Laptops All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies- P25 potx

Taking Inventory 214 Taking Inventory Before you poke around, run any diagnostics, or take a blood test, examine your laptop’s installed hardware and software. You have several ways to do this, including a straightforward utility called System Information. (See Figure 3-2 for an example of a report.) To check System Information, follow along: 1. Click the Start button in Windows Vista. On Windows XP, choose Start ➪ All Programs ➪ Accessories ➪ System Tools ➪ System Information. 2. Type System Information into the Start menu’s search bar. You may find a number of versions of the utility. 3. Click the System Information supplied as part of Windows. If you subscribe to AOL, you may also see an AOL System Information utility, which is also a quite capable examiner of your laptop, although it focuses more on the operating system, firewall, antivirus, and connectivity components of your machine — things of importance to an AOL connection — than it does on hardware. Figure 3-2: A Windows System Information screen shows details of the operating system, processor, and memory installed on a Toshiba Satellite P205 laptop. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 214 Book III Chapter 3 Windows Maintenance Utilities Taking Inventory 215 Many laptop manufacturers add their own versions of a system information report. These reports often serve multiple purposes: ✦ Details of your system for you to examine ✦ A consistent report that can be examined over the Internet by support technicians for the maker of your machine ✦ A bit of advertising for Windows operating system upgrades or hardware accessories On most current laptops running Windows Vista, manufacturer’s system information screen can be found here: Click Start ➪ Control Panel System and Maintenance ➪ System. An example of Toshiba’s screen is shown in Figure 3-3. Figure 3-3: Toshiba’s information screen includes the system’s Windows Experience Index, its processor specs, memory, network configur- ation, and phone or online access to support technicians. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 215 Taking Inventory 216 Device Manager: Poking under the hood Once you have a sense of what you’ve got, the next important utility in Windows is the Device Manager, which is boss of what lies beneath. This window, reachable through the Windows Control Panel (as well as other routes), displays all of the identifiable hardware components of your machine organized by function. See Figure 3-4. Jump to the dessert before the main course: When you open up Device Manager, the first thing you should look for is one of the following: ✦ A yellow question mark (a possible problem) ✦ A red exclamation mark (there be dragons here) These warning icons appear alongside a category or an individual component; double-click the item to learn why your laptop is concerned about its health. Figure 3-4: A Device Manager window for a modern laptop. Clicking a + symbol opens a category to display multiple items in that section. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 216 Book III Chapter 3 Windows Maintenance Utilities Taking Inventory 217 If problems are reported, they usually fall into one of these three areas: ✦ A non-responding or failed piece of hardware ✦ A conflict between two or more devices seeking to use the same resources (interrupts, DMA channels, or memory addresses) ✦ A problem with an installed device driver Before you accept the laptop’s report that a piece of hardware has failed, try ✦ Rebooting the machine. Sometimes errors of this sort happen only after a particularly unusual combination of commands, keystrokes, or soft- ware events. ✦ Removing the cables. That is, if the problematic device is external to your laptop — a hard disk drive or a camera attached to a USB port, for example. If the machine functions properly without them, test the exter- nal device on a different machine. Resource sharing used to be a major headache on PCs, but with modern operating systems (including Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista) all the heavy thinking is handled by the machine. I suggest you attempt to manually change resource settings only if you’re instructed to do so by a support technician for your laptop or the maker of an add-on device. You must be logged on as an administrator or as a member of the Administrators group to complete procedures by using Device Manager. That is usually not a problem for laptop users, but if your computer is set up by a corporate or institutional computer department, you may need to seek their assistance or obtain an Administrator sign-on. 1. Open Device Manager. 2. Double-click any device in the list. Its properties are shown. See Figure 3-5. 3. Go to the General Tab. 4. Look for the Device Status. “This device is working properly” is a good sign, at least as far as the partic- ular piece of hardware’s relationship to the operating system is concerned; its device driver is proper and its use of system resources is acceptable to the system. What the device status screen doesn’t tell you is if there is any physical damage to an external device. (If you want an automobile analogy, the status report is saying the engine and transmission are functioning prop- erly, but isn’t providing information on whether the tires are flat.) 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 217 Taking Inventory 218 Assuming you don’t see red (or yellow), you can proceed to examine in depth the configuration of your machine and change settings. Under Windows XP, do this: 1. Right-click My Computer. 2. Select Properties. 3. Select the Hardware tab. 4. Click the Device Manager button. Under Windows Vista, do this: 1. Open the Start menu. 2. Right-click Computer. 3. Select Manage. 4. Click Device Manager. This option is in the left-hand tree. Figure 3-5: On the General Tab of Device Properties, good or bad news is reported in the Device Status window. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 218 Book III Chapter 3 Windows Maintenance Utilities Taking Inventory 219 Dealing with device drivers For many users, the most valuable use of Device Manager is the ability to ✦ Identify the device drivers in use for each component ✦ Install updated drivers ✦ Roll back to an earlier version of the driver if the new code causes problems The doorway to the controls for device drivers is here: 1. Open Device Manager. 2. Choose the Device Properties window. 3. Select the Driver tab. There you can see any specific piece of hardware listed in the Device Manager. See Figure 3-6. Take notes on what you’ve done and keep copies of the original and replace- ment device drivers to allow reversing your steps. (If you have an external flash memory key, this is a good place to temporarily store a copy.) Tread carefully if you make any changes to the device drivers in Device Manager. Be certain of these things: ✦ You’re matching the proper device driver with your particular make and model of device ✦ It’s appropriate for the version of Windows you’re using (In most cases, a Windows Vista device driver won’t work under Windows XP; going the other direction may work, may not, or may provide only partial functionality.) Figure 3-6: The Driver tab of Device Properties allows you to inspect, disable, uninstall, update, or roll back a device driver. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 219 Taking Inventory 220 Be very wary about accepting a device driver from a source you don’t know and trust — and that includes “free” driver sites on the Internet. A corrupted device driver can cause many problems for your system, and an infected one can introduce nasty viruses. Your best bet is to accept assistance only from the maker of your machine, its major components, or significant software. Removing and reinstalling a device driver If the Device Manager indicates you have a problem with a piece of hard- ware, a corrupted or outdated device driver may be the cause. A first step to attempting a repair is to remove the existing driver and reinstall it. The most direct way to uninstall a driver is from the Properties window for a particular device: 1. Open the Device Manager. 2. Locate the device you want to work on. It may be flagged with a yellow question mark or a red exclamation point. 3. Click the Driver tab. 4. Click Uninstall. You’re asked if you really, truly want to remove the driver. Stop and think. 5. Click OK. 6. Restart the computer. Windows should automatically notice that it has a device without a driver and reinstall its copy from the original Windows installation files or from elsewhere on your hard disk. In certain circumstances — usually for particularly obscure devices — Windows may ask you to provide the driver from a CD or DVD supplied by the maker of the hardware or ask you to download it from a web site. Once you uninstall a driver, the device with which it’s associated stops work- ing until you reinstall its driver. Be aware that if you remove the driver for the pointing device, you’ll have to restart without use of the mouse; try Alt + F4 to shut down the system. If you uninstall the keyboard driver, you need to use the mouse to shut down. Upgrading a device driver Sometimes the solution to a hardware problem is to upgrade to a later (pre- sumably improved) version of the device driver. The maker of the hardware ✦ May have issued a newer version to fix a bug or incompatibility with other hardware 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 220 Book III Chapter 3 Windows Maintenance Utilities Taking Inventory 221 ✦ May have issued an update to deal with a new version of the operating system ✦ May be enhancing the capabilities of its older hardware just because, well, they should Your first effort should be to try the automated facilities of the Hardware Update Wizard. (See Figure 3-7 to see the Windows XP version of this tool.) You’ll get to the Hardware Update Wizard with these steps: 1. Go to the Properties. Do so for whatever hardware you need to update. 2. Go to the Driver tab. Refer back to Figure 3-6. 3. Click the Update button. Figure 3-7: The Windows XP version of the Hardware Update Wizard checks for newer versions of device drivers installed in your machine. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 221 Taking Inventory 222 If Windows Update doesn’t show you a newer version of the driver, conduct your own search: ✦ Visit the web site for the manufacturer of your laptop. ✦ Check the web site for the specific component (an external pointing device or an external hard disk drive). You might be advised of the availability of an updated device driver through an automated update utility installed on your machine. Read the instructions you find accompanying the details of the update. Make absolutely certain the update applies to your specific hardware as well as the version of the operating system you’re running. Some manufacturers will instruct you to download the device driver to your laptop and then click on its icon for an automated installation of the new piece of code. That’s the simplest and usually the best solution. Occasionally you will find the device driver just sitting out there on a web site or on a CD or DVD disc. Follow the instructions provided by the maker of the hardware; you may be instructed to save a copy of the new device driver to your desktop and to then install the new piece of code from the Drivers tab. Under Windows Vista, if you click the Update button you see a simpler but more sophisticated wizard that asks the very appropriate question: “How do you want to search for driver software?” Your choices are: ✦ Search automatically on your computer and on the Internet for the latest device driver software for your device. ✦ Browse your computer for driver software. (This is an easy way to install a device driver downloaded to your desktop.) Rolling back a device driver What do you do if your hardware — which had been functioning properly before you meddled with it — suddenly stops performing properly after you have installed a new device driver? Why, go back to the past, of course. The trick here is to roll back the driver, which has nothing to do with turning a used car’s odometer backwards; instead, it amounts to uninstalling the new driver and replacing it with the one that had been in place before. Do this to roll back a device driver: 1. Open the Device Manager. 2. Right-click the device you want to work on. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 222 Book III Chapter 3 Windows Maintenance Utilities Checking Your Hard Disk for Errors 223 3. Click Properties. 4. Click the Driver tab. 5. Click Roll Back Driver. 6. Accept your decision. The driver rolls back. 7. Click Close. 8. Restart your computer. Checking Your Hard Disk for Errors An automated hard disk error-checking utility isn’t going to balance your bank account, convert the faulty logic in your term paper to Pulitzer-level insight, or correct your personality so you will meet the person of your dreams. Here’s what the built-in utilities of Windows Vista and Windows XP do: ✦ Examine the structure of your hard disk drive to make sure everything is properly indexed and that any problems with filenames, file attribute tables, security descriptors, and anything else related to the proper stor- age and retrieval of files is identified and fixed ✦ Look for one particular category of hardware problem on the disk itself: bad sectors CHKDSK The error-checking utility is a modernized version of one of the oldest elements of MS-DOS, the original operating system for PCs. From the dawn of PC time — before Windows was a twinkling in Bill Gates’ eyes — there has been a utility called CHKDSK (pronounced check-disk) that gives disk drives a physical and mental examination. (See Figure 3-8 for the Windows Vista Premium version of hard disk tools, which includes data backup; the Windows XP version offers a nearly identical toolbox.) CHKDSK is one of the few utilities that still exists outside the operating system. There are two important reasons for this: ✦ Microsoft has (properly) chosen to maintain, as much as possible, downward compatibility between the latest and greatest and the oldest and least. ✦ As a matter of engineering it pretty much needs to do its work without interference from any other computer tasks. 17 140925-bk03ch03.qxp 4/8/08 12:38 PM Page 223 . support technicians for the maker of your machine ✦ A bit of advertising for Windows operating system upgrades or hardware accessories On most current laptops running Windows Vista, manufacturer’s system information. search for driver software?” Your choices are: ✦ Search automatically on your computer and on the Internet for the latest device driver software for your device. ✦ Browse your computer for driver. do this, including a straightforward utility called System Information. (See Figure 3-2 for an example of a report.) To check System Information, follow along: 1. Click the Start button in Windows