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    • MS Exchange 2007 ISAPI error

    2010 - 03.10

    Tags: , , , , , Category Geek | No Comments »

    We all love a bit of complaining about Microsoft and then they went out and made sure we’d bitch, by allowing 32bit and 64bit .NET apps with a plugin to IIS, and then not allow them to run concurrently.

    The trap I’ve fallen in to is that I am suffering with the amazing Service Unavailable screen on my OWA. The event log is screaming at me with W3SVC-WP errors:

    ISAPI Filter ‘C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\\aspnet_filter.dll’ could not be loaded due to a configuration problem. The current configuration only supports loading images built for a AMD64 processor architecture. The data field contains the error number. To learn more about this issue, including how to troubleshooting this kind of processor architecture mismatch error, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=29349.

    For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

    —–

    Okay, so we know this sucks. Finding the info to fix can be a little tricky so here, fire up a cmd shell and run these 2 lines:

    cscript %SYSTEMDRIVE%\inetpub\adminscripts\adsutil.vbs SET W3SVC/AppPools/Enable32bitAppOnWin64 0

    %SYSTEMROOT%\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v2.0.50727\aspnet_regiis.exe -i

    The first line allows 64bit only, the second reinstalls asp .NET.

    Go take a look at your OWA or Exchange web services and they should be back to normal.

    ReadyBoost

    2010 - 03.05

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    ReadyBoost

    ReadyBoost has been called a “gimmick” by many because they misunderstand what it’s supposed to do (see links below). For systems with less than 3GB of RAM, I’ll tell you here and now you can increase the responsiveness of Vista by taking advantage of it.

    ReadyBoost is not:

    - a replacement for an adequate amount of system memory

    - a replacement for the page file (it works in tandem with it)

    How Do You Use It?

    Open up Computer > right-click on the drive that you want to use and choose Properties > click the ReadyBoost tab > click Use this device > optionally choose how much of the device to use.

    tip – Use a USB port in the back of your computer. Yep, I broke a drive sticking out of the front when I bumped into it (dooh!)

    ReadyBoost Spec’s & FAQ

    Type of drive – USB 2.0 flash drive (often called a thumb drive) or SD card. See: Grant Gibson’s ReadyBoost Compatibility List – http://www.grantgibson.co.uk/misc/readyboost/

    Space needed – min. 256 MB, max 4 GB (because ReadyBoost can compact this data this can yield up to 512 MB and 8 GB respectively)

    recommended, ratio 1:1 to 2.5:1 (2 GB RAM would be 2 GB – 4 GB of flash drive)

    How many drives can I use? – One (man, I would love to see someone come up with a way to RAID a couple of drives for this!)

    Security risk? – No, the data is encrypted.

    Restore Point Creation Disabled by Group Policy

    2010 - 03.04

    Tags: Category Geek | No Comments »

    As a result, you’re unable to create System Restore Points or configure System Restore.
    Resolution

    This happens if the Turn off Configuration Policy is enabled in your system, either using Group Policy or through registry edit. For standalone Windows Vista systems, use these steps:

    Using the Group Policy Editor

    If your edition of Windows Vista includes the Group Policy Editor snap-in (gpedit.msc), follow these steps:

    1. Click Start, type gpedit.msc and press ENTER

    2. Go to the following branch:
    Computer Configuration | Administrative Templates | System | System Restore

    3. Double-click Turn off Configuration and set it to Not configured.

    Note: If the above setting is already set to Not configured, set it to Enabled and click Apply. Then revert back the setting to Not configured, and click Apply, OK.

    4. Exit the Group Policy Editor.

    Using the Registry Editor

    1. Click Start, type regedit.exe and press ENTER

    2. Navigate to the following key:
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Policies \ Microsoft \ Windows NT \ SystemRestore

    3. In the right-pane, delete the value named DisableConfig

    4. Exit the Registry Editor.

    Registry Fix

    To automate the above setting, download srpol-clear.reg and save to Desktop. Right-click on the file and choose Merge.
    More Information

    If you set the Turn of configuration option to Enabled, the option to configure System Restore on the Configuration Interface disappears. If the Turn off Configuration setting is disabled, the configuration interface is still visible, but all System Restore configuration defaults are enforced, and the Create button is grayed out. If you set it to Not configured, the configuration interface for System Restore remains, and the user has the ability to configure System Restore.

    Dell D600 password removal

    2010 - 02.27

    Tags: , , , Category Geek | No Comments »

    My Pa was recently given a Dell D600 laptop which was locked with a bios power-on password, it was his to keep for free because there was no way of removing it with software and Dell had said that the owner would have to pay to have it removed but also show proof of purchase.

    That wasn’t going to happen.  I consulted the internet for ages, coming up blank.  My Pa pulled the BIOS battery and normal battery, dumped it in the freezer for 4 days and see if it would forget about the password as had been suggested as this does work on car stereo’s, well, it used to.  Needless to say it was a fruitless effort.

    Today I came by and he said he was about to dump it so I decided to have another look around and see what I could see.  Turns out that the way Dell store BIOS configs is in a flash chip.  The flash chip on this particular model is the 24C02 and is located just beneath the PCMCIA bay.  All you need is a paperclip or hair pin, a small screw driver and some balls to actually rip apart the lappy.

    You can find a fanastic guide on how to do this here:  http://www.weeklygripe.co.uk/a709.asp

    Proof of the pudding, my Pa now has a working Dell D600 laptop that is currently installing Mint Linux.  If you get stuck just request some info here and I’ll help as much as I can.

    If it helps though, find the 24C02 chip located below the PCMCIA bay under the black tape (peel it back), short pins 3 and 6 with a paperclip or hair pin, hold it in place while you push the mains power in and then push the power button on the lappy.

    The Chip

    Wait 10 seconds or so, pull the power.  Then take out the jumper, push it back in and turn on.  Hopefully you’ll be greeted with this screen instead:

    Bios Screen

    Tada.  Put it back together and away you go.

    Pulse audio remove, use alsa!

    2010 - 02.24

    Tags: , , , , , , , , , Category Geek | No Comments »

    I don’t know about you but I’m a little narked at Ubuntu forcing the PulseAudio issue. It sucks; big sweaty nut sacks worth of sucks!

    I’ve seen a whole bunch of threads saying “don’t remove it, it’ll destroy your soul and rape your nasal passages” but that’s a load of tosh. I’ve removed it on Ubuntu 9.04, 9.10 and Mint Linux Gloria (8) without any issues. Actually, by removing it and going back to ALSA I now have a working sound in Skype, Urban Terror and WormUx where as I never did before.

    Here’s what you do:

    Fire up Synaptic
    Quick Search for Pulse
    Remove PulseAudio, it’ll remove a ton of dependancies
    Quick Search for Alsa
    Install gnome-alsamixer and alsa-oss

    Click apply. Reboot your PC and it should still start up with sound. Skype will need to be reconfigured to use ALSA but the games will automatically have audio again.

    Intel Linux driver hanging xorg

    2010 - 02.21

    Tags: , , , , , , Category Geek | No Comments »

    The other day I upgraded a mates laptop. By upgrade, I mean I removed Vista and installed Linux. Everything worked pretty well apart from the sound card, but this was fixed in a new kernel. Being that I’d used the only CD I had knocking about, I’d installed Mint Linux 7. No probs, I thought, I’ll just go through the upgrade process to version 8.

    I did everything to the book, it all went well. Rebooted and then just hung. Thing is, it was actually working, I couldn’t see the screen or swap in to the terminals. After much rooting around I discovered it was the screen driver.

    Editing xorg.conf, I thought I’d just pop in VESA and all would be well… how wrong was I. Turns out the Intel driver for the Intel cards can be pretty pants and to fix it is just to add this line to xorg.conf video driver section:

    Option “NoAccel” “true”

    Obviously you’ll be wondering how to get to be able to do this if you’re a newbie. When Linux boots, select recovery mode, from the menu select drop to root shell. Type “nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf”, then edit away.

    Reboot and enjoy ;)

    Mint Linux 8 bits and bobs

    2010 - 02.20

    Tags: , , , , , Category Geek | No Comments »

    For anyone that knows me, you know I’m one of the biggest Linux fans out there.  My background started in the DOS days, PC and MS versions and I’ve been a natural born CLI lover since.  One of the things I used to love about Linux so much was living down and dirty at the Shell but I’m a bit down cast about the fact that Mint Linux is so tight on the GUI that you no longer need to drop to the Shell to do anything.

    So you lot won’t see this as a bad thing, especially Windows lovers.  One of the things I have found though is that my favourite apps and utils aren’t available as default installs.  So, here’s my little list of things to install to set things right:

    First up is Skype is missing.  Simple fix, fire up Synaptic Package Manager, Settings, Repositories, Other tab, click the Add button and drop in this line:

    deb http://download.skype.com/linux/repos/debian/ stable non-free

    Click close, Reload and then you’ll find Skype in the list.  Check it and install.

    Next on my list is a distinct lack of MSN with webcam enabled software.  For this you will want aMSN, it’s already in the list, check that too.  CD burning, well, there’s only one non-commercial app I’ll trust for that and it’s K3B, check that.  If you want, uncheck empathy and Brasero as they are installed by default but you don’t require them as you’ve just installed replacements.

    I code for websites, no tools for that either, so check Bluefish.  It’s not WYSIWYG as I believe that it’s more What You See Is Not What You Get Or Anywhere Near It.  If you do love some WYSIWYG action though, check Komposer.  Any one with a little DreamWeaver usage under their belt will feel right at home.  To go with my web work, I’m also a heavy GIMP user (Gnu Image Manipulation Program).  It’s a very powerful package and comparable to Photoshop but being GPL there are lots of additions to it.  Grab the extra packages by checking gimp-data-extras, gimp-save-for-web and gimp-plugin-registry.

    Hit Apply and wait while your software downloads and installs.  You’ll be a happy bunny when it’s done.

    Exchange 2007/2010 smtprelaytotirg

    2010 - 01.31

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    I installed a Windows 2007 Exchange server in to my 2003 environment this week. All went well apart from that the mail sending from the 2007 test mailboxes ended up in a queue called smtprelaytotirg. The error message given being 451 4.4.0 Primary Target IP Address Responded with (501 5.5.4 Auth Command Cancelled).

    This queue is basically where 2007 is failing to deliver because it can’t route correctly.

    The resolution in this case for me was easy. All the connectors were in place as they should be, but the transport for SMTP on the original master 2003 Exchange server had limited access to certain IP addresses.

    I added the IP address for the new Exchange 2007 server and bang, 20 mins later the queue is empty.

    Just a minor hurdle :) Oh, the other one to watch out for is making sure it can resolve either by IP or FQDN for the SMTP server, it’ll fail on netbios or just a single name. Anyone still relying on WINS needs shot in the face with a screw driver.

    HP Proliant DL185 G5 64bit

    2010 - 01.26

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    I’ve just blown away and rebuilt an HP DL185 G5. After installing all of the drivers from the HP website for the model, using Windows Server x64 R2 SP2, there is still 2 devices which are wanting drivers.

    One is a raid, the other an Unknown.

    The raid driver required is the Broadcom HT1000, you’ll find that easy enough on Google.

    The unknown is a bitch to find. HP couldn’t tell me what it was. Turns out it’s for a Remote ILO board, even though the system doesn’t have one. You have to install this beauty to fix it:

    IPMI infless Install

    Yes, it’s not even for the same model, but it’s a NULL patch to shut it up complaining. It’ll then go in as HP NULL IPMI Controller. The device hardware ID is ACPI\IPI0001\0.

    I hope this helps someone :)

    Facebook CSS/Style/Look

    2010 - 01.20

    Tags: , , , , , Category Geek | No Comments »

    With millions of people on Facebook, you would have thought the most they would allow you to do is change the layout to be a little more fun or interesting. Better yet, do the MySpace way and allow you to customise your personal profile.

    No, Facebook users, they won’t even give you this little privilege. Well, there’s an awesome hack available for Firefox users called Stylish from those wicked people over at http://userstyles.org.  Go and install the add-on, then restart your Firefox.  Now go to http://userstyles.org and select from one of the many awesome Facebook layouts available.

    It only adjusts your Facebook look, it doesn’t affect the page at all for anyone else.  Mine now looks like this:

    Facebook Screen Shot

    Facebook after Stylish

    The Style I’m using is Dark Static, Transparency.

    Enjoy folks.

    Stylish
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