dr watson

[gbeato70]

what is the proper way of using dr watson? ive had numerous error messages lately and when i check into dr watson...it doesnt really help me in trying to find whats wrong? for instance....i had to re-boot because when i tried to turn my computer on when i got back from vacation...it gave me some weird error message saying to many stacks taken up??? i rebooted and it semed fine?
what is the purpose of dr watson and what can it do to help me?

[kaz101]

Hi :)

Dr Watson will take a "snapshot" of what's going on when a problem occurs... he'll identify the cause, the program involved and sometimes a remedy... here's an example of a snapshot generated when an error occurs...

MFCDLL Shared Library - Retail Version attempted to read from memory that does not exist. It may be using an uninitialized variable, or it may be attempting to access memory after having freed it.

Module Name: MFC42.DLL
Description: MFCDLL Shared Library - Retail Version
Version: 6.00.8665.0
Product: Microsoft (R) Visual C++
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation

Application Name: Icq.exe
Description: ICQ Application
Version: 2000b Alpha
Product: ICQ
Manufacturer: ICQ Inc.

Restart the program. If the problem persists, you may need to reinstall it.


Dr Watson is good for errors that occur frequently or that can be reproduced.. like if you get the same error message quite a bit but you're unsure which program is causing it you'd throw on DrWatson to help you identify it.

you can run DrWatson in std or advanced view.. it just depends on how much information your after. If you trying to track down an error message that he generated try pulling the log files

hope that helps :)

[gbeato70]

ive had quite a few error messages with him on.....however, but how do you track what it has captured??? :rolleyes: ok now i sound stupid.
i have dr watson running in advanced view,in lower left corner. when i open and click on dr watson it runs a system check. al it tells me(in diagnosis) is if my taskbar is behaving strangely close..... . when i click on open log file it goes to an open screen yet it never opens? what am i doing wrong?

[kaz101]

You don't sound stupid at all... your doing great to have got where you are now :)

your log files will have an .wlg extension so just hit start > search > find and put in *.wlg

this will pull up the recent log files that'll look something like WATSON08.WLG
Just d/click on the file in the search pane and it'll launch it within DrWatson...have a poke around and look for a common thread.

if you need to store more log files (I think the default is 10?) then adjust the settings in DrW under View > Options

as before ignore the taskbar error

[gbeato70]

ok i found it! ;)
but.....now what? it describes the error, but really no solution or how to avoid it?

[kaz101]

Morning :)

remember your computer is only "human" ;) and errors will occur, some of which you may never see again as they are "one off" but if you have a persistant error (crops up consistantly or you can reproduce it) then you could throw the details on the board if you'd like to

[gbeato70]

so if dr watson tells me my errors, but no solution or how to "fix it"? confused again kaz...sounds like going to my dr for him to tell me im sick but he wont give my a prescription... ;)

[kaz101]

Afternoon George :)

LOL :D you're right Dr Watson isn't always great with issuing prescriptions as he won't take you through a step by step process to solve the problem but the info he does give you is huge help for when you start the hunt for... lets say an alternative remedy ;) When he 'snapshots' the problem take the information he does give you, example being...

He'll tell you what happened...
MFCDLL Shared Library - Retail Version attempted to read from memory that does not exist. It may be using an uninitialized variable, or it may be attempting to access memory after having freed it

what module/programs were involved...
Module Name: MFC42.DLL
Description: MFCDLL Shared Library - Retail Version
Version: 6.00.8665.0
Product: Microsoft (R) Visual C++
Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation

Application Name: Icq.exe
Description: ICQ Application
Version: 2000b Alpha
Product: ICQ
Manufacturer: ICQ Inc.

and his prescription...
Restart the program. If the problem persists, you may need to reinstall it

I agree the presciption isn't anything to break the bourbon out over but in that particular case restarting did the solve the problem for him and it's yet to happen again. If restarting hadn't done the trick then he would done uninstall, cleanup and reinstall if that too failed then the hunt would have begun for an alternative remedy...
"he" being a client not DrWatson.

Lets just say that DrWatson is a starting point... not the be all and end all that we'd all like him to be ;)

[gbeato70]

gotcha! hope he can help me now! have you seen the microsoft forums or feedback on winme? seems everyone is havin the same kernell,ie page not found,dll, etc, errors! hope they do something quick!

[kaz101]

In my humble opinion ;) windows ME is aok, I've had 2 OEM versions and 3 upgrades and 1 full, I've only got 1 oem now but I have to say (touch wood) I hardly had any problems with any of them. The errors that I did encounter where caused by my own mistakes (incompatible s/ware) but these were quickly fixed. The problems I come across day to day that involve ME can usually be put down to incompatible software (not all W95/98 progs play nicely with ME) incompatible hardware and 'human' problems or should that be problem humans ;)
as I recall W95 got one heck of thumping when it came out too...as did W98 but I must say that out of all the O/S I've worked with ME seems to be the most tolerant .. can you tell I love ME :D

[gbeato70]

geez..what gave that away!