Category Archives: Fixes

Daylight Savings for Western Australia 2009

… is not happening.
 
Therefore, a hotfix has been released to deal with this issue. This is an out of band update, and should be applied to all systems used by WA users.
 
The Daylight Savings Planning Guide (September 2009) can be found here – http://technet.microsoft.com/en-au/bb821275.aspx
 
The hotfix (KB974176) can be obtained here – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/974176
 

Sync iPhone email

I’ve been working on the iPhone, since my old HTC died. One thing I found annoying about the iPhone was the inability to sync more than a few days email. I searched and found what I needed.
 
 
To sync more than the default of 3 days, Open up Settings,
 
Mail, Contacts, Calendars, [your exchange account],
 
Mail Days to Sync.
Select the desired setting.
 
 

Vista networking issues with SBS2003

I have come across an issue which has come up regularly when using Vista workstations in a SBS2003 network. A network share cannot be accessed properly from the Vista PC. Files can be created, copied to, or deleted off the network share. However, when an attempt is made to rename the file, or edit and save the file, an error pops up similar to the following – “The file cannot be found” or “The network resource is no longer available”.
 
One way to fix this is to reset the Offline Folders database, which may be corrupted. To do this:
 
1. Open Regedit
2. Go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\CSC\Parameters
3. Edit or add the DWORD value called FormatDatabase to 1
4. Restart the computer
 
Alternatively, disable Offline Files in the Control Panel and restart the PC.
 

Windows 7 and IPv6

I’ve been having issues with my Windows 7 RC test PC over the past two weeks. Every day or two, Internet connectivity would stop and the PC would requirea reboot. Symptoms were unusual.
1. Some websites worked, while others wouldn’t.
2. In a command prompt, ping would not work, with the name not being resolved.
3. However, NSLOOKUP would work fine, and return a valid answer.
4. TRACERT would not work, since PING didn’t work.
5. The Network Sharing Centre would report that there was Internet Access.
 
After fiddling around, I realised that the IPv6 DNS was taking preceedence. I checked the SBS2008 server DNS and everything appeared to work properly.
Finally, I turned off all IPv6 services, and suddenly, Internet Connectivity was restored.
 
Interesting?

Error 0x8007007f: A problem is preventing Windows from accurately checking the license for this computer

I got this error, when I tried to log in to one of my Domain Controllers this morning. It is a Windows 2003 x64 server. I had remotely applied SP2 and some other patches.
 
Looking up this error, I found references to the fact that SP2 may have been installed, but the computer had not been rebooted. Duh!
 
Rebooted the server, and all was well.

Daylight Savings Issues for Australia

 

The powers to be in Government in Australia decided last year to make changes to the starting and ending times for Daylight Savings In Australia. As a result, the end of daylight savings has been extended to the first Sunday in April. Some PCs which have not been patched may automatically switch off to non DST time. This problem particularly affects Windows Mobile devices.
 
To resolve this issue on PCs and Servers, you will need to apply the Microsoft August or December 2008 Cumulative time zone update. If either patch is applied, the PC will have the correct DST information. This patch can be downloaded here – http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955839/
 
For Windows Mobile Devices, you can download the patch here using IE from the device- http://mobile.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsmobile/updates/dst.aspx
 
The patch does not require a reboot.

Trend Micro Worry Free message “To complete the installation, restart the computer” does not go away

After installing Trend Micro’s Worry Free Business Security version 5.0 or later, the following message comes up on the workstations. After clicking on the “Install drive and restart the computer” button, the system restarts, and this message keeps reappearing.
 
 
The solution is on Trend Micro’s knowledge base, but it is a bit difficult to find. http://esupport.trendmicro.com/Pages/To-complete-the-installation-restart-the-computer-always-appears-when.aspx
 
   1. Stop Cryptographic Services.
   2. Go to the C:\Windows\system32\catroot2 subfolder and rename it as “oldcatroot2”.
   3. Start Cryptographic Services.
   4. Open a command prompt and run the following commands:
      a. regsvr32 wintrust.dll – This registers Microsoft Trust Verification.
      b. regsvr32 netcfgx.dll – This registers Network Configuration Objects.
   5. Restart your computer.
 
There is a bit more information there, detailing the problem.

Cannot install applications on ACER L460 systems

This is a problem that has plagued me for some time. The problem generally occurs on the 3 Litre ACER L460 series desktop with the Windows XP Pro downgrade.
 
The symptoms may include the following:
1. Cannot run setup program from a CD.
2. Cannot run setup program after download.
3. Program hangs on initial start.
 
Thanks to some friends at TSH, we have determined that the ACER Empowering Technologies elock and LANscope Agent services interfere with the installation of some applications. If you run task manager, you will see lock.exe and lockkm.exe processes running. Terminating these services allowed the programs to load properly.
 
The solution we applied was to uninstall these programs from the Control Panel.

Atheros LAN Driver and slow Windows boot

This particular problem has hit me a few times, particularly with some ASUS laptops. You would set up the PC normally, and everything works fine. Then we go for the final reboot (it is always the last one that does it).
 
During the restart, we see the Windows Logo (XP or Vista), and the running bars underneath. Suddenly, everything goes really slowly, as though in slow motion, and it does this for about 30 minutes (I timed it once).
 
The problem lies in the memory effect on this particular network card. To solve this problem, ASUS tech support recommended the following steps.
 
1. Shut down the PC/Laptop.
2. Remove the battery, or disconnect it from mains power, and disengage the network cable.
3. Restart the PC, and update the network card with the following driver – http://dlsvr.asus.com/pub/ASUS/nb/M51E/LAN_XP_080407.zip
 

More RWW woes with XP SP2 and SP3

Following on from my blog regarding RWW on SBS2008 (http://blog.powerbiz.net.au/fixes/remote-web-workplace-rww-is-not-working-after-xp-sp3-is-installed/) and the need to have XP SP3 or RDC 6.1 for XP SP2.
After applying the following, I had a client who still could not connect to RWW. An error message appeared.
 
“The wizard cannot configure Remote Desktop Connection settings. Make sure that the client version of Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) 6.0 or later is installed on this computer”
 
But it was installed!!??? Check out http://www.fixmyrww.com/
 
Go to the Internet Explorer Add-Ons, and enable the Microsoft Terminal Services Client Control ActiveX control or the Microsoft RDP client Control ActiveX control.
If this is already enabled, or after this is enabled, you will also need to re-register the ActiveX control.
 
Run the following commandregsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\mstscax.dll