Author Archives: Luigi Martin

Adobe Premiere: this installation package is not supported by this processor type

Computer Aid Posted on by

I installed a digital TV card into an XP PC (core 2 quad CPU, and good video card), and the owner also wanted me to install Adobe Premiere Elements 10 (he had the previous version, but wanted the new version).

I thought: it shouldn’t be too hard, but given that the customer had installed the previous version, then he might have come across a strange problem with installing version 10.

Sure enough, as soon as I insert the CD and run through the automated install process I get the error:

This installation package is not supported by this processor type

Hmmm, is it complaining about the core2 quad CPU? Its a Q9650 (12MB cache!), so a very quick CPU back in 2008… and still very quick in 2012.

At first, I thought that Premiere was incorrectly trying to install the 64-bit version… but after looking over the CD, it became obvious that the CD ONLY had the 64-bit version of Premiere… no 32-bit version available!

Oddly, I was able to find the 32bit version of Adobe Premiere 10 on the internet… I downloaded it, then did the install, entered the serial key, and then it installed correctly.

ISP tech support sometimes makes things worse

Computer Aid Posted on by

A lady had just moved into a new home… got her phones, internet, and cable TV working, with the help of a TV tech

He was even nice enough to install an ADSL filter to get her internet going.

After about 2 days, the internet stopped.

She called Optus technical support, and the support lady spend a good 2 hours trying to help, before saying that the problem was with the computer.

When I got there, the ADSL modem was showing all the correct lights, but I soon found out that the PC had no ethernet drivers.

In these cases, I usually just connect my android phone, switch on its USB tethered mode, so that it acts like a modem, and then download the drivers I need.

But the Windows 7 PC would not load the USB drivers for my phone.

OK, back to my office, and a virus scan detects no infection. I download the ethernet drivers from the HP website, and then the PC is back to working on my internet connection.

So what happened was: Optus tech would have guided the customer into removing the ethernet drivers (thinking they will automatically re-install after a re-boot)… and then ended up blaming a computer fault for the “extra” problem.

So, when I took the computer back, I assumed it would be a quick dropoff, plugin everything, check that the internet is working, and then leave…

But events often conspire against me.

Still no internet, but this time, I can connect to the modem, and I see it thinks there is no internet connection.

Maybe the modem is faulty, so I install a new modem, but I get similar same result: it connects, and both the link and internet light go on, but after talking to another Optus tech, I notice that the ADSL light has gone off. and the modem is trying to re-connect…

Thats odd! its almost as if there is no filter…. then the penny drops:

Excuse me Mrs customer: do you have any other phones connected in your house?

Mrs customer: Why yes! Besides the one in the computer room, there is also one in the kitchen!

A quick look shows that the kitchen phone has no filter. Once that is fixed, the ADSL light stops “dropping out”… but still no internet…

Back to Optus, and the tech says: hmmm, there is an issue on the line, I’ve raised a request, and if you wait on the line, it will be rectified in about 5 minutes.

After 5 Minutes, I’m asked to restart the modem… and finally, the internet is back.

the maximum file size for session readyboot has been reached windows 7

Computer Aid Posted on by

I had a PC that was behaving strangely.

I eventually looked into the Windows event viewer, and found an odd error (amongst others):

the maximum file size for session readyboot has been reached.

So a search reveals its could be safely ignored… but I’m not convinced.

Since the most accepted solution is to increase the filesize limit, I decide to try it.

In regedit, I go to:

hkey_local_machinesystemcurrentcontrolsetControlWMIAutologgerreadyboot

Then change MaxFileSize from 14 (hex) to 40 (hex) (ie triple the max file size).

When I restart the PC, the readyboot error (and a few other errors… eg a WMI error) are gone.

Next: look at the other errors, and see if any can be fixed

DVD drive disappears on windows 7

Computer Aid Posted on by

New PC, gigabyte ga-h77m-d3h mobo, seagate barracude 1TB hdd, LG superMulti DVDRW, decent psu and video card.

After a few weeks, dvd disappears from windows.

So I replace with a new one.

After a few more weeks, it disappears again, but this time, the sound is also gone.

So I look over everything carefully:

  • HDD: I had updated the firmware (CC4H) when I first assembled the PC, and there hasn’t been any new firmware release
  • I update the motherboard firmware to F6
  • I updated the LG DVDRW firmware (GH24NS90) to IN01

After all the firmware and Windows updates for hardware, the sound and DVD drive started working again.

But…

A few weeks later, the DVD drive disappeared again!

What could it be now?

I ended up trying the microsoft fixit (in case the registry got corrupted), but fixit could not detect the drive.

And the bios also couldn’t detect the DVDRW

Since fixit mentioned checking that the drive was plugged in, I opened the PC and looked at the drive and cables.

This motherboard has 6 SATA sockets: 4 “traditional” sockets (SATA2) that face out from the circuit-board… so you just plug the cable plug straight (perpendicularly)Ā  into the socket on the board.

But the first two SATA3 sockets are sideways, on the edge of the motherboard.

I had both the Seagate HDD and the DVDRW plugged into the SATA3 sockets.

So I figure: why not plug the DVDRW into the older SATA2 sockets. Besides, a DVDRW isn’t fast enough for sata2, let alone sata3… so it won’t really make a difference.

And lo! the bios detected the DVDRW, and then windows 7 did as well.

OK, the next step is to try the drive back in the SATA3 socket…

Woe! Windows detects it in the SATA3 socket as well…

I now have 2 very similar (new) computers that are displaying similar problems… what could it be?

As a last resort, I change the SATA cables, give it back to the customer, and hope the problem doesn’t re-surface.

Beware Linkedin advertising !

Computer Aid Posted on by

Back in January 2012, I got an email saying that linkedin is now implementing advertising (ie something similar to google and facebook advertising).

They also offered a free $50 “promotion”… OK, its less than the $100 that google offers, but it should be good to see what kind of return it gives.

Then it started getting weird:

I setup a campaign for my website design business, only to find limits like:

  • maximum daily budget cannot be less than $10
  • minimum cost per click (for a CPC campaign) is $2.00

Wow, I could be looking at, at least, $10 per day, per ad campaign.

Lets do the maths: with just 1 campaign, I could use up my “gift” $50.00 in just 5 days

I could be looking at $300 per month.

I’d need to be selling some high profit-margin goods or services to justify advertising in linkedIn.

As a comparison, Google have a minimum cost per click of $0.01 (yep, 1 cent), and the max daily budget also starts at $0.01. You you could limit your google advertising to just 1 cent per day, and then alter it if I want to get more views, traffic and clicks. And then Google also has a huge audience for showing these ads.

Facebook is similar: minimum Cost Per Click is $0.01, but the max daily budget is at least $1.00 (which I personally think is too high for some situations). But then again, facebook also has a huge audience for showing these ads.

So, I just try out the campaign, and as usual, I forget to check until about 2 weeks later (maybe this is what linkedin are planning: that people will forget).

Luckily it only cost me an extra $10 or $15, as I sometimes didn’t get to spend the full $10 per day.

Anyway, I switch off the campaign, and promptly forget about the LinkedIn advertising scam.

At the start of September 2012, I get an email from linkedIn, saying: “Your LinkedIn Ads campaign has been feeling a bit lonely recently. Come back to LinkedIn Ads and reach out to your customers!”.

They offer another $50 bonus, which expires on 19 Sept.

I figure: I’ll take another look.

I notice the click costs are still $2 per click, and I cannot set a max daily spend of less than $10…

Anyway, I guess I’ll just run the ad for a few days… I login and using the $50 code they sent me, I re-activate my ad campaign on the 12 Sept (before the 19 Sept deadline)…

I also add a campaign for my name-brand mobile phone look-alikes (iphone, Galaxy, HTC One X, etc).

Within 1 hour of activating my campaign, I get 7 clicks on my ads ($14 out of $50 gone already!)… and 29,000 impressions… ie my ads get shown 29,000 times!

But over the next 5 days, I get no more clicks, and the number of impressions drops to about 200 – 500 per day… It all looks a bit suspicious.

And I also find that the amount of information about my advertising performance, stats, etc is scant…I just cannot figure out why I got so many impressions, and then a sudden drop.

I then take a look over at the billing details, and I see that the $50 credit that linkedin gave me, has a “grant date” of sept 12, and an expiry date of sept 12… A reasonable person would think they mean the “coupon” has been used on that day… but being a suspicious person, I see it as: my “gift” of $50 expired on the same day I activated it, and any clicks after that date, I will need to pay for out of my own pocket. Thanks a lot LinkedIn! šŸ™

When dealing with larger companies, it pays to be suspicious, and assume the cards are always in their favour.

So I suspended all my linkedin ads (again)… even though I still have a theoretical $36 in my account… I just can’t be sure about that. I’ll think I’ll just forget this whole linkedin advertising scam (again).

error 0x000000c2 bad_pool_caller on windows XP

Computer Aid Posted on by

My main workshop PC (windows XP, Intel dual-core CPU, 2GB DDR3 RAM, WD HDD, Gigabyte mobo, etc… nothing fancy) has been quiet for a few days (another quiet time in business šŸ™ ).

So when I started it today, I was surprised to get a blue screen of death: error 0x000000c2 bad_pool_caller

I figured: maybe RAM, maybe the video card… but it was neither.

So, after pressing F8 at boot time, I selected “last known configuration that worked”

And this turned out to be one of the rare times that it actually worked.

As soon as the PC started, taskbar icon for Microsoft security essentials appeared in red… It really wanted to update the software (not just a signature update, it was completely new software.

So I figure: sure, its always best to be safe to keep the AV up to date.

But part way through the update, the computer did another BSOD.

I fixed it again (last known configuration that worked).

Now, when I cast my mind back a few days, to when I last used the PC, I remember doing a windows update, and I got a BSOD. Because I was in a hurry, I just left it, and then forgot to get back to fixing it.

So now:

  • I uninstall MSE
  • I restart the PC
  • I download the latest MSE from the microsoft website
  • I install the latest MSE and…
  • BSOD !

Wow, that proves that the latest MSE either doesn’t like my PC, or it doesn’t like XP in general.

I have another XP PC, but it has the latest MSE, and I get no BSOD from it…

Its a mystery. Next chance I get, I’ll be installing another anvivirus program & see what difference that makes.

external Seagate hard drives failing (or not showing up)

Computer Aid Posted on by

I’ve had this happen a few times, so I thought I’d mention it to everyone.

Some external Seagate branded USB hard drives (usually 1TB, and usually the larger 3.5″ size), that seem to be failing at random.

The first one: a customer said its acting strange (windows 7 would detect the drive, and its capacity, and how much space was still available, but couldn’t view any files and folders.

I ripped open the enclosure to get to the raw drive inside (its a 3.5″ sata drive), and plugged it into my xp diagnostic PC… and I could read the data without any problem.

I concluded that the enclosure electronics had “died”, so I got another enclosure, put the HDD into it, and could easily read the drive from my XP PC.

But when it was plugged into a Win7 PC, I got the same problem: cannot access any files or folders…

So, there is something wrong with the drive itself… but what could it be?

I decided that a firmware update was worth a try, as I’ve had other firmware problems with seagate recently.

So, after backing up all the data, I updated the firmware, and that was all I needed to do… The drive now worked perfectly.

Since then, I’ve had a few similar problems (only with seagate).

It seems that seagate need to check their firmware more carefully, as I’ve been seeing Seagate firmware issues on drive that have been manufactured 2 or 3 years ago, up to some very recent ones.

Pity, as Seagate was/is my drive of choice, given that I had poor lifespan out of the main rival: WD.

sirfef.y is very difficult to remove

Computer Aid Posted on by

Back in June 2012, I was looking at an infected PC, and after running Malwarebytes, it looked like the PC was clean.

But after a restart, Microsoft Security Essentials reported that it had found sirfef.y, and that it would remove it.

After removal, the computer would give a 60 second grace period before restarting.

I first thought that the 60 seconds was MSE forcing a restart.

But it was actually sirfef.y restarting the PC to prevent anything from removing it.

Since sirfef.y is a rootkit, most standard security tools struggle to remove it.

I tried a few different tools (all had to be run from safe mode, to avoid the 60 seconds before a reboot), but tdsskiller and a few others either wouldn’t detect it, or would not be able to remove it.

After a lot of research, I eventually had to use a tool like gmer… then interpret the results, and then manually remove the rootkit files responsible for the infection.

Certainly not something an average (or even an advanced) PC user would be able to do.

With infections like this on the rise, I’m starting to wonder how much worse this can get, and if the PC security companies can do anything to improve their products, to defend against this type of infection?

android imei problems and how to change imei

Computer Aid Posted on by

I imported a dual-SIM android phone, which then started to behave strangely when a SIM card got inserted into either of the SIM slots.

When I’d try to make a call with a few different SIM cards, I’d either get the message:

No SIM or SIM error

or

Restricted access changed

After some digging around, I found that entering the number *#06# should display the IMEI for the phone… but instead, I got:

IMEI1: Invalid

IMEI2: Invalid

So I decided that it was possible that the phone had two “changed” IMEI numbers, so I would see about changing them back to the numbers on the back of the phone.

While researching this, I found that it is illegal (apparently) to change IMEI numbers.

But I figured:

I’m only going to use numbers that I know belong to me, and I won’t try any other numbers… and its worth trying before I have to ship the damned thing all the way back to china for a replacement.

First of all, the phone needs to be “rooted”

Second, you need to do install a linux command prompt

Then, you need to do the following (assuming you want to use an IMEI of “123456789012345”):

echo ‘AT+EGMR=1,7,”123456789012345″‘>/dev/pttycmd1

This will change the IMEI for SIM1

To change the IMEI for SIM2:

echo ‘AT+EGMR=1,10,”123456789012345″‘>/dev/pttycmd1

Just remember: Only do this with numbers you know are yours for certain (eg from an old phone you are about to throw away). If you try anything else, you might get into a lot of trouble.

In my case, using the phones original IMEI numbers did not help, yet using the IMEI from another phone worked perfectly.

So it looks like the manufacturer somehow mucked up their numbers, and the phone is going back šŸ™

windows 7 Stop 0x000000f4

Computer Aid Posted on by

Sometimes, computer faults just conspire against you.

In this case, a win 7 computer just suddenly started to display a blue screen:

Stop 0x000000f4Ā 0000001 0000000003 fffffa8004e18600 fffffa8004e188e0 fffff800025d8510

Unfortunately, the customer had no Windows CD (PC was purchased from a local computer company, so the CD should have been included)

All my tests show no apparent hardware fault.

After trying everything I could to repair windows, including windows repair option and system restore, IĀ  eventually decided to try the windows 7 repair option.

First I downloaded the Windows 7 SP1 ISO and created an original OEM disk.

I then go through the steps of booting from the DVD, selecting the “upgrade” option, until I get the error:

The Product key does not match current windows sku

I try altering the ISO image to match the Windows version that is installad (home premium), I also try making a “generic” iso, where I get prompted for the version of Windows that is to be installed…

But no amount of trying would get me past that error.

So after a frustrating time, I decide the best option is to do a fresh install, and then load all the backed-up data onto the fresh install.

Unfortunately, the customer only has Microsoft Office XP (which really shouldn’t be used with Windows 7), but I extract the product key (again, the CD had been lost) and then install it.

Compared to the XP repair install, the process for Windows 7 repair install seems more complicated and more prone to failure. Will Windows 8 be any better? That remains to be seen.

mapping network drives on a qnap NAS vpn

Computer Aid Posted on by

I have recently installed a few QNAP NAS servers far various business customers.

Since I’m not very familiar with NAS servers in general, and since one customer specifically requested VPN access via the NAS server, I decided to see what was achievable with this type of NAS server.

The number of options available is staggering, and its all Linux-based.

The QNAP servers can do:

  • Microsoft, Linux and Apple networking
  • Webserver file serving
  • itunes server
  • Apple time machine support
  • VPN
  • Joomla, WordPress, phpMyAdmin, vtigerCRM, Magento, etc
  • print server
  • database server
  • backup server
  • uPNP media server support for various protocals
  • Multimedia Station for serving Audio, Video, and Photos
  • Surveillance camera support

In this particular case, I just wanted to enable VPN support, and map a network drive, so that a remote application could access data files on the server

Enabling and configuring VPN is quite easy, as the QNAP website guides you through the process (I decided to use PPTP, as it seemed much simpler to setup).

But once I had established a VPN connection, what next? How do I map a network drive?

I eventually found the solution as follows:

While you are configuring the server via the web admin panel, go to: Application Servers -> VPN Service

make a note of the VPN client pool. it should be something like:

172.19.0.2 – 192.19.0.254

That means the server will appear on the VPN client as: 172.19.0.1

After that, mapping from the windows command line (cmd.exe) is quite easy.

Lets assume that the servers folder share is SDRIVE, the server username is joe (password is pass), and you want to map the folder share to drive W:

You type:

net use w: \172.19.0.1SDRIVE pass /user:joe /persistent:yes

after that, you can use the w: as if it was a local (albeit slower) drive.

Although I haven’t been able to test it yet, I have heard that you can lose internet access unless you go to the advanced ipv4 settings of your network settings, and disable the setting: use default gateway on remote network.