Cryptic Windows error codes no more!

Written by Aaron Silber:

This tip has been written by many out there on the big World Wide Web, but figured it was worth repeating, just in case you haven’t seen it.

Ever find yourself looking at an Event Log error message hoping that it will provide a real answer to a problem only to find it referencing some hex number?

Great, now what do I do with this you may be asking yourself. Well this little tip in many cases can lead you to your next step!

The key here is the status code, which will be in hex, in this case 704.

Open up Calculator and choose Scientific mode (unless you’re one of those math geeks that can do hexàDecimal conversion in your head!)

As soon as you change the mode from hex to decimal you will get 1796, stay with me, we are getting there.

Next, open up a command prompt and type in:

Now we have a real message and something to look into! This printer was looking to create a custom Port.

This tip should work on almost any windows error codes otherwise you are probably dealing with a custom app I imagine.

– Aaron