Monthly Archives: June 2009

How to waste an hour writing a one sentence blog comment

Computer Aid Posted on by

Sometimes it seems that technology just conspires against us.

And often, it seems to happen the most, to those of us who have a good grasp of most things technical.

Most recently, I just noticed someone had replied to one of my posts.

The reply was in Russian, so I fire up google translate so that I could copy and paste the comment, translate, and then I could reply.

I then login to my website, write a reply, hit “submit comment”, and I get a page not found error.

Grrr

Ok, I’ve been getting quite a few “page not found” errors recently, and I figured it must be my hosting company (Netfirms). Why? In the past, when this happens, I navigate to netfirms.com, and I would get the same error, yet other websites would work just fine.

This time, I thought I’d also try viewing netfirms and computer-aid.com.au from a “different location”. Easily done using proxify.com

Proxify shows my website without any issues…

OK, back to by normal web browser, go to computer-aid.com.au and netfirms, and now they work.

Ooooh, I hate intermittent problems.

I hit a navigation button on my website, and I get a page not found error…

Hmmm

I try FTP, but that fails, as does ping and ssh. Its as if netfirms and all their hosted sites have suddenly disappeared…

Then I start to wonder: I’ve seen similar problems in the past.

It could be a DNS problem, or a hosting problem, or a transparent proxy problem with my ISP.

Just as I’m about to write some “please explain” emails to any possible culprits, everything starts working again…

sigh

I then go to my main blog page, and I get a “bad behaviour” error (my browser is behaving like a spam bot)… I don’t like where this is heading…

I re-check everything, and suddenly everything starts to work again… except:

I notice that only my home page is generating an error (everything else is fine)

Since the home page has some dynamic content (a short summary of my last 4 blog posts), I figure that maybe the script (runs once per day) that generates the main page, has gone haywire (it does that about once every 2 months).

OK, back to SSH, and I can’t login again.

Time for a 5 minute chocolate break (I love the Cote d’Or 70% & raspberries dark chocolate… yum… I really do need to exercise more… 🙁 )

OK, back to SSH: now I can login (it must have been the chocolate 🙂 )

yep, my index.html is only 243 bytes (it should be over 10,000 bytes).

I re-run the script to generate index.html, but the file is still 243 bytes.

I look at the contents of the file, and I see an error message about “cannot read RSS feed”

OK, I point my browser at http://www.computer-aid.com.au/blog/feed

Sure enough I get: Access is denied. Error processing resource

I also login to my wordpress admin panel, and I see my scheduled post for a few hours ago didn’t get posted. A “missed schedule” error under the failed post.

OK, I post it manually.

Now, where was I?

Oh yes, index.html

I disable the script and go back to a purely static home page.

Now, where was I before that?

Oh yes: failing RSS feed.

Thats possibly due to using feedburner, and the “possible” netfirms outage (which I can’t really confirm… I wish netfirms had an outage “bulletin” so I could at least confirm my problems are not some strange blocks on my end.

Anyway, I’ll give it a few hours and then see if it fixes itself.

Now, back to replying to the blog comment.

I write the blog comment (for the second time), and this time it works.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who has these time warps… a two minute job take an hour or two to complete.

I sometimes wonder if its worth it.

And whats worse, I still don’t know where the problem is, nor if it will happen again.

Grrr

PS: I have since disabled “bad behavior” and my website seems more reliable… I’ll keep monitoring and see what happens.

adding pictures to google contacts

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’ve recently been moving to using both Google Contacts and Google Calendar as my main storage for appointments and “address book” information.

For anyone contemplating this move, I must say my experience with these applications has been (for the most part) really positive. I really like the way google maps integrates with the contact addresses.

However, I did come accross something unusual recently.

I noticed that some of my contacts had an image next to them.

Mandy probably added the pictures, and they also appeared on my windows mobile “smart phone”.

OK, but, the main contact number for Computer Aid didn’t have a picture… Hey, I’ll just add the picture myself.

But when I get into google contacts, the entry for Computer Aid has no way of adding a picture… Strange.

I look through other contacts, and I see something even stranger: some contacts have an “Add a picture” link, while others don’t.

google-aap

How do I add a picture to a contact, when there is no “add a picture” link?

Luckily, I have over 100 contacts (mostly Computer Aid customers), so I soon noticed a pattern:

I could only add pictures if the contact had an email eddress

Even a non-valid email address, meant that I could then add a picture.

The question then becomes: why?

pocket outlook on wm6: inefficient email storage

Computer Aid Posted on by

I have about 7000 emails (including sent emails) stored on gmail (in about 200 folders).

So I figure I’ll setup my smartphone to synchronise with gmail using imap. So that I don’t overload the phones tiny memory, I decide to download only the email headers (not the main email body).

This should let me see the structure of my email account, and only download the actual email if/when I need to.

It shouldn’t be hard, right?

wm6

Well,  my sent email folder has about 2500 emails, and in the process of downloading the headers, I get an “out of storage space” error.

A bit of research later shows I can actually move the downloaded headers to the 2Gb micro SD card in the phone. Of course you can’t do this without a registry hack… not something most users can do. Why does Microsoft insist on putting roadblocks in its operating systems?

Anyway, using the SD card will be a bit slower, but should prevent the out of storage memory problems.

While researching, I find something interesting: pocket outlook seems to store each email header in seperate file in the windowsMessaging folder… all up, over 3000 before I got the error message.

Now thats really inefficient. A perfect way to slow down the whole phone: dump thousands of files into 1 folder. I can’t see why pocket outlook can’t use a database file like outlook, thunderbird, and any other decent email system out there.

Now that emails are being stored on the flash card, the process gets much further (take a few hours longer to download headers), until I get another error. This time, I see the “Program memory” has dropped from about 25Mb free to less than 1Mb, so its another memory problem.

After this, pocket outlook will refuse to download any more emails, so its a case of delete all the stored emails, and try again.

I eventually get tired of trying to work around pocket outlook, and decide to try a third party email solution.

I tried flexmail, and it seemed a bit better and faster (at least it stores the emails in a proper database), but it also ran out of main “program” memory, despite flexmail (and the emails it synchronises with the server) being installed on the storage card.

However, as I download more email headers, flexmail slows more and more. I suspect its due to the flash card being slow.

But the nice thing about flexmail, is that it can be tailored.

So now the only path left to me it to trim down the number of emails I download. So I set flexmail to only download the last 60 days.

I clear all the email headers from the sent folder, and then configure only that folder, so that it downloads just the last 60 days… and then flexmail works beautifully.

Since Pocket outlook has similar functionality, I set it up to do the same thing, and then ditch flexmail… why?

Well, certain email shortcut buttons on the phone will start pocket outlook, even while flexmail is the default email program. So I go back to using whatever came with the phone, even if its not “efficient”, its a hell of a lot more convenient.

I cant help feeling like i’m in the old days of MSDOS, where you could only run programs in 640Kb, and to use any more memory, you needed to do all sorts of tricks, and even then you couldn’t be sure any application would work correctly in the expanded memory…

Many smartphone users are not technical, and they don’t care about the difference between internal 64Mb ram and a flash card… they just want it to work.

I havent tried any of the other smartphones out there (iphone, android, webos), so I hope they handle things better.

I’d say an average user won’t be able to use many of the wm6 features (particularly if they have a lot of emails), without hitting the “limits” of the wm6 architecture.

XP In Place Upgrades are fantastic (on most occasions)

Computer Aid Posted on by

A few days ago I visited a client because they were about to begin installation of a new industry specific stock control and ordering database system onto their computer.

They wanted to replace their existing system with new hardware and in the process, upgrade from XP Home to XP Professional, as the new software required Professional.

The client wanted to retain all customisations and installed programs etc but on new hardware with the different XP version.

This is usually very straight forward…….however…

I could in-place upgrade from home to home onto the new machine when migrating the license but cannot in-place upgrade to professional, even after going from XP home to XP home on the new hardware without entering Windows to begin the upgrade. (ie. cold boot)

While technically possible, according to Microsoft documentation, I could not follow through. In order to initiate the upgrade to Professional I would have to do it from within the windows environment as opposed to cold booting from the XP Pro Retail install CD.

During the install where the time estimate was at 34 minutes, I would get blue screen messages that differed on each attempt.

A clean install of XP Professional worked fine along with a variety of other program installs, but the In-Place Upgrade would not complete.

This was not a faulty hardware issue or a SATA driver issue :-/

A clean install with manual transfer of documents and settings is what the customer ended up with, an acceptable compromise I guess.

The Computer Whisperer

Tips To Prevent DLL Errors

Computer Aid Posted on by

Computer errors, such as rundll and shell32 errors bring a smile on the face of computer maintenance professionals across the world. These errors mean money in their pockets, as most PC users are not equipped with the knowledge on how to resolve these errors and instead just call the experts.  These types of errors have the potential of causing huge information and money loss for the computer owner. In order to save time, money and important data it is therefore recommended that all computer users should have basic knowledge of resolving errors that they frequently encounter.

The DLL error is one such error that appears on computers running the Windows operating system. The name itself may sound scary to any computer user but these errors can be easily resolved once the user understands their nature and causes.

The term DLL is the short form for Dynamic Link Library. This library was created by Microsoft in order to reduce memory and hard disk space that the programs and operating system take up while running, thereby improving the overall efficiency of the computer. This was crucial in the days when the memory and hard disk space were limited. So, whenever a common process was required by multiple programs, its programming code was placed in a separate file that was referred to as DLL or Dynamic Link Library. So, instead of uploading the process separately for different programs, the operating system uploads the DLL file only once.

DLL files have been acclaimed as a good idea but like all things related to technology, it may develop problems or sometimes malfunction. Some of the reasons why a DLL error occurs are:

  1. A user may unknowingly uninstall a DLL file.
  2. A user may be trying to install a DLL file which is already corrupt
  3. Problems in the hard drive may cause damage to a DLL file.
  4. Malware infection may corrupt a DLL file.

A computer user can prevent DLL errors by following the tips given below:

  1. Be careful while uninstalling a program and do not let it uninstall any DLL file before making sure that DLL file is not required by other programs on the computer.
  2. Avoid installing programs unless they are absolutely required. Rampant installation of applications and programs is a common cause of DLL errors.
  3. It is a good idea to first install a new program in a backup PC if it is available. This would ensure that the program is safe to install and will not cause errors.
  4. Computer owners must install a good anti-virus software as well as anti-spyware. In addition to preventing viruses and other malware from entering the system, they will help prevent DLL errors.
  5. A user can opt to use services of websites that offer to scan DLL errors in your computer for free. However, the user may be required to purchase the software as only scanning is free and not the repair.
  6. If a user has come across the DLL error while trying to install a new program, one should uninstall the program and check to see if the error is removed. It may be a good idea to contact the manufacturer of that program for a resolution to the error.
  7. Registry cleaner software are great tools that automatically prevent and remove DLL errors.  These tools save the user from the cumbersome task of manually searching for DLL errors.

HP M3027 CB416A: is it worth it?

Computer Aid Posted on by

A customer purchased a HP M3027 multi-function printer (model CB416A) for his home office.

I was called, as he was having some problems getting the scanner to work.

I figured: how hard can it be? (famous last words…)

When I take a look, I can see that the printing part is setup (via usb)… fine… most people use usb.

I go to install the scanner software (the main reason this printer was purchased), and I get asked for the IP address of the printer…

But… its not using ethernet… its doesn’t have a meaningful IP address… why am I being asked for an IP address?

And I can’t hit next until I give it a valid IP address (ie the PC must detect a M3027 printer at that IP address).

Sorry HP, but to my mind, this is a major failure.

If you put a usb port on a multi-function printer, then you need to have full support for it.

I call HP, and they confirm that the scanner component cannot work over USB… the scanner must be on ethernet.

Since the customer only has 1 ethernet connection in his office, I provide a switch/router, so that the printer can also join in on the ethernet fun.

hp_cb416a

After that, I re-install the printer driver, and setup the scanner software… It installs without a hitch, but asks some unusual questions (like the username and password for the windows account on the PC… I can see some people being suspicious about this part, and not wanting to give out their PC details, when the software doesn’t explain why it wants these details…).

Once the software is installed, I do what anybody else would do: I go to run the scanner software… Except I can’t find it!

I find the software from the older scanner, but nothing that works for the M3027

Whats going on here?

After some head scratching, I realise that this scanner seems to have everything backwards:

You use the printer front panel to scan the documents, and also indicate the PC (and folder) where you want the scans to go.

Then it dawns on me: its not backwards… it actually makes sense (particularly in an office environment with more than 2 or 3 people).

Of course its overkill for my customer (a 1 person office)

If you want to scan a document, then you walk up to the scanner, put the document(s) into the scanner, and since you are already at the scanner, you might as well use the scanners touch screen to do the scanning.

Once you finish scanning, you take your documents back to your desk, and you auto-magically find the scanned documents sitting in the scanner folder on your PC… its a nice idea.

So, its becoming obvious that some salesman shouldn’t have sold this printer to a “sole trader” business.

Anyway, after this I find another problem:

I scan a document, but a zero (0) byte file (ie empty file) appears in the PCs scanner folder… after 10 minutes of waiting, its obvious that the document isn’t going to arrive…. but the scanner seemed to go through the motions of scanning the document.

So it looks like the document is “stuck” in transit.

Another call to HP, results in having to download a firmware update.

Of course the firmware executable doesn’t work (maybe its not vista compatible…).

So I need to download the firmware binary, install filezilla, and FTP the firmware file to the printer.

After about 20 minutes of “thinking”, the printer is ready to scan, using its new firmware.

Of course the original scanner folder on the PC no longer works, so I now need to re-install the scanner software on the PC, and create a scanner folder with a different name (because the original name is being used)… sigh…

Now, at last,  the scanning works well !

There is NO WAY the customer would have had the technical knowledge to do all this work, and I’m sure it will have taken days of “telephone tech support”, to get everything working without my help.

So the bottom line is: If you want to buy this type of printer, make sure you have access to an IT “expert” to set it up.

folder name of 18 – 28 hex numbers

Computer Aid Posted on by

I recently noticed on some computers (it seems to affect both Vista and XP), that sometimes one or more folders will appear straight under C:, and have a random name… something like:

c:1ad29fe78456acc5b26351428709

The only pattern I can see is:

there are between 18 and 28 characters in the folder name, the name is only made of hex characters (ie numbers 0 to 9, and the letters a,b,c,d,e,f).

Looking closely at the contents, and I can see that the files seem to belong to a microsoft update that most likely crashed before the folder structure could be cleaned up (I still don’t understand why subsequent updates cannot tidy up after prior failed ones… how hard can it be?).

Anyway, if you notice that a strange folder name with 18 to 28 characters, that has been “hanging around” for a few weeks, then its probably safe to delete it.

Delete Junk Files quickly and easily

Computer Aid Posted on by

Mike Hansell asked me to test a utility he is developing.

I don’t usually do this sort of thing, but I liked the concept of DJF (delete junk files).

It sounds like it does a similar job to something I’m currently using: emptemp2 (empty temp folders).

Here is a screenshot of DJF:

djf1

I ran it on an XP virtual machine I (rarely) use for testing potentially unstable software. Since I don’t use this PC much, I didn’t expect DJF to find much, but it managed to free up over 900Mb. On a high-usage PC, this could be even better (and you might get a performance boost as well, particularly if you do a defragment after running DJF).

Keep an eye out for DJF, as it will become available via computer-aid.com.au in the near future.

General Failure. The URL was: xyz Application not found

Computer Aid Posted on by

PC with Vista, and customer can no longer click on a link in outlook.

Instead, a window pops up, saying: General failure. The URL was: {the url you want to see.html} Application not found.

I ask: “when did this start happening?”, and the customer admits he had installed google chrome, but didn’t understand what it did, so he “removed it” (intending to go back to IE7).

I wan’t going to ask the details on how he removed it, as it sound like a simple fix.

A quick looks around the net show an easy fix for XP, but all sorts of registry changes, if you are using vista and IE7.

I found a simpler solution, that also works with Vista:

  • Within IE7, go tools -> internet options (or within control panel: internet options)
  • Advanced -> reset internet explorer settings -> reset -> reset

Please note that this will disable toolbars, reset cookies, reset home pages, search providers (most people won’t notice if this happens anyway).