Fortress Computer Service

Syncing BB w/ Vista - How to get rid of that annoying

david — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:00:15 +0000

Syncing BB w/ Vista - How to get rid of that annoying “RIM Composite Device” message - BlackBerryForums.com : Your Number One BlackBerry Community

I recently had this exact problem on my Windows XP computer. I finally tracked down this one posting, and it solved my problem. Even though I’m using XP and not Vista, the solution was exactly the same. I clam no credit for the solution, full credit goes to the original author.
Hope it works for you.

I just recently got a Blackberry Pearl and had some issues syncing it with my Windows Vista system (ah, Vista, always trying to be difficult). Every time I plugged my device into my laptop I would get a message about “unable to fin device driver software for RIM Composite Device”. I searched this forum, pinstack and google and mostly found discussions regarding this problem but with no definitive response as to what to do. Well after a grand total of 5.5 hours (2.5 one night, 3 the next night) on the phone with Blackberry and T-Mobile I finally figured out the problem and figured out how to get rid of the message. I thought I would post this for anyone experiencing the same problem I did.

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way a professional, in fact I’m a BB newbie, follow these procedures at your own risk. While following this procedure you are responsible for what happens to your computer, I’m simply putting this out there because it was the only way I could get it to work.

1. Plug device directly into your laptop/PC
2. When “found new hardware” message pops up choose the first option “Have windows automatically search for me”
3. After receiving the message that says “Windows was unable to find the software” it gives you the option of finding the software on your own or inserting the disc that came with your device (note: I tried the CD that came with my device but it did not work, I’m assuming since you’re reading this, yours didn’t work as well) - Hit “Cancel”
4. After you have been told by your computer that the driver software install failed right click on your “Computer” icon on your desktop.
5. From there click Properties
6. Go to Device Manager
7. In device manager you should see “RIM Composite Device” under ports with a Yellow exclamation point next to it - right click on it
8. Click “Properties” and go to the “Driver” tab.
9. Click the icon that says update driver.
10. A new window pops up that says “browse for driver software on your computer” at the bottom of this window there is an option that says “let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” Click on this link.
11. Scroll down the list on the left until you get to “Research in Motion” on the right you will see “Blackberry Device” highlight it and click next
12. You will see a message pop up that says something along the lines of “installing this device driver is not recommended b/c windows can’t verify that it is compatible with your hardware, etc.” Click “Yes”
13. the driver should install and you should get a message that states “Driver Software install successful”

The final test is to unplug your device and plug it back in and see if you get the message again.

ActiveSync cannot log on to Microsoft Outlook

david — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:19:46 +0000

Oh goodie. For the non-graphical out there:

ActiveSync cannot log on to Microsoft Outlook. Make sure Microsoft Outlook is installed and functioning correctly. You may need to restart your computer. You could have a conflict due to two folders on this computer are named C:\Program Files\Microsoft and C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office. If so, rename the C:\Program Files\Microsoft folder so that it does not contain the word “Microsoft.” If this folder contains subfolders, you may need to reinstall programs in the renamed folder. For more information on renaming folders and installing programs, see Help for your operating system.

I’ve got a better idea. How about I rename my Operating System so it no longer contains the name “Microsoft”, hmmm?

Update: A reboot fixed the problem. So, don’t panic, just reboot - It’s Microsoft!

SyncBack SE

david — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:01:14 +0000

SyncBack SE is awesome. It’s only $30, but it does more than other packages that cost hundreds of dollars. This is the best backup solution for a small office. Combine it with an external drive or network storage server for a perfect solution.

“There are many backup programs, but few as elegant and powerful as SyncBack from 2BrightSparks.”
— PC World Magazine.

Easily backup, synchronize, or restore your files to another drive, FTP server, ZIP file, networked drive, or removable media.

Highly configurable, SyncBack SE includes: open/locked file copying; fast backups; detailed and easy to read log files; email results; simulated backups and restore; file filters; sub-directory selection; copy verification; background backups; auto-close of programs; easy and expert modes; profile groups; compare files, and an extensive context sensitive help file.

As well as an ‘Easy Mode’ for essential backup, restore, and synchronization tasks, SyncBackSE has an ‘Expert Mode’ that delivers advanced functionality. If you need to backup to an FTP server or network and email the results this is where you’ll fine-tune the software.

Buy SyncBack SE online and be running in 5 minutes.

External Backup Drive - 320 GB

david — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 14:23:03 +0000

We’ve tried many different external hard drives, and found many of them lacking in various ways. The Western Digital My Book series has been an excellent drive for us - we use them in our office, and have installed them for many clients. Amazon.com has recently slashed the price of these excellent drives, here’s an example My Book Premium Edition 320GB.

Combined with the excellent SyncBack software, you have a complete backup solution for any small office.

If you need individual help or advice on setting up a backup solution for your office, please give us a call. We can install a custom automatic backup system for you so you’ll never have another sleepless night worrying about your important business files.

Norton AntiVirus

david — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:30:57 +0000

Overview

In the late 90’s and even into 2000 and 2001, Norton Anti-virus was considered an excellent product. Unfortunately, the quality of the software has changed much faster than user perception.

According to the Wikipedia article on Norton anti-virus:

Despite its widespread adoption, it carries a reputation within parts of the computer enthusiast community as being slow and inefficient, ineffective, and difficult to uninstall. Some computer professionals have reported encountering machines infected with a virus despite having NAV installed and (in most cases) being fully up-to-date.

I completely agree. These are my anecdotal experiences with Norton Anti-virus.

The Short Story

Anti-virus should be effective, fast and mostly in the background. It shouldn’t pop up windows all the time asking you questions.

In short, dump Norton Anti-virus. I know it came pre-installed with a trial period. Just delete it. Get a decent product. Any of the following are cheaper, better and faster:

Computer Associates eTrust
F-Prot
Norman
BitDefender
Kaspersky

Notice that I didn’t mention McAfee. It’s just as bad as Norton.

Performance

I consulted with one customer who was frustrated with “Word opening documents slowly”. They were using Norton anti-virus 2003.

I performed the following tests:

Open a test Word document. Time to fully open document: 2 minutes, 10 seconds.
Uninstall Norton 2003.
With no anti-virus installed - Open the same Word document. Time to fully open the document: 6 seconds.
Install Computer Associates eTrust Anti-virus. Open the same Word document - 8 seconds.
Remove eTrust and reinstall Norton Anti-Virus 2003. Open the same document - 2 minutes, 12 seconds.

I presented these findings to the client. Obviously they purchased a site license for Computer Associates eTrust Anti-Virus. They have been using eTrust for two years now - no performance complaints and zero virus infections.

Protection

I consulted with another customer who was suffering from an obvious virus infection. They were using Symantec (Norton) Anti-virus 2005. I booted a clean BartPE image and ran a full virus scan, which detected 12 virus files.

I moved these 12 virus files to a new directory and renamed them from *.exe and *.dll to *.bad. I also cleaned up the system registry to ensure that no virus was active or able to be started.

Here is where it gets interesting. I then rebooted back into Windows 2000, and made sure the Norton Anti-virus 2005 was fully up to date. I then performed a virus scan of my new directory that contained 12 identified viruses. Norton detected none of them.

I uninstalled Norton, and install Computer Associated eTrust and scanned the entire machine. eTrust correctly identified all 12 of the known viruses, and confirmed the rest of the machine was virus-free.

The client has been running fine without any re-infection for over a year since that time.

Summary

These just a couple examples. I have dozens more, but the story quickly becomes repetitive. I often find customers who have purchased a new machine and want to use the Norton Anti-virus for a year because they’ve already purchased it. I understand the emotion, you hate to “waste” your subscription. Trust me, it’s not worth it. You are more vulnerable and are using a bloated, slow and ineffective product.

Not enough server storage is available to process this command.

david — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:19:22 +0000

Another frustrating error message. Here’s the full message:

\\server\sharename is not accessible.
You might not have permission to use this network resource.
Contact the administrator of this server to find out
if you have access permissions.

Not enough server storage is available to process this command.

It’s useless. The message implies that one of two things are wrong:

I no longer have permission.
The server is full.

Neither is true of course, and you could spend an afternoon looking for the source of the problem.

The answer is buried in a Microsoft article titled “Antivirus software may cause Event ID 2011″. Of course, this is the sort of thing that makes the typical user absolutely nuts.

Let me back up and restart this rant properly. I have a Windows server. It has some shares. Clients on the network do backups daily to those shares. One day, they start getting this error message. Why? Nothing else has changed. Not only that, but other shares on the same machine work fine.

So here is the solution:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;177078

It’s enough to make you crazy.

The server knows it hasn’t got enough stack space? And it knows that it just needs to allocate more? So do it already. I’m betting that the programmers that coded the error routine could have coded a self-healing routine instead.

Can not enable Windows Firewall

david — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:16:56 +0000

I ran across this issue while working at a customer site.

Symptoms

When you open Services.msc applet, the Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service may not be available in the listing
Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) service is available in Services listing, but you are unable to start the service
You receive the following error message while accessing the firewall settings (firewall.cpl)

Due to an unidentified problem, Windows cannot display Windows Firewall settings.

Solution

I found the solution at http://windowsxp.mvps.org/sharedaccess.htm and restated the solution here in case the other site is unavailable. If Windows Live OneCare is installed, you may ignore the error message. OneCare uses it’s own firewall.

Cause

A missing or corrupt SharedAccess registry key.

Resolution

Create a .REG file containing the following:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[-HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccess]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccess]
"DependOnGroup"=hex(7):00,00
"DependOnService"=hex(7):4e,00,65,00,74,00,6d,00,61,00,6e,00,00,00,57,00,69,00,
  6e,00,4d,00,67,00,6d,00,74,00,00,00,00,00
"Description"="Provides network address translation, addressing, name resolution and/or intrusion prevention services for a home or small office network."
"DisplayName"="Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)"
"ErrorControl"=dword:00000001
"ImagePath"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,00,
  74,00,25,00,5c,00,73,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,73,
  00,76,00,63,00,68,00,6f,00,73,00,74,00,2e,00,65,00,78,00,65,00,20,00,2d,00,
  6b,00,20,00,6e,00,65,00,74,00,73,00,76,00,63,00,73,00,00,00
"ObjectName"="LocalSystem"
"Start"=dword:00000002
"Type"=dword:00000020

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessEpoch]
"Epoch"=dword:00002cd0

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParameters]
"ServiceDll"=hex(2):25,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,52,00,6f,00,6f,
  00,74,00,25,00,5c,00,53,00,79,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6d,00,33,00,32,00,5c,00,
  69,00,70,00,6e,00,61,00,74,00,68,00,6c,00,70,00,2e,00,64,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,
  00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicy]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyDomainProfile]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyDomainProfileAuthorizedApplications]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyDomainProfileAuthorizedApplicationsList]
"%windir%\system32\sessmgr.exe"="%windir%\system32\sessmgr.exe:*:enabled:@xpsp2res.dll,-22019"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyStandardProfile]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyStandardProfileAuthorizedApplications]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessParametersFirewallPolicyStandardProfileAuthorizedApplicationsList]
"%windir%\system32\sessmgr.exe"="%windir%\system32\sessmgr.exe:*:enabled:@xpsp2res.dll,-22019"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessSetup]
"ServiceUpgrade"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessSetupInterfacesUnfirewalledAtUpdate]
"All"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServicesSharedAccessEnum]
"0"="Root\LEGACY_SHAREDACCESS\0000"
"Count"=dword:00000001
"NextInstance"=dword:00000001

Then double-click the .REG file to merge the contents to the registry. The Services entry will be created. Restart Windows (mandatory step, otherwise the following NETSH command will display an error message).

After restarting Windows, run this from Command Prompt (cmd.exe)

   NETSH FIREWALL RESET

Launch firewall applet from Control Panel, and then configure your Windows Firewall settings.

If none of the above methods help, as a last-resort solution (before reinstalling Windows XP Service Pack 2), give these two commands a try. Click Start, Run and type:

   rundll32 setupapi,InstallHinfSection Ndi-Steelhead 132 %windir%infnetrass.inf

Restart Windows, and then run this command (from Command Prompt):

   NETSH FIREWALL RESET

Attempt to start Firewall applet. Start the Windows Firewall service when prompted.

Ricoh CL4000DN Error Code SC542

david — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 20:07:54 +0000

SC542 Error Code

A client had a Ricoh CL4000DN printer, and it started flashing error code SC542. As it turns out, Ricoh error codes seem to be a closely guarded secret, and the local Ricoh rep wanted either $199 an hour or a yearly service contract to fix it. The printer was a 200 pound paperweight, because it wouldn’t finish internal diagnostics.

I investigated, and it appears the client had a power brownout just before the error occurred.

Turns out error SC542 indicates a fuser temperature problem. Once the error is detected, the printer is toast until you manually clear the error from the keypad. Even though the printer is physically fine, it won’t come ready until the prior error condition is cleared.

A few phone calls with our local Ricoh service rep, and he admitted that the printer might trip this error in a power brownout.

The printer was less than 30 days old and the error was caused by the brownout or the fuser failed. I kept calling the Ricoh rep, and they finally gave me the magic keystrokes over the phone.

I did the magic keystrokes, cleared the error code, and the printer worked fine. It’s been working great for a year now.

I hope someone else who has this problem finds this page and is able to fix the problem also. I didn’t find any help on the net when I searched.

The Fix

In order to clear error SC542, you must perform procedure 5810.

Press and hold online + escape, then power on.
Use up and down arrow keys to select SP2
Press Enter
Use up and down arror to locate SP5
Press Enter
Use up and down arrow keys to select 810
Press Enter
Confirm the selection
Power off and on.

The error code is now cleared.

Summary

The fix worked. As I find other magic codes for Ricoh printers I’ll post them here.

If you have other information about Ricoh printers, or want to let me know how this worked for you, please discuss this article in our forum.

Update

This is the most popular article on our website, generating about 300 page views per month with people searching from Google and MSN. Obviously this is a popular problem. I’d be interested to know how your printer failed, maybe there is a design problem of some sort? Send me an e-mail and let me know. My address is david at fortc dot com.

Broadband Service in Aubrey - Pilot Point Area

david — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 19:01:27 +0000

At Fortress Computer Service, we work with many broadband customers and have experience with multiple providers in this area. If you have specific questions or need particular advice for your situation, please feel free to leave a comment below.

We do not have an exclusive relationship with any of these vendors and we are committed to recommending the best solution for your particular situation. Please contact us if you would like a personal consultation.

These broadband service providers are listed in alphabetical order. No preference is suggested or indicated by the position on this list. We attempt to maintain current information on all possible broadband solutions in Aubrey, Celina, Cross Roads, Denton, Gunter, Pilot Point, Sanger, Valley View, Whitesboro and the surrounding area.

Please let us know your personal experience with these vendors, good or bad.