Windows 8 Bible

Dealing with Error Messages

Error messages come in all forms, from simple warnings to the stop errors and “the blue screen of death,” which causes the computer to stop dead in its tracks. If you were a user of Windows 7, you more than likely saw a decrease in the number of blue screen events. In Windows 8, that same pattern will more than likely follow as Windows 8 seems to be a stable operating system.

The more serious errors are often accompanied by one or more of the following pieces of information:

• An error number: An error number will often be a hexadecimal number in the format 0x00000xxx where the xxx could be any numbers in the message.
• Symbolic error name: Symbolic error names are usually shown in all uppercase with underlines between words, such as PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA.
• Driver details: If a device driver caused the problem, you might see a filename with a .sys extension in the error message.
• Troubleshooting info: Some errors will have their own built-in troubleshooting advice, or a Help button. Use that information to learn more about what went wrong.

Whenever you get an error message about a problem that you can’t solve just by reading the advice presented on the screen, go to http://support.microsoft.com and search for the error number, or the symbolic error name, the driver name, or some combination of words in the text or troubleshooting of the error message.

If searching Microsoft’s support site doesn’t do the trick, consider searching the entire Internet ...