wcs-spokane

Client #8, XP rebooting

2010-08-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

A power loss rendered a Dell XP desktop to a state of continuous rebooting. Each time the boot process would get as far as the Windows logo and then crash out.

Using Recovery Console from an XP boot disk I found that the file structure had become corrupted. Although the c:\ prompt was on the screen I could not do a DIR and couldn't get into c:\windows without a file system error occurring.

But from my early days with FAT and FAT32, I knew this eventuality was known and could be recovered by replacing the file system with the copy that is automatically made. Furthermore, the current NTFS structure makes the file system even tougher by dispersing the information flexibly across the disk. All you need is a bit of luck, some time and the right tool... chkdsk /r

It took a couple of hours to run on a 250GB disk, occasionally the progress indicator would freeze, and once it ran backwards a little way. But when all was said and done, the file system was restored and the machine bootable. Needless to say the client was encouraged to perform backups of his data should this occur again.

Thankfully experience had taught me that should a drive fail or files get deleted, do nothing invasive. The data may well be there, but can so easily be overwritten by a well intentioned diagnostic. I read all I could about the /r option before I was satisfied it would do no harm.

http://www.wcs-spokane.com/

This blog is intended to share info and advertise mytroubleshooting services in Spokane, WA.

Client #7, Vista Shutdowns

2010-05-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

A Compaq desktop pc with Windows Vista Premium suddenly began shutting down after over 2 years of use. A message would pop up warning of the imminent shutdown and stating that the OS was an evaluation copy.

Examination of the Event Log showed errors 6008 and 26 starting on 4-1-10. An info message just above the systray identified the installation as Vista Premium Beta load 113. The System Properties window identified Vista as being legal and active.

But these messages were missing the point. It wasn't the OS that was the evaluation copy, it was the Service Pack. Released in May 2009 SP2-113 was a Beta version of the service pack upgrade. It had a built-in expiry date (some users experience 4-1-10, some 5-1-10). Why MS should release to the general public something which would cripple their machines months after they've forgotten it had been installed is beyond me!

The fix, of course, was to uninstall SP2 Beta. A risky business as you are resorting to the previous SP1 OS There are 200-300 MB of files being moved around, hopefully restoring a functional system when finished. It worked this time, although none of the evaluation messages would disappear until there had been 2 or 3 reboots. Finally Windows Update grabbed the proper release of SP2, the rebooting problem disappeared and the customer went home content.

http://www.wcs-spokane.com/

This blog is intended to share info and advertise mytroubleshooting services in Spokane, WA.

Client #6 (Floating Mouse)

2010-02-21T12:09:00.000-08:00

Client with a Dell Inspiron 8100 laptop and Windows XP had occasional troubles with the mouse cursor drifting to the top-right or bottom-left of the screen. When really bad you couldn't even use keys to arrow up and down menus, for example. Lots of cursor motion signals were coming from somewhere and the machine was effectively rendered useless.

The mouse built in to these laptops is a Synaptics touch pad and stick control. It can be disabled in BIOS, but Windows finds ways round that and still manages to activate the drivers. Upgrading those drivers doesn't help, but when disabled in Windows and BIOS you can block the thing to use an external mouse without trouble.

Problem was traced to wear on the stick mouse contacts. The Synaptics configuration allows the stick control to be disabled (i.e. ignored), but that didn't help much. I suppose the volume of spurious data coming from the stick just overwhelmed the mouse port. The solution was to disconnect the stick mouse all together. A few simple screws from underneath released the keyboard. Two ribbon cables joined together at the motherboard, one wide, one narrow. Carefully removed the narrow cable, taped off the end and reassembled the keyboard.

The laptop now functions with a stable touch pad mouse, albeit the stick has been permanently disconnected.

http://www.wcs-spokane.com/

This blog is intended to share info and advertise mytroubleshooting services in Spokane, WA.

Client #5 (Vista boot troubles)

2010-01-14T13:58:00.000-08:00

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I knew sooner or later I would have a Vista problem to report on. In this case the client's desktop had requested a reboot after performing Windows upgrades, but had got stuck in the boot process. The only error message Vista was offering was an unknown file being corrupted.

The client asked me to perform a factory default recovery (nothing else was possible) and get it back to him asap, which I did. To no avail, the machine crashed again with 24hrs. (I normally like to observe a repaired machine for a day before returning it, but this customer was seriously missing his internet.)

The evidence was pointing to a bad update, so I loaded each individually to isolate the problem - no problem there! This time, however, I kept the machine for a few days to observe what was happening. Response time was getting very slow on occasion and a check of the Event Viewer showed the hard drive was having some bad sectors. Clearly some Windows critical files were landing on bad media and the machine was failing randomly at random times. The upgrade observation by the client was just a coincidence.

Vista doesn't offer a friendly way of testing and locking out sectors, so I recommended a new drive, imaged the old one over with Norton Ghost and rebuilt it again from the factory partition.

No problems in the several weeks that have since passed!

http://www.wcs-spokane.com/
This blog is intended to share info and advertise mytroubleshooting services in Spokane, WA.
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2009-10-17T09:42:00.000-07:00

Client #4

This one involves corrupted Outlook Express data.

Client had downloaded and installed MS Live email
but had not yet imported data from OE.

When opening an email that had an attachment of
another email, the latter was automatically opened
with Live. This invoked automatic import of OE data.
The client didn't want this as it was slowly down his
system - so he killed the process. The result was a
corrupted OE database where emails over a four
month period had been lost!

Thankfully, the client contacted me before performing
any repair using OE. Using a text editor to look at the
databases it was clear the missing emails were still
there, but not showing up in the folder listing.

I made a backup of the databases and then used to
OE to compact the originals. Sure enough OE failed
to recover the lost emails, and indeed they had been
removed from the database during the cleanup.

I would like to recommend "Kernel for Outlook Express".
A free trial download will show you if there are any
recoverable emails from corrupted databases.
The full version ($29) allows you to recover them.
This worked brilliantly for the client by recovering all
the lost emails from my backup databases and placing
them in a new OE folder.

The client simply moved the recovered emails to the
folder of his choice.

An enjoyable and challenging job!

www.wcs-spokane.com
This blog is intended to share info and advertise my
troubleshooting services in Spokane, WA.
.

Client #3

2009-10-09T09:57:00.000-07:00

Now this is an interesting DHCP problem. Here are the facts...

environment of independent office users
a client called me saying he cannot access the internet from his desktop pc

DHCP assigns 10.69.1.5 address to the client's pc (255.255.255.0)
DHCP assigns 10.69.1.1 as gateway
DHCP assigns 10.69.1.1 as DNS
10.69.1.1 is pingable but cannot access internet through it by name or address

disconnect client's pc and connect RJ45 cable to my laptop
DHCP assigns 10.0.1.124 to me (255.255.255.0)
DHCP assigns 10.0.1.1 as gateway
DHCP assigns 10.69.1.1 as DNS
10.0.1.1 not pingable, 10.69.1.1 obviously not pingable either

What's going on?

==================

OK this is what I found out...

although 10.0.1.1 gateway not pingable I was able to ping 4.2.2.2 (known internet DNS server)
therefore the gateway was working, just set up not to respond to Pings

kept all my DHCP settings the same but forced the DNS server to 4.2.2.2

name resolution to the internet worked perfectly!

reconnected client's machine to the cable and refreshed DHCP
once again he gets the 10.69.1.5 address and subnet info he had before

some other office users had no trouble, but they were getting 10.0.1.x addresses like my laptop

==================

My conclusion:

There are at least 2 DHCP servers active in the office network. The client's MAC is being
remembered by the switches and constantly gets DHCP data from an invalid server.
My laptop with a fresh MAC unknown to the network is served by the correct DHCP device although somehow the bad DHCP server managed to insert an incorrect DNS address into its config.

==================

What to do:

Isolate the client's computer using a brand new NAT router. With a fresh MAC it should be assigned to the 10.0.1.x subnet and with luck not be fed useless DNS info by the bad DHCP server. Advise client to report additional DHCP server to building management.

After this fix the client's pc worked just fine behind the router - which also gave additional benefits of firewall and wireless access, which we setup up for his laptop to also have secure WPA2 access to the internet.

www.wcs-spokane.com
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Cient #2

2009-10-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

"Jumpy Mouse"
When smoothly moving the mouse cursor across the screen
it would freeze every second and then jump forward to where
it should have been. If you have the analogue clock showing
you can clearly see the jumps every time the 'second' hand
moved.

I had seen this before on an XP machine and figured out it
was an interrupt conflict. It was always fixed by going into
Safe Mode and then rebooting to Normal Mode.

This time (also XP) it turned out that the DVD drive had
died and the drivers were panicking every second looking
for the device.

IMHO, CD and DVD drives have for too long had a
stranglehold over the processor through Interrupts. Several
times I've had media programs lock up the drive and make
the computer unusable until powered off and rebooted.
Because these drives demand a steady stream of data
when writing to optical disks they were given almost veto
power over anything else the processor wanted to do.
But now there are good-sized and fast buffers to handle write
operations this is no longer necessary and should be demoted.

http://www.wcs-spokane.com/
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Client #1

2009-10-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

To start off here is the short story of a client whose
Windows XP Pro desktop machine froze as soon as
the background wallpaper appeared on boot-up.

No icons, Start button, systray or anything
-just the wallpaper.

The client admitted to being a frequently downloader
of game software and highly suspected an infection.

The only response I could get from the machine was
the task manager. Windows Explorer (responsible
for putting the user interface and icons on the
screen) was not listed as running.

When I forced task manager to run Explorer it failed
to load. This happened both in Safe and Normal modes.
Clearly something was being loaded that fouled up the
usual booting procedure.

Task Manager wouldn't run the installed anti-virus
suite either, but it would let me install a free software
package I carry on my thumbdrive -and run the
program afterwards.

Solution was to scan the whole computer using this
software and allow it to clean out the infections.

Quite a relief for the client, for otherwise a re-install
of Windows would have been the prescription.

http://www.wcs-spokane.com/
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Intro:

2009-10-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hello:
My name is David and I run a computer/network repair business in
Spokane, WA.
This is the business blog. A place where I'll gradually recount some
of the more interesting diagnostics I have done in IT and the
solutions to those problems.

Hope you find it interesting and useful.

Of course its also an advertisment for my services.
Check out http://www.wcs-spokane.com/

yours

David Fisher