IT support

 

Problem:

The windows activation windows keeps poping up even  though windows says it’s been activated. This is frequently caused by someone using an activation crack, or by the wpa.dbl and wpa.bak files courrupting. Sometimes also happens after a repair installation of windows.

Before we can legitimatly (re)activate windows we first must de-activate it.

Solution:

In Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
Expand SOFTWARE, and then expand Microsoft.
Expand Windows NT, and then expand CurrentVersion.
Under CurrentVersion, click WPAEvents.
In the right pane (topic area) of Registry Editor, right-click OOBETimer, and then click Modify.
Click to put the pointer in the Value data box. Then, modify any character that appears in the Value data box.
Click OK.

 

Problem:

How to check optimal WAN MTU settings.

Solution:

The primary reason is that in most if not all cases if you send packets at 1500 they will need to be fragmented resulting in degradation of performance. I would not reccomend changing the MTU settings without first checking the optimal settings for your environment, do not just take the word of your ISP, they are making a generalized statement that covers the masses, it is not a total optomization.

Checking is easy to do. First make sure that your MTU setting is in fact 1500 or the test is compromised and will result in a number that is too low.

The command is to see the largest packet is “ping -f -l XXXX www.XXX.com” -f -l forces the ping packet size to be what you specify, any size to lage returns a reply that the packet needed to be fragmented.

-l is a lowwercase L
XXXX is mtu speeds start at 1500 and decrease in multiples of 10 (1500, 1490, 1480 etc…) until you get a ping result, then increase in multiples of 1 until you again get the reply that the packets needed to be fragmented. The highest numbet that did not have to be fragmented is your highest optimal number. I would actually suggest decreasing it by 2. So if 1464 is the highest you could send without fragmentation set the MTU to 1462.

and XXX is a website of your choosing.

 

Problem:

When a print job is sent to the printer, the printer will display processing job on the control panel, and will continually ramp up and down attempting to print the job. After several minutes the printer will return to ready without posting any error messages. Occasionally, after several minutes the print job will print

Solution:

This usually isn’t a roller problem as the printer WILL pick up the paper, it just takes a few minuets, but it never hurts to check. Next check the firmware. If it’s older than 04.060.7, then it is causing a fault in the fuser. This is a documented problem and the fuser needs to be replaced. In addition, the firmware needs to be upgraded to version 04.060.7 or higher to prevent this error from recurring. You can download an executable firmware upgrade utility from  :

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareIndex.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodNameId=3558884&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=3558793&swLang=8&taskId=135&swEnvOID=54

Don’t forget to update the firmware to the latest version, if you haven’t already done it, to prevent the new fuser failing with the same fault.

Problem:

Internet Explorer will not start, the hourglass goes around once and nothing happens, but in Task Manager you can see the process going

Solution:

One of two things is happening; Either you havea corrupted installation, or something is interfearing with the application.

1. Try to run IE in safe mode with add-ons disabled. If this works, you have an add-on crashing the app. Go to Internet Options, Programs, Manage add-ons and start disabling add-on programs untill you find the one causing the problem.

2. Revert IE to defaults. Internet Options, advanced, and start reseting from here. This may not fully solve the problem however. If there is an outside ap conflicting with IE, you may be able to log on once and then not again. Make sure to test repeatedly.

3.Uninstall Google Desktop. Google Desktop has know issues with IE and will sometimes cause it to not start.

 

Problem:

The User Profile Service failed the logon, loging on with a temporary account

Solution:

In the past, we’ve “fixed” this by creating a new profile and copying all the data from the old one (in the users or documents and settings folder) over to it. However, you can try this registry fix first;

Step 1. To fix the user profile, click Start and type regedit into the search box and press Enter.

Step 2. Registry Editor will launch and you need to navigate to the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList

Step 3. Click each S-1-5 folder and double-click the ProfileImagePath entry to find out which user account it relates to

 

Problem:

Power on windows, but Avast Grime fighter immediately loads and cause a black scren – never moves farther than that. To make matters worse, there is no entry in the BIOS for this boot option.

Solution:

If your system runs Windows 8 or 8.1, please try this:

Boot to a Windows CD. You may have to disable Secure boot or mess wit UEFI settings in the bios to do this. As lon as the CD is the first boot device, it should allow you to bypass Grimefighter.

Select “Advanced options” -> “Troubleshoot” -> “Advanced Options” -> “Command Prompt”

Login to your Windows account if it prompts you

In the command prompt type (without the quotes)  “bootrec /fixboot”  and hit ENTER

Then type “exit” and hit ENTER

Select “Turn off your PC”

Power on the PC with the power button

If the above “bootrec /fixboot” command doesn’t work for you, you can remove the Grimefighter boot entry manually by booting back to the command prompt and doing this:

run “bcdedit /enum firmware”

Scroll up and look for the Windows Boot Manager entry with a description of Avast! Grimefighter

There will be an identifier number for this entry, it will be a random string of numbers like {233a9f91-efd8-4771-a9c7-5f4ecc823458}

Hightlight the identifier, including the curly braces, this will copy the identifier, so you can paste it into the next command, to paste after highlighting, you hit the right mouse key

Scroll back down so you can run another command

To delete the Grimefighter entry run “bcdedit /delete {233a9f91-efd8-4771-a9c7-5f4ecc823458}” using the identifier you have copied for your Grimefighter entry instead of my example one, be very careful here and make sure the identifier you delete is the one for Grimefighter, double check it before hitting ENTER

Problem:

Fix Black Screen at boot, continual restarts, or stuck at windows logo

Solution:

This has worked for me in a number of cases where Windows will not boot. If the file system becomes corrupt from something like a virus issue this write a new boot sector to the system partition or repair the MBR.

First you will need to boot into windows Windows recovery console
If there is an administrator password you will need this, if not it can be cleared with an offline password recovery disk. (UBCD, or there are standalone ones as well)
Once the console is loaded you have to choose the installation you wish to repair.

At the prompt type “fixboot” to rewrite a new boot sector to the drive.

After this completes type “fixmbr” to repair the MBR this may be redundant but it doesnt hurt.

Finally you can also re-add the the installations of Windows to the boot.ini file by running the command “bootcfg /rebuild” this automatically scans the drive for installs and adds them to the file.

You can then reboot and see if this fixed your issue.
If you are still having problems or if recovery console does not see the installation run “chkdsk /r”, it never hurts.

 

Problem:

When yo uclick on My Documents or music ect…you get the error Documents.library-ms” is no longer working

Solution:

you need to delete the misbehaving library first.  Deleting a library does not delete the content of the folder.  To fix this problem, open Windows Explorer, right-click on the corresponding library and choose Delete. Click Yes when asked for confirmation.

Then, in the navigation pane of Windows Explorer, right-click on Libraries and click Restore default libraries.  This recreates the library that you just deleted. This option will only restore the default libraries that came with Windows 7.

Problem:

You want to figure out which folders are using the most space, ex: Windows is using 14 GB, Program files is using 20Gb, My documents has 10GB

Solution:

There’s no trick to this one, I’m actually just going to recommend an app! The app is WinDirStat. This is a little freeware marvel that I use on a regular basis. You may remember a previous article about Acronis creating temp files that blow up your HDD, well the way I find those files is by using WinDirStat. It breaks down drive usage by folder and file type and can help you see what’s clogging up your drive at a glance. Check them out over at https://windirstat.net/