Troubleshooting Windows XP

1
Chapter 15

• Troubleshooting Windows XP

2
Objectives

• After completing this chapter, you will be able
  to
• Collect documentation about your systems to aid
  in troubleshooting and preventing problems
• Review common-sense approaches to troubleshooting
• Troubleshoot general problems with Windows XP
  Professional
• Use some of the troubleshooting tools found in
  Windows XP Professional

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General Principles of Troubleshooting
Valued Gateway Client

• Collecting information about your system is
  preventive maintenance
• Keep all pertinent information in a Computer
  Information File (CIF)
• Useful information includes your system
  (hardware and software), previous
  troubleshooting, maintenance, and configuration
  activities, and the current problem
• CIF should be stored in a protected area that can
  be accessed easily

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General Principles of Troubleshooting, contd.

• Use these common-sense guidelines to
  troubleshooting
• Be patient
• Be familiar with your systems hardware and
  software
• Attempt to isolate the problem
• Divide and conquer
• Eliminate suspects

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General Principles of Troubleshooting, contd.

• Undo the most recent change
• Investigate common points of failure first
• Recheck items that have caused problems before
• Try the easy and quick fix first
• Let the fault guide you

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General Principles of Troubleshooting, contd.

• Make changes one at a time
• Repeat the failure
• Keep a log of errors and attempted solutions
• Learn from mistakes (your own and others)
• Experiment

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Troubleshooting Tools
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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.

• Event Viewer displays system messages on the
  failure/success of various occurrences
• System log
• Security log
• Application log
• Directory Service
• DNS Service
• File Replication Service

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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.
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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.

• The Computer Management tool includes many tools
  in a single interface
• makes locating and resolving problems easier
• divided into three sections
• System Tools
• Storage
• Services and Applications

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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.
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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.

• The System Tools section contains five individual
  tools
• Event Viewer
• Shared Folders
• Local Users and Groups
• Performance Logs and Alerts
• Device Manager

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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.

• The Storage section of Computer Management
  presents three tools for administering storage
  devices
• Removable Storage
• Disk Defragmenter
• Disk Management

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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.

• The Services and Applications section contains
  management controls for various installed and
  active services and applications
• Actual contents depend on whats installed, but
  some common controls include
• Services
• WMI Control
• Indexing Service

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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.

• Windows XP Professional includes troubleshooting
  Wizards
• For example, the Settings tab in the Display
  Properties applet includes a Troubleshoot button
• Clicking brings up the Video Display
  Troubleshooter
• Selecting any entry leads you through a sequence
  of questions with answers and explanations
• Similar buttons for other system controls

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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.
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Troubleshooting Tools, contd.
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Troubleshooting Installation Problems

• Installation process is susceptible to several
  types of errors
• Media errors Problems with the distribution
  CD-ROM itself, the copy of the distribution files
  on a network drive, or the communication link
• Switch media
• Domain controller communication difficulties
• Verify the availability of the domain controller
  then check that no entries were mistyped

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Troubleshooting Installation Problems, contd.

• Stop message errors or halting on the blue
  screen incompatible or damaged driver
• Verify that the proper driver is in use
• Hardware problems Failed to verify with the HCL,
  or a physical defect has occurred
• First, examine the configuration of all devices
• Replace the device in question

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Troubleshooting Installation Problems, contd.

• Dependency failures Failure of a service or
  driver due to failure of a foundation class
• XP may boot despite such errors
• Check the Event Viewer for more details

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Troubleshooting Installation Problems, contd.
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Troubleshooting Printer Problems

• Problems with network printers can occur anywhere
  between the power cable and the application
• Always check that the physical components of the
  printer are present, connected, etc.
• Make sure the printer is online
• Make sure the printer server for the printer is
  booted

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Troubleshooting Printer Problems, contd.

• Verify that the logical printer on both the
  client and server sides exist
• check configuration parameters and settings
• Check the print queue for stalled jobs
• Reinstall or update the printer driver in case
  its corrupt or incorrect
• Attempt to print from a different application or
  a different client

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Troubleshooting Printer Problems, contd.
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Troubleshooting Printer Problems, contd.

• Attempt to print using Administrator access
• Stop and restart the spooler using the Services
  tool found through Computer
• Check the status and CPU usage of the Spoolsv.exe
  process
• Check the free space on the drive where the print
  spool file resides
• Should be more than 100MB

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Troubleshooting Printer Problems, contd.
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Troubleshooting RAS Problems

• RAS has numerous points of possible failure
• Check all physical connections
• Check the communication line itself
• Verify the RAS configuration and the modem setup
• Check that both the client and the server dial-up
  configurations match

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Troubleshooting RAS Problems, contd.

• Verify that the user account has RAS privileges
• Inspect the RAS-related logs
• Device.log and Modemlog.txt
• Disable Autodial and persistent connections to
  permit easier troubleshooting

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Troubleshooting RAS Problems, contd.
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Troubleshooting RAS Problems, contd.

• Look for errors involving failure to connect,
  dial, authenticate, negotiate encryption, or
  establish a common protocol, and link termination
• Multilink and callback do not work together
  select one or the other
• Note that most RAS problems are related to
  misconfiguration

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Troubleshooting RAS Problems, contd.

• Multilink and callback do not work together
• Only single-line callbacks are possible

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Troubleshooting RAS Problems, contd.
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Troubleshooting Network Problems

• Network problems range from faults in the network
  cables or hardware, to misconfigured protocols,
  to workstation or server errors
• Common-sense first steps include the following
• Check to see if other clients or servers or
  subnets are experiencing the same problem
• Check physical network connections NIC, media
  cables, terminators, local network devices
• Check protocol settings

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Troubleshooting Network Problems, contd.

• Reboot the system
• Verify that the NIC drivers are properly
  installed Use the self-test or diagnostic tools
  or software for the NIC if available
• Verify the domain/workgroup membership of the
  client

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Troubleshooting Disk Problems

• Hard drive experiences the most activity
• Even more than your keyboard or mouse
• Most partition, boot sector, and drive
  configuration faults can be corrected or
  recovered
• Use the Disk Management tool in the Computer
  Management utility in Administrative Tools
• The only reliable means of protecting data on
  storage devices is a timely backup

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Miscellaneous Troubleshooting Issues

• Permissions problems occur when
• A user is a member of groups with conflicting
  permissions
• When permissions are managed on a per-account
  basis
• Test for faulty permission settings by attempting
  the same activities with Administrator privileges
• Double-check a users group memberships to verify
  that Deny access settings are correct
• Examine the access control lists

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Miscellaneous Troubleshooting Issues, contd.
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Miscellaneous Troubleshooting Issues, contd.

• If the MBR fails use a recovery tool
• Boot from the boot floppies, use F8 to select the
  alternate boot menu, and then select Recovery
  Console from that menu
• Reconfigure your system BIOS to boot from your CD
  player, and then boot from the Windows CD
• Select Repair damaged installation as an option
  and also access the Recovery Console
• Use a DOS 6.0 (or later) bootable floppy to boot
  into DOS
• Use the FIXMBR command

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Miscellaneous Troubleshooting Issues, contd.

• Windows XP Professional has an application error
  debugger called Dr. Watson
• Detects application failures and logs diagnostic
  details
• Information extracted and stored by Dr. Watson is
  really only useful to a technical professional
• XP automatically launches Dr. Watson when an
  application error occurs
• To configure, launch from the Start, Run command
  with drwtsn32.exe

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Miscellaneous Troubleshooting Issues, contd.
41
Applying Service Packs and Hot Fixes

• Service pack A collection of patches, error
  corrections, version improvements, or
  service-specific configuration settings from
  Microsoft
• Corrects the deficiencies of the original
  product, preceding service packs, or hot fixes

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Applying Service Packs and Hot Fixes, contd.

• Hot fix Similar to a service pack, except that
  it addresses only a single problem, or a small
  number of problems
• May not be fully tested
• Not normally supported

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Applying Service Packs and Hot Fixes, contd.

• You should apply a hot fix only if you are
  experiencing the problem it was created to solve
• The hot fix may cause other problems
• Service packs are cumulative
• The latest service pack is all you need to
  install
• It is common practice to wait one to three months
  after the release of a new service pack before
  deploying it

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Microsoft Troubleshooting References

• Microsoft provides several resources to aid in
  troubleshooting
• The Microsoft Windows Web site
  www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/
• The Knowledge Base
• TechNet
• 300 per year (as of this writing)
• Resource Kits
• Often include additional software utilities

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Summary

• Commonsense principles of troubleshooting
• perform one task at a time
• remain calm
• isolate the problem
• perform the simplest fix first
• Information is the most valuable troubleshooting
  tool
• Maintain a Computer Information File
• The tools most often used are the Event Viewer
  and the Computer Management tool
• Five common installation problems
• media errors
• domain controller communication difficulties
• stop message errors or halt on blue screen
• hardware problems
• dependency failures

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Summary, contd.

• Printer problems are most often associated with
  physical configuration or spooling problems
• RAS and network problems usually arise from
  misconfiguration
• Service packs and hot fixes are used to repair
  portions of Windows XP Professional after its
  release
• Microsoft has provided a substantial collection
  of troubleshooting documentation
• Much of this is available at no charge from the
  Microsoft Web site