[REQUEST] Event Viewer

[Romaniac]

I find that I don't use the event viewer a ton. I think it's a blind spot, perhaps. I generally don't use many windows built in tools, and go to third party tools.

Do any of you rely on it on a regular basis?
What are some issues you gents and ladies run into, where EV can reliably help solve/diagnose?


Thanks!

 

[Diggs]

I use it regularly when ever I can't explain a problem and need more information. Sometimes Event Viewer helps. Other times not so much. There can be many errors showing in Event Viewer that have nothing to do with the current problem.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Everything. Almost every problem Windows has will have something logged in the event logs. The Event Logs are the first things I check on most any issue.

 

[Markverhyden]

I too use it all the time. Many time's it'll be the first thing I look at the first time I look at a M$ box irrespective of why I'm looking at it. Nothing too in depth, just to get a feel of what's going on. Especially since HD problems might show up there even if the machine is running fine. It is searchable.

But it's by no means the definitive tool. Especially with hard crashing, etc. And you will get a lot of false positives so to speak. Meaning it'll log a something as a problem when it may not really be a problem.

 

[Larry Sabo]

I prefer to use Reliability History, since it shows the history of errors more clearly, graphically. Changing Event Viewer to filter on error events gives pretty much the same thing but without a graphical presentation/timeline.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Regularly in there...mostly on servers. Sometimes on workstations...but mostly just servers.

 

[frase]

I use my magic 8 ball, though do use event viewer and narrow down to critical and errors in filter. Just checked out mine for the fun of it and found about a million of the following -

Service Control Manager errors,
The Browser service failed to start due to the following error:
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Browser "Sorry I am late, lots of things on this morning ol chap, carry on now"

Most likely to do with Firefox methinks. Clients get massive paranoid when I do this, they think their PC is going to explode lol.

 

[Porthos]

Clients get massive paranoid when I do this, they think their PC is going to explode lol.

That is how the tech support scammers convince users they have been hacked to convince them to pay their fees to fix.

 

[britechguy]

The classic case of what I call "normal errors." (Which I personally think should be eliminated from reporting, but that's just me).

It's difficult to convince some that certain error messages don't indicate actual errors, but give "slight imperfection" status instead. The equivalent of saying, "Excuse me," after burping; then life goes on as though nothing happened.

 

[britechguy]

I prefer to use Reliability History, since it shows the history of errors more clearly, graphically.

I'd never touched this prior to your having mentioned it. I prefer it over Event Viewer, at least as the first tool I'd turn to.

You also see certain "normal errors" in it, too, as when something happens that's "Not reported" I have to imagine it's because it doesn't meet some "importance threshold" for reporting. What's funny is some so-called critical errors, particularly hardware errors, fall into the "Not reported" bin far more frequently than any other type.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Well, that is because people don't know how to write drivers correctly or they deliberately violate Microsoft programming specs in order to get better performance. So windows reports problems even though it works anyway. There is no way for Windows error trap routines to know a real error vs some driver gamming the system.

 

[Romaniac]

I prefer to use Reliability History, since it shows the history of errors more clearly, graphically. Changing Event Viewer to filter on error events gives pretty much the same thing but without a graphical presentation/timeline.

Hah, I never touched this thing either! It could definitely be a tool in initial diagnostic; maybe get a clue that points to the right hardware/software to look at.