Joe and Jamie’s Blog

One of my clients installed XP SP3 on his laptop and many things went wrong. His computer would not shut down properly, it would just halt at “Logging Off” and never move until the default timeout period of 10 minutes would expire and it would shut off. Another issue was the wireless network utility wouldn’t load, so in order to get on the network you had to restart the Wireless Zero Configuration service, set Windows to manage the wireless card, and then connect to the network. On top of all this, his AutoCAD program also would not completely install. What I mess.

I fixed everything by uninstalling SP3, updating the BIOS, chipset, and wireless drivers. I had to also disable the Telephony service because that was causing the hangup on shutdown, even after SP3 was uninstalled. It wasn’t needed so it was safe to disable it from starting.

After all was well, I tried to run the 100 updates that it needed besides SP3. I kept getting the error ‘Error: A problem on your computer is preventing updates from being downloaded.’ I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked. I found some help on Caffeine Fueled Blog that solved my issue. The entire article can be found here.

In order to restore Windows Updates, with SP3 installed or without it, open up the command prompt and type in the following lines, hitting enter after each one.

net stop wuauserv
regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
net start wuauserv

This will stop the Windows Update service, re-register all the necessary Windows Update dll files, and then restart the Windows Update service.

Big thanks to Josh at Caffeine Fueled Blog for thinking of this.

Sunday was WSPK K104’s KFEST 2008 concert at Dutchess Stadium in Fishkill, NY, home of the New York Penn League Class A Hudson Valley Renegades.

The weather was beautiful and it was great to be outdoors. Since I was able to get staff badges for Jamie and I, the venue was actually enjoyable because everything was free! It was nice seeing people from the office outside of the office, they act a bit more natural and more enjoyable to be around with no stressors. The music was OK, Wyclef Jean and Sean Kingston were the main artists, along with Pitbull and Sum 41 and six other performers. Check out the lineup you missed.

I had to be there early because Pamal bought their own ticketing system, and I had to go learn how to set it up to help everyone troubleshoot it for the next venues in Albany. The system never did work and the rep they sent from the company to teach me knew nothing technical at all. In fact I got his system working and he had no clue how, but of course he then touched it and made it revert back to not working. Man I was glad they gave me free food otherwise I would have been royally pissed, but that’s another story.

I have some photos on my phone that I will have to upload later, but here are some shots that I took of the Poughkeepsie Journal’s website as well as K104’s website.

I’ll start off with some shots of the stadium so you can kind of get a feel for how full it was that day.

Now the stage was right in the center in the back, and the field was jammed packed everywhere in the outfield and the stands. No one was allowed on the actual infield.

Here’s part of the stage, can’t see the whole thing but it was your typical stage you would see at any outdoor event. My photos will show more of it.

Look past the drummer and you can see the sea of people, there was almost 10,000 at the venue I believe.

The Poughkeepsie Journal has a nice page set up with 104 pictures they took of people up close. Sift through it, you may find yourself. Check it out here.

The whole KFEST photo album can be found on their website, here.

UPDATED: Here are the photos I took with my Treo. It gives a different view since I didn’t have to join the masses to be there this year.

This was kinda funny so I had to take a picture of it. Those morning people are so silly ain’t they!?!

This is what Wyclef and Ray J rode to the stage. They must think they are just so cool because its a Lamborghini Gallardo.

As of right now, I would say do not install Windows XP Service Pack 3.

I have experienced several issues with the latest service pack. I had a computer not allow users to login after it was installed and another that would just keep rebooting, which is the most common issue after install. The continuous reboots are mainly with AMD based systems, but it has been found with Intel’s as well. I personally had it happen to me with an Intel, but I have also one successful installation as well.

I have also heard that there are many compatibility issues with the HP pre-loading software. Some anti-virus programs, like ZoneAlarm for example, may show new security risks or threats that aren’t true, it’s all XP SP3.

As always, I recommend never installing anything from Microsoft when it just comes out, let everyone else test it out and find the errors first.

While at work today I had to change the serial key on one of the computers. I took the computer from an old building in Vermont and moved it to their new location.

When I started it up It was getting this nice error message:

Since it’s a three and a half hour drive home and it’s already 7PM, I didn’t want to waste time formatting and reinstalling. The old company used a volume license key but I just wanted to blow that out and use the OEM key that was on the side of the case. It’s the legal key that came with the computer, everything still factory built, not just some spare case.

Here is what you do to change the serial key:

Download the following file from here. Just select your OS (Vista or XP), agree to the terms and hit download.

What is good about this new way of updating the serial number is that it will check the system files for anything that is out of order. This is important because many cracked versions of XP will have hacked system files that will keep important updates from being applied. The old way was a script file that could be run to change the key. The old scripting way can be found here.

Once it is finished it will ask you for the new key.

Enter the key click finish and it will make the change and reboot. Now that the serial number is updated you will no longer receive the warnings from Microsoft, and updates will be properly applied.

Source: www.intelliadmin.com

This week has been a little hectic with multiple tests and reports due, as well as new projects getting wrapped up at work. I haven’t had much time to spend on my websites or even posting here, so I figured I would sent out this little blurb.

Tonight there is another indoor soccer game at the Net. If I can remember for once I will bring my camera and take pictures. Jamie’s team is actually doing very well this season, so far their record is 1-2-1 and they aren’t in last!! They lost to some tough teams, but even then the scores were very close.

Saturday kicks off the outdoor East Hudson league. To me these are a lot more fun and exciting, probably due to the longer game time and normal size playing field, compared to the fast pace, small indoor turf. It will be good to see some faces that I haven’t seen since last fall. They are opening the league with a round-robin tournament, so all teams will be there. Once again, I hope to have my camera.

I’ll update everyone this weekend with some photos and news.

On Friday I was working for a new client in Albany. They are getting a brand new server, APC and network switch.

My job was to mount the new switch and connect the data cables from the punch down that was done by the telephone company.

The first picture is what was done by the phone company.

Here is what it looks like after I mounted the switch and 2 wall mount racks. These racks are really neat. They hug the wall saving space, especially good for this project since the closet is going to be used as a kitchen and storage area. They are pretty inexpensive too, only $200 for each. A 4 post 8 foot rack with shelves costs anywhere from $1,250 - $5,000 or more, depending on brand, number of shelves, accessories, etc, etc. You can check out these wall mount shelves on Dell’s page here.

The wires on my side are a bit of a mess, but that’s only because we didn’t receive 1/2 the cables we needed. We have small cables coming so we can make it look neat, had to use 15 foot cables in the meantime. Just waiting for the server and APC unit to finish their setup then it’s on to configuring the desktop machines on the new network.