Archive for February, 2008
This is the issue I came across today. A client called that they cannot see their taskbar. At first I thought maybe they accidentally selected to hide the taskbar and didn’t know how to bring it back. But that wasn’t the case. I researched on Google, of course, and came up with 2 possible solutions to this problem.
1st, it seems that google themselves may be causing the issue with their Google Desktop program. At least it seems that way. According to a few articles and posts that I read, this was a common issue when Google Desktop became corrupt. Re-installing it seemed to fix the issue for many.
I went to my client and this was not the case. Plan ‘B’.
I found a tool that was very helpful and it actually resolved my issue. The ‘Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!’. I selected from this site or clicked on the link for ‘Taskbar is Missing’ and downloaded the registry key to install. What it does is restore the taskbar to its original/default state. I downloaded this to the desktop and ran it. Very quick… .and wala!!
Nice!
So a client brings in their pc with the BSOD, (blue screen of death), with the stop error 0X0000007E (xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx). But the problem here is that there wasn’t a file or driver specified. What?!?!
Another general error by MS and no real answer. Guess what I did? Google baby!
Except this time, I didn’t find jack that would help me out…. I did find this MS article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/330182. “How to troubleshoot a Stop 0×0000007E error in Windows XP”.
Wasn’t really helpful.. surprise right?
So, I went doing my normal troubleshooting…. took all the cards out of from the PCI slots and started to put them back in one by one. Started with the NIC… guess what? It booted up fine into XP. Yeah baby!
Ok, so I continued, and installed the modem. Booted up perfect, awesome!
Installed the sound card, (Santa Cruz Turtle Beach Voyetra Card, it came in a Dell)….. booyah! BSOD again…. bad sound card or bad drivers? I uninstalled the old drivers, and downloaded and installed new ones to no avail. Installed really old ones, nothing! I wasn’t going to break my head any more… bad CARD. Client can buy a new one for less than $40 and save me some more aggravation.
Hope this helps….. because MS won’t!
You CAN install Windows XP on a SATA Hard Drive.
You may have encountered this issue before…. You can’t install Windows XP because the pc has a SATA HDD and it doesn’t have a floppy. The issue can be easily resolved on a desktop pc, but what about a laptop with no swapable drive?!?!
I was working on a ACER Aspire 7720 laptop. Unfortunately the laptop has no floppy, can’t swap out, and I am not going to invest in a external USB floppy drive… what!?
So, I went to Google immediately. Surely someone must have faced this problem before. Then BAM! Found it!
Answer to riddle…. I stumbled across a site that offered the solution. NLite!! This little program worked wonders… it’s a small 3MB download, but a very powerful tool. I was able to find the Intel Controller board drivers needed to install XP on a SATA drive. Then with this awesome tool, I was able to create a new ISO image of Windows XP Pro with the included drivers. With the same tool I was able to burn the ISO image to a bootable CD. How great is that?!?!
Installed Windows XP Pro in a breeze, no hitches… Love it!
To download the software, click here NLite! For great step-by-step instructions, including screen shots, go here -> Softpedia.
Let me know how that works out for you!!
So that is the issue that a client called in with. Of course, I researched it because I did not want to go in there blind. I searched and searched, and found nothing really. At least nothing that was going to help me. I read about Outlook’s ‘Exchange over the Internet’. Seemed interesting….
I read that the RPC over HTTP feature that Outlook has is meant more for clients that access their Exchange mail over a VPN. This client was locally connected to his network, so it wasn’t what I was looking for… or was it?
I get to the client’s office and when I sit down, sure enough he had the ‘Exchange over the Internet’ enabled. So, I disabled it. Closed Outlook and re-opened it… no password prompts. I guess it’s good….
But here is a fix I did find at http://www.askdavetaylor.com/stop_outlook_from_asking_for_an_account_password.html. Dave didn’t provide the answer, but a smart reader did. Here it is: (more…)
So I go to see a client who’s issue is with OWA, Outlook Web Access. She tells me that out of the 20 users whom use OWA, she has 2 users that are getting errors when trying to reply to a message. They get a red ‘X’ on the top left corner of where the message screen would be. Of course I go to my trusty Google search and find the following link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/911829. So what is MS solution to this: a patch that has to be installed on the server.
Now, why would the server need to be patched for 2 users!?!? Doesn’t make sense.
So, I go to IE’s properties on the users pc and see that under their Add-Ons, they have the DHTML Edit Control add-on disabled. Hmmmmmmm…. a patch on the server you say. I enable the add-on, and guess what!?!? IT WORKED.
Patch this!