DrWatson Non Fatal Error in TSE4.0

[agnes]

My user received the following err on her client PC - win2K pro / P3-256MB RAM while running application via a NT 4 Terminal Server with ICA protocol over a 256KB bandwidth.

[Dr.Watson for Windows NT]
An Application error has occurred and an application error log is being generated.

[DrWatson Non Fatal Error]
Cannot Open DrWatson Log File
Press OK to Browse for new directory
Windows NT Error Code=80

I would like to know the 2nd error msg: " DrWatson Non Fatal Error" is refering to the client PC or the TSE? I cannot find any related content in both the client & TSE's event viewer. How can I troubleshoot the problem on the 2nd err msg?

Pls advice. TIA.

[mfutty]

To get immediate information, have her click "OK" when the message appears and browse to a directory that she normally saves her files in. It will create a DRWatson log file that you can examine.

Go to both her machine and the TCE and see where each is set to save DRWatson log files. My guess is that it is happening on the TCE and her user account does not have rights to save the log file in the default location indicated by DRWatson.

To change the default log file location, use the following:

MICROSOFT DR. WATSON
Description of Issues
If a program aborts, Dr. Watson starts automatically to save the failure information to a file for future analysis. By default, Dr. Watson tries to write the data into %systemroot%, which is read-only for normal users. The user is then prompted for a new location for the data, which may be confusing.

How to Solve
Run the %systemroot%\Application Compatibility Scripts\Install\DrWatson.cmd script. This will change the default directory to store Dr. Watson logs in the user's home directory specified in Rootdrv.cmd.

If you have that script, run it.

[agnes]

Thanks mfutty!!

I suppose I need to run the script on the TSE as administrator. But, should I run in install or user mode? Does it mean that after I run this script, it will automatically change default directory to the individual user's home directory whenever an error is hit or I have to specify the directory manually?

[mfutty]

Run it as an administrator and you are done.

It will automatically save it in the user's profile directory where they have write permissions (and stop the additional error from popping up on their screen). The script accomplishes this by inserting the %username% variable in the DrWatson log file save path. You do not have to perform any additional changes for each user.

After you run the script, if a user reports to you that a DrWatson event occurred, just look in their profile path for the log and hopefully will now be able to solve the mystery problem.

Good luck!