FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions
About PC Problems

While booting Windows 9x, I got a "Windows Protection error" message against a black screen...?

Press the reset button or - if that option is unavailable – power off and then power on the PC; as a last resort option only. If it is possible to bring up the Task Manager in Windows 9x/ME (via CTL-ALT-DEL) and select the Shutdown option – then do so. However when all else fails and if there is no discernable hard disk activity, sometimes you just have to reset the hardware.

Note: New(er) computer users may need to hold the power button for 4 to 5 seconds in order for the system to truly power down. On those systems a quick press on the power button may place the system in standby or hibernation mode - when power is restored the system appears not to boot or returns to the prior frozen state.

Typically, but not always, the culprit is a device driver (.DRV or .VXD) - the bit of software that connects a hardware device (such as a mouse, monitor or printer) to the operating system - or a badly behaved program file (.EXE and .DLL). There is - unfortunately - no hard and fast rule to determine which one. Occasionally the problem is hardware related, but in general hardware problems tend to surface as system errors or in the dreaded ‘blue screen of death’ you may have seen at some time or other.

There’s a saying that goes “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. I tend to stick to the spirit of that statement. Occasionally, it does become necessary to update software because of a problem with an existing driver or program file or because the new software supports some new feature that you desire. Always use extreme caution when updating your system. Never apply more that one update at a time and always test each update before moving on to the next. It’s a lot easier to reverse a problem created by the last thing you did than it is to determine which of the last 5 things you updated is creating the new problem you have.

Ouch! What’s going on here is a device driver gone bad or a corrupted system registry setting. If you have Windows 98 or later you could try reverting to a prior version of the registry (see the Mr. Computer troubleshooting area for step by step instructions) or you may be able to boot Windows in the ‘logged’ mode in an effort to determine exactly where in the boot process the system stops. Re-installing the operating system may resolve the situation; In some cases, however, the driver or offending registry information is NOT overwritten and the problem remains.

More To Come...