This is the case for doctors and as you will see, it applies to PCs as well.

A few years ago, a system I was using developed an issue wherein it randomly would not properly do a warm reboot. I'd go to Start\Shutdown and select "Restart." Instead of rebooting, the system would, when running Windows 98SE, stop at the "Windows is Shutting Down" screen and when using Windows Millennium give me a message that "Windows did not restart properly, please shut down and reboot the system."

This didn't happen very often but the random event was happening ever more frequently as time went on. I just couldn't figure out what was going on and every time I'd find something that seemed to resolve the issue, I felt relief only to have the issue arise again. The issue was becoming so prevalent I took it back to the shop where it was built but they had no idea what was causing the problem.

The frequency reached a point that last year, with the approach of a new beta test and no resolution in sight, I was forced to buy a new system. I was planning a purchase for this year so I had to move the schedule up a bit. I figured once I had the new system, this would give me the time to figure out what was wrong with the old one.

I brought home the new system and networked the two. For a brief time, the old system seemed fine again but in testing I had to make some configuration changes and the old system started acting up again. Because this random event seemed to arise any time I had an issue with the network setup, I began to feel that was the cause. Note, I had forgotten that the issue was present prior to my ever networking the two computers.

Nonetheless, I went to the web site of the manufacturer of my network interface cards and my switch, Netgear and sure enough, I found a reference to this issue. This looked promising. The web site said this issue was indicative of an IRQ conflict that usually can be cleared up by moving the network card to a different slot.

After moving the network card, the problem cleared up for awhile but ultimately, returned again. If you are now feeling frustrated, you know how I felt. I continued using my new system while puzzling over the old system. Sometimes we have to give these things a bit of distance.

I began working backward and remembered the problem began before I installed the network. As I searched for when I could recall it began, I remembered having installed a CD-Writer and began to pinpoint that as the approximate time the issue began to surface.

However, I was fairly certain the cause was not the CD-Writer but recalling that led me to something else installed at the same time, it just didn't lead me there immediately. In the mean time, I moved that network card to every slot and I disabled no longer needed devices. This machine had an extra parallel port as I owned a parallel port Zip Drive when I purchased the system. I disabled it in the system BIOS in order to free an extra IRQ.

All this worked for a time only to stop later on. But all these things were leading me on a path toward the answer. The system did not have a CD-Writer when I bought it but it did have the above-mentioned Zip Drive and an external tape backup drive. When those two devices died, I installed the CD-Writer to handle the chore of backup and archiving.

As I was contemplating this one evening, I flashed on something I saw when I opened the case to move the network card to a different slot. I noticed but had not made note of the fact I had seen my sound card sitting in an ISA slot. Suddenly, I focused. A bell went off you could have heard around the world.

A little more background is in order here. Prior to this system with which I was having this issue, I had an IBM Aptiva I purchased at the very end of the Windows 3.1 era. After I moved that system to Windows 95, I would periodically have a problem booting the system. It would boot into "DOS Compatibility Mode." This is often caused when there is an unrecognized device. In the case of that system, I traced the issue to the ISA sound card.

It was an issue I fought for quite some time before I finally found the cause. Recalling this little bit of information led to a resolution of the above issue which had plagued me off and on for two years. After I had installed the CD-Writer, I noticed I was unable to play music CDs from that drive. This was because the sound card I had on the system could only accommodate inputs from one CD-ROM type drive.

Within a week of installing the CD-Writer I went to the shop that had built the system and inquired about this issue. They pointed me toward a sound card from Creative that would accommodate input from more than one CD-ROM drive. When I brought the system home after installing the new card I recalled a very brief notation in the boot screen about an ISA device but really didn't think much of it at the time.

However, when I flashed on that image of the inside of my system and recalled seeing the sound card in the ISA slot, everything came together. I recalled the problems I had with my old Aptiva. I remembered the original card in the newer system had been a PCI card and I was pretty sure the ISA sound card with which I had replaced it was the source of the issue.

I'm planning on retiring this computer in a year so I didn't want to spend a lot of money. I did some research and found an OEM version of the Creative PCI 128 Sound Card at a local shop for $29. I went to a newsgroup where I have a lot of friends and posted a question about the card having the ability to accommodate inputs from multiple CD-ROM drives and the answer was yes. My thanks to all of them for their help.

I bought the card, made the change and the issue has not reappeared. I've stress tested the system over an over, really blowing its setup and network configuration, trying to duplicate all the circumstances that brought on the problem in the past and I'm happy to report, the system has remained rock solid.

I'm often asked how I know what I know when it comes to providing support or the general knowledge I try to provide in these columns. As with many other things in life, experience is the best teacher. As you can see, combining experience with a well thought out history of the event can be very useful. Even if you don't have the experience, knowing the history of the event can lead to a solution, if not by you then by someone else of whom you might ask for assistance.

Let this be a lesson to all of you. When it comes to diagnosing issues with your computer, the most important thing you can do is "Take Good History." You may not have to search so much experience as I demonstrate above but knowing the history of an event, when it began, what you were doing and changes you have made can often lead to a quick resolution.