Windows XP Cookbook

Chapter 20. Crashes and Errors

Introduction

Blue screens, locked-up systems, cryptic error messages, missing operating system files, dead keyboards and mice, unresponsive devices—all in a day’s work for many PC troubleshooters.

When Windows crashes, it’s easy to believe that the operating system itself is to blame. Indeed, Windows probably has untold vulnerabilities that allow the core of the operating system to be blown up to the point of having to restart, but the crashes and errors are usually caused by a misbehaving application, driver, bad memory, faulty disk, or mixed-up piece of hardware.

As user-friendly as Windows XP is supposed to be, it still presents and logs many error conditions using cryptic numeric codes, or text that sometimes defies the rules of grammar, and provides no help in arriving at a solution. This chapter is full of solutions to those mysterious error codes and how to decipher the ones that are too numerous to list.

20.1. Using Safe Mode

Problem

Windows hangs, restarts by itself, or crashes with a blue screen error, or your video display is garbled and you cannot get control of the display resolution.

Solution

1. Restart your PC and press the F8 key at the end of the BIOS to access Windows’ start menu.

2. Select the Safe Mode option and let Windows start up.

3. Log onto Windows if prompted.

4. Click OK or Yes to acknowledge the “running in safe mode” dialog.

5. Use Safe Mode to reset any recent configuration changes, uninstall recently installed hardware, or run System Restore ...