Troubleshooting hardware devices and drivers

Troubleshooting hardware devices and drivers

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This article embodies a few common problems that you might encounter and suggests you how to resolve the issues generated while working on Windows XP Professional.

Recovery from disk drive failure

As a rule, the operating system assigns the drive letter C to the primary partition on the first disk drive, and then goes on to search for other primary partitions, which may exist on other hard disk drives. If it finds more primary partitions on other disks, it first assigns the next drive letters in a series to them. Then, it goes on to assign letters to logical drives (in extended partitions) on each drive, continuing the series further. Drive letters A and B are reserved for floppy disk drives.

Recovery from disk drive failure in a mirror set: If the mirror set is created on the disk drive that contains only data, take the following steps to recover from disk drive failure:

• Break the mirror set using the Disk Administrator utility, and delete the failed partition.
• Replace the failed disk drive with a new disk drive.
• Establish a new mirror set on free disk space of the new disk drive using the Disk Administrator utility.

If the mirror set is created on the disk drive that contains system and boot partitions, take the following steps to recover from disk drive failure:

• If the secondary (shadow) disk drive fails, the recovery procedure is the same as that for the disk drive that contains only data.
• If the primary disk drive fails, take the following steps to recover from disk drive failure:



1. Edit the BOOT.INI file in the NT boot diskette, and change the ARC path to locate the secondary disk drive.
2. Boot with the NT boot diskette.
3. Break the mirror set using the Disk Administrator utility, and delete the failed partition.
4. Copy the edited BOOT.INI file from the NT boot diskette to the system partition.
5. Replace the failed disk drive with a new disk drive.
6. Establish a new mirror set on free disk space of the new disk drive using the Disk Administrator utility.

On the My Computer Information tool, you can list information about all Microsoft software installed including the Product ID (PID) for Windows and each program, startup programs, and a list of errors that have been encountered on the computer. System Information maintains a history of device drivers that are installed in your computer. If any device is not working properly and its history indicates a recent upgrade to a driver, you can replace that driver with the original driver. It will resolve the issue.

Clean Boot Troubleshooting: While running the Windows XP operating system, many issues are generated because of an incompatible or a corrupt program. In such a case, you need to perform a 'clean boot' or restart your computer.

First, start your computer in Safe mode or in Safe mode with networking support. If no issue is generated while running a network program, Safe mode is appropriate.

Note: When you use a modem or PC Card connection to a network, you cannot use Safe mode because modem drivers and PC Card drivers are not loaded in Safe mode or in Safe mode with networking support.



Issues may arise even if you run your computer in Safe mode or in Safe mode with networking support. This may be due to an environmental issue. You may need to take an additional step to test and remove the third-party drivers in Safe mode. Sometimes it is necessary to disable third-party services.

If you have encountered no problem with the programs running in Safe mode, it is probably because of the programs that are loaded while Windows XP is booting.

In order to determine whether user-specific information is corrupted while other user accounts are working, log in with a new user account and test it.

Troubleshooting device conflict with Device Manager: Device Manager is a tool that can be used to manage devices on a computer. Using it, users can view and change device properties, update device drivers, configure device settings, and uninstall devices. Device Manager is organized in a tree format with the top branches representing device categories. Using Device Manager, users can also enable or disable a device.

When you double-click a specific device in Device Manager, you see a property sheet (there is a description of the device), and by clicking the Resource tab, you can see which resource types are available to the selected device. At the bottom, a list contains conflicting devices with error codes.

If you have multiple unsigned drivers, disable them one at a time. Contact the manufacturer of the third-party system driver for an updated version that is designed to run with Windows XP.

Note: Some sound cards and video adapters do not report all of the resource types that they are using in Windows. In this case, Device Manager may show only one device in conflict, or no conflicts at all. An easy way to verify this issue is to disable the sound card or use the standard VGA video driver to determine if the conflict has been resolved or not. You must be aware of the fact that this is a known problem with S3 video adapters, 16-bit Sound Blaster sound cards, or those sound cards that are using Sound Blaster emulation for Sound Blaster compatibility.


Troubleshoot by using the System Configuration utility in Windows XP: Administrators use various utilities to configure and manage networks. The System Configuration utility automates the routine troubleshooting steps that Microsoft Product Services Support Professionals use when they diagnose system configuration issues. When you use the System Configuration utility, you can easily reset or change the configuration settings in Windows. This process reduces the risk of typing errors that you may make when you use a text editor such as Microsoft Notepad. Only the Administrator or a member of the Administrators group has permission to use the System Configuration utility.

Before starting a troubleshooting process, you can use the System Configuration utility to initiate a System Restore operation. To do this, click the General tab, and then click Launch System Restore. Now, you can create a restore point that you can use to restore your computer to its previous state.

Windows Installer and .msi package file format simplify the software installation. If an installation fails, Windows Installer rolls back your operating system to its original position. If Windows Installer Package does not install correctly, first make sure whether Windows Installer Package has become corrupt. Use the Windows Installer repair option to repair a corrupt Windows Installer Package.

A common problem that you often face with your computer is power management. An uninterruptible power supply (UPS), a device connected to a computer or another electronic equipment, ensures continuous electric flow and is not affected due to power break down. Microsoft requires power management support to certify drivers. Many third-party unsigned drivers lack this support, resulting in power management issues. Windows XP Professional has Power options that allow you to configure your computer to turn off the power or put the computer in hibernate mode.

UPS: Uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is a device, using battery backup, that allows a computer to keep running for a short period of time in case of power failure or low voltage. It also provides protection against power surges. When power surge occurs, only the UPS charging circuit is affected, but the computer gets normal power.



UPS systems provide a hardware serial port interface that can be connected to the computer. Using the appropriate software, this serial port interface enables orderly handling of power failure, including performing a computer shutdown before UPS batteries are exhausted. You need appropriate software to orderly shut down the computer without involving yourself.

Multiple Display Configuration Troubleshooting: Windows XP Professional supports multiple display configurations. Multiple displays allow you to extend your desktop across multiple monitors. Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) or Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) video adapter must be used when configuring multiple displays. In Windows, peripheral component interconnect (PCI) devices can share interrupts (IRQs) by design. This is the normal behavior of PCI devices to have IRQs shared among them, especially for Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (APCI) computers with Windows ACPI support enabled.

If a service or device driver is incompatible with the current version of Windows and starts automatically, you should shut down the service or disable the outdated device driver. This will prevent Windows from booting. Before you can configure multiple displays, you must install multiple monitors.

If you are not able to see any output on the secondary displays, first make sure that you have chosen the correct video driver. Restart the computer to confirm that the secondary display has been initialized.

If the Extend My Windows Desktop Onto This Monitor check box is unavailable, select the secondary display rather than the primary one, and confirm that Windows XP Professional can detect the secondary display.

If an application fails to display on the secondary display, run the application on the primary display in full-screen mode. Disable the secondary display to determine whether the problem is specific to multiple-display support.


Printer Configuration and Setup: During Printer configuration and setup you might face problems. Windows XP Professional helps you resolve the issues you encounter. To troubleshoot problems with printer, click start, click Control Panel, and then in Control Panel, go to Printers and Other Hardware.

Windows XP Professional has built in troubleshooter features to help you troubleshoot your printing issues. Windows XP Professional Printing Troubleshooter presents you with a series of potential printing problems and a series of suggestions. You can also perform a search to find the solution to your problem.

Troubleshooting I/O and Imaging Devices: Device Manager is one of the tools that help you manage and troubleshoot devices. When you connect digital cameras and other imaging devices to your computer, Windows XP Professional installs them automatically because most of them are Plug and Play devices. In case your computer is unable to install them or does not support them, use the Scanner and Camera Installation Wizard and follow the on-screen instructions to install imaging devices.



You can configure and troubleshoot your mouse from the Other Hardware Window in Control Panel by clicking the Hardware tab in mouse properties. It allows you to troubleshoot if you have any problem with your mouse.

You can configure and change your mouse setting from Control Panel. You can set it according to right-handed or left-handed persons and can adjust its speed.

When you need to install a new modem for your computer, click Add in the Modem tab. You can change the configuration by going to its properties. You can get additional help in troubleshooting the Modem by clicking the General tab.

Program Compatibility Issues: Program Compatibility Wizard is a feature of Windows XP that allows programs or applications to run in different environments and helps you select and test compatibility settings that may fix issues generated through change of work environment. Using Program Compatibility Wizard, a user can run the programs designed for old operating systems on newer ones. This wizard also allows a user to run the programs designed for new operating systems on older ones. If a program is designed to work on a computer running Windows 95, installing it using the Windows 95 program compatibility mode allows the program to run in its native environment properly. Using this wizard, a user can also configure various display settings for an application to open with these settings.

The Program Compatibility Wizard prompts you to test your program in different modes (environments) and with various settings.

You can use Windows 2000 Professional Setup to check for hardware compatibility. Run Setup in check-upgrade-only mode to obtain log files that indicate hardware and software incompatibilities and device drivers that require to be updated. Use the following command-line format for the check-upgrade-only mode:

WINNT32 /checkupgradeonly

/checkupgradeonly: It checks the target computer for upgrade compatibility with Windows XP Professional. With unattended installation, no user input is required. For Windows 95 or Windows 98 upgrades, the default filename is UPGRADE.TXT in the Windows installation folder. For Windows NT or Windows 2000 upgrades, the default filename is NTCOMPAT.TXT in the Windows installation folder.

You can check the Web site of the program's manufacturer to see if an update or fix is available by visiting the Microsoft Windows Update Web site to determine whether a fix is available for the program.

If you have upgraded to Windows XP from any other Windows version, and you are facing problems with the software that is compatible with Windows XP, first troubleshoot the most common program compatibility issues. Then to remove the software, you should reinstall the software. If the issue still persists, contact your software manufacturer to inquire about how to manually remove the program.

The AppVerifier (Application Verifier) features have two modes of operation: debugging and logging. Software Developers, being familiar with software developing and testing, use mostly debugging mode to troubleshoot the application issues. Developers and administrators use logging mode to troubleshoot several log issues. Application Verifier (AppVerifier) features are included in Windows XP to promote stability and reliability.

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