How to examine detailed error messages in Windows Millennium Edition (264938)

SUMMARY

Windows Millennium Edition (Me) error messages do not display component and register information by default. When an error occurs, you see a dialog box with following information:

"SPOOL32 has caused an error in <unknown>.
SPOOL32 will now close."

If you continue experiencing problems,
try restarting your computer.

However, detailed information on the error can be viewed by using one of the following methods:

While the message stating that there has been an error is still on display, press ALT+D. This displays the error message details for review.
When the error, or series of errors, has already occurred, access the errors using the steps below.
1. Double-click the My Computer icon.
2. Double-click the drive icon where the %Windows% directory is. (The default is C:\Windows.)
3. Double-click the %Windows% directory.
4. Double-click Faultlog.txt.
  
  If the file is smaller than 64 KB, it opens in Notepad. If it is larger than 64 kilobyte (KB), it opens in Wordpad.
5. Examine the entries to ascertain what the issue is.

MORE INFORMATION

Here are two sample Faultlog.txt entries.

Faultlog.txt entries are entered at the time they occur automatically and the time and date the error occurs is logged. The most recent may appear as the bottom entry.

In this case, Spool32.dll is the component file causing the error.

**********************************************************************
Date 06/01/2000 Time 17:00
SPOOL32 caused an exception 03H in module <unknown> at c1ab:00000001.
Registers:
EAX=82b0c2f8 CS=016f EIP=00000001 EFLGS=00000202
EBX=00000000 SS=0177 ESP=0063fadc EBP=8393d0c4
ECX=82b0c548 DS=0177 ESI=82b0c4ec FS=166f
EDX=00000020 ES=0177 EDI=00000000 GS=16cf
Bytes at CS:EIP:
00 ff ff 2b 04 70 00 c3 e2 00 f0 2b 04 70 00 2b 
Stack dump:
7f9e959a 00000000 000006dc 8393d0c4 82b0c00c 000006dc 00000000 8393d0c4
7f9e4967 00000000 000006dc 8393d0c4 0063fb6c 8393d010 00000001 0063fbbe 
**********************************************************************
Date 06/07/2000 Time 10:24
SPOOL32 caused an exception 03H in module <unknown> at c1a5:00000001.
Registers:
EAX=82b0c2f8 CS=016f EIP=00000001 EFLGS=00000202
EBX=00000000 SS=0177 ESP=0063fadc EBP=836b40c4
ECX=82b0c548 DS=0177 ESI=82b0c4ec FS=1667
EDX=00000020 ES=0177 EDI=00000000 GS=16c7
Bytes at CS:EIP:
00 ff ff 2b 04 70 00 c3 e2 00 f0 2b 04 70 00 2b 
Stack dump:
7f9e959a 00000000 00000568 836b40c4 82b0c00c 00000568 00000000 836b40c4
7f9e4967 00000000 00000568 836b40c4 0063fb6c 836b4010 00000001 0063fbbe 
***********************************************************************

Troubleshooting error messages

If you are looking for information about a specific error message, search the Microsoft Knowledge Base of technical support information and self-help tools for Microsoft products. To do this, visit the following Microsoft Web site.

http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=1?SD=SO&LN=EN-US