Other Troubleshooting Issues

• Print Spooler is stalled - Go to the spool folder which is located in C:\Path to system files\spool\printers directory and delete all files in this location and resend any incompleted print jobs.
• Incorrect print drivers - Having an incorrect driver can cause any number of problems from pages coming out as garbled ASCII text to not having access to the full range of features available for that printer. Drivers can be updated by going to the Printers control panel, right clicking on the printer and select properties.
• Out of memory - Print jobs have to be spooled to hard disk space. If there is not enough hard disk space available this error will occur. Try freeing up hard drive space or move the spool folder to a drive with more free space.

Other Troubleshooting Tools
Throughout this guide we have discussed many of the Windows troubleshooting tools. Below is a list of the ones that haven't been covered yet.

• MSINFO - Used to view installed devices and drivers. - Windows 9x
• HWINFO - The Hardware Diagnostic Utility is located in C:\Windows\HwInfo.exe and there aren't any shortcuts to it by default. In order to run this utility you need to append a /UI switch. This "tool" was run during your initial install of Win98 and created a record of various hardware settings, drivers, file sizes & dates, memory ranges, resource allocation, etc. - Windows 98 only
• Dr Watson - Will generate an error log when certain types of errors occur. This information can be accessed by typing drwatson in the run dialog box. - Windows 3.x/9x/NT/2000
• ASD.EXE - Automatic Skip Driver Agent identifies devices that can cause Windows 98 or Windows Me to stop responding (hang) when you start your computer, and then disables them so that they are bypassed when you next restart your computer.
• Maintenance Wizard(TUNEUP.EXE) - Allows you to schedule maintenance utilities such as defrag and scandisk. - Windows 98
• Signature Verification Tool - Microsoft "Signs" drivers which means that they are approved to work on a particular operating system. This tool checks files and informs you whether or not they have been signed by Microsoft. - Windows 98
• Event Viewer - This tool is a log of system, application and security events(successes and failures). Can be used to obtain more information about system and application errors. - NT/2000
• SCANDISK - The ScanDisk utility inspects the hard drive for errors and corrects them. The standard test will inspect files and folders while the advanced test will also checks the disks physical surface. ScanDisk is run automatically on startup when the system detects that the system was not shut down properly. Scandisk is available in DOS 6.x and Windows 9x.

Viruses
There are several different categories of viruses as follows:

• File infector viruses - File infector viruses infect executable program files such as .com and .exe files. The can infect other files when an infected program is run from floppy, hard drive, or from the network.
• Boot sector viruses - Boot sector viruses infect the system area of a disk known as the boot record.
• Master boot record viruses - Master boot record viruses are memory resident viruses that infect disks in the same manner as boot sector viruses. The difference between these two virus types is where the viral code is located. These can often be fixed by using FDISK /MBR.
• Multi-partite viruses - Infect both boot records and program files.
• Macro viruses: These types of viruses infect data files and are the most common. With the advent of Visual Basic in Microsoft's Office 97, a macro virus can be written that not only infects data files, but also can infect other files as well.

There are 2 other types of attacks that are common via the use of Trojans and Worms as described below:

• Trojan Horse - These are files that claim to be something desirable but are destructive and cause loss or theft of data. Trojans are different from viruses as they do not replicate themselves like viruses do.
• Worms - These are programs that replicate themselves from system to system without the use of a host file.

Most viruses are spread via email and the internet, but can also be spread via removable media(i.e. floppies) or across a network. Anti-virus software should be used to protect against virus threats and "clean" files when a computer does become infected.