Driver: Follow That Laptop 694 ✦ Check for updates to specific devices ✦ Set the utility to automatically check for new versions of drivers To update drivers using Windows Update, follow along: 1. Choose Start ➪ Windows Update. 2. Click Check for Updates. This option is in the left pane. See Figure 1-3. 3. If updates are available, click the driver you want to put in place. 4. Click Install. To set Windows to automatically check for recommended updates, follow these steps: 1. Open Windows Update. 2. Click Change Settings from the options in the left pane. 3. Choose Install Updates Automatically. This is the recommended option. You can instruct the system to install new updates every day at a particular time, or select a specific day of the week. You might want to tell the system to do so every day during your lunch hour or at 4:30 on Friday afternoon, when you anticipate not being at your desk. Sub-options here include: • Downloading updates but waiting for the user to choose whether to install them. • Checking for updates but allowing the user to choose whether to download and install them. • Never check for updates. This is the officially not-recommended sub- option. This makes your machine more vulnerable to security prob- lems, and you may also miss all kinds of nifty improvements to the system. If you chose to update automatically, go to Step 4. The recommended setting is Install Updates Automatically. 4. Choose a time to install any downloaded updates. Manually updating drivers The automatic process works well for most users and most equipment com- binations. However, some especially obscure pieces of hardware (or obscure uses for that hardware) may require you to seek out and install a device driver on your own; you might also be told to do so by a technical support department. 49 140925-bk10ch01.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 694 Book X Chapter 1 Sweating the Hard (ware) Stuff Driver: Follow That Laptop 695 To manually install a driver, follow along: 1. Open Device Manager. 2. Double-click the device name you want to update. 3. Click the Driver tab. 4. Click Update Driver. 5. Follow the instructions. See Figure 1-4. Printers are treated differently than other devices internal or external to a laptop. To find out the status of printer drivers or to change printer settings, go to the Control Panel and click the Printers icon. Restoring a driver to a previous version Oops. The new driver stopped a device from working. Windows offers a quick way to roll back a driver to its previous version: 1. Open Device Manager. 2. Double-click the category that includes the device to be fixed. 3. Double-click the name of the device. Figure 1-3: When Windows Update appears, click View Available Updates to see if updated drivers for the devices in your machine are available. This is the Windows Vista version of the facility. 49 140925-bk10ch01.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 695 Driver: Follow That Laptop 696 4. Click the Driver tab. 5. Click Roll Back Driver. This solution only works if a previous version of the driver is stored within Windows. If you haven’t previously updated the driver, or if (for some reason) the earlier driver has been deleted, the Roll Back Driver button isn’t available. Running a diagnostics program Laptop: Heal thyself. If Dr. “Bones” McCoy could diagnose and cure most ailments with a wave of his sensor probe, why can’t you do the same with laptops? Okay, okay. Star Trek was fiction, and we live in the real world or something like that. We haven’t quite reached the point where humans or machines can be healed with the wave of a tricorder, but diagnostic tools have made tremendous advances. Physicians can peer into the body with CAT scans and MRIs. And from the very first days of computers, we’ve been able to examine the function of many technical components by running sophisticated diagnostic programs. One big caveat here: You can’t run a diagnostic program on a laptop that won’t boot up and show at least minimal signs of life. The program needs to use the processor and the system’s basic pathways to explore the hardware. Figure 1-4: The Driver tab includes a button to update the driver manually. You’re asked for the new driver’s location. 49 140925-bk10ch01.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 696 Book X Chapter 1 Sweating the Hard (ware) Stuff Driver: Follow That Laptop 697 Many laptop manufacturers provide diagnostics programs as part of the basic software that comes with the machine. This helps both the user and the company, because it pinpoints problems with the hope that at least some can be fixed without sending the machine back to its maker. For example, current models of Toshiba laptops come with a utility cre- atively named Toshiba PC Diagnostic Tool. The first part consists of a basic information window that displays hardware details, including the model, its serial number, the version of the operating system detected, and major hard- ware components. See Figure 1-5. The second part of the utility delivers the tricorder. The Diagnostic Tool tests all of the components installed within the machine; its tests stop at the ports. You can choose to run all tests or concentrate on specific suspects. See Figure 1-6. If your laptop doesn’t come with a diagnostic program, or if you want to add software that includes more detailed or more rigorous testing, you can pur- chase utilities from other sources. Some programs let you loop a particular test over and over again, which is one way to find an intermittent failure. One product that does a good job is CheckIt diagnostics from Smith Micro Software, Inc. See Figure 1-7. Figure 1-5: The Toshiba diagnostics information screen offers a quick inventory of the essential parts of your machine. 49 140925-bk10ch01.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 697 Driver: Follow That Laptop 698 Figure 1-7: Advanced diagnostics tests include detailed exercises and reports on all of the components of your computer. Figure 1-6: Testing this Toshiba laptop model, I excluded the dial-up modem and told the software not to bother testing the floppy disk because it’s not there. 49 140925-bk10ch01.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 698 Chapter 2: Knowing When Good Software Goes Bad In This Chapter ߜ Identifying possible problems ߜ Getting help from Remote Assistance ߜ Using Microsoft Office Diagnostics D on’t go lookin’ for trouble; trouble will find you. That’s the sentiment of a modern blues song by Steve Goodman; I don’t think he was referring to laptops, but maybe he was. I do know that I once had a few extra minutes while sailing on a ship up at the top of the world, about a hundred miles from the North Pole, and I chose that moment to make an adjustment to Windows I’d never tried before: I changed the LCD screen resolution. Click . . . and there I was, 1,500 miles from the nearest computer technician with a laptop as frozen as the ice- bergs bobbing all around. Quite an image, eh? And quite true. Now if I were just an ordinary computer user and not the well-traveled, highly experienced expert who gets to write books about laptops, I might have been up the North Pole without a laptop. But not me: I had in my laptop bag a backup copy of Windows along with a set of standard display drivers and some data recovery utilities. What can I say? I don’t travel light. After a few minutes of tinkering, I restored my laptop to the condition it was in before I screwed it up. I tell you this story to bring the basic Boy Scout motto into the computer age: Be Prepared. What’s changed since the last time the laptop worked properly? If your answer includes any of these, this chapter is for you: ✦ I installed new software. ✦ I installed new or updated device drivers. ✦ I changed the operating system’s configuration. ✦ I deleted or changed one of the system files of Windows or a program component of an application on my machine. 50 140925-bk10ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 699 Bringing Big Problems via Tiny Changes 700 Bringing Big Problems via Tiny Changes You know your laptop’s not infallible, and you know that doesn’t mean it has an antigravity force field that keeps it from falling off a table. Even the most carefully guarded and well-maintained machine occasionally loses its mind. A major meltdown cause is corruption of stored settings or Windows system files or unintended changes to those same essential elements. How can this happen? ✦ An electrical fault. If your laptop runs out of power while it is in the process of saving a file or installing a program, or if it somehow receives a power surge or static shock, this can be the result. ✦ A virus or other form of unwanted nasty code. ✦ A poorly designed installation program — one that doesn’t follow all of Microsoft’s recommendations or doesn’t play well with other applications. ✦ An incomplete installation, interrupted by a power failure or by an oper- ating system freeze. ✦ A rare combination of incompatible software or hardware. Although soft- ware makers spend a great deal of time testing their products, they can’t anticipate every possible permutation of code and device. Never install a program on your laptop while it runs off its batteries. If the power runs out before the installation completes, the result could be damage to the system files. Taking your first tack: Undo changes If you can identify the changes you made to a configuration setting in Windows, do this: 1. Undo the changes. 2. Reboot the system. Is all well? I always keep a notebook in front of me on my desk. Each morning I start by marking down the date and a list of to-dos. I also use the page to jot down any changes I make to configurations and settings. That way if something goes wrong, I know where to start my troubleshooting. The same applies if you just installed software and you’re experiencing new problems instead of new solutions: Use the software’s uninstall function or follow these steps: 50 140925-bk10ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 700 Book X Chapter 2 Knowing When Good Software Goes Bad Bringing Big Problems via Tiny Changes 701 1. Go to the Control Panel. 2. Click the appropriate icon: • Windows XP: Add or Remove Programs icon • Vista: Programs and Features icon The software is removed. 3. Reboot. See Figure 2-1. Taking your second tack: System Restore If manually changing settings or uninstalling a problematic new program doesn’t provide the cure, you may have a suffered (or enabled) a sudden, serious problem with your Windows operating system. Microsoft offers a utility that — when it works — is like a silver bullet. System Restore offers a chance to go back in time when your laptop last worked properly. No, this doesn’t require a date with Doc Brown; it does require a Windows utility called System Restore and a bit of luck. System Restore takes snapshots (called restore points) of your system files and set- tings at regular intervals and anytime you manually instruct it to do so. If you’ve lived a clean life, helped little old ladies cross the street, and haven’t Figure 2-1: You can uninstall or change the components of most Windows programs by using the Programs and Features utility of Windows Vista or the similar Add or Remove Programs utility of XP. 50 140925-bk10ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 701 Bringing Big Problems via Tiny Changes 702 done anything else to bollix up your system, it may allow you to undo damage. For further information on System Restore, see Book III, Chapter 4. If undoing your changes doesn’t work and you’re thinking of heading over to System Restore, keep these points in mind: ✦ Go early. System Restore is most likely to work if you go to it immedi- ately after your machine shows problems. The more time that elapses, the more likely you’ll make changes to your system; a restoration isn’t as likely to fix them. ✦ Personal files are exceptions. When it comes to personal files including e-mails, documents, photos, and music, there’s both good news and bad news. The good news: If they’re still on the disk, using System Restore won’t help. The bad news: If they’ve been erased or corrupted, you have to try to repair or unerase them with another method. Of course, if you’re really a careful user, you made backup copies of your files on a different drive or on an external medium like a CD or DVD. ✦ Don’t go too far. Try restore points created just before problems started. If the first restore doesn’t work, go further back in time. Going further back than necessary could result in disabling updates and changes that you’d rather have available. See Figure 2-2. Figure 2-2: In System Restore, you can choose from a list of all automatic- ally or manually created restore points on your drive. 50 140925-bk10ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 702 Book X Chapter 2 Knowing When Good Software Goes Bad Bringing Big Problems via Tiny Changes 703 Opening System Restore A nearly identical utility exists in both Windows XP and Windows Vista, but the path to it has changed slightly. To open System Restore in Windows XP, follow along: 1. Click Start ➪ All Programs. 2. Highlight the Accessories group. 3. Click System Restore. The standard System Restore configuration has it creating restore points every day, and also just before significant system events are begun; these include a program or device driver installation. You can also create a restore point manually by following Step 5. 4. Click Create a Restore Point. Windows automatically adds the date and time, but you can include a short note: “Before changing mouse device driver,” for example. You can use System Restore only if you’ve previously turned it on. There’s really no reason not to use this utility, and it’s enabled as part of a standard Windows installation. In Windows Vista, take this quick route: 1. Click the Windows icon. The icon’s at the lower-left corner of the screen. 2. Type System Restore in the search box. 3. Press Enter. Or this one: 1. Open the Control Panel. 2. Double-click the Backup and Restore icon. 3. Click Repair Windows Using System Restore. The option is in the panel on the left side of the window. See Figure 2-3. 50 140925-bk10ch02.qxp 4/8/08 12:54 PM Page 703 . you anticipate not being at your desk. Sub-options here include: • Downloading updates but waiting for the user to choose whether to install them. • Checking for updates but allowing the user. machine back to its maker. For example, current models of Toshiba laptops come with a utility cre- atively named Toshiba PC Diagnostic Tool. The first part consists of a basic information window that. drivers The automatic process works well for most users and most equipment com- binations. However, some especially obscure pieces of hardware (or obscure uses for that hardware) may require you to