The best tool for diagnosing problems is the Emergency Recovery Console available on the Windows 2000 CD.
IRP Stack Size: You may get the following message in Event Viewer - "The value named IRPStackSize in the server's Registry key LanmanServer \ Parameters was invalid. The value was ignored, and processing continued". This is due to Norton Anti Virus overwriting the correct registry value: open the following registry key HKey_Local_Machine/System/CurrentControlSet/Services/lanmanserver/parameters and setting the IRPStackSize value to 6 or 11.
WMI Errors: WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) is the Microsoft implementation of Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM), an industry initiative to develop a standard technology for accessing management information in an enterprise environment. WMI runs as a service, and can be disabled. One of the areas WMI manages is performance counter information, loading the performance library using ADAP ( AutoDiscovery/AutoPurge ). If you get errors such as "WMI ADAP was unable to load the perfproc.dll performance library due to an unknown problem within the library: 0x0", or "WMI ADAP was unable to load the winspool.drv performance library due to an unknown problem within the library: 0x0 " you can run the following two commands from a command prompt:
winmgmt /clearadap
winmgmt /resyncperf -p XXX (Where XXX is the PID of the WIM process)
The first
command deletes the ADAP information in the registry
HKey_Local_Machine/System/CurrentControlSet/Services
Find the counter that is causing the error, e.g. spooler in the case of the above winspool.drv error, open the performance key and set the value WbemAdapStatus to 0.
WMI Namespace Error: When you install Service Pack 1 you may find that you get the following error: "WMI ADAP failed to connect to namespace \\.\root\cimv2\MS_809 with the following error: 0x8004100e". This appears to be a bug in SP1. You can resolve the problem by uninstalling SP1, or by replacing all the updated versions of the file winmgmt.exe on your system with the original version in the C:\WINNT\$NtServicePackUninstall$ folder and rebooting. If you have the WMI service running, you will have to stop it first in order to be able to overwrite the file. You may also wish to simply rename the original files, to avoid overwriting them: you can then reverse the operation easily if you encounter any problems.
Performance Counter Errors: You may find that the default performance monitors that Windows 2000 runs give error messages in Event Viewer. By default Windows 2000 runs many performance monitors in the background, including disk, system and network performance. If you get any error messages relating to any of the performance counters such as perfmon, perfnet, perfdisk, perfctrs (including the common error: Unable to read IO control information from NBT device) you can manually disable the individual monitors using the programme exctrlst.exe, in the Windows 2000 Resource Kit. The file can be downloaded here. Simply run the programme, and uncheck the Performance Counters Enabled box against any counters you wish to disable.
Unload Registry: You may get the error "Windows cannot unload your registry class file". The error file for this can be found in the Winnt/Debug/UserMode folder. This appears to be a bug relating to an open registry key. No fix is currently available that I am aware of.
DirectX: Windows 2000 has DirectX 7 built in , and given good hardware drivers can be a fast and powerful gaming platform. To check for problems use the DirectX diagnostic tool located in Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information/Tools.
Hardware: You can check for hardware conflicts in the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information/Hardware Resources and Components sections. Also check your hardware for compatibility in the Microsoft Hardware Compatibility List. Another good site for checking hardware compatibility is NT Compatible. Note that if you are using an ACPI sytem, it is normal to have multiple devices sharing the same IRQ. Windows 2000 only installs ACPI if you have a compatible bios.
Software: For information on software compatibility again try NT Compatible or Microsoft. In the Start/Programs/Accessories/System Tools/System Information/Software Environment folder you can access information on all tasks running in the background, programmes loaded at startup, and drivers that are loaded.
