Debugging WINS Event ID 4288

• Microsoft Windows NT Server versions 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0

SYMPTOMS

If you use Wins Administrator or Winscl.exe to backup a WINS database, you may get an error message indicating that the database cannot be backed up. Wins will also post Event ID 4288 in the System Log.

   Event ID: 4288
   Source: WINS
   Type: Error
   Description: WINS Encountered an error during backup of the database
                to the directory .

RESOLUTION

There may be multiple causes for this problem. Use the following steps to assist in determining the root cause. For example, the Wins event message may have the following hex data:

   00002589 FFFFFDFC

1. Check the hex data's second double-word (DWORD), that always indicates the error code. In this example, the error code is FDFC. Your error code may be different.

2. Take the 2s complement of the error code, that is 516, and then check out the error status in the Jet header file. In this example, error 516 maps to JET_errLoggingDisabled. This indicates that the Wins backup failed because logging is disabled.

2s Complement

The 2s Complement is a method for storing negative numbers such as these error conditions in WINS. To determine the 2s complement of the number in the example, follow these steps:

1. Start Calculator (Calc.exe).

2. On the View menu, click Scientific, and then click Hex.

3. Type FDFC, click Xor, and then click FFFF.

4. Click =, click +, and then click 1.

5. Click =, and then click Dec to convert the result to decimal.

   ARTICLE-ID: Q168595
   TITLE     : Debugging WINS Event ID 4224

   ARTICLE-ID: Q124617
   TITLE     : JETPACK.EXE Error Codes and Messages for Windows NT 3.5

   ARTICLE-ID: Q172570
   TITLE     : Jetpack Error Codes for Windows NT 4.0

Keywords          : NTSrv nttcp kbnetwork
Version           : WinTN:3.5,3.51,4.0
Platform          : winnt