Monthly Archives: March 2007

navman slow map updates. whereis maps very outdated

Computer Aid Posted on by

In June 2006, I purchased a satnav unit (navman icn320). It was a great price, and it came with the option of a free upgrade to the 2006 maps when they became available (in september 2006).

I thought: thats great, I’ll buy it, as it will make my travels safer.

As I used it, it worked really well, but I started finding the outdated map frustrating… I good example is a nearby road (warroo drive). It was once split into 2 parts, but the 2 parts were joined before I moved to qld (ie Warroo drive must have been joined before 2005).

So I put up with it, and in september, I send away a form, requesting a map upgrade, together with a copy of my receipt.

A month later, I phoned navman, and I’m told sorry, you cannot get map upgrades for the icn320… its no longer a current product… its not for sale anymore.

OK, I explain that one of the reasons I bought it was because it was advertised with a “free upgrade to the 2006 maps”, so you had better deliver on your advertised promises.

So then I get: “Oh in that case, let me check”.

Then I’m then told: yes, you can get upgrades, but they will only be ready in November, and we also don’t have your details on file anywhere… could you send them again…

OK, I get their email address, so I can send it via email.

I email again at the end of November, and I’m told there has been a delay, and the maps will only be ready in december. Oh, and could you please send the scan of the receipt again?

Ok, I send the receipt, application form, etc again, then in Jan I email again, asking about the maps.

I get yet another apology… sorry for the inconvenience, and am told the map will be shipped to me in Feb.

Nothing in Feb, so I fire off another email, and this time I get a more meaningful reply:

map updates were sent to me in Jan and again in Feb… I should have received them. I then get a commitment to send the map via express post… I think: good

Well, work gets very busy, so about 2 weeks later, I’m about to call navman, and I receive an express post letter with the map upgrade. Hooray!!! (Although 2 weeks for en express post letter from NSW to QLD seems a tad slow…)

its a navman icn330 map chip, so I hope it works with an icn320…

Well, it does work (to my relief), and it has 1 or 2 extra features, which is nice.

I then look to see what new roads it has… Hold on. Warroo drive is still split into 2 parts… plus about 15 other places I know were wrong in the 2005 maps, are still wrong in the 2006 maps.

Is this a navman problem, or a whereis problem?

I check the info menus on the navman, and it shows that the maps were generated around mid 2006… so it could be Whereis / Sensis (I like to call them Sensless 🙂 ).

Yep, I go to the whereis website, and it still shows warroo drive as being split in 2… Grrr

Just to get a second opinion, I take a look at the Street Directory website. It has NO errors… as far as I can see, it is fully up to date… even recent road alterations (from 1 month ago) are there.

Since I’m from Melbourne, I’ve grown up with the local melbourne street map (called melway)… recently, they have branched out to create the Sydway, Brisway, etc… and they also provide the maps behind street directory… They really seem to be on the ball!

I must say, after this whole saga, I’d be prepared to spend an extra $100 on a satnav that uses the brisway/sydway/melway maps, rather than the crappy whereis maps.

Sensis really need to get their act together… if/when the melway people can come out with satnav maps, I reckon Sensis will be scrambling to catch up.

sis 7012 (and realtek ac97) problems on a laptop

Computer Aid Posted on by

I was checking a laptop for a friend, and in the process, I did a web-based MS update. I also updated some hardware drivers (given that they were in the hardware section of the MS update screen).

Well, that caused the sound driver to stop working. (code 10 in device manager). I tried to download the latest sis 7012 driver, but that didn’t work… I eventually decided to uninstall the sis7012 driver, and roll back the realtek ac97 driver, and that finally worked…

Its can sometimes be very difficult to identify the correct hardware device on a PC (particularly laptops)

DCOM process launcher service terminated unexpectedly

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer has a PC that starts XP, but after a fer minutes, displays: “DCOM process launcher service terminated unexpectedly”, then there is a 30 second countdown before the PC restarts, and the process is repeated again.

After some searching, I find its probably some side-effect of a malware infection.

So I pull out the HDD, connect it to my system, and scan it from my system.

Sure enough, many nasties are found and removed.

Back to the original PC, I work fast in order to disable any possible registry problem related to the malware files having been deleted.

After all that, the PC starts and operates quite normally (for an old pentium 3).

strange PC startup problems

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer has a PC that sometimes won’t power up… and sometime after powerup, the screen colours will shimmer, or be different to what they should be.

He also says that the CPU temperature is very high.

The CPU heatsink has a lot of dust on it… severely blocking the airflow from the fan. Some tweezers, and some fluff balls later, and the CPU is looking much cooler.

However, there are still some startup problems, and the system is very slow at booting.

There are no infections that I can see.

So I take it back to the office for a careful inspection.

Customer also gives me a “spare” motherboard, in case the motherboard ends up being faulty.

Anyway, there are lots of strange symptoms, so I decide to do some tests. everything is fine until the RAM tests.

The RAM test give some odd results. A dedicated RAM test gives more errors.

I put the RAM into another socket, and the memory problems are gone… The display is solid, and the PC is somewhat faster… But XP now wants to activate again… 🙁

And customer has lost his original XP CD… he has a few others, but none that match whats on this PC.

I manage to fix the activation problem, replace a faulty CDROM and ethernet card, and hand back a working PC.

Symantec / Norton interferes with network shares (again)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer has a few problems at his business.

One PC just won’t start properly, gives a shimmering, multi-colour display, and sometimes just won’t start.

Another starts, but 2 minutes after starting, windows XP shuts down.

And the network shared drive sometimes only work in one direction (PC A can see files on PC B, but not vice versa).

After some investigation, it looks like norton Internet Security is selectively blocking drive sharing information.

I’m about to fix the norton blockage, but since the customer has 2 PCs with expired norton AV, and a PC that is close to renewal, he is happy to try something different.

So I give him some choice. On one PC, I install AVG Anti-malware (30 day free trial), and on the other 2 PC’s I install antiVir, and windows defender.

I install winpatrol, and spywareblaster on all PCs

Diagnosing network problems can be difficult enough, without legitimate software throwing a spanner in the works.

hp deskjet 640C failure

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer runs win98, and is having problems with her deskjet 640C printer.

I take a look, and everything seems ok.

I try a test print, but only half the page prints… almost as if there is a comms problem between the PC and the printer (or the print buffer is cleared before it gets a chance to download to the printer).

I try to eliminate a cable problem by swapping from parallel to usb… I need to put the printer driver CD in the tray, as the usb software driver needs to be installed.

But I can’t see a CD drive in windows explorer… looks like a faulty CDROM drive as well. I go to the car and get a spare cdrom drive.

I install the CDROM drive… after struggling to open one of those old HP “origami” mini cases. You know the ones: you have to take out 5 screws in order to swivel the motherboard tray out the way, so that you can get access to the screws that are holding the CDROM in place… all within a very tiny and cramped case.

Anyway… CDROM is installed, I install the usb drivers, start printing again, and I get the exact same problem.

OK, its just not worth fixing the printer. I offer to sell a new printer to the customer. She agrees, so I return 2 days later, with a new printer (canon pixma).

Installation is flawless, except for it taking 15 minutes.

Test print works well, I do the requested print head alignment, and I’m on my way again.

Removable motherboard trays…

Computer Aid Posted on by

Customer has just moved into town, and is having computer problems.

The PC refuses to start correctly, and before the startup problems, the PC had many problems with popups, and was running very slow… It all sounds very typical.

when I get there, the PC freezes partway through starting XP. I restart, then try hitting <del> to get to the bios, but the keyboard doesn’t seem to work.

occasionally, there will be a keyboard error during the BIOS POST.

I try a different keyboard, but I get the same result except…:

While pushing the in the keyboard plug, I felt the keyboard socket move slightly.

I try changing keyboards again, and this time, the socket moves back into the PC by about a centimeter, until I stop pushing 🙁

OK, time to take out the PC and have a good look inside.

I find that the motherboard is mounted on a sliding tray, designed to make swapping motherboards easy.

However, the last “technician” to work on the PC must have been trying to economise on screws… there was only 1 screw (instead on 2) holding the side case panels in place, and NO screws holding the motherboard tray (hence the “sinking” keyboard socket).

I secure the tray properly, but the keyboard still doesn’t work.

OK, it must be a motherboard fault. I tell the customer that getting hold of a replacement motherboard can be difficult (AMD Athlon 750MHz = and appropriate mobo will be difficult to find). at a guess, I estimate $200 (particularly given the time to find one, and the risk that it might not be compatible with the processor… all up, a cheap, but unpleasant option). There is also the risk that there are other motherboard faults that are not apparent yet…

I also offer a newer (P4 1.8GHz system) for $350. Price includes transferring the DVD writer and HDD to the new PC. She goes for the new PC.

 I connect the original HDD to my main system, do a scan, and remove a few nasties.

 I later find out that she has a “non-legal” windows XP, and moving it to new hardware causes it to request activation… well, after some careful work, I manage to get XP working correctly, and I install all the new drivers for the new hardware that XP suddenly “discovered” due to the HDD transplant.

Hopefully, I’ve learnt another lesson: ask for the XP disks before taking a PC away for a potential rebuild. If there is no disk, then the cost is higher, due to all the activation rubbish I need to bypass or the cost of a proper version of XP… Oh I forgot… its becoming more difficult to get XP nowadays… Isn’t progress grand!

Vista upgrade breaks keyboard driver (code 39)

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another Vista problem (looks like I underestimated the number of vista problems I’d get this year…).

This time, customer upgraded XP via: vista home premium upgrade academic

And his keyboard stopped working. The keyboard works fine on other PCs, and other keyboards (usb and PS2)  would not work.

Device manager shows a problem with the keyboard (code 39)

I tried the obvious: update the driver, but vista would say “you already have the latest driver”.

OK, delete the driver… but the bad driver gets reinstalled from the driver cache.

After some searching, I found a vague reference to various drivers not working for upgrades, whereas clean installations are no problem.

So, using the technique from the “windows secrets” newsletter, I did a fresh install of the vista 30 day trial (with no license code). I then did a vista upgrade, with the correct license code… and all went well.

There was a slight hiccup with validation and updates… I got an error message about a possible problem withe the date and time… I adjusted the time (it was out by 1 hour)… but I still got the error message… I eventually realised that the year was set to 1999 🙂

easily fixed, and customer is happy.

vista: Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied

Computer Aid Posted on by

Got an interesting Vista problem just the other day:

I tried to setup vista to print to a printer that was shared from an XP PC.

I go through the add printer menus in vista, follow the prompts for adding a network printer, until I get the message: “Windows cannot connect to the printer. Access is denied”… the printer was found on the network, but it just won’t let me print to it… why?

I found an excellent solution at:

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=3&SiteID=17&PostID=1333289

Basically, it boils down to creating a “local printer” instead of a network printer… and the local printer port is the windows domain name of the printer.

ie: Go to Control Panel. Choose printer, then choose Add Printer.

Add a local printer… Click on “Create a new port”. Leave the default in the drop down box (should be “Local Port”). Click next.

A dialog box will appear asking for you to enter a port name. Type in the \computerprinter (where computer is the network name of the PC that has the printer attached… and printer is the network name of the shared printer).

Thats all it takes!

Breadth of experience

Computer Aid Posted on by

I sometime check out competitors websites (partly to get ideas, partly to compare them to my website, and partly to see if I can pick anything that they don’t do (which I can do to get some advantage)).

Anyway, I’ve noticed an trend. I’m tempted to say amusing trend, but I’m not sure if thats the right word.

A lot of competitors who rank very well, seem to get their webites designed and optimised by outside companies.

I can understand this for most industries, but if a computer service company is not able to design and tune their own website in-house, then I wonder about their range of technical skills.

If a company has a narrow range of skills (particularly in the computer service industry), then their business will suffer when (not if, but when) the industry changes character.

To me, a computer tech who can, for example, only fix hardware, and doesn’t want to know about software, will eventually go broke / lose his job.

Since starting my business, I’ve found that one of the traits that has kept Computer Aid viable, has been its flexibility. I can singlehandedly do hardware, software, website design, SEO, marketing, sales, accounting, purchasing, etc.

Some would say: why do it all yourself, when you can pay someone to do this for you?

Well, to me, thats a luxury I cannot afford while Computer Aid remains small. I keep overheads as low as possible, and I keep my finger in many technical “pies” (so an industry change shouldn’t affect me much). I can think big, act big, but I won’t spend big unless I’m earning even bigger.

So far, It’s worked out well, and I cannot see many obstacles ahead.

In the end, all of my business expenses need to be paid for (by my customers). Since I genuinely care about my customers, then I owe it to them to keep my fees as low as reasonably possible, by keeping my expenses as low as possible.

I keep this in mind for all my business expenses (eg buy a small economical car, rather than a large car to feed my ego…)

I do similar with advertising. I need to advertise, but so far, with my local paper advertising, I’ve only needed (and could only justify) a small 3-line advert in 3 local papers. I see many others with much larger and fancier ads, which must cost at least 3 times as much… but does 3 times the cost equal 3 times the customers? Does 3 time the size equal 3 time the quality? I’m not so sure. I made sure I chose my wording very carefully, as I didn’t want my ad to say what everyone else said, yet it would appeal to the kind of customer I wanted… And there *are* customers that I don’t want to deal with, but luckily they don’t tend to call me (it sometimes pays to NOT be the cheapest in town!)

Which leads to one of my favorite business sayings: I’d rather do nothing, than work for nothing.

 Looks like I’ve wandered away from the original topic, so I better stop here. Until next time.

A Packard Bell EasyNote G5 laptop is actually an NEC Versa E6000!

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer dropped her laptop (a packard bell easynote G5) while it was running (now gives a read error while booting). A quick inspection shows that that is not much hope of recovering data. I take it to the office, and sure enough, the drive cannot be imaged.

Customer is content to get a replacement 60Gb HDD.

I install the drive, install XP. But, as often happens, there are no drivers for the ethernet, video, sound, modem, etc. Luckily the usb drivers work.

All I need to do go to the packard bell website, and download the drivers…

Hold on… the website has drivers for a few laptops, but not an easynote G5… nothing even remotely similar, not even a search on the model number or serial number gives anything.

A bit more searching shows that packard bell is just a “front” for NEC corporation.

After a lot more guesswork, and pulling out hair, I eventually find out that the G5 is actually an NEC Versa E6000

Why do they make things so complicated?

Anyway, I quite like the laptop. Its a pearl-white colour, including the keyboard and power supply/cables… quite different from all the black/dark grey laptops out there.

So I finally download and install all the correct drivers, installation is smooth, and the customer is happy (she got a 80Gb HDD instead of the 60GB, due to delays with my supplier 🙂

about 10 days later, customer calls saying she has started getting random blue screens, followed by a computer restart. I explain about BSOD, and arrange to visit and see if there is something I can do.

The laptop had no problems while I was testing and tuning it. She agrees that it worked fine for about 5 days, before the blue screens started appearing.

So its quite likely that the fault developed after I completed my work.

While examining the PC, it didn’t give a single error.

I change the windows settings, so that in the event of a BSOD, it won’t automatically restart. Since she doesn’t use wireless, I notice that the laptops wireless card will occasionally pick up a wireless network that is just barely within range. A wireless network that is constantly appearing and disappearing, could confuse poor old XP, so I decide to disable the wireless as well.

Under the laptop: there is no panel for allowing more memory to be added. I was hoping to re-seat the RAM, in case it was causing the BSODs.

Oh well, all I can do now, is ask the customer to keep an eye on the PC, and note down the first few BSOD numbers, as I might be able to narrow the cause of the problem.

I haven’t heard back for about 2 weeks now.