Purconn

You may need to perform a hard reset on your iPhone if it becomes unresponsive or is not behaving as it should.

1. Simply hold the Wake/Sleep button and the Home button at the same time for 10 sec.
2. You will see the slider bar appear , ignore this.
3. When you see the Apple logo you can release the buttons.
4. Your phone should start.

This is a perplexing error when first encountered. It usually displays during an installation of software, while the software in question checks the drive allocations on the PC it will through this error. “Error 1327.Invalid Drive: *:” where “*” is the drive letter it has an issue with. This error only occurs on PCs that have had the personal folders remapped or changed. For instance if I change the Documents folder of a given user to point to a server location for backup purposes then this drive letter will cause the error.

You need to either remap the location to its original location or change a registry key.

1. Click Start, type regedit and press Enter.
2. Go to the following location:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

And

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders

3. Check if the drive letter in question is listed and change it for an available drive letter.

Now try installing the application.

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.

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:

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.

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

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.

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

Although it has been around for a long time, System Restore in both Windows XP and Windows Vista is probably the most effective and under used tool available to the ordinary user.Basically if the system files change i.e. you install a program or some Mal-ware/Virus, the system makes a note of the changes so that you can roll back to before those changes were made. I found this very useful in removing the AntiVirus 2009 Mal-ware which was widespread a while back. If the client got the PC in to me quickly enough I just  restored the system back to a date they knew the system was working correctly.

This sounds to good to be true, and in some cases it is. Some viruses actually infect the System Restore Checkpoints so if you restore an infected Checkpoint you will restore the virus, If you have to remove a virus with a scan from your PC then disable the System Restore before the scan to allow the anti-virus package to scan inside the Checkpoint. The following video will show how this is done.

Actually running System Restore couldn’t be easier, just Select “Start”-”All Programs”-”Accessories”-”System Restore”.The following video illustrates the procedure.

Some of you may be familiar with the very powerful tool RoBoCopy, which ships with Server2008,Vista as standard and XP as an addon, but is hidden and only accessible from command line, and may have also longed for a front-end for it. Well long no more as Microsoft engineer Ken Tamaru created one way back 2001 called RichCopy which is pretty amazing. Why has it taken this long to become released ? Well it was only an internal tool for Microsoft until now.

It is simple to use if you don’t want to get to technical, but is extremely powerful ounce you play with some of the options. In the Main window it couldn’t be any easier, you just select the source files or folders you wish to copy and the destination you wish to copy to and click the Start button. You will see how fast it is, and it doesn’t kill the system so you can work while backing up files.

Once you go past the basic usage and click the options button then you will see the power of RoboCopy and RichCopy, you have the ability to control how to copy i.e. ignore read-only flags,check source and destination timestamps, compare security settings of files.

You can also tell it to wait if a file is in use until it becomes free, and then continue the backup.You can set the number of retries until copy is canceled which is 10 by default.

All said this is very powerful tool and a worthwhile addition to the RoBoCopy command line tool, It should not be used as your main backup in a corporate environment but is an enhancement tool for IT pros. It would make a good backup in the home in the absence of anything else but most of it features would be of little use to a home user.

Try it at:  http://download.microsoft.com/download/f/d/0/fd05def7-68a1-4f71-8546-25c359cc0842/HoffmanUtilitySpotlight2009_04.exe

If your PC is to be kept in top condition it must be serviced and the most basic tools to do this are CHKDSK and DEFRAG. CHKDSK is also called SCANDISK but is most effective when ran as the command utility CHKDSK. We run it by clicking on “Start” selecting “Run” and typing “cmd” into the box provided and then hitting the “Enter” key, this bring up a dos box where you type ” chkdsk /r “, if you type “chkdsk /?” you will see that there are alot more switches you can use but the /r switch is the most useful as it looks for bad sectors and repairs them.

This utility requires full access to the volume to run and will notify you of this and ask if it will run at next restart select “Y” for yes and restart the PC; CHKDSK should start as part of the boot process and fix any errors it finds.

DEFRAG is used to maintain the files on your PC’s hard drive, over time they become fragmented over the disk and it takes your PC longer to gather the requested files and data nessicary for operations. This is why PC’s slow down with time as software is installed and removed files created and deleted. You can run DEFRAG from command prompt but it is easier to run it in windows as this is just where you will be sent from command prompt anyway.

Open “My Computer” and right click on “Local disk C” select “Properties” at the bottom of the list.

Then select “Tools” at the top, you will see an option for “Defragmentation” and a button “Defragment Now” click this.

You will be given an options to “Analyze” or “Defragment” chose “Defragment” and let it run.

This may take some time depending on how much defragmentation there is but just let it run, I always restart the system after it finishes, this probably has no effect but its just what I do as a matter of course.

If you perform these simple tasks regularly you will have a lot less trouble with your PC overall.

You may need to reset the registry permissions in Windows XP if Services Pack 3 fails to load and give an error Access Denied. In Vista the trouble is with Service Pack 1.

Download the SubInACL.msi from Microsoft and install it .

Simply copy the following into notepad :

 cd /d “%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools”
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\repair\secsetup.inf /db secsetup.sdb /verbose

Then name it “reset.cmd”

Run the script it may take a few seconds to run it will count percentage done.

Restart the PC then re-run the Service Pack it will work fine.

The Video below demonstrates this process in XP the steps are the same for Vista & Windows 7:

Some times the registry can become corrupt and some entries can cause issues, one of these is where your CD / DVD disappears from My Computer. This is relatively simple to solve if you know what’s wrong, as with everything, there are entries called Upper and Lower Filters in the registry which are responsible for the CD/DVD, these have become corrupt. In order to fix the corruption you just need to delete the entries and restart your computer, your CD \ DVD should reappear and function normally. You can click on the following link to download the file to fix the entries or follow the manual instruction below.

Fix this problem

Microsoft Windows Vista

1. Click 
2. Click Accessories, and then click Run.
3. Type regedit, and then click OK. 
    

   If you are prompted for an administrator password or for a confirmation, type the password, or click Allow.

4. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
5. In the right pane, click UpperFilters. 
   
   Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only. If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to step 8.
6. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
7. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
8. In the right pane, click LowerFilters.
   On the Edit menu, click Delete.
9. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
10. Exit Registry Editor.
11. Restart the computer.

Microsoft Windows XP

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. In the navigation pane, locate and then click the following registry subkey:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
4. In the right pane, click UpperFilters. 
   
   Note You may also see an UpperFilters.bak registry entry. You do not have to remove that entry. Click UpperFilters only. If you do not see the UpperFilters registry entry, you still might have to remove the LowerFilters registry entry. To do this, go to step 7.
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete.
6. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
7. In the right pane, click LowerFilters. 
   On the Edit menu, click Delete.
8. When you are prompted to confirm the deletion, click Yes.
9. Exit Registry Editor.
10. Restart the computer.

Ever find you need to play a video or media file and your computer won’t play the format it is in. It really annoys me because its always a file you need to use or have waited to see.

Fear not, VLC is a free download which will not only play DVD and just about any file format, it also will RIP or copy a DVD to your computer. I have used it for years and it has never let me down. You can view movies in fullscreen which some players only have in the retail versions of there software.

I recommend you give it a try at http://www.videolan.org/

Commuting from Wexford to Dublin or traveling to sales meetings, on-line document access and sharing can be one way to maximise IT in your business. We have all done it, you go to give a Sales presentation at a clients only to find your laptop has wont start; your presentation is on it and the copy in the office is an old copy so getting somebody to e-mail you it wont do. If it was stored on-line you could use one of the clients PC’s to access your Office Live Workspace or Google Docs and give the presentation on the clients PC. A major disaster is a minor hiccup.

One other major advantage is collaboration with others, a document can be worked on by many people on-line without the need to e-mail multiple copies of the document to everyone. This avoids confusion over which document is current and changes can be approved before the final draft is drawn up. Office Live Workspace give the best intergration into your existing Office environment but you should also take a look at Google Docs.

One of least known tools in Windows Vista is the Compatibility Wizard which can be used to resolve one of the most common issues with Vista , that of software not supporting Vista or as many software companies state Vista not supporting there software. The tool can be access by entering the control panel and selecting the Programs feature.

Once there click ” Use an older program with this version of windows” and the wizard will run just follow the instructions and simply tell the wizard which version of Windows your software will work with, it tricks the software into thinking its on that version of Windows. Test the software it should work fine.