Chad's Stupid Tech Tricks

Very Nice Tech Blog.

2011-08-16T16:17:00.001-07:00

Reid A Blog - All things microsoft.

Dealing with Adobe CS3 Applications Hanging on First Run.

2011-01-07T10:41:00.001-08:00

Issue: You work for a company that still uses Windows XP Professional or Windows Vista along with the horrific mess that is Adobe CS3. You install CS3 from DVD to a fresh desktop and upon running any of the applications they hang.

Solution: Adobe CS3 was plagued with several installer and licensing issues both on the Windows and Mac versions. The issue here is file permissions and a corrupt licensing service. Lets fix the permissions and install the licensing service update.

Lets fix the permissions for the Adobe Installation.

From a Command Prompt:

c:
cacls "C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0" /T /E /C /G administrators:F
exit

Now lets follow the instructions for downloading and running the licensing service fix.
Hopefully you can run Photoshop and install your license key.

Restoring Windows XP Pro from HP Restore Plus!

2010-08-12T09:28:00.000-07:00

True to the name of this blog, I bring perhaps the stupidest tech trick of all. Today I was forced to rebuild an HP Pro 3005 MT due to a malware infection. After booting off of the restore DVD I was presented with only Windows 7 as a restore option. Frustrated, I rebooted with the HP provided Windows XP Pro media and inserted the restore plus media when requested. This eventually worked until I was prompted to enter the serial number for XP. Needless to say the Windows 7 COA code did not work so I called HP support.

Turns out that the option to restore Windows XP was there all along but since there was no scroll slider in the window I assumed it was only allowing Windows 7 to be installed. Clicking the down arrows provided the necessary selection to install XP Professional from the restore routine which does not require serial numbers.

The Ultimate Guide to SBS 2008 Setup Failures.

2010-08-03T16:06:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our friends over at The Official SBS Blog, we now have the ultimate guide to SBS 2008 setup failures.

During my first and only SBS 2003 to SBS2008 migration I was lucky enough to encounter one of the errors mentioned and was fortunate to find this post over at brute force technology to save the day. Just look at the comments! It is amazing just how much can go wrong during a migration...

With that all said, it makes me all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that I will most likely never have to work with the steaming pile of crap that is small business server, ever again. For the rest of you, I hope the links provided come in handy.

Great article on allowing relay in Exchange 2007

2010-01-13T12:48:00.001-08:00

I found this article very helpful in allowing Exchange 2007 (SP2) to relay job notifications from a backup server to the internet.

It is recommended to allow only the IP Address of the specific device or server on your LAN that you wish to allow relay access. By default the connector allows all IP addresses.

Dealing with Windows Hard Disks on a Mac

2009-10-30T11:01:00.000-07:00

Issue: You have an external USB disk that you want to use on your Mac but disk utility complains that the "Disk Erase Failed" and no matter what you do the drive won't erase.

Solution: Thanks to Rick Mead who replied to a thread on the Apple Discussion forums, you should be able to get the disk partitioned and erased properly.

• Plug the drive in
• Open Disk Utility and select the drive (not the partition)
• On the left side of the screen you will will see "First Aid, Erase, Partition, RAID & Restore"
• Click Partition
• Under Volume Scheme select the drop down box and select 1 partition (assuming you only want the computer to see the drive as one large drive).
• Click "Options..." below the white box and change the selection from "Master Boot Record" to "GUID Partition Table".
• Click Apply and you will be done.

This is the process for formatting ANY Hard Drive that comes as a windows NTFS system. The reason it would error on you is because you were trying to change the format of the partition while leaving the drive as a Windows drive.

BOOTMGR is Missing Error Starting Windows Vista / 7

2009-10-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Issue: Error appears on screen when booting "Bootmgr is missing"

Solution: Though this can by symptomatic of a failing hard disk or a virus infection, in my case it was simply that I had an external USB hard disk turned on when I started up the computer. I must have USB in front of HDD in the boot order. Turning the drive off fixed the problem.

Blackberry Enterprise Server Controller Service Fails to Start - Error 5003

2009-10-15T09:57:00.000-07:00

Issue: Client reports that Blackberries are no longer syncing with the server. Notice that the "Blackberry Controller" service is stopped and when restarted fails with Error 5003.

Solution: Stop the "DNS" service and then restart the "Blackberry Controller" service. Here is a convenient script for it:

net stop "DNS Server"
net start "BlackBerry Controller"
net start "DNS Server"

There is apparently some issue with DNS conflicting with some port or ports required for BES. Some have suggested making the "DNS" service dependent on the "Blackberry Controller" service but I don't know if I would go that far. Some have also attached that script to the recovery tab of the "Blackberry Controller" services properties.

Backup Exec 12.5 on SBS 2008 Hotfix install error LU1812

2009-10-05T09:59:00.000-07:00

Issue: Client with Microsoft Small Business Server 2008 Standard and Backup Exec 12.5 Small Business Edition unable to install hotfixes that are queued up in Liveupdate. Liveupdate reports error LU18212 and symantec troubleshooting links provided in Backup Exec mention repairing or re-installing MS XML.

Solution: When running Backup Exec with the intention of installing hotfixes, select "Run as Administrator" or disable User Account Control which for obvious reasons is not the preferred method.