How to reset a Blackberry Pearl

Written by admin
July 7th, 2010

How to reset / wipe a BlackBerry Pearl Smart Phone.

  1. Backup your phone just in case you regret wiping it later.
  2. Click the Menu button to the left of the scroll ball, from the menu select Options.
  3. Using the scroll ball, scroll down to the Security Options menu.
  4. Then select the General Settings option.
  5. While in this option, click the menu button to the left of the scroll ball again.
  6. Scroll down to Wipe Handheld.

You will be asked to type the word “blackberry” to confirm the action.The phone will then restart and once powered up it will be like it did when you first switched it on.

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Any of you still running Server 2003; and thats a lot of you may have come across this issue with the Exchange 2003 Server, where the database file size reaches it limit 19Gb. The Mailbox Store will dismount and although you can remount it, it will dismount again a short while later. You can increase the limit size by adjusting the registry as below.

1. Backup the registry, to find out how visit here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/322756/

2. Open Regedit .

3. Find the following subkey HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\MSExchangeIS\Server name\Private-Mailbox Store GUID

4.On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value

5. In the New Value box type ” Database Size Limit in Gb ” and press Enter

6. Right-click Database Size Limit in Gb, and then click Modify

7. Click Decimal, and then type an integer from 1 to 75 in the Value data box.
Note These integer values represent the maximum size of the database in gigabytes (GB). For example, a value of 75 represents a database that has a maximum size of 75 GB.
8. Click OK, and then exit Registry Editor.
9. Restart the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. To do this, follow these steps:
10.Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.

At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:

net stop msexchangeis
After the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service has stopped successfully, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
net start msexchangeis

Examine the Application log to verify that the database size has been set successfully. To do this, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type eventvwr, and then click OK.
In the Event Viewer tool, click Application.
Double-click event ID 1216 to verify that the database size has been set successfully.

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As Albert Einstein theorized time is relative, and the same applies to network environments of the Windows persuasion. Since Windows 2000 all Microsoft operating systems have used Kerberos Authentication to communicate over  an insecure network. It can have a few draw backs, one of which you are sure to come across at some stage, that is time. Kerberos uses the time of both the Server and Client computers as part of its ticket generation. If the Client computers time is not synchronized with the Server, the authentication will fail. This may manifest itself as failed windows logon, or a mapped drive which is no longer available and printers not being able to process print jobs from clients. The time on both the Client and Server must be within Five minutes by default.

I have found this issue most occurs with older computers with dead CMOS batteries and Accounts computers, for some reason best known to them Accounts personnel turn the time back or forward to process invoices. This is not an issue on a stand alone computer but on a networks Kerberos time stamps come into play and all sorts of strange things start to happen.

Kerberos is extremely complicated to diagnose at times but if you suspect it as the fault always start at the time.

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Photosynth is a concept Microsoft have been developing with NASA for the past few years and has really came a long way in those years. The basic concept is you take a lot of still photos of a subject, lets say a room in your home. Make sure they overlap in some way, Photosynth stitches them together into a 3D representation of that room.As you see below it is pretty cool.

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This is the first time I came across this one, a client of mine was receiving the error “This operation has been cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer” when they clicked on a Hyperlink in an e-mail. At first I thought about Group Policy, but since it would have been me that would have to had set it I quickly ruled this out. The client did indicate that this only started since a failed attempt to install Google Chrome on the PC in question.

I reset Internet Explorer 8 back to its default settings and removed both Chrome and FireFox from the PC. This had no affect even though a few forums indicated some success with this method. It turns out that a registry setting is at fault, the  “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.html” key to be specific.

  1. If you open regedit and browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.html
  2. In the right pane right click on the Default Value and select Modify
  3. Replace whatever value is there with “htmlfile”.
  4. Also check HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.htm

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.shtml

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.xhtml

   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Classes\.xhtm

Restart the PC and the issue should be solved

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Eircom to cut off filesharers

Written by admin
April 19th, 2010

Irish ISP Eircom will soon be disconnecting its broadband customers who are involved in files sharing of copyright material. This will be done after a warning has been issued to the user. This has major implications for other ISPs in the market as the will also have to be seen to be tough on copyright crime. The Internet generation who grew up with the expectation that they can download anything from the net are in for a rude awakening, as the say in the movie Casablanca “maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow , but soon..” the Rupert Murdock types and music industry are out to change the Internet as we know it

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Auto Logon in Windows

Written by admin
April 9th, 2010

Normally I wouldn’t recommend auto logon to anyone for security reasons but I have been asked recently on a few occasions to enable it. It is simple enough if you are not part of a domain but requires use of a somewhat hidden command. At Windows button or Start button Vista\Win7 or WinXP in the search option or run option type “control userpasswords2″ .

Uncheck the box “Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer”. Once you click the Apply button you will be asked for the password of the user.

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Internet Explorer not opening or when clicked

Written by admin
February 28th, 2010

Recently I have been coming across a lot of PCs that when you double click Internet Explorer 8 it fails to open or hangs after opening, normally I would reset it back to default settings to eliminate any add-0n issues but this has no affect. I tracked it down to Google Desktop which was common to all of these PCs, once I un-installed it Internet Explorer work fine. I can only imagine it is something to do with an update to Internet Explorer as it has only come to light recently, in my experience anyway.

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This error is usually caused by a missing entry in the data value of the “netsvcs” registry key. To find it run Regedit and browse to;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost

In the right panel select “netsvcs” and double click it to view the data, you will see a list of services this executable can start if “wuauserv” is not listed add it and close Regedit.

You will need to restart the PC to bring the new entries into play but your Automatic Updates should now start.

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I recently had an issue where a clients PC had become infected with a virus which was quarantined by the anti-virus software. Great, only the files that were quarantined were the virus itself and an infected NDIS.sys file plus all other backup copies of this file on the PC eg “the dll cache”.

I copied the NDIS.sys file from another PC which I knew was clean and placed it in the c:\windows\system32\drivers directory thinking I soon would be back up and running but as soon as it was replaced I received the following STOP Error.

After a bit of head scratching and a walk around the office, I found that after booting into Safe Mobe that the registry key entry for NDIS was missing causing the STOP error. So I copied the  key from the working XP PC and imported into the damaged PC and it rebooted just fine.

To do this just copy the text below into notepad and save the file as a .reg file then put it on a USB key and while in Safe Mode double click the file to import it into the registry and then reboot.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NDIS]
“DisplayName”=”NDIS System Driver”
“ErrorControl”=dword:00000001
“Group”=”NDIS Wrapper”
“Start”=dword:00000000
“Type”=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NDIS\MediaTypes]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NDIS\Parameters]
“ProcessorAffinityMask”=dword:ffffffff

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\NDIS\Enum]
“0″=”Root\\LEGACY_NDIS\\0000″
“Count”=dword:00000001
“NextInstance”=dword:00000001

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Ubuntu 9.10 “The Karmic Koala”

Written by admin
January 19th, 2010

Ubuntu’s latest version the “Karmic Koala” is a significant improvement on previous versions in the speed and looks departments the new look start and log-on are very much like Windows in style. It is faster to boot than Windows even on old systems. Any of you who have used a Linux system in the past will be familiar with the idea of it being free and not as susceptible to viruses as Windows but this version of Ubuntu at least is closer to becoming usable for the ordinary user who is living in the Windows only world.

The latest version of OpenOffice comes pre-installed and will do just about anything Microsoft Office will do. It will support all major file formats so opening your Microsoft files will be no problem.

It may just be me but I have always thought Linux systems displayed images much sharper than Window, and the Gimp graphics tool is just superb as good as it gets.

With the addition of VLC Media Player which can be installed as part of the installation or later from the web all multimedia playback options are covered.

If you want to try Ubuntu 9.10 visit http://www.ubuntu.comand download it. With the outrageous price of FREE what do you have to loose.

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I recently had a question from a client of ours in relation to the “Out Of Office” feature in Outlook 2007. When they attempted to enable it an error stating that ” Your Out Of Office Settings Cannot be Displayed, Because the Server is currently unavailable. Try again later.” Knowing this not to be the case I accessed Outlook Web Access and enabled the Out Of Office for the client. After I checked this with out I found it was a known issue and occurred if Microsoft Framework 3.5 SP1 has been installed on the server.

A hotfix is available at the following link http://support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=952883&kbln=en-us

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Property for Sale in Gorey

Written by admin
December 5th, 2009

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    I was doing a job the other day and the subject of property sales in the Gorey/ North Wexford area came up in conversation. I did a quick Google, and was amazed to find one of the regions major players don’t appear on the first two pages. Who are they I here you ask, or maybe not but they are Sherry Fitzgerald. The thinking behind it seems to be that all the different branches use the www.Sherryfitz.ie website which doesn’t appear to be that search engine friendly. It shows how even the big-boys can get Search Engine Optimization all wrong. It really is a black art.

Hopefully people will find this post and click on the link above.

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Google Chrome OS only for the connected

Written by admin
November 25th, 2009

Google 

Chrome OS is well underway and is based on the popular Chrome browser; which many of you will have installed even without knowing, thanks to Adobe and Realplayer and other add-ons which attached it to there downloads. Chrome OS is going to be a bit different from traditional operating systems in that it has a Web ethos running through it, it is rumoured it will not support physical hard-drives by default, instead will store your documents on-line in “The Cloud”. What this means is Google Docs will store your files and any applications you require to edit and create them will also be web based.

Personally I like Google Docs but I like to be able to choose which files I upload not have all my files uploaded by default, this feature may sound good to Google but to the paranoid like me it would deter me from using Google Chrome OS.

 Its reliance on the web also means that Irish users will be thin on the ground as poor broadband coverage/quality will cripple what is being designed to be one of the fastest operating systems ever.I think Google have lost sight of the fact that although alot of people use the web that a high percentage of them are connecting at near to dial-up speeds.

I think Google Chrome OS may be the next Linux, although I can’t  see it being as popular as say Ubuntu which is a viable alternative to Windows, until broadband speeds increase in developed countries then its ahead of its time.

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Windows 7 System Repair Disk

Written by admin
November 16th, 2009

Windows 7 comes with a few handy features one of which is the System Repair Disk, which was part of Vista at testing but was removed before launch to the public, the reason behind this was never given and surely a loss. But its in Windows 7 so lets talk about it, its simple enough, you can make a System Repair Disk which can be used in the event that your system fails to boot. Just boot the system from the CD/DVD and it will give you access to tools to repair you system. You may need to adjust the boot order on your system to get it to boot from the CD/DVD ( This is specific to makes of PC/Laptop).

Watch the Video above if you already haven’t for where to find the options.

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