Event Viewer

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sf

How is the Event Viewer best used to keep a computer in shape? What
information can be gleened by those in the "know" vs. me? Is this
what I should whip out to show my called IT department (?) because I
often feel like they can only fix what I can fix all by myself.

TIA
 
sf wrote:
Is this what I should whip out to show my called IT department (?)
because I often feel like they can only fix what I can fix all by
myself.

Event viewer reports a lot of stuff that is deliberately blocked by the
owners of your comps. Best tool when I have a problem, is putting the
errror message into a search engine.

Event Log Explorer
http://www.eventlogxp.com/
http://www.eventlogxp.com/download/elex.zip
Event Log Explorer is a free software for viewing, monitoring and
analyzing events recorded in Security, System, Application and another
logs of Microsoft Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 operating systems. It extends
standard Event Viewer monitoring functionality and brings new features.
 
The event viewer can tell you an awful lot about what is going on with your
computer, whether it's errors, or plain informational..take a look for
yourself, click on Application, then look through the events, Red indicates
an error, yellow a warning, not meaning that something bad may happen, but
perhaps a change has been made, and the other is purely informational.
On errors, and warnings there will be information, albeit limited, about
the particular cause, as well as an event ID and an error code..both are
useful, necessary really, when researching the cause and solution. They
also will, for the most part, have a hyperlink that when clicked will take
you to an MSKB article giving a bit more information...

These are tools that can help narrow down the possible causes of the
problem, which eventually will lead to a solution.
You can use Google..or whatever search engine you like, to look up those
event ID's and error codes.
Yes, the IT department will use this information, but you certainly can fix
many things on your own if you are willing to do a bit of research, however,
that said, if it's a work computer, let them do their job..if they mess up
it's their neck, if you do...well, it could get ugly. But, your home pc is
a good place to start.
 
These are tools that can help narrow down the possible causes of the
problem, which eventually will lead to a solution.
Click to expand...

I get a problem with Windows Explorer after my work computer has been
turned on for a few hours... it hangs when I try to save a doc and I
need to reboot for it to work properly. Will the event viewer log
these events and will the IT department know what to do with the even
viewer information so they can fix the problem? I innocently told
them that I wished there was a way I could send them the same error
message I have to send Microsoft when it happens (not knowing about
Event Viewer at the time) and the IT drone never mentioned it to me.
 
sf said:
I get a problem with Windows Explorer after my work computer has been
turned on for a few hours... it hangs when I try to save a doc and I
need to reboot for it to work properly. I innocently told
them that I wished there was a way I could send them the same error
message I have to send Microsoft.
Click to expand...

Hanging may be due to overheating, a big cause is dust slowing down the
fans or filling up the cooling fins.

As mentioned previously, put the exact error message into a search
engine.
 
If you want, post it here..the next time it happens, go to the event viewer,
click on 2 of the three choices..system and applications.note the time of
the event so you can better find the event..look for the red and yellow
indicators, click on them until you find those that correspond to the system
hang, and post the event ID and the error code along with any other
information that's listed.

It hangs only when trying to save a document?
Post your system specs as well, which os, which word program, etc.
 
If you want, post it here..the next time it happens, go to the event viewer,
click on 2 of the three choices..system and applications.note the time of
the event so you can better find the event..look for the red and yellow
indicators, click on them until you find those that correspond to the system
hang, and post the event ID and the error code along with any other
information that's listed.

It hangs only when trying to save a document?
Click to expand...

Yes, it happens (inconsistently) when I file > save as. I can make a
new folder whenever I need to, but that's a different path.
Post your system specs as well, which os, which word program, etc.
Click to expand...
Thank you! I won't be using that computer for a couple of months, but
I'll try to keep this in mind when the summer break is over.
 
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