name changes depending on the options available with a particular program. Sometimes you'll see Uninstall; other times you'll see Uninstall/Change. Other variations occur as well.)
When the program has finished uninstalling, reinstall it using either the disc it came on or by downloading it again and running the installation program.
Installing drivers and patches sometimes works, but what do you do when a computer won't even load Windows? That's the topic of Chapter 3.
Microsoft includes a couple of tools that help you fix an otherwise inaccessible operating system. Advanced Boot Options enables you to start the OS even when it won't boot normally. The System Configuration utility enables you to select which programs start when your computer loads. The computer will boot faster when it loads fewer programs initially.
If Windows fails to start, use the Windows Advanced Boot Options menu to discover the cause. The menu enables you to choose a special startup mode that can get you past any pesky issues. To get to this menu, restart the computer, and press F8 after the POST messages (the first text displayed as the computer boots) but before the Windows logo screen appears. The menus differ among the three most common versions of Windows, though all versions of the OS offer some features, such as Safe Mode.
Note
Some computers use the F8 key for making changes to the boot order. Because this comes up before the Advanced Boot Options menu, you'll need to use the F5 key to get to a different Startup Options menu. From that screen, you can press F8 to get to the Advanced Boot Options.
Today we'll talk about the four most important Advanced Boot Options:
Repair Your Computer (Windows 7/Vista): If you're working on a Windows 7 machine, there's a Repair Your Computer option that opens the graphical Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE) for troubleshooting. You can let Windows repair itself or use one of the tools available on the System Recovery Options menu. The most important tool for dealing with a failed Windows 7 boot is Startup Repair.
Although I only discuss Startup Repair here, the other System Recovery Options give you powerful tools for repairing and troubleshooting Windows. In Lesson 5, we'll talk about the System Restore utility. See this lesson's FAQs for a discussion of the other options.
Windows Vista also offers the Windows RE, but only when you boot to the Windows DVD. It's not available as an Advanced Boot Options option.
Startup Repair: The Startup Repair utility serves as a one-stop, do-it-all option. Here's what it looks like.
When you run it, it performs a number of repairs. You don't even have to know what all these options mean to realize that Startup Repair fixes almost any Windows boot problem:
If you have a system with one hard drive containing a single partition with Windows Vista or Windows 7 installed, you'd have trouble finding something Startup Repair couldn't fix.
Safe Mode (All Versions): Safe Mode starts up Windows but loads only very basic, non-vendor-specific drivers for mouse, keyboard, mass storage, and system services. This mode starts up using standard graphics card drivers too.
Once in Safe Mode, you can use tools such as Device Manager to locate and correct the problem. When you use Device Manager in Safe Mode, you can access the properties for all the devices, even those that aren't working in Safe Mode. The status displayed for the device is the status for a normal startup. Even the network card will show as enabled.
You can disable any suspect device or perform other tasks, such as removing or updating drivers. If a problem with a device driver is preventing the operating system from starting normally, check the Device Manager for warning icons that indicate an unknown device.
Safe Mode With Networking (All Versions): This mode is identical to plain Safe Mode except that you get network support. I use this mode to test for a problem with network drivers. If Windows won't start up normally but does start up in Safe Mode, I reboot into Safe Mode With Networking. If it fails to start up with Networking, the computer might have a corrupt network driver. Reboot back to Safe Mode, open Device Manager, and start disabling network components, beginning with the network adapter.
Last Known Good Configuration (All Versions): When Windows' startup fails immediately after installing a new driver but before you've logged on again, you may want to try the Last Known Good Configuration option. This can be a rather fickle and limited tool, but it never hurts to try it.
Techs use the System Configuration utility to edit and troubleshoot operating system and program startup processes and services. The tool enables you to disable one or more programs that start when Windows loads—without fear of any permanent damage if you disable something essential. You'll use System Configuration to speed up a slow-starting computer or to disable a potentially troublesome program temporarily.
Most commonly, you'll troubleshoot a system that boots very slowly and then doesn't seem all that snappy once Windows loads. A lot of programs install small parts of themselves into the Windows startup to make the program run more quickly when you need it. Others put a small helper program that automatically checks for updates to the software. Apple's iTunes music program, for example, installs both types of program. Install enough of these helper programs on a computer and it'll slow down both boot and operation speed.
Also, you can use the System Configuration utility to disable a program that you suspect has stopped Windows from booting normally. This comes in handy right after you've installed something that Windows doesn't seem to like. Even if you're troubleshooting someone else's computer and don't know when a program was installed, this still comes in handy.
Both uses of the System Configuration utility follow the same steps.
To start the System Configuration utility, go to Start > Run or Start > Start Search, type msconfig, and click OK or press ENTER. The program will run automatically in Windows XP; in Vista or 7, you may need to provide the necessary credentials or response, depending on the User Account Control (UAC) setup.
When the System Configuration window comes up, click the Startup tab to view a list of all the programs that start up when your computer boots. Each item in the list shows you the program's name, its manufacturer, its location on your hard drive—curiously listed under the Command heading—and the location of the program in your system's registry. You'll probably need to use a search engine to tell you what each of these programs does, but it's worth the time.
When you've pared down the list to just your essential programs, click OK. The next time you restart your computer, you'll notice it going much faster.
In the image above, you can see fewer than a dozen automatically starting programs, with four disabled. That computer boots quickly and runs smoothly.
Some friends bought a new Dell computer a few weeks ago. I went over for dinner one afternoon and tried to look something up on their new computer. Click. Ten to fifteen seconds later, Internet Explorer loaded. I kid you not! "Oh, yeah," I was assured, "it's been running super slowly for a week or so."
When I opened up the System Configuration utility—which took way more time than it should have—their computer had upwards of 30 programs automatically starting. There were all kinds of music download helpers and special utilities, two different antivirus programs, and more. After I deselected more than a dozen programs and rebooted, the computer ran great!
I got a call from one friend the next day though, complaining that her scanner didn't work. I had apparently stopped the scanner software from autostarting. A quick trip to her house and a minute or two in the System Configuration utility, and the scanner worked again.
That's the beauty of the System Configuration utility. I didn't have to uninstall or reinstall anything.
Now that we've looked at ways to solve start-up problems, let's explore video and audio difficulties.
You know when video or sound has problems. The screen looks bad. Nothing comes out of the speakers. Video problems are especially hard to fix because they can make the screen garbled or unusable. We're going to look at a few methods of troubleshooting video cards and monitors, and then we'll look at sound problems.
Video cards rarely go bad, so the vast majority of video card or driver problems have to do with bad or incompatible drivers or incorrect settings. Make sure you have the correct driver installed. If you use an incompatible driver, Windows defaults to the Vista or 7 Basic theme, which lacks the transparency effects you'd otherwise see in those operating systems. A suddenly corrupted driver usually doesn't show the problem until the next reboot.
If you reboot a system with a corrupted driver, Windows will do one of the following: display the basic theme (or go into VGA mode if you're using XP—most likely, everything will be very big and blurry), blank the monitor, lock up, or display a garbled screen. Whatever the output, reboot into Safe mode and roll back or delete the driver. More advanced video cards tend to show their drivers as installed programs under the Programs and Features applet, so check there first before you try deleting a driver by using Device Manager. Download the latest driver and reinstall.
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A display settings balloon is open that says "Your computer's screen resolution and color depth are currrently set to a very low level. You can get a better picture by increasing these settings. To do this, click this balloon."
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Video cards are durable, but they have two components that go bad: the fan and the RAM. Luckily for you, if either of these goes out, it tends to show the same error—bizarre screen outputs followed shortly by a screen lockup. Usually Windows keeps running; you may see the mouse pointer moving around and windows refreshing, but the screen turns into a huge mess.
Bad drivers sometimes also make this error, so try going into Safe Mode to see if the problem suddenly clears up. If it does, you don't have a problem with the video card! You've probably just improperly configured your video settings.
Fixing these errors depends on which OS you use, but they all start with right-clicking the desktop. Here's what to do next:
No matter how you get there, this screen works about the same. There's a slider that enables you to adjust the display resolution—basically, a measurement of how crisply the monitor displays an image. You'll also find a setting for color depth—a measurement of how many colors the monitor displays (though in Windows 7, this setting hides behind the Advanced button).
Never push a monitor's resolution too high. If you adjust the resolution and the monitor displays an error message such as "Input Signal Out of Range," you need to set the resolution back to something that works for the video card and monitor combination. Windows usually does this automatically.
Use common sense to identify configuration problems. If the monitor displays everything sideways, someone messed with the rotation settings. If a gorgeous image of a mountain pass looks like an ugly, four-color cartoon, someone lowered the color depth.
You can fix a substantial percentage of monitor problems yourself. Here are the most common monitor problems and what to do about them—even if that means taking the problem to someone else.
Some sound problems are simple to repair, while others seem impossible to fix. This section covers three areas: hardware problems, configuration problems, and application problems.
Hardware problems: With a couple of exceptions, hardware rarely causes problems, especially if your sound card has worked for some time already. Properly installed and configured sound cards almost never suddenly stop making sounds.
Check the speakers first. Make sure they're on and have electricity. Make sure the volume has not been turned down. Then make sure the speakers plugs are in the proper connection on the back of the sound card. These are the only common hardware problems.
If this all checks out, try playing a sound using any sound program. If the sound program looks like it's playing—maybe the application has an equalizer that's moving or a status marker that shows that the application's playing the sound—you may have blown speakers. Try another pair—or a pair of headphones—and see if the sound returns.
Most of the time, speakers come in a matched set, and the manufacturer includes adequate connecting wires. You might run into a system in which the user has connected pairs of speakers from different sets or rigged a surround-sound system by replacing the stock wires with much longer ones. Either option can create a perfectly functional surround-sound system that works for a specific room, but make sure all the speakers require the same wattage and that there's high-quality wire connecting them.
If you troubleshoot a system in which two of the speakers are quiet and two are loud, the wattages are probably different between the two pairs. Check the labels, or swap out one pair for a different pair and see if that affects the volume issues. Cheap wire, on the other hand, simply degrades the sound quality. If the speakers sounded good before someone strung them on long wires but now have a lot of low-grade noise, blame the wires.
Configuration problems: These occur when the sound card's physically good but the configuration of some setting is wrong. Configuration problems occur with software volume controls and drivers. The Windows sound utility also can cause problems.
Check the software volume controls. I can't tell you the number of times I've "lost" sound only to discover that someone had turned down the volume or muted the computer. If you're not getting sound, open the volume controls in Windows by clicking the little speaker icon on the system tray, and make sure that the volume is turned up and not muted.
If you don't see a little speaker in the system tray in Windows XP, you can add it. Just go to the Sound and Audio Devices Properties dialog box in Control Panel, click the Volume tab, look for the taskbar option, and check the box next to the Place volume icon. Presto!
You can also check the Device Manager. If the sound card's driver has a problem, you'll see it there. Try reinstalling the driver.
If the driver doesn't show any problems, try playing a sound and see if the player acts as though the sound is playing. If that's the case, you need to start touring the Sound applet or Sounds and Audio Devices applet to see if you've made a configuration error. Perhaps you have the system configured for 5.1 when you have a stereo setup, or maybe you set the default sound output device to some other device. Take your time and look; configuration errors always show themselves.
Application problems: If you're not having configuration or hardware problems, odds are that you've got an application problem. These tend to occur on a system that was previously playing sounds without trouble.
First, look for an error message. If an error code appears, write it down exactly as you see it and head to the program's support site. Odds are very good that if you have the error text, you'll get the fix right away from the support site. Of course, you can always hope the built-in help has some support, but help systems tend to be a little light in providing real fixes.
If the support site doesn't help, head to Google or Bing with your error message and try your luck there. Remember: Google knows everything—you just have to know how to ask.
Don't always blame the sound application; any sound file might be corrupted. Most sound players will display a clear error message, but not always. Try playing the sound file with a different application.
Finally, if all else fails, reinstall the application.
Is your head spinning from all this new information? Don't worry! Head over to Chapter 5 for a review of what we discussed today. Doing the assignment and the quiz will also help you retain what you've learned.
You’re one step closer to being a PC troubleshooting guru. Knowing how to troubleshoot the OS and software will see you through most computer problems. Software problems are much more common than hardware problems, so take this lesson to heart.
You’ll probably also have to uninstall a program or two over the course of your computing career. So we covered how to use the Programs and Features applet to uninstall programs.
You also learned how to use the various Windows startup options to troubleshoot a non-booting OS. Having your operating system refuse to function can cause incredible frustration, which can lead to stress, which leads to hypertension, which can cause death, so learning to fix this sort of problem could save your life! You also saw how to use the System Configuration utility, which can greatly increase your startup speed.
Finally, you saw how to fix problems with your video card, monitor, or sound card. Often, these sorts of problems stem from improper configuration, so check that you’ve set everything up properly. Also, make sure that the problem device’s drivers are installed correctly. If it’s an application problem, check the support site or Google for solutions.
Stay tuned for Lesson 5, on preventive maintenance. You’ll learn essential techniques for taking a newly fixed Windows computer and making certain it stays that way. In the meantime, jump into the quiz. It’s fun!
Microsoft lists and describes each of the startup options available in Windows Vista’s Advanced Boot Options menu. Most of this information also applies to Windows 7 (and many of the options have been around since before Windows XP). This makes the article of good overall use.
A: I'm glad you asked! When you start Windows in this mode, rather than loading the GUI desktop, it loads the command prompt (CMD.EXE) as the shell to the operating system after you log on. This helps if the desktop doesn't display—which may be a problem with a video driver but could also be from a corrupt EXPLORER.EXE program.
From the command prompt, you can delete the corrupted version of EXPLORER.EXE and copy in an undamaged version. You'd need to know the command-line commands for navigating the directory structure and the location of the file you want to replace.
Even without Explorer loaded, you can load other GUI tools that don't depend on Explorer. All you have to do is enter the correct command. For instance, to load Event Viewer, type eventvwr.msc at the command line and press ENTER.
A: This option starts Windows normally and creates a log file of the drivers as they load into memory. You can find the log file, Ntbtlog.txt, in the %SystemRoot% folder. If the startup failed because of a bad driver, Windows might have recorded that driver as the last entry in Ntbtlog.txt.
A: Well, there's Directory Services Restore Mode. The title says it all here; this option applies only to Active Directory domain controllers, and only Windows Server versions can be domain controllers. I have no idea why Microsoft includes this option. If you choose it, you simply boot into Safe Mode.
If you select Debugging Mode, Windows starts in kernel debug mode. It's a super-techie thing to do, and I doubt that even über-techs do it anymore. You have to connect the computer you're debugging to another computer through a serial connection. As Windows starts up, a debug of the kernel goes to the second computer, which must also be running a debugger program. I remember running debug for an early version of Windows 2000. My coworkers and I did it back then simply because we were studying for the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE) exams and expected it to be on the test! We all decided we didn't need to repeat the experience.
What about Disable Automatic Restart on System Failure? Sometimes a Blue Screen of Death will appear at startup, causing your computer to spontaneously reboot. If it happens too quickly, you might not be able to read the BSoD to see what caused the problem. Selecting Disable automatic restart on system failure from the Advanced Startup Options menu stops the computer from rebooting on Stop errors. This gives you the opportunity to write down the error and, hopefully, find a fix.
Start Windows Normally will simply start Windows normally, without rebooting. You already rebooted to get to this menu. Select this if you changed your mind about using any of the other exotic choices.
Reboot will actually do a soft reboot of the computer.
What's Return to OS Choices Menu? On computers with multiple operating systems, you get an OS Choices menu to select which operating system to load. If you load Windows and press F8 to get the Advanced Startup Options menu, you'll see this option. Choosing it returns you to the OS Choices menu, from which you can select the operating system to load.
A: Yes. There's Enable VGA Mode in XP, which is the same as Enable Low-Resolution Mode in Vista and 7. It starts Windows normally but lowers the resolution to the lowest possible setting.
And there's Disable Driver Signature Enforcement. Windows Vista and 7 require that all very low-level drivers (kernel drivers) must have a Microsoft driver signature. If you're using an older driver to connect to your hard drive controller or some other low-level feature, you must use this option to get Windows to load the driver. Hopefully you'll always check your motherboard and hard drives for Vista compatibility, and you'll never have to use this option.
A: We'll talk about the System Restore option in Lesson 5. The other three options that we haven't discussed yet enable you to do some advanced troubleshooting or restoration.
If you used the backup program in Windows 7 to create an image—a perfect copy—of your hard drive, you can rebuild your computer using the System Image Recovery option. It enables you to copy that imaged drive to a blank drive and then, hopefully, all will be well.
The Windows Memory Diagnostic runs a somewhat useful series of tests on the RAM in a system. I prefer other tools, such as the excellent Memtest86 that you can get here:
MemTest86Opens in new window
Finally, the Command Prompt option opens a command line interface so that you can type various commands. The command line interface is not for the faint of heart, but if you know specific commands, you can accomplish tasks more swiftly than through the graphical user interface.
Find a program on your computer that you won't need right away and uninstall it. I wouldn't recommend trying this with something like Microsoft Office, but if you have any little utilities like WinZip or Winamp, you can practice on them. Be sure you have the application disc or downloaded files that allow you to reinstall the program!
You can uninstall programs from the Control Panel or the application's folder in the Start menu. How you accomplish it is up to you. After you've finished uninstalling it, try reinstalling it.
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