Implementing, Managing, and Troubleshooting Hardware Devices and Drivers: (KB# Q199276)

Miscellaneous:

• Windows 2000 now fully supports Plug and Play. (KB# Q133159)
• Use the "System Information" snap-in to view configuration information about your computer (or create a custom console focused on another computer - powerful tool!!).
• "Hardware Resources" under System Information allows you to view Conflicts/Sharing, DMAs, IRQs, Forced Hardware, I/O and Memory.
• Hardware is added and removed using the "Add/Remove Hardware" applet in the Control Panel (can also be accessed from Control Panel > System > Hardware > Hardware Wizard).
• All currently installed hardware is managed through the "Device Manager" snap-in.
• To troubleshoot a device using Device Manager, click the "Troubleshoot" button on the General tab.

Disk devices:

• Managed through "Computer Management" under Control Panel > Administrative tools or by creating a custom console and adding the "Disk Management" snap-in. Choosing the "Computer Management" snap-in for your custom console gives you the following tools: Disk Management, Disk Defragmenter, Logical Drives and Removable Storage. There is a separate snap-in for each of these tools except for Logical Drives.
• Using Disk Management, you can create, delete, and format partitions as FAT, FAT32 and NTFS. Can also be used to change volume labels, reassign drive letters, check drives for errors and backup drives.
• Defragment drives by using "Disk Defragmenter" under "Computer Management" or add the "Disk Defragmenter" snap-in to your own custom console. (KB# Q227463)
• Removable media are managed through the "Removable Media" snap-in.

Display devices:

• Desktop display properties (software settings) are managed through the Display applet in Control Panel.
• Display adapters are installed, removed and have their drivers updated through "Display Adapters" under the Device Manager.
• Monitors are installed, removed, and have their drivers updated through "Monitors" under the Device Manager.
• Windows 2000 Professional supports multiple monitors running concurrently.

Mobile computer hardware:

• PCMCIA (PC Card) adapters, USB ports, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), and Infrared devices now supported. These are managed through Device Manager.
• Hot (computer is fully powered) and warm (computer is in suspend mode) docking and undocking are now fully supported for computers with a PnP BIOS.
• Support is provided for Advanced Power Management (APM) and Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI). (KB# Q242495)
• Hibernation (complete power down while maintaining state of open programs and connected hardware) and Suspend (deep sleep with some power) modes are now supported, extending battery life.
• When a PC Card, USB or Infrared device is installed, Windows 2000 will automatically recognize and configure it (if it meets PnP specifications). If Windows does not have an entry in its driver base for the new hardware, you will be prompted to supply one.
• Equipping mobile computers with SmartCards and Encrypting File System decreases the likelihood of confidential corporate data being compromised if the computer is stolen or lost.
• Use hardware profiles for mobile computers. Accessed through Control Panel > System applet > Hardware tab > Hardware Profiles. Multiple profiles can be created and designated as a docked or undocked portable computer.

Input and output (I/O) devices:

• Keyboards are installed under "Keyboards" in Device Manager.
• Mice, graphics tablets and other pointing devices are installed under "Mice and other pointing devices" in Device Manager.
• Troubleshoot I/O resource conflicts using the "System Information" snap-in. Look under Hardware Resources > I/O for a list of memory ranges in use.

Updating drivers:

• Drivers are updated using Device Manager. Highlight the device, right-click and choose Properties. A properties dialog appears. Choose the Drivers tab and then the Update Driver... button.
• Microsoft recommends using Microsoft digitally signed drivers whenever possible. (KB# Q244617)
• The Driver.cab cabinet file on the Windows 2000 CD contains all of the drivers the OS ships with. Whenever a driver is updated, W2K looks here first. The location of this file is stored in a registry key and can be changed: HKLM\Software\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\DriverCachePath  (KB# Q230644)
• The Driver Verifier is used to troubleshoot and isolate driver problems. It must be enabled through changing a Registry setting. The Driver Verifier Manager, verifier.exe, provides a command-line interface for working with Driver Verifier. (KB# Q244617)

Managing/configuring multiple CPUs:

• Adding a processor to your system to improve performance is called scaling. Typically done for CPU intensive applications such as CAD and graphics rendering.
• Windows 2000 Professional supports a maximum of two CPUs. If you need more consider using Windows 2000 Server (up to 4 CPUs), Advanced Server (up to 8 CPUs) and Datacentre Server (maximum of 32 CPUs).
• Windows 2000 supports Symetric Multiprocessing (SMP). Processor affinity is also supported. Asymetric Multiprocessing (ASMP) is not supported.
• Upgrading to multiple CPUs might increase the load on other system resources.
• Update your Windows driver to convert your system from a single to multiple CPUs. This is done through Device Manager > Computer > Update Driver. (KB# Q234558)

Install and manage network adapters:

• Adapters are installed using the Add/Remove Hardware applet in Control Panel
• Change the binding order of protocols and the Provider order using Advanced Settings under the Advanced menu of the Network and Dial-up Connections window (accessed by right-clicking on My Network Places icon)
• Each network adapter has an icon in Network and Dial-up connection. Right click on the icon to set it's properties, install protocols, change addresses, etc.

Troubleshooting the boot process:

Files used in the Windows 2000 boot process: (KB# Q114841)

* Optional - only if system partition is on SCSI disk with BIOS disabled

ARC paths in BOOT.INI: (KB# Q113977 & Q119467)

The Advanced Risc Computing (ARC) path is located in the BOOT.INI and is used by NTLDR to determine which disk contains the operating system. (KB# Q102873)

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1). These are the lowest numbers that an ARC path can have.

BOOT.INI switches: (KB# Q239780)

• /basevideo - boots using standard VGA driver
• /fastdetect=[comx,y,z] - disables serial mouse detection or all COM ports if port not specified. Included by default
• /maxmem:n - specifies amount of RAM used - use when a memory chip may be bad
• /noguiboot - boots Windows without displaying graphical startup screen
• /sos - displays device driver names as they load
• /bootlog - enable boot logging
• /safeboot:minimal - boot in safe mode
• /safeboot:minimal(alternateshell) - safe mode with command prompt
• /safeboot:network - safe mode with networking support (KB# Q236346)

Booting in Safe Mode: (KB# Q202485)

• Enter safe mode by pressing F8 during operating system selection phase
• Safe mode loads basic files/drivers, VGA monitor, keyboard, mouse, mass storage and default system services. Networking is not started in safe mode. (KB# Q199175)
• Enable Boot Logging - logs loading of drivers and services to ntbtlog.txt in the windir folder
• Enable VGA Mode - boots Windows with VGA driver
• Last Known Good Configuration - uses registry info from previous boot. Used to recover from botched driver installs and registry changes.
• Recovery Console - only appears if it was installed using winnt32 /cmdcons or specified in the unattended setup file.
• Directory Services Restore Mode - only in Server for restoring Active Directory information to domain controllers, not applicable to Win2000 Professional.
• Debugging Mode - again, only in Server
• Boot Normally - lets you boot, uh, normally. ;-)

Windows 2000 Control Sets: (KB# Q142033)

• Found under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\Select - has four entries
• Current- CurrentControlSet. Any changes made to the registry modify information in CurrentControlSet
• Default - control set to be used next time Windows 2000 starts. Default and current contain the same control set number
• Failed - control set marked as failed when the computer was last started using the LastKnownGood control set
• LastKnownGood - after a successful logon, the Clone control set is copied here

Running the Recovery Console: (KB# Q229716)

• Insert Windows 2000 CD into drive, change to i386 folder and run winnt32 /cmdcons (KB# Q216417)
• After it is installed, it can be selected from the "Please Select Operating System to Start" menu
• When starting Recovery Console, you must log on as Administrator. (KB# Q239803)
• Can also be run from Windows 2000 Setup, repair option.
• Allows you to boot to a "DOS Prompt" when your file system is formatted with NTFS.
• Looks like DOS, but is very limited. By default, you can copy from removable media to hard disk, but not vice versa - console can't be used to copy files to other media (KB# Q240831). As well, by default, the wildcards in the copy command don't work (KB# Q235364). You can't read or list files on any partition except for system partition.
• Can be used to disable services that prevent Windows from booting properly (KB# Q244905)

Startup and Recovery Settings:

• Accessed through Control Panel > System applet > Advanced tab > Startup and Recovery
• Memory dumps are always saved with the filename memory.dmp (KB# Q192463)
• Small memory dump needs 64K of space. Found in %systemroot%\minidump
• A paging file must be on the system partition and the pagefile itself at least 1 MB larger than the amount of RAM installed for Write debugging information option to work
• Use dumpchk.exe to examine contents of memory.dmp (KB# Q156280)

Windows Report Tool: (KB# Q188104)

• Used to gather information from your computer to assist support providers in troubleshooting issues. Reports are composed in Windows 98 and Windows 2000 and then uploaded to a server provided by the support provider using HTTP protocol.
• Reports are stored in a compressed .CAB format and include a Microsoft System Information (.NFO) file.
• The report generated by Windows Report Tool (winrep.exe) includes a snapshot of complete system software and hardware settings. Useful for diagnosing software and hardware resource conflicts.

Emergency Repair Disk:

• Windows NT 4 users - the RDISK utility is gone, ERDs are now made exclusively with the backup utility. It has been changed from a repair disk to a boot disk which lets you run repair tools on the CD (KB# Q216337)
• To make an ERD, run ntbackup, choose Emergency Repair Disk and insert a blank formatted floppy into the A: drive. You will also have the option to copy registry files to the repair directory - it's a good idea to do so (%systemroot%\repair\regback). Also use backup to copy these registry files to a tape or Zip disk. (KB# Q231777)
• ERD contains the following files: autoexec.nt, config.nt and setup.log