We never really embraced Vista, so most of our systems have remained on XP. And while I am a bit nervous about moving everyone to Windows 7, and having to answer tons of questions about where everything has moved to, I have LOVED installing it so far.

I am finding that even on my really old systems most of the drivers installed by default work quite well and I haven’t had to use multiple computers yet to track down, download and then upload a network driver. A common problem on an XP install.

I have yet to use it a ton. . .but so far I really like what I see. It seems quick, responsive, and much less bulky than Vista or even XP.

So, here I go again on my own. . .jumping into Access, VBA, SQL and .NET, it sure is a good thing I like to learn, teach myself and go through trials by fire!  I am trying to start slow. . but am already getting questions and having to fix things. . .surely this is madness and there are more “traditional” ways to advance my career?!  “Thank you sir, may I have another” seems to me by MO.

If anyone has any great learning resources or recommendations on any or all of the above, please feel free to share!

I had a server die on Thursday morning. . .it is a production server and the power supply died.  I should have had redundant power, but this is a little server that sits in the Graphics department, maintained by a very capable man there, and went under my radar. . until now.  Our whole production process has halted because this computer is out of commission and not only won’t Dell ship me the part. . .they don’t know when or if they can!  They have one in stock. . but they can’t release it to me!!  I have a server down. . did I mention that?  Unbelievable.  I used to tell every and anyone who would listen to get a Dell, their service rocks!  No more.  Bye bye Dell.  I think I hear HP calling. . .

This is a 250GB, 72KRPM replacement drive, part number 341-7743 from Dell, by the way.

1.  Back up all data and make a note of all programs that will need to be reinstalled.

2.  Shutdown your laptop and remove all power sources (not a bad idea to remove even the battery).

3.  Make sure you have a small Phillips screwdriver and that your laptop is securely lying upside down.

4.  Remove the two screws from the top left portion of your laptop.

5.  Carefully pull out the hard drive.

6.  Remove the single screw that attaches the hard drive to the bay.

7.  Attach the new drive to the bay and secure the same screw.

8.  Put new drive and bay back into the side of the laptop.

9.  Reattach the new drive to the laptop with the same two screws taken out minutes ago.

10.  Turn laptop right-side up and and boot laptop with an OS disk in the CD Drive and begin formatting your new drive.

I told you anyone could do it!

I did all of the normal things we do, I think.  I cleared out all cookies and temporary internet files, I ran antivirus and ad checking and spyware programs.  I even uninstalled Java and reinstalled it and nothing worked.

Finally, I reinstalled IE 7 as a last resort before just doing an upgrade to IE 8, and after a reboot . . . walla . . . she is able to type in text boxes in IE 7 and Communicator now.

The laptop needed a new battery, easy to buy and fix.

The Tivo though, that was interesting.  It basically started spontaneously rebooting itself.  If you have ever had to sit through this, you will understand how quickly this becomes painful.  After several calls to tech support and trying different variations on a reboot. . they determined what I already knew to be true, my hard drive was gone.  Their recommendation, a refurbished unit for $160.  A new unit, with about 160 hours of space, is about $299.99 . . . so I figured I would look around a bit and see what I could find on my own.

I did find a couple of sites that sold replacement 160GB drives for about $100, so I decided to give that a shot.  Since it was a hard drive, I figured even if my Tivo never works I can reuse the drive in one of my PCs.  I purchased my drive from DVRUpgrade since they are somewhat local for me, and did the swap last night.  My Tivo was still working on getting all of the programming last night, but it appears to work just fine.  The swap was simple, made even simpler by the Torx driver they sent with the replacement drive, and their instructions are right on the money.

I am still bummed about the iPod, but at least I won’t have to miss any more of my favorite shows.  I have missed Grace, Brenda, and Dr. Brennan, not to mention all the new greats like Leverage, Lie To Me and Dollhouse!   Thank goodness for Hulu.

My first response was to have him reset his device, but that didn’t help.  So I went to the server, not really expecting to find anything there.  What I found were two consistant error messages in the Event Logs:  Event ID 1008 and Event ID 4999.

Here is the exact error for MSExchange ActiveSync Event ID 1008:

An exception occurred and was handled by Exchange ActiveSync. This may have been caused by an outdated or corrupted Exchange ActiveSync device partnership. This can occur if a user tries to modify the same item from multiple computers. If this is the case, Exchange ActiveSync will re-create the partnership with the device. Items will be updated at the next synchronization. . .

So I went back to the server to check the settings under Manage Mobile Device and noticed that I could “Remove Mobile Device Partnership.”  Since it wasn’t working anyway, I gave it a shot.  What do you know, after the users next sync he was ready to go.  Seems the partnership had corrupted and removing it and forcing a new one fixed our issue. . for now.

MSXML 6 Service Pack 2 (KB954459) 6.20.1099.0 Failed.

Ok, seems easy enough, uninstall the darn thing and try again, right?  WRONG.  It gave me the same darned error message when I tried to uninstall it to.

A quick Google search had me installing and using the Windows Install Cleanup Tool to completely remove MSXML 6 Service Pack 2 and a quick reboot had me back on track with the contact manager software installed in no time.  I had never heard of this program before, but I will be adding it to my list of tools.

The past two days have been spent meeting with cabling companies trying to get a handle on what we need to get the the phones to ring and the computers connected to the internet and our servers.  It seems I need a cabling company to come and wire my building.  What they do is run all the wires from our server room to the rest of the building, but there is a bit more to it than that. 

There will be a demarcation point where the T1s will be dropped, I am most likely installing a T1 and a PRI, and the companies that drop those will only do that portion.  From there, I need to extend the demark to the MDF in our server room.  Because we are moving into a large warehouse, I also need to have them create an IDF and run fiber from the MDF to the IDF. 

While I am learning on the fly, I am finding it hard to find helpful articles on the web that explain this all.  Most sites focus on telephony or data networks but don’t explain how it all fits together.  If anyone out there knows of sites that explain all of this well I would love to see them.  I plan to share all I learn here, and hope that I expain it in a way that will make sense to me and others when I am done.

My HP Pavilion laptop got stuck, so I powered down and tried to reboot, but I got all lights, but no display. Rebooted again, same thing, and I also noticed that my cd drive wound up but HD seemed to be out for the count in noise and in light indicator. Oh boy, figured my HD was toast and I would have to get a replacement. Went to HP support site where it said:

Test the AC adapter
Follow the steps below to determine whether the problem is related to the AC adapter or your notebook system board.

Remove the battery and disconnect all external devices from the computer.

Hold the Power button for several seconds, with all power sources removed. This drains residual power from the system, and may correct many problems.

Connect the AC adapter to a wall outlet and plug the other end into the computer.
Press the Power button to start the notebook PC.

Thanks HP! This worked like a champ and I am now happily blogging. Woohoo!