How to Deal with Error Messages

 

When you were kid, you imagined that the future held flying cars and moon bases. Technology and humanity would be in perfect sync. Our machines would anticipate our needs, leaving us to pursue only the most relevant, important work. Well, it hasn’t happened yet; we’re still very much slaves to our machines instead of the other way around. It sometimes seems we can’t go an hour without intercepting some bad news from our computers: missing drivers, no paper in the printer, an exception at memory address 32xxff00. . . . Can’t we just get our work done? Don’t go back to pen and paper just yet. I’ve got some tips to help you deal with the different kinds of errors you run into while working with your PC.

An Error For Every Season

Error messages are communications from the PC to you. To create one, a programmer must anticipate an action you might take with which the system will disagree or by which the system will become confused.

Depending on how well the software is designed, these messages may either be informative or—so it sometimes seems—deliberately obtuse. There are hardware errors, software errors, and user errors.

Trying to answer these messages that associate the errors, one must have answers in a form like:

1. What is the problem?

2. Why is it a problem?

3. What can I do to solve the problem?

For a good example, consider a common type of user error: those related to printing. A good error message would inform you that your printer is out of paper that you won’t be able to print unless you load more paper into the tray, and that you should click

Print after you have loaded it. If you’re a user who often feels a victim of your computer, you can rest assured that if you see an error message that doesn’t meet these criteria, the programmer is almost certainly the one at fault, not you.

The Blue Screen of Death

 

Most hated error message, the Blue Screen Of Death 

providesinformation that can help developers 

track the cause of an error.

The most infamous error message is the Blue Screen Of Death. It’s so well-known that it has crept into the vernacular: “Aw, man! I was almost finished with my term paper when I got bluescreened!” The phenomenon is also known by its acronym, BSOD.

The conditions that cause a blue screen have changed since the days of Windows 95/98, as has what it means. In either case, chances are pretty

good that, if you get bluescreened, any unsaved work will be lost, as either Windows (in NT/2000/XP) or your application (in 95/98) has been shut down. The BSOD is perhaps the most despised error not only because it has wiped away countless hours of work over the years, but because of the obtuse way in which it does so. The messages delivered in the typical blue screen are meant for developers more than end users. For example, a blue screen delivered by Windows may deliver a message such as the following:“0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED.” And if you don’t find that sufficiently informative, you’ll see four variables in parentheses to help developers figure out what’s happening. Again, none of this will mean much to most of us, but a support rep or developer can often learn a great deal from such cryptic messages. Fortunately, blue screens are rare in recent versions of Windows and may disappear after a reboot. But if the problem recurs, you could have a real problem. Here are some troubleshooting steps to follow if you encounter a BSOD: While your system is booting, press F8 and select Safe Boot Mode, which loads a subset of Windows with minimal drivers. If things run smoothly in Safe Mode, you likely have a software problem with a recently installed application.

Try to decipher the error message to see if you can trace it to a specific program. If all else fails, uninstall your most recently-installed application. If you still see blue screen errors in Safe Mode, restart again and use F8 to get to the advanced options. This time, choose Restore Last Known Good Configuration, which is a snapshot of your system as it existed before you last installed any drivers or other software. You will lose any system changes you’ve made since that point, but your documents will normally remain untouched by this process. If you’re still having problems, you are likely suffering from a hardware problem or a corruption of vital system files. Again, any hints that you can glean from the error message could help you (or a tech support rep) trace the source of the problem. Remove any recently installed hardware and try booting again. In the worst case, it’s not uncommon to have to resort to reinstalling device drivers or even the whole operating system. Ultimately, the best cure for the BSOD is prevention: Save often, create frequent backups, and burn a little anger to curry favor with variable PC spirits.