|
||
 |
||
|
| Fix New Software That Will Not Work |
 Email This
 Print ThisView My Personal Library |
|
System & Software November 2000 • Vol.6 Issue 11 |
 Fix New Software That Will Not Work | ||
 Installing or upgrading software is like starting your car: It goes smoothly so often you rarely give it a second thought. However, just as leaving your headlights on can leave you with a dead car, a software installation that goes bad can leave you with software or hardware that does not work or even a computer that will not boot. Many of us join an auto club for just such occasions and some cars are smart enough to turn the headlights off if you forget. In this article, we will see what you can do to avoid installation problems and to recover from those problems if you get caught in spite of your planning. Think of this article as an auto club for your computer.  Avoid Problems. There are six things you should do before and during a new installation to minimize your chances of having a problem and to maximize your chances of recovering if you do encounter problems. First, have a recent backup. If you do not want to take the time for a full backup, at least make a backup of your data files and your WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. This minimal backup should take only a couple of minutes. Second, make sure you have a bootable diskette. Boot from it and make sure it still works. Double-check to make sure you can read the CD drive after booting from the diskette. If you must reinstall Windows from the CD, this boot diskette will be your lifeline. Third, before running the installation program, make certain that the software you are going to install is compatible with your system. Not all software will run under Windows 95 or Windows NT, for example, and many USB (Universal Serial Bus) devices require Windows 98. There is no point in trying to troubleshoot software that was never designed to run on your system in the first place. Fourth, make sure you have enough disk space. Modern software takes up a lot of space, plus Windows needs disk space for its swap file and other temporary files. When disk space becomes too low, Windows-related problems increase dramatically. If you are running low on space, clean up your hard drive before trying to install the software. Fifth, just before starting the installation, unload any other software that is not necessary. You should not install software while running other programs. The worst offenders are antivirus software, but almost any software can interfere with an installation. In other words, do not play games, play music, or surf the Internet during an installation. Finally, make sure everything works after the installation. See the sidebar for a checklist you can use. This is critical because you want to find problems while the installation is fresh in your mind and before you have a time crunch. Plus, if you do not spot the problem right away, you may install a second program and incorrectly blame it for the problems. If the installation went fine and everything works, great. If not, follow these hints to try to resolve the problem. Quick Fixes First. If your computer has been running for some time, it may simply need to be rebooted. Try restarting Windows and the offending program. Restarting Windows frees up memory and other system resources. Many times, that is enough to correct the problem. If that does not work, try turning off the computer for a few minutes. Finally, make sure you have an adequate amount of free disk space. If these steps do not work, move on to the troubleshooting techniques discussed below. Certain Features Do Not Work. Not all software installs all of its features during a default installation. For example, Microsoft Word does not install the Equation Editor, and Excel does not install Solver. To add these features, you must rerun the installation program and check the appropriate boxes. You can do this anytime you need those features. If rerunning the installation program does not work or if the features were supposed to work with a default installation, then uninstall the software (Start, Settings, Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs) and rerun the installation. To make sure you are not inadvertently causing the problem, accept all the default settings during the reinstallation. This will make sure you are not disabling something the software really needs to work or otherwise causing a problem. If the features that do not work involve hardware—printing or scanning, for example—then you may need a new hardware driver. Log on to the Web site for the problem hardware and download its latest driver. The driver will come with instructions for installing it. The Program Will Not Run. When a freshly installed software package refuses to run, it will usually display a dialog box telling you why. Usually, the dialog box will say Illegal Operation and give additional information. For example, many shareware and freeware packages expect to find VBRUN300.dll on your computer and cannot run without it. If you are lucky, the dialog box will give you enough information to correct the problem. Many times, however, all the dialog box will have is a cryptic error message and the file (module) that caused the problem. Often, a search of the vendor's Web site for the error message will yield suggestions on how to correct the problem. After all, you are rarely the first person to encounter a particular problem. If you end up having to call technical support, this error message will be critical to solving your problem. Common causes of illegal operations include software bugs, DLL (dynamic-link library) problems, not enough memory, and not enough disk space. The latter two are easy to fix: either add more memory or clear off some disk space. But we'll spend some time covering DLL troubles. DLL problems. The single-most common cause of problems after an installation is DLL problems. DLL files are small programs called subroutines. They are efficient because they only load when needed and many different programs can use the same subroutines. DLL files are stored in your WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. Since programs work with a common pool of DLL files, several problems can be introduced by installing DLL files; this is why installing one program can cause a different program to stop working. First, an older DLL file can replace a newer one, and programs that depend on the newer DLL file may stop working. Most newer installation routines will warn you before overwriting a newer DLL and let you skip that step. A second problem can crop up when an older program was designed to work with a DLL and that DLL gets replaced with a newer one. If the older program is not robust enough to work with the newer DLL, it may quit working. Spotting and correcting DLL problems is one of the more difficult troubleshooting tasks you can face. Even uninstalling the offending software may not correct the problem. If it overwrote one version of a DLL with another version, uninstalling it cannot replace the original version. With Win98, you can use the Version Conflict Manager to see what files were replaced by an installation so you can replace those DLL files from the backup you made before starting the installation. This is why a backup of your WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder is critical. One critical way to help avoid DLL problems is to never use two versions of the same product or suite of products from the same vendor. For example, do not use Word 97 with Excel 95. Different versions are naturally designed to use different sets of DLL files, and it may be difficult to get them to coexist. When All Else Fails. If nothing else corrects the problem, it may be time to reinstall Windows. The more you use Windows, the more information accumulates in the Registry, and the further Windows moves from its factory configuration. Reinstalling Windows is, to say the least, time consuming. Depending on how you go about reinstalling it, you also may have to reinstall other software. This is not a solution to be undertaken lightly. Read up on what is involved and make sure you feel comfortable tackling such a big project before you begin. And remember, you will not be able to use your computer for anything else until the reinstallation is complete.  by Ronny Richardson
|
|
Home Copyright & Legal Information Privacy Policy Site Map Contact Us