Author Archives: Brad

Cannot reload Windows because customer has no CD

Posted by Brad

I had this happen to me today I and I think I’ve had it happen at least once before.  This is not a case of a customer losing something they had, something that came with the computer (I’ve had plenty of those).  This is a situation where some local computer shop sold a PC to some unwitting customer and used a Volume Licensed Copy of Windows.  In this case, it was a license that has even been blocked by Microsoft because I received a failure on the Windows Genuine Advantage program.

This kind of stuff really ticks me off because the customer is the one who gets screwed on this deal.  If the only way you can sell PCs for a profit is by putting pirated software on them, then you have no business selling PCs.

So in this case, a customer had a PC full of spyware.  After struggling and finally getting Malware Bytes installed and cleaning things up a bit, I was able to also install AVG.  Then I did several more scans with both and continued to find problems.  It seemed like every time I connected the PC to the Internet, some more junk hopped on there.  So I talked with the customer about reloading Windows and of course he had no CD for Windows.  I also noticed before I spoke with him that there was no Windows Product Key sticker on the side or back of the PC.  So after I explained the situation to him, the customer decided to go buy a new PC (this one was going on 3 years old).

So if you decide to buy a PC from a local shop, make sure you always receive a Windows or recovery CD and have a Windows product key sticker on the PC or on a certificate or on a book (an actual printed sticker, not something somebody writes down with a pen).

First dead router

Posted by Brad

Well, I experienced my first loss of Internet because of a dead router tonight.  My son alerted me to the fact that the Internet was not working.  A quick check of the cable modem should all green lights lit up but no PC or activity lights on.  I checked the router and all lights were off.  I plugged it into a different outlet, but nobody was home.  It was 4 to 5 years old, so I did not think that was a bad run.

Luckily, I had a Dlink DIR-615 laying around.  I had used it at an office, but had too much trouble with the wireless connections dropping so I ended up running cables (or, in this case, paying someone to do it).  Fortunately I had already configured it as a backup so all I had to do was plug it in and do some minor configuring.  I went ahead and checked for a firmware update, found one, and prepared to install it.  Dlink was nice enough to suggest backing up my configuration in case the update reset the router, so I did this.  The firmware update did reset the router settings, so I restored my backup file (thanks Dlink) and I was ready to go.  All in all I probably spent no more than 10 minutes or so on this.  It sure does pay to be prepared.

Trouble connecting to network printer after reboot

Posted by Brad

I received a call yesterday from a user who was having problems with a network printer.  She could get the printer to work sometimes, but when she rebooted the computer, the printer would not work at all.  The printer was connected to a Windows 2000 Pro computer and all the computers in the office were in the same workgroup.

I checked the network places and saw a share on the Windows 2000 PC.  When I tried to access it, the PC asked for a username and password.  I checked the Windows 2000 PC and saw three users listed.  I used one of the usernames (user1) with no password and was able to connect to the share.  i tried the printer again and now it worked.  But once I restarted the PC, the printer and share no longer worked without the username.

The first thing I tried was renaming the current username (owner) on the PC to user1.  This did not make a difference (I think internally the username was still being referred to as owner).  So step 2 was to create a new user (user2) and move owner’s files and settings to user2’s profile.  With that done, I restarted and successfully connected to both the share and the printer without the prompt for a username and password.

The biggest thing I felt I learned from this brief adventure is that renaming a username does not change its guts.  If you need a particular username on a PC, create a user with that name.

Daniusoft Media Converter Pro

Posted by Brad

While checking out the software Doubletwist (recommended by Maximum PC to remove DRM from your iTunes purchased tracks) I found out it cannot do this.  While going through Doubletwist’s support, some nice person posted information on Daniusoft Media Converter Pro.  The full version was only $39.95 so I purchased it and have been very satisfied with this product.

First, this product is very easy to use.   On the program interface it displays a”Getting Started” page which gives you the 3 steps to converting audio or video as pictured here:

Daniusoft Media Converter Pro interface

In step 2 before clicking settings, you would choose the audio or video format you would like to which you would like to convert your existing file(s).

One caveat is that you must have the license to the DRM media file to convert it (I assume non-DRM can be converted without a problem).  The program must convert the file while playing it because however long the file is is how long the conversion takes.  So if you have a lot of files to convert, do it while doing something else or queue them up overnight.

I have not yet tried the video conversion but the audio files sound great.  I went with 256kbps MP3 files.  I didn’t dig in to all of the settings because the program was so easy to use and workedby just following the 3 steps displayed on the screen. This program was also a lot cheaper than paying Apple again to upgrade my music to non-DRM files and I can continue to use the program for converting files in the future.

If you have a bunch of music you purchased from Apple or elsewhere that has DRM, I recommend this program to remove it so you can better enjoy your music any way you want it.

First order from Good Old Games

Posted by Brad

I made my first real order from Good Old Games a couple of days ago (a few days prior I had downloaded the free game Beneath a Steel Sky).  The ordering process was straightforward and games purchased go on a faux shelf in your account.  By clicking the game box you are given a variety of things to download (game, manual, etc) depending on the game.  You can download these straight or add to a downloader (I just did them straight).  No DRM to worry about, just the games.

I purchased Spellforce Platinum and The Guild Gold because they were on sale as a combo package for $13.98.  The Guild came as one setup file and Spellforce was 3 files (one setup and 2 compressed files.  It looks like this site is doing well as they keep adding more games everytime I go back.  Check them out and support this business if you see something you like.  No DRM and compatability with XP and Vista, even for older games, is great.

Retail PC game purchasing becoming harder and harder

Posted by Brad

I’ve noticed this trend for a while from retail stores stock of PC games becoming smaller and smaller to the incessant cry of the death of PC gaming.  Yesterday, while searching for Spore Galactic Adventures for my son, we went to two different Gamestop stores.  One had one little rack of PC games, the other had no PC games at all.  We ended up going to Best Buy to find the game.  Of course, they hadn’t bothered putting it out on the shelf yet.  This is the second time this has happened to me at Best Buy try to purchase a PC game on the day it comes out (the first was with Fallout 3).  So if you ever go to Best Buy on the day a game comes out and their website says they have it in stock but you can’t find it, tell someone to go look in the back.

This situation with retail in general doesn’t bother me that much since there are so many good online digital distribution sites now.  From Steam to Gamersgate to Impulse (and many more including publishers’ own sites) it’s easy today to buy a game online and download it immediately for play.  If you haven’t tried one of these sites before, give them a look.  It beats driving all over dealing with stores who only seem interested in selling games for the console crowd anymore.

More Fallout 3 DLCs

Posted by Brad

Just when you thought I would quit talking about this game, I found out Bethesda will be releasing 2 more DLCs.  The 4th, titled Point Lookout will be available on June 23.  In it, your character travels to a new area of swampland.  The E3 trailer looked pretty interesting, like some kind of horror movie.  The 5th DLC, called Mothership Zeta, is due in July and involves alien-abduction.  It probably has something to due with the crashed alien craft in the DC wasteland.

And for those of you who haven’t embraced this great game yet, Bethesda plans on releasing a Game of the Year Edition in October for the PC, XBox 360, and PS3 which will include the original game plus all of the DLCs.  Add it to your Christmas list now.

GParted

Posted by Brad

I recently came up against a problem that surfaces from time to time for me in my business.  I had a client who just bought a new server and was not happy with the partitioning of the hard drive.  It was a 1 TB drive, but the C drive was only about 40GB.  The client wanted at least twice this size for the C drive.  Since it was a new server and we had time before the installation, we were going to reload the server from scratch, partitioning it to the client’s request during the reload.

Usually when I encounter this problem of a small C drive on a server, it happens after it has been in production for a while.  20GB seemed large enough, but now with updates and program installations, your running short on space.  I’ev used Partition Magic many times before for desktop PCs, but it doesn’t work on servers.  They used to have a product called Server Magic, but this product is no longer sold.  I’ve seen some other products that you can use on servers, but they’ve always been more than I’ve wanted to spend.

So, in the case at hand, it wasn’t a big deal to reload since it was a new server.  However, I was fortunate enough to run across an article by a reader in Windows IT Pro magazine talking about a free program called GParted.  It is a Linux program available through SourceForge.net and works on both desktop and server environments.  The author mentioned using the product successfully many times on servers, and since I had a situation where if we screwed something up we could reload (the original plan anyway), I figured this would be a good time to try it out.

The easiest way to download and use GParted (the Gnome Partition Editor)is to get the iso and burn it to a CD.  It boots into a Linux environment and allows you to create, delete, resize, and move partitions.  We used it successfully to delete the large extended partition and logical D drive, resize the C drive, then recreate the extended partition and logical D drive.  It saved us a lot of time and the hassle of reloading that server.

If you need to fiddle with partitions on desktop or server computers, give GParted a try.

Orcs Trilogy

Posted by Brad

For those who think I only write about Fallout 3 lately (you’re right, but that’s beside the point), here is something completely different: Orcs, by Stan Nicholls.  I read this three book series in one volume (he’s already written the first book of another Orc series) a couple of months ago, and I just could not put it down.  This is a great fantasy tale from the perspective of Orcs.  It includes humans (some of whom are the main villains) and other standard fantasy creatures (brownies, kobolds, dwarves, elves, etc.), but the books are about a small band of Orcs who take a small step away from the norm and end up on a worldwide journey for the recovery of ancient relics, battling all sorts of enemies during the journey.  The story keeps you interested and the battles are wonderfully written.  The main Orc characters each have certain qualities that differentiate them from the others and their tale is one you won’t want to miss.  I highly recommend this series and cannot wait for Mr. Nicholls to finish the next one.