configure? , settings?

Topic

New Reply

How does someone with limited PC knowledge know how to set the settings when the wording might as well be in foreign language?

I think most of my machine is at ‘Default’ and wondering if that’s one reason that I have sooo many ‘warnings & errors’ in the Events Viewer?

A couple people have told me not to even look in there but I’ve also seen some posts where the poster with an answer to someone’s problem, told them to look in there to check for lots of warnings/errors. :confused: :huh:

Thank you.

Reply | Quote

Replies

I agree; if you have limited knowledge, don’t look in there – it’s too confusing (and, if you get an unsolicited phone call from someone purporting to be from Microsoft who tells you to check it for errors – “RUN AWAY“).

Zig

Reply | Quote

F1 should give you an explanation for nearly every setting. But defaults are there for a reason; only change them if you have a clear, understandable reason for doing so.

Bruce

Reply | Quote

Without knowing what the errors in the Event logs are it’s difficult to know whether you should be concerned or not.

What I can say, in general terms, is that a machine with little or no tweaking (ie at “default settings”) should not have lots of errors in the logs. Yes there will be some, possibly caused by hardware problems, possibly caused by additional software or by the network environment that the machine communicates across.

I can also say, again in general terms, that to find a fault on a computer requires the same diagnostic approach to any other technical piece of equipment. One follows the symptoms, hypothesizes about potential issues and tests those potential issues against diagnostic data to discount any that don’t fit. The it’s time to roll up your sleeves and work on what’s left. Occasionally one can narrow straight down to the root cause, based only on the symptoms and without additional data.

So bearing in mind the last generalisation, the Event Logs are vital tools for gathering diagnostic data when something is not working. Normally, they only need to be accessed when something is not performing the way it should. Perhaps that what your friends meant when they said to steer clear.

However, having said all that, you report lots of errors. So something would appear to be wrong. Do you have any fault symptoms on the machine? Is anything not working as it should? Can you give us some detail about what errors are recorded in the logs?

Reply | Quote

This small batch file will allow you to periodically remove errant entries in the event viewer.

I like to keep an eye on what is going on in there from time to time and periodically flush the
contents of the event viewer, this helps to reduce the clutter of the many meaningless entries that will be present
and accumulate over time.

If one is experiencing any problems in day to day computer usage, looking through the event viewer may shed some light on it.
Even a n00b can use a search engine in an attempt to try to understand what the errors mean.

Some helpful links:
http://www.eventid.net/
Use Windows 7 Event Viewer to track down issues

Reply | Quote

Thanks Tinto, I tried to get a ‘scrolling’ capture with FastStone but guess I’ve forgotten how, haven’t used it since my old XP crashed in Feb. so here’s a partial of the 1255 Administrative Events since this machine was bought 2/18. I’m not really sure what you mean by ‘fault symptoms’ but I don’t get any ‘pop up error windows’ if that’s what you mean.

Thanks Clint, I hopped over to techrepublic & bookmarked for later reading but would like to get some take on my screen shot first.

Reply | Quote

OK grits,

is the machine sluggish sometime, or does the disk light appear to be active for no reason? Some of the errors are symptomatic of a Windows Indexing system error, which could be due to a number of reasons. Others may caused by be a hardware issue, or chipset driver problem.

The nature of the errors I was mentioned may be many and various. Not especially pop-up errors, but quite possibly the machine simply not performing in the way you expect. For example, you may not to be able to search using the search files and programs box on the start menu, or the disk light may appear much more active than expected. At this stage, and from the limited data set, it’s difficult to be specific.

To be honest however, it’s almost impossible to diagnose without analysing the logs properly.

If you have consistently had these errors appearing in the logs since buying the machine in February, it may be worthwhile discussing with the manufacturer.

Reply | Quote

You could start with rebuilding the Windows 7 Index or disable it altogether.
The rest of the entries in there appear to be quite benign

Reply | Quote

Clint, which entry or entries are you referring to as not benign? And which would you suggest as best for a nOOb, batch file as your post #5 or rebuild index as your post #8?

Thank you.

Reply | Quote

Those entreis flagged having to do with search.

Reply | Quote