Did You Recently Change Any Application Settings?
If so, try reversing
the change to see whether doing so solves the problem. If that doesn’t
help, here are three other things to try:
Check the developer’s website to see whether an upgrade or patch is available.
Run
the application’s Repair option (if it has one), which is often useful
for fixing corrupted or missing files. To see whether a program as a
Repair option, select Start, type programs,
and then click Programs and Features to display a list of your
installed applications. Click the problematic application, and then look
for a Repair item in the taskbar (see Figure 4).
Reinstall the program.
Note
If a program freezes, you
won’t be able to shut it down using conventional methods. If you try,
you might see a dialog box warning you that the program is not
responding. If so, click End Now to force the program to close. If that
doesn’t work, right-click the taskbar, and then click Task Manager. When
you display the Applications tab, you should see your stuck application
listed, and the Status column will likely say Not responding. Click the program, and then click End Task.
Did You Recently Install a New Program?
If you suspect a new
program is causing system instability, restart Windows 7 and try
operating the system for a while without using the new program. (If the
program has any components that load at startup, be sure to deactivate
them)
If the problem doesn’t reoccur, the new program is likely the culprit.
Try using the program without any other programs running.
You should also examine
the program’s readme file (if it has one) to look for known problems
and possible workarounds. It’s also a good idea to check for a Windows
7-compatible version of the program. Again, you can also try the
program’s Repair option or you can reinstall the program.
Similarly, if you recently upgraded an existing program, try uninstalling the upgrade.
Tip
One common cause of
program errors is having one or more program files corrupted because of
bad hard disk sectors. Before you reinstall a program, run a surface
check on your hard disk to identify and block off bad sectors.
Tip
When a program
crashes, Windows 7 displays a dialog box asking if you want to see
whether a solution to the problem is available. You can control the
behavior of this prompt.
Did You Recently Install a New Device?
If you recently installed a
new device or if you recently updated an existing device driver, the new
device or driver might be causing the problem. Check Device Manager to
see whether there’s a problem with the device.
Did You Recently Install an Incompatible Device Driver?
Windows 7 allows you to install drivers that aren’t Windows 7
certified, but it also warns you that this is a bad idea. Incompatible
drivers are one of the most common sources of system instability, so
whenever possible, you should uninstall the driver and install one
designed for Windows 7. If you can’t uninstall the driver, Windows 7
automatically set a system restore point before it installed the driver,
so you should use that to restore the system to its previous state.
Did You Recently Apply an Update from Windows Update?
It’s an
unfortunate fact of life that occasionally updates designed to fix one
problem end up causing another problem. Fortunately, Windows 7 offers a
couple of solutions for problems caused by updates:
Select Start, type updates,
and then click View Installed Updates. In the Installed Updates window,
click the update you want to remove, and then click Uninstall.
Before you install an update from the Windows Update site, Windows 7 creates a system restore point—usually named Install: Windows Update. If your system becomes unstable after installing the update, use System Restore to revert to the pre-update configuration.
Tip
If you have Windows 7 set
up to perform automatic updating, you can keep tabs on the changes made
to your system by select Start, type updates,
and then click Windows Update. Click the View Update History link to
see a list of the installed updates, which includes the update Name,
Status (such as Successful), Type (such as Important or Optional), and
Date Installed.
