What Causes Error Messages?

So what exactly is an error message? That is, what is it other than a royal pain in the neck? “That does not compute,” perhaps the first error message of all, comes from the classic 1960s television show Lost In Space, and it may say it best. An error message is a computer’s response to an unexpected or (from the computer’s point of view) nonsensical condition. In other words when you make a command that “does not compute,” the computer answers with an error message.

Here’s a list of just a few of the more common error messages: file not found, bad request, out of memory, device is not ready, and access denied. The list could go on. In fact, it goes on and on and on. Do you feel your blood pressure rising just reading these concise statements? Rest assured that anyone who spends a lot of time on a computer has also spent countless hours trying to figure out why he/she is getting a certain error message (and subsequently learning how to avoid it in the future).

Let’s take a look at 3 of the more annoying of error messages – each of which is associated with Internet use – and figure out both what causes them and how they can be circumvented.

1. “File Contains No Data”

More often than not this message is simply telling you that although you may have reached the right website, the file you are looking for is empty. There can be several reasons for this. The most common cause is that someone behind the scenes is working on the site or updating it. So what’s the easiest way around it? Try again a little later. Or if you’re feeling adventurous try typing “:80” (without quotes) before the last slash in the URL.

2. “File Not Found”

This is probably the most common Internet error message of them all. It occurs when the server cannot locate the HTML document you are searching for. This can happen for several reasons, starting with the possibility that you made an error of syntax in the URL or the document name. It is also possible that the document has been moved and/or re-titled. To avoid this problem, double check the URL you have typed (or cut and pasted). If an error in the URL was not the source of the problem, then try deleting the portion of the URL after the last slashes. If this doesn’t solve the issue, go directly to the home page or the directory of the site you are accessing and search for the specific document that you need there.

3. “Bad Request”

This is the error message you are sure to get when the server cannot understand the URL you have provided. Check to see if the URL’s upper or lower case is appropriate, take a look at colons, hyphens, slashes, and abbreviations, too. If all these elements seem to be correct, go to the directory where the document is stored and search for it from there. If this doesn’t work, you’ll probably have to contact the webmaster or whoever maintains the site to find a solution.

There are hundreds of potential error messages out there, but they all generally mean the same thing: whatever you just typed into the computer doesn’t “compute.” Just remember, you aren’t alone in your frustration with error messages, but there are many tried and true ways to work around these errors and make things compute.