Eighteen thousand errors!

Voyager2002

I have just discovered the 'Event Viewer' within Windows 7 on my laptop, and am horrified that it lists 18,206 'Administrative Events', most of which (so far as I can see) are Errors or Warnings. So how should I approach the task of finding out which ones matter and which don't, and doing something about the ones that are important?

A bit of context: even when new (30 months ago) this laptop tended to freeze, and some very simple tasks, such as scrolling down a drop-down list and moving down a list of files in a directory in Windows Explorer, were absurdly slow. I did contact Sony technical support within the Warranty period and did all that they suggested (mainly uninstalling and reinstalling some programmes) but I don't think it made any difference.

Last night I tried to shut down and the computer remained hanging, so I re-started in Safe mode to see if any problems would become apparent. That was when the Event Viewer became visible.

The viewer does reveal that some Events took place when the computer was still under warranty: for instance kernel-event-tracing Event ID 3: if this matters then I could argue that Sony technical support should have told me to check the Event Viewer and so still have some responsibility for fixing it.

So: any ideas please?

droopsnoot

My first suggestion was going to be to clear the entire list out and then worry only about new events, but if you're hoping to use the event log as some form of warranty claim than you should not do that. In fact it might be worth you saving the current event log to a file and keeping that safe somewhere.

You might find that having so many events in the event log can be causing a problem in itself - some older versions of Windows (and I haven't used 7 enough to comment) would only allow a certain number of entries so would just stop recording once full.

bsod

I wouldn't bother looking at them. In many years of wasted time looking at event logs, only once have I found anything of use in diagnosing the problem, that was a hard disk having a dicky fit. Since vista, it's almost impossible to make any sense of event logs, the gui seems designed to obfuscate anything useful, even if you can understand the logged event once you find it

copy your data somewhere, then reinstall windows

Sony are responsible for hardware during the warranty period, if the machine is running at all, nearly all problems are caused by software.

JJ_Egan

A lot depends upon what the actual errors are .
Click on an event and the box at the bottom gives more details .Then use google .

( I could argue that Sony technical support should have told me to check the Event Viewer and so still have some responsibility for fixing it. )

I don't see that as there are multiple administrative tools on windows .

wongataa

You will always see a lot of errors in the Event Viewer. The vast majority are harmless. I wouldn't be overly worried.

paddyrg

Event viewer events - don't go down that rabbit hole! You'll be jumping at shadows all the time, the meanings are very specific and are meant for experienced administrators as a guide, not Joe Punter to troubleshoot.

cookie365

Don't bother looking at any of them.

I have 68509. And the PC works just fine.

If something is hogging CPU/memory, run Process Explorer and have a look at what has the biggest numbers.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

bod1467

Application: 55,595
Security: 140,603
Setup: 800
System: 89,005
Forwarded Events: 0 (Disabled)

That's what Event Viewer shows on my work laptop (Win 7 Pro).

flicks

Agree with all above, just ignore them.


When these scammers phone and tell you they are from Microsoft and have detected you have problems on your computer this is the area they direct you to because it will make you panic and pay money to have them "removed".


They have no meaning to the likes of you and me although I'm sure the computer minded would know what they mean.


If the computer is running ok just leave them be and put them to the back of your mind.