Win XP's Driver Verifier Manager

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I received this in a email today, and will pass it on here.


Troubleshooting drivers with XP's hidden Driver Verifier Manager

By Greg Shultz

Takeaway:

The next time you need to identify the cause of a driver problem, turn to Windows XP's little-known troubleshooting tool called the Driver Verifier Manager. By going through a few short steps, you'll be able to determine whether the drivers you choose to diagnose are causing the problem.


Microsoft provided Windows XP with several high-profile tools for troubleshooting potential problems with drivers, namely File Signature Verification and Device Manager. However, Windows XP also includes the tool called the Driver Verifier Manager, which is mainly designed for developers but it can provide you with useful information during a troubleshooting operation.

Here's how to use it to troubleshoot a driver problem:

Access the Run dialog box by pressing the [Windows]-R keyboard shortcut.
In the Open text box, type the command Verifier.
On the Select A Task page, leave the default Create Standard Settings as-is.
On the next page, choose the Select Driver Name From A List.
Select the check boxes next to the driver files that you want to verify.
Click Finish and then reboot the system.
If the driver(s) that you selected are causing a problem, the system will halt and display a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) along with an error message. If the selected drivers aren't the cause of the problem, the system will start up normally.

Keep in mind that once you enable the Driver Verifier Manager it stays active until you disable it. To do so, follow these steps:

Access the Run dialog box by pressing the [Windows]-R keyboard shortcut.

In the Open text box, type the command Verifier /reset.

Note: For more detailed information about using the Driver Verifier Manager, read the Knowledge Base article Q244617.
 
Um...

So it watches a driver and if the driver is the cause of a problem it causes the system to display an error message. Is it any driver or just pci/agp card drivers?
 
My question is this?
if we use this verifier and it places the BSOD
frown.gif
on us everytime we reboot, how do we go about getting back into windows?
The start page(F8 key) ????Sometimes it just doen't get us there. So we know it is a certain driver, but we can't get into windows to shut off the verifier to fix the issue.
I think I am confusing myself here!!
confused.gif


But good notice here anyway!
It deffinately needs some more study!
 
In reply to lurkswithin. I ran it and found a problem with ptserlp.sys file. It is a dialup modem file. I don't use dialup. Anyway, the only way to get out was to boot from the safe mode and use the run-verifier /reset command.
per.
 
Ok!
After reading the info, I figured that would probably be the case. I just haven't the enthusiasm that you showed on trying it out.
Thanks for being the guaini pig...LOL
I will set up another computer that was driving me nuts and see what it sees in there. I was going to use the verifier /all command and let it just check them all.
 
Trouble is, It will only give one error at a time, so you have to repair the 1st one before going to the next one if more than 1.
 
I kind of gathered that.
Also it keeps monitoring unless you stop it...which maybe a good thing if you have a driver intermittingly giving you a hard time.
 
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