TIPS & TRICKS: Recalibrate a Sticky iPhone Home Button

Didn't know about this trick until today. Apparently, if the home button on the iPhone is sticking or not responding, recalibrating it could help to get it working again. Here are the steps:

1. Click on a native iOS application (i.e. Stocks, Email, Messages, etc.).
2. Push and hold the power button on top until the "slide to power off" screen appears.
3. Let go of the power button. 
4. Push and hold the home button until the "slide to power off" screen disappears and let go of the home button. 

The home button should be recalibrated now. 

Hope this helps someone. 

TIPS & TRICKS: Adobe Acrobat Licensing Error

Encountered this error message:

The scenario is that this error shows up after deploying a custom Windows 7 image. When a new user logs into the machine and tries to launch a PDF file, this error message appears.

Here is Adobe's knowledge base article on this:

http://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/kb/error-213-19-licensing-acrobat.html

Part of the problem is that the user needs to have full access to \ProgramData\Adobe (I found that just giving an administrative account explicit access to that folder temporarily and launching Acrobat once was enough). However, the more specific problem is that Adobe forces a window on first launch of Adobe Acrobat that asks you to register the software. If that process can either get disabled or launched prior to imaging (without getting reset during the Sysprep process), then we can avoid this error message. Thanks a bunch Adobe.

TIPS & TRICKS: Microsoft Outlook Unable to Open

PROBLEM:
Attempted to launch Outlook 2007. Received an error message of:

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Cannot open the Outlook window.

Here's a screen shot:



Outlook, like most other programs, can be run from a command line, albeit Microsoft's version. This usually means that there should be options in launching Outlook. Originally, I wanted to start Outlook in Safe Mode. This works by holding the CTRL key down while clicking on the Outlook icon, not a command line. However, this did not work and I received the same message.

THE FIX:
Still not quite a command line option, but close. With Outlook and the error message gone, click on Start > Run (or Start, and type run in the search field in Windows Vista and 7). Type outlook.exe /resetnavpane.

This solved my problem. If your problem is different, here's a site that has a list of different options:

http://www.howto-outlook.com/howto/commandlineswitches.htm

Be careful, though. I would find a way to backup your data in Outlook before attempting something you are not certain about. Most of the commands will not affect your data, but it's better to be safe.

TIPS & TRICKS: Vista and Multiple Simultaneous Network Connections

I've been observing Windows connection problems via wireless for quite some time now. I'm hoping this might be a fix for many of those problems. Basically, there are multiple connections to the same wireless network. This could, potentially, cause some confusion by the OS.

Vista has a wireless profile manager. However, there is yet another place where wireless connections are stored. This is the network location manager. This stores the previously used wireless networks even if a profile was not created. You should be able to find this under Network and Sharing Center > Customize > Manage or delete network locations. This will allow for the deletion (or merging) of duplicate network locations.

Note: I have not yet had a chance to test this with Windows 7. However, I suspect the behavior is similar.

Here's where I originally found this solution and the complete steps:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article04-500

Happy Computing.

UPDATE: Found it in Windows 7. In Network and Sharing Center, under View your active networks, click on the icon (not the text). The next window will be the Network Properties, where you'll find Merge or delete network locations. The follow the same steps as previously noted.

RANTS: iPhone WiFi Problem

A few months back, I was asked to troubleshoot a wifi problem on an iPhone 3G 8GB. The problem was that the wifi would be able to see the wireless networks in the area. However, when attempting to connect to a network, the iPhone would present a message saying that it was unable to connect to the network. This behavior exhibited itself when connecting to any wireless network, whether the network required authentication or not. After surveying the phone, duplicating the problem and asking the user what he had done just prior to this discovery, I briefly pondered what could cause this problem. I came to the possibility that some application installed on the iPhone caused the wifi problem. Based on what the user told me, I uninstalled a couple of apps he had installed an the problem vanished. It worked!

That was a few months ago. The user returned today and showed me the same problem. We think the problem returned this time because he restored his iPhone from an old backup, which could have restored the old app. Unfortunately, I don't remember which app was the problem. I've spent the afternoon trying to figure out which app while I was searching online for an answer. I came across the following:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2044754&start=0&tstart=0

http://www.everythingicafe.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-58045.html

The first link shows that it's a pretty widespread problem. In fact, this is the first time I've seen a discussion forum post with over 100 pages of posts. The second link has more advanced content about the potential problem, but still no real solution yet.

I'm still working on the app angle. Hopefully, I'll be able to figure out if it is indeed an app that is causing the problem. I didn't read through the 100+ pages of posts in the Apple Support page. But, in reading through many pages of posts, I don't see any indication that anyone has approached this problem from this angle. I frequently read that people restored their phones from backups after doing hard resets or getting a whole new phone. What if this restoration process just brought the problem back? I'll post more as I find out more.

Happy Computing.

TIPS & TRICKS: Dell Optiplex 960 Remote Desktop Freezes and Video Problems

I was presented with a Dell Optiplex 960, which had some video problems and would not allow Windows Remote Desktop connections. My concern was heightened because this machine was built off an image that I was sure worked properly.

The screen would exhibit "snow-like" conditions, like you would see on old TV sets using "rabbit-ears" or a screen that had some electrical interference. Also, the problem would only appear intermittently. There nothing specific that I could attribute to its cause. This, obviously, would be a clear case of a video problem.

The other problem involved Windows Remote Desktop. When I would try to connect to the machine via Remote Desktop (from a Windows machine and a Mac running the Windows Remote Desktop client), the connection would attempt to connect. However, the Optiplex machine would freeze and the remote connection would never connect beyond a blue screen.

I was pondering whether the problems could be related or if they were separate issues that were only related by sheer coincidence. I was hovering around possible video and/or memory problems preventing the Remote Desktop connection. I attempted to tackle the Remote Desktop problem first, hoping that it would also solve the video problem at the same time. A search on Remote Desktop freezes yielded several scenarios of similar problems, including freezes that occurred only when there was a user already logged in, but nothing that gave me a workable solution.

I turned my attention to the video problem. After some poking around and searching for answers online, I finally came to the solution of a updated video driver for the nVidia Quadro 420 video card. The driver was posted on the Dell website and, even more coincidental, the date of the posted driver was yesterday. This problem seemed to have a known solution. After installing the driver and restarting several times (by no means a thorough test) I assumed that the problem was resolved.

Going back to the Remote Desktop problem, I tested to see if the updated video driver now allowed the Remote Desktop connection to work. No dice. Remote Desktop would still freeze the session on the Optiplex 960 and the remote session still wouldn't connect. After more searching, I finally went back to the Dell site to search more current solutions. This is when I found this:

http://en.community.dell.com/forums/p/19271963/19476610.aspx#19476610

Basically, we are putting in a new registry entry in the following location:

HKeyLocalMachine > SYSTEM > CurrentControlSet > Control > Session Manager > Memory Management

Right click to add a DWORD and call it: SessionImageSize

The value of the entry is in hexadecimal. The thread I referenced above used a value of 20. However, I checked another machine that didn't have any problems and found a value of 30. For now, just use 20. This could be a place to adjust if there are further problems.

Hope this helps someone. Happy computing.

TIPS & TRICKS: No video for Skype, Photo Booth, and iChat

In the office, I've been imaging new Macs with an image I have been keeping updated off an external hard drive. I captured the image from a newer Intel machine, though I don't recall which Apple model. It was most likely one of the notebooks.

I used this image to reload a brand new 24" silver iMac. The image process with Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html) worked flawlessly. The only thing, I had to beyond the image was update the software, install some Adobe software, and install the iLife suite. Everything else seemed to work fine, until I received a request to install Skype.

The Skype install went fine. However, the testing did not. Photo Booth, which I used because Skype was not working either, with this message:

Photo Booth cannot open.
The graphics card installed in this computer does not support Photo Booth.

I checked to make sure that the camera was showing up in System Profiler, which it did. I also tested iChat to see if it would find the built-in camera and that was unsuccessful.

After a few restarts, I decided to call Apple. Unfortunately, they were not much help either. They recommended an Archive & Install mainly because I told them my image came from a different machine. Not wanting to take the time to do that unless absolutely necessary, I decided to reset the PRAM. The key combination is Command-Option-P-R. While starting up the machine before the Apple logo showing up, hit this key combination and hold it all down until, at least, 2 bongs are heard.

This step fixed my problem. Skype, Photo Booth, and iChat were all able to detect the built-in web cam after the PRAM was reset. I also happened to search for the error message and found this link on Apple's Discussion Forums:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1753144&tstart=0

Hope this helps. Happy computing.

RANTS: The search for a Latitude E6400 USB device driver

I'm still amazed that drivers are still so cumbersome to find and install. I consider Dell to be a bit better at providing stand-alone drivers, which is handy because I like to build the software on machines from scratch, as opposed to running a restore image from a manufacturer. In this case, I'm having trouble finding the correct driver for a USB Device, according to Device Manager in Windows XP.

I tried talking to Dell Support yesterday via online chat. The CSR gave me two things to try, but I ended the session because I thought of something else that I needed to do before trying the two suggest downloads. The two downloads were the AMT HECI and AMT SOL/LMS drivers. Neither of these installed correctly. Both resulted the following error message:

This computer does not meet the minimum requirements for installing the software. Setup will exit.

Today, I got back online to talk to Dell Support again via chat. We ran through all the usual drivers and possible problems. At some point, I gave him the Device ID from Device Manager for the device in question, which was USB\VID_413C&PID_8149\6&6060274&0&1. I believe this helped him with discovering that the Dell HTML site does not have a driver (R197537) for the radio control on the bluetooth chip. This is different than the bluetooth driver (R197513) on the included discs, which I already installed. The HTML site did not have either of these drivers listed for Windows XP.

For future reference, here's the link to that driver:

http://ftp.us.dell.com/network/R197537.EXE

Hope this helps someone. Happy computing...

TIPS & TRICKS: Vista WiFi Connectivity Problems

Found this article

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/081211#story1

that has a simple write up on why so many Vista users are having trouble with wireless connectivity. From the description of the fix listed here,:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928233/en-us

this problem extends to wired connections as well. Remember that editing the registry could irreparably harm your computer. Please be careful and ask a qualified professional (or at least someone who knows what they are doing) for help.

Hope this helps someone. Good luck and happy computing.

TIPS & TRICKS: Thunderbird Fails to Update as Non-Adminstrator

I already knew that some software fails to update when running as non-administrator in Windows XP. Thunderbird is one of those pieces of software. Firefox also has the same problem. Another part of this problem is that both Thunderbird and Firefox, by default, run automatic Software Updates even as non-administrator. When Software Update runs automatically as non-administrator, the update will fail. The solution to the non-administrator problem seems to be to, periodically, run the updates manually as a user with administrative rights before the Software Update process has a chance to check. You can take this a step further and disable the automatic Software Update process in the non-administrator profile by going to Tools > Options > Advanced > Update and change to Ask me what I want to do.

To throw in an added complexity, Logitech webcam software also causes Thunderbird to not update. This is the error message I received:

"Software Update Failed. One or more files could not be updated. Please make sure all other applications are closed and that you have permission to modify files, and then restart Thunderbird to try again."

This fix is documented on mozillazine.org here:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Software_Update

This seems to affect even users with administrative rights to install software. The fix is, basically, shutdown the Logitech webcam software and the update will run normally.

Good luck and happy computing.

TIPS & TRICKS: Connecting to OS X Server from Vista

I ran into trouble connecting to an Apple XServe running OS X.3.9. It worked fine from another OS X.4 machine, from a Windows XP machine. However, from a newly reloaded Vista Ultimate machine, I could not map the same network drive. I found on Apple's website a fix that modified LAN Manager Authentication settings. Here's the link:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8540006�

Since I, begrudgingly, manage several Vista machines I setup a Group Policy with the following setting:

Computer Configruation > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Local Policies > Security Options > Network Security: LAN Manager Authentication level. (By default this read "Send NTLMv2 response only.") > Send LM & NTLM -- use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated.

After making the change on the Group Policy side, I forced the Vista machine to grab the update. After the update, I reattempted to map the network drive and it worked just as it does on my Windows XP boxes.

Now to figure out if I opened up any unnecessary holes in our security scheme. Happy computing.

TIPS & TRICKS: Windows Update KB929777 Fails with Error 8000FFFF

This is a newly reloaded Windows Vista Ultimate build that was added to our Active Directory, loaded with Sophos Anti-Virus from our Management Console, and all other Windows Updates up to this point applied.

This update (KB929777) failed twice before I went searching for the answer. I found this posting on Microsoft's TechNet forums:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistasecurity/thread/6b9f6a7c-1b91-422f-a803-11440418008f/

The post in the middle with the fewest steps seemed to work for me. Here's the gist:

1: Open up "Control Panel" and navigate your way to "Programs and Features".

2: Click "View installed updates" on the left hand side.

3: Find the update KB929777 and uninstall it.

4: Attempt to install the update again in Windows Update

5: Once successful, restart your PC.

Here's what it looks like after the solution is applied:



Rule of Thumb for future problems on Vista: Look for and/or remove previously installed Hotfixe and reload to see if it will solve the problem.

TIPS & TRICKS: Sophos Error 3057

Updated this post:

http://acctu.blogspot.com/2007/08/fix-sophos-stand-alone-installation.html

About 2/3 through the installation, I came across this message:

Error 3057. There was an unexpected error while attempting to create, repair or delete a user account. Contact your support personnel.

Sophos now has a knowledge base article on it:

http://www.sophos.com/support/knowledgebase/article/22862.html

However, the article is not clear at all on how to hack the registry to get it to install properly. Here are the steps that worked for me:

1. Run Regedit. If you don't know what this is, I would suggest seeking the help of someone who does. Any wrong setting made with this tool could cripple your machine.

2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software.

3. Right-click on the software key and select Permissions.

4. Explicitly add your currently logged-in user with full permissions.

5. Close out and reinstall Sophos.

This worked for me without the steps listed in my previous post on the problem. Now off to retrace the steps to install from the Management Console. Happy computing.

TIPS & TRICKS: Problems Scrolling with Apple Mighty Mouse

Recently, I started experiencing scrolling problems with my Apple Bluetooth Mighty Mouse. The scroll button started intermittently working and then stopped working altogether. I always thought of the scroll button on the Mighty Mouse as a delicate precision button and treated it as such. However, after a good hard push, some canned air, and a wet cloth later, I got it back to working smoothly. For some specific instructions, I found this site helpful:

http://theappleblog.com/2008/09/27/revive-your-mighty-mouse-scroll-ball/

I'm still excited when I can fix something myself. Passing it along is just a bonus. Happy computing.

RAVES: Solver for Excel 2008

By now we all know that the latest release of Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac has left out Visual Basic support. This means tools that relied on Visual Basic are also missing. One such tool was Solver.

Fortunately, there is now an interim answer before Microsoft puts Visual Basic back in the next release of Office for Mac. A company called FrontLine Systems has come up with a solution for those of us who rely heavily on Solver. Here's the link to a Microsoft affiliate website to download the software for this new solution:

http://www.officeformac.com/blog/Solver-For-Excel-2008-Is-Available

Hope this helps.

TIPS & TRICKS: Missing Address Bar Toolbar in Windows XP SP3

A well documented problem that I just recently came across. One of my users upgraded a personal Windows XP machine to Service Pack 3 and found that he was missing his address bar in the Windows taskbar. SP3 got rid of it to "comply" with anti-trust laws. I'm not sure how much I buy that, but it's plausible.

In any case, there are several third-party add-ins that address this problem (no pun intended). However, I'm documenting a native fix. Credit for this goes to Mark Kaelin over at Tech Republic. Here's the nitty gritty:

1. Find a SP2 copy of the file called browseui.dll located in ~\Windows\System32.
2. Copy it to the same location on the SP3 machine.

Make sure to this in Safe Mode as the System32 folder will not allow changes while. Also, make sure to reboot.

Here's the full directions laid out by Tech Republic:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/window-on-windows/?p=683

TIPS & TRICKS: 49.4C02 Error on HP Laserjet 2420dn

Had a user who encountered this error when printing a particular PDF (everything else printed normally). The print job stayed in the queue even after the printer was reset because the option to let the job render on the computer was checked. Deleting the print job was how I got around it. But, it still didn't allow for printing the PDF document.

The real work around ended up to be substituting the print driver. The one we were originally using was the HP Laserjet 2420 PS. Apparently, PS was not happy with this particular document. I switched the existing driver with an PCL6 driver from HP and the document printed normally.

Will need to monitor if other print jobs become a problem as a result of the driver switch.

TIPS & TRICKS: Word 2008 Documents Not Opening

Recently, I found that my installation of Word 2008 was not opening documents properly. Specifically, I found after double-clicking on a Word file, especially one residing on a network share, Word would launch normally. But, the only thing that would come up was a new blank document. I would close the new document and the file still wouldn't open. The only way I could get it to open was to go up to File (in Word) > Open.

That was quite annoying and, apparently, some of my users thought so too. Luckily, my boss found a fix. And, even more fortunate, the fix is bundled in the latest update for Office. The version is 12.1.1. Make sure to run your Office updates to get this. There are two ways: 1. launch an Office application and go up to Help > Check for Updates to run the Microsoft AutoUpdate tool; or 2. Go to Library\Application Support\Microsoft\MAU2.0 and launch Microsoft AutoUpdate.

TIPS & TRICKS: Lost Sound on a MacBook

Had a student bring her MacBook to me and said that the sound just stopped working. I checked the OS X System Preferences for Sound > Output and found only the Digital Out option available. The built-in audio was missing, which also doesn't allow headphones to work. She was carrying a set of headphones on her.

Here's a list of symptoms I found:

- no sound
- audio controls on keyboard would bring up icon on screen but could not change audio levels
- missing built-in audio in System Preferences > Sound > Output
- red light coming out of the sound jack on the side of the MacBook

Macs have become more advanced. They used to only have analog output and many low-end Windows notebooks only have analog output (you get what you pay for). But, all the Macs now have the ability to convert to accept digital output connections.

In order to move between digital and analog output on the same port, there's a tiny switch in the port that recognizes the plug that is inserted. However, that switch will sometimes get confused and get stuck, which is what happened in this case.

THE FIX:

Something must be inserted into the port to make the switch move back to the desired position, in this case, analog. One way to do it is put the headphones' jack into the port and wiggle it around. This doesn't always work. I've found that a smaller tool in there would work better. I'm not too fond of sticking metal things (i.e. paper clips) into ports, so I used the straw from a can of compressed air. I inserted the straw into sound port and wiggled it around a little as I watched the window in System Preferences > Sound > Output. You should see it change Digital Out to Internal Speakers (Built-in Audio) and the red light, which indicates a digital connection, go off.

Hope this helps someone. Good luck.

By the way, I found this macrumors.com forum posting that had some other folks who experienced the same problem.

http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-237405.html

TIPS & TRICKS: Office 2007 installation fix

Here are the preliminary facts:

- Windows XP, including latest updates
- Office 2003, including latest updates

Error messages encountered:

- "Product: Microsoft Office (Version) -- Error 1704. An installation for Microsoft Office (Version) is currently suspended. You must undo the changes made by that installation to continue. Do you want to undo those changes?"
- After clicking Yes and waiting for awhile, this message comes up: "Error 1712.One or more of the files required to restore your computer to its previous state could not be found. Restoration will not be possible."

The real problem here was that the laptop that was running the Office 2007 installer to upgrade Office 2003 and the notebook ran out of juice (wrong power supply was used, which meant that it was running solely off battery). The installation process was interrupted and left in an unusable state. Office was no longer listed in the list for Add/Remove Programs. Running the Office 2007 installation did not recognize that we still wanted to upgrade, which meant that it didn't recognize a usable version of Office on the machine.

The Fix:

This involves a registry hack. As usual, editing the registry incorrectly could cause Windows to function incorrectly. Please make sure to backup your registry settings before making any changes. Ultimately, use these instructions at your own risk.

The registry key is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\InProgress

I deleted the key entirely, rebooted, then ran the Office 2007 installation again. If I had to go back, I would go in and delete all the files related to Office in Program Files and any installation files to create a clean environment for the new Office 2007 installation.

Nevertheless, this worked for me. Hope this helps someone else.