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Main Area and Open Discussion => Living Room => Topic started by: techidave on January 16, 2010, 11:05 AM

Title: where does XP store its logs?
Post by: techidave on January 16, 2010, 11:05 AM

I have a couple of computers that one of my teacher's tell me is crashing.  But when I get there it seems to work just fine.

I have opened event viewer and am not finding anything in there.  Are there more logs kept that might be stored deep in the bowels of windows?  :D  And how might I view them if there is?

To my knowledge there isn't any error windows that popup or any other kind of messages.

any ideas?

Title: Re: where does XP store its logs?
Post by: joiwind on January 16, 2010, 11:14 AM

Hi, try this page (http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_logfiles.htm) - there might be something there to help ?

Title: Re: where does XP store its logs?
Post by: Stoic Joker on January 16, 2010, 01:24 PM

I have opened event viewer and am not finding anything in there.

-techidave (January 16, 2010, 11:05 AM)

Meaning the logs are empty? or there is nothing pertaining to the crash listed? Generally when I see this type of thing it ends up being a power issue. Dead/dying battery backup, brownouts with no battery backup, or failing/overheating power supply.

If you just need a tie breaker, make sure automatic restart on error is disabled so you can see it BSOD. Then if it still reboots without a BSOD ... Its got to be a power issue.

Title: Re: where does XP store its logs?
Post by: techidave on January 16, 2010, 02:04 PM

 there is nothing pertaining to the crash.  the automatic restart is disabled but no BSOD.

perhaps I should try another power supply to see what happens.

thanks!

Title: Re: where does XP store its logs?
Post by: gpetrant on January 18, 2010, 09:50 PM

XP stores its log files in C:\Windows\System32\Config (by default).  Each Windows log file has an .evt extension. 

(Personally, I use the full version of EventSentry (EventSentry Lite is free): http://www.netikus.net/ Why?  Because it not only records and presents system events with more detail, but can be setup to trigger a popup or email notification using custom triggers.)