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I thought I'd start this year out with a list of goals I would like to accomplish for RChase Computer Consulting. I did not do this last year and I think that may be why I did not accomplish what I set out to do. Let me first start out by saying that the main goal for this blog is to help computer users all over the world with their computer troubleshooting by providing information about the latest Windows operating systems currently in use: Windows XP and Windows Vista SP1. I also randomly post interesting articles relating to computer upgrades and computer consulting. For only being operational since March 2008, I already have a most searched page and it relates to an HP 7680 printer and the issues I had with installing it at work. This page searched daily and its exciting to know that I am potentially helping someone make a decision on a purchase or troubleshoot a printer issue.

So, here are my 2009 goals for RChase Computer Consulting:
1) Post at least once a week.
2) Post more about computer troubleshooting since this seems to be what is searched the most by people.
3) Introduce a PC tool of the week that I may find useful. (I will only do this if I actually use the product)
4) Purchase a domain name for RChase Computer Consulting (need to figure out the best way to do this)

Thanks for being a reader and enjoy the site in the coming days and months of 2009.

If you have any suggestions for this year, please comment below.

HWiNFO and HWiNFO32 are professional hardware information and diagnostic tools supporting latest components, industry technologies and standards. Both tools are designed to collect and present the maximum amount of information possible about computer's hardware which makes them suitable for users searching for driver updates, computer manufacturers, system integrators and technical experts as well. Retrieved information is presented in a logical and easily understandable form and can be exported into various types of reports. Currently, there is a Windows version (HWiNFO32) and a DOS version (HWiNFO).

I've used HWiNFO32 in the past couple of weeks to help out with some computer upgrades to include the recent attempt to upgrade my father-in-law's PC to Windows Vista. I recommend this tool if you want a quick way to determine exactly what is inside a PC or laptop.

Download the tool here: HWiNFO32

Learning Snacks are short, interactive presentations about popular topics created by Microsoft Learning experts. Each Snack is delivered by using innovative Microsoft Silverlight technology and includes various media, such as animations and recorded demos. At the end of each free presentation, you can view more Snacks to learn more about the topic, or visit a related Web site.

Current topics:

Microsoft Silverlight
Virtualization
Windows Server 2008
Windows Vista

Learn more here: Learning Snacks

Most of us have read the recent lawsuit articles relating to Microsoft's Vista Capable logo that was planted on basically every PC maker out there during the initial mass selling of Windows Vista. Infact, companies like Dell and HP were selling these PCs and laptops with a Vista Capable logo before Vista even hit stores basically stating this:

"The purchase you are making will allow you to install Windows Vista when ready and your PC will work fine".

Well, apparently, consumers feel they got scammed into purchasing PCs and laptops there were technically not Vista Capable even though the logo said it was. I would like to now squash this theory because whether or not the stupid logo is on the PC, it comes down to how bad a person wants Windows Vista. Anything is possible with the correct hardware.

Case in point......

My father-in-law has a 6 yr old PC, it is an HP Pavilion 551w. It came with Windows XP Home Edition installed and its been running perfectly fine for the last 6 years. Of course, he only uses it for the Internet and the occasional Word or Excel document but for him, its fine. To me....its extremely slow but that is only because I work with much faster PCs on a daily basis so my mind is accustomed to the faster speed. Anyway, I decided to see if it was possible to upgrade the PC to Windows Vista. The PC originally had only 128MB of RAM but that was upgraded to 512MB a couple of years ago. (I can not even remember when a PC that I supported only had 128MB of
RAM). From experience with Vista, I realized that before I even attempted the upgrade, I would need to at least bump up the RAM to 1GB. So I did. The 2nd thing I decided to do was install a better graphics card. I hate using the on-board video so I installed an Nvidia GF400 64MB card (it was free) in the free AGP slot.

The hard drive was the next thing that needed to be upgraded. The PC came with a 40GB drive but at some point during the past 6 years, the PC crashed and someone (who shall remain nameless) decided to try and help fix the problem. So after formatting the PC, he partitioned the hard drive in 2...another no-no in my book. I never partition hard drives, because you will eventually run out of space on the partition with the OS, it always seems to happen. I received a 40GB drive by donation and decided that I will just use it to install Windows Vista and then install the original drive as a backup and migrate all of his personal data to the new drive.

Quick recap:
Upgraded RAM to 1Gb from 512MB.
Installed a 64MB AGP video card
Installed a used formatted 40GB hard drive for the OS installation.

(by the way, so far, this has only cost us $40 which was for the purchase of the 1GB PC3200 DDR module)

I was now ready to upgrade to Vista....and just to be funny, I decided to upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate just because I could. Here is where I ran into a snag. If you don't already know, to install Windows Vista, you now need a DVD drive since the OS is so large, the install no longer fits on 1 CD. I think that the size of the original ISO files are at least 2 or 3GB. Upon inserting the Windows Vista install DVD, nothing happened. So I rebooted the PC anyway because I need to do the install from booting to the DVD anyway. Again, nothing happened! The DVD drive was running but the DVD was not being recognized.

To speed this long article up, there were 2 problems:

1) The HP Pavilion 551w desktop is so old that it does not allow booting from a DVD (and yes, there is no BIOS update to allow this, I already checked)

2) The actual DVD drive was not accepting any DVDs. I could not even play a DVD movie from the original hard drive which I used as a test to checkout the drive. CDs work fine, burning CDs worked OK, but for some reason, it did not like any DVD. (for the record, this drive was an HP DVD writer 740b)


After spending another $60 to purchase a new DVD-RAM drive, I was able to install Vista but since the PC does not allow us to boot from it, I had to first install Windows XP and then do an upgrade to Windows Vista Ultimate. Everything was recognized after the install completed, including the video card drivers!

Total Cost to make PC Vista Capable: $100

Conclusion: Vista Capable logos are not necessary! If you can not afford to purchase a new PC with Windows Vista, just attempt to upgrade your PC as much as possible so that Vista will install for you. You will probably save money by doing so.

Today, I installed the pre-release copy of Microsoft Windows 7. Instead of totally screwing up my own PC, I decided to attempt the install on a Microsoft Virtual PC lab. By the way, this is what Virtual PC is supposed to be used for.....testing beta software. At least that is what I use it for.

A couple of things to know if you decide to try out Windows 7:

1) You must already have a copy of Windows Vista SP1 installed in order to upgrade to the pre-release version of Windows 7.

2) If you have an actual DVD in ISO format, that would be best. But for those of you who "obtained" a copy like I did....with a setup file and the rest of the files just in folders on the DVD. I had to copy the entire contents of the DVD to the desktop first and then run setup.exe from there.

3) Supposedly, you will need the Windows Vista RC1 key or Vista beta key from last year if you wish to activate Windows 7. I personally do not care to do this, I just wanted to see how it works and how it looks. There are ways around activation....but I do not recommend doing it since its against Microsoft TOS.

After the installation was finished....Windows 7 looks almost exactly like Windows Vista. It did seem to load faster than Vista but I was running it on Virtual PC which makes all versions of operating systems faster. I will follow up with another post about Windows 7 and its features sometime this week.

Read more about Windows 7 here: Windows 7 news

Microsoft has unveiled Windows Azure - its new cloud computing operating system, writes Barry Collins in Los Angeles.

The company claims Azure will allow anyone from hobbyists to enterprises to write and host applications on the software giant's data centres.

"We've been working for some years now on a platform for computing in the cloud," said chief software architect, Ray Ozzie, announcing Windows Azure. "We're setting the stage for the next 50 years of systems."

read the rest of the article: Cloud Computing

Could I work from home?

I probably could....but how many days in a row that would work is a different story. Eventually, I would need to come in to work to fix a PC problem that I was unable to fix remotely. All one needs to work from home is a PC with a highspeed internet connection and a work PC with remote desktop enabled. Both PCs could be Windows XP or Windows Vista or a combination of the two. And since I have my work PC setup with SMS 2003, I remotely connect to our clients PCs anyway to fix an issue for them instead of going to their office. I probably can do this about 95% of the time with success. So I figured, why not just do it from home and not even commute to the office? I am going to inquire about "testing" this scenario out but I have a feeling that my boss will not go for it.

Oh well, a guy can dream right? If you could work from home would you? How would you do it?

I have another "testimony" of using Microsoft Virtual PC. A few months ago, I wrote about one reason to use a Virtual PC on your desktop/laptop. Well, just recently, one of our network administrators purchased a fiber optic cable inspector. Besides installing the drivers for the cable inspector on to Windows XP, he also needed software to be able to view inside the cable. Well, he found out that the old application called Imaging for Windows that worked with this type of cable inspector on Windows 95/98/2000 did NOT work on Windows XP. Why, you say? The answer is the company that created the Imaging for Windows software did not include their software with Windows XP for free. You would need to dish out about $200 for a license. At the time, he said he could not find another free application to use and our department was not going to spend money on something that is not used too often.

So I suggested that we install Microsoft's Virtual PC 2007 on his laptop, setup a virtual machine with Windows 2000 and then he could use the cable inspector. Without delay, he told me to go ahead. About an hour later, he had his Windows XP laptop with a virtual copy of Windows 2000! I really do love this application! It definitely can save a business or even a home user some money if you know what you are doing.

How have you used Virtual PC, or any other Virtual Machine applications?

Computer manufacturers such as Dell, HP, IBM, etc, have come a long way in providing consumers with a number of options in building a custom computer system. These computers can be quite good for the typical user but if you really want a system that you can use for years after you buy it then you really need to consider a custom-built PC.

Most manufacturers use proprietary hardware with their PCs and this can make it extremely difficult to upgrade your PC as the various components become obsolete or are not compatible. Examples include the CPUs, RAM, network adapter, sound and video adapters. While some of these components can be upgraded after the initial purchase, you will often find that you are very limited with what you are able to upgrade.

Building your own PC allows you the most flexibility and when you look at the quality of the components used in the system, the cost is often less than buying a pre-built system of the same specifications. Another advantage of a custom-built PC is that you can start with a very basic system with a low end CPU combined with maybe a mid-range system board and minimal memory. You may also want to just start out with a generic sound card and video card or you could purchase a system board that has on board sound and video (not recommended unless you are totally broke or short on cash at the time of purchase). You can always upgrade to a better sound & video card later. You will want to do this if you decide to play some graphic intensive games on your PC.

Now you have a basic custom-built PC. When you have some more money, you can then install more RAM which is one of the best ways to enhance PC performance. Eventually, you may decide to upgrade your CPU and you may be able to do this once or twice depending on how much you are willing to spend. Best practice is to just upgrade the CPU to the best one that the system board will support. A custom PC like this would probably last you 1-2 yrs before it "feels" like its outdated. So, instead of going out and buying a whole new PC, you would only need to at most swap out the system board and processor. You can still use the same sound card, video card, computer case, RAM, CD/DVD drive, hard drive and of course keyboard/mouse. The only thing you will have to do though is probably reinstall your operating system and applications. The reason for this is that the current setup may or may not support the changing out of a system board which can cause the OS (either Windows XP or Windows Vista) to crash. Best practice, is to back up all important data to a CD/DVD, and then swap out the system board and reinstall your OS. Once that is back up and running, you can then restore your data.

Do you have a custom-built PC? What are your thoughts about them?

Destroy it!

Just because a hard drive will no longer boot an OS or the computer BIOS says its DOA, that does not mean the data is. There are utilities out there that will destroy hard drives (also called writing 1s & 0s to the disk). There are military standard DOD wipe programs as well.

And then there is the Verity Systems VS7000 manual hard drive destroyer which crushes the hard drive with the turn of a handle. The destroyer warps the hard drive platter so any data on it can never be read again. I've never seen anything like this!

hardware

Check out the other ways to destroy hard drive data

Microsoft recently released a free e-book called Windows Vista Performance and Tuning. I just downloaded the 14 page e-book and it is definitely something that all Windows Vista users can benefit from reading it. Microsoft claims that Windows Vista along with the recent release of SP1 provide major advancements in usability, reliability, connectivity and security.

The following areas are covered in this e-book:

1) Improve PC responsiveness
2) Improve speed by using external hardware
3) Improve PC start-up time
4) Improve PC performance
5) Maintain & Monitor PC performance to help stop small issues from becoming big ones.

The article focuses on performance improvements for a single computer but there is a section that includes ways to use tools for enterprise environments as well. Right from the start, it mentions having at least 2GB of RAM for PCs that use Windows Vista. I wrote an earlier post about RAM and how Windows Vista would barely boot-up with less than 1GB of RAM. You can never have too much RAM installed in your PC.

That is the summary of the free e-book titled Windows Vista Performance and Tuning which you can download here: E-book download

Today I've been playing around with a Citrix XenServer and my Microsoft Virtual PC environment. I just learned about XenServer last week at a CDWG sponsored event. Basically, it just a Virtual Machine (VM) environment that can be used as server to host VM desktops or servers or both. I already had a Virtual PC lab I was testing with 3 Windows XP VMs. So I decided to see if I could successfully move one of the VMs to the XenServer. After scratching my head for a few seconds, I realized that there is going to have to be some type of conversion process because the file formats are not the same.

Virtual PC hard disks are called .VHD
XenServer VMs are called .XVA

Here is a log of what I did to get the VHD converted: (by the way, this took all day for me to learn from scratch)

C:\converter>v2xva /verbose:loud /config:"c:\documents and settings\cha13299\doc
uments\my virtual machines\new virtual machine\Windows XP SP2.vmc" /output:"c:\t
emp\new virtual machine"

Virtual Disk Migration Utility Version 1.2: A V2V tool to convert VMware
and Microsoft Virtual Server/Virtual PC virtual machines (with Microsoft
Windows VMs installed) to the Xen Virtual Appliance (XVA) format.

[XVA] Parsing configuration file c:\documents and settings\cha13299\documents\my
virtual machines\new virtual machine\Windows XP SP2.vmc:
[XVA] Path for config file = c:\documents and settings\cha13299\documents\my vir
tual machines\new virtual machine\
[XVA] Parsing wide character MSVS configuration file
[XVA] Amount of RAM in configuration file = 512
[XVA] Getting information for disk 0
[XVA] Disk file name = C:\Users\cha13299\Documents\My Virtual Machines\New Vir
tual Machine\New Virtual Machine Hard Disk.vhd
[XVA] Number of vCPUs in configuration file = 2
[XVA] Display name for MSVS VM being used is Windows XP SP2
[XVA] Information extracted from config file c:\documents and settings\cha13299\
documents\my virtual machines\new virtual machine\Windows XP SP2.vmc
[XVA] Number of vCPUs - 2
[XVA] RAM size - 512
[XVA] Display name - Windows XP SP2
[XVA] Number of virtual disks - 1
[XVA] Disk 0 - C:\Users\cha13299\Documents\My Virtual Machines\New Vir
tual Machine\New Virtual Machine Hard Disk.vhd

Convert VHD virtual disk image to XVA...
Total disks to convert: 1

Converting Disk 0...
[XVA] Reading VHD file C:\Users\cha13299\Documents\My Virtual Machines\New Virtu
al Machine\New Virtual Machine Hard Disk.vhd
[XVA] Found VHD footer at begining of file
[XVA] VHD Footer Summary:
[XVA] -------------------
[XVA] Features : (0x00000002)
[XVA] File format version : Major: 1, Minor: 0
[XVA] Data offset : 512
[XVA] Creator Application : 'vpc '
[XVA] Creator version : Major: 5, Minor: 3
[XVA] Creator OS : Windows
[XVA] Original disk size : 65536 MB (68719476736 Bytes)
[XVA] Current disk size : 65536 MB (68719476736 Bytes)
[XVA] Geometry : Cyl: 32896, Hds: 0, Sctrs: 16
: = 65535 MB (68718428160 Bytes)
[XVA] Disk type : Dynamic hard disk
[XVA] Checksum : 0xffffee4d|0xffffee4d (Good!)
[XVA] Saved state : No
[XVA] Read header for VHD file
[XVA] VHD Header Summary:
[XVA] -------------------
[XVA] Data offset (unusd) : -1
[XVA] Table offset : 1536
[XVA] Header version : 0x00010000
[XVA] Max BAT size : 32768
[XVA] Block size : 0x200000 (2MB)
[XVA] Checksum : 0xfffff3f7|0xfffff3f7 (Good!)
[XVA] Read BAT for VHD
[XVA] Block size = 2097152
[XVA] Capacity = 68719476736
[XVA] Writing to directory c:\temp\new virtual machine\hda
[XVA] Writing chunk c:\temp\new virtual machine\hda\chunk-000000000.gz
[XVA] Writing chunk c:\temp\new virtual machine\hda\chunk-000000001.gz
[XVA] Writing chunk c:\temp\new virtual machine\hda\chunk-000000068.gz
[XVA] Write out ova.xml

[XVA] Write out XVA configration file c:\temp\new virtual machine\ova.xml
[XVA] Wrote display name to ova.xml - Windows XP SP2
[XVA] Wrote memory as 536870912 and number of vcpus as 2 to ova.xml
[XVA] Wrote VDI vdi_hda size as 68719476736 to ova.xml
Done.

(There were 68 .gz chunks in total but I deleted few so the post would not be so long)

The whole conversion process took about 30 minutes for a VHD that was about 28GB in size. The next step was to import the new .XVA into the XenServer and see if it boots up as a Windows XP Virtual Machine.

At the time of this post, the import is about 50% complete. I will write again after its finished.

Which Virtual PC/Server software do you use?

As some of you may know, there is a tropical storm/hurricane on its way to Florida. I am one of the chosen IT support guys to be available after the storm is over. In our Emergency Operations Center, I will be supporting all of the PCs/laptops making sure they continue to run as expected when our EOC goes to Level 1 activation 12pm on Tuesday. There are close to 60 PCs inside the EOC and most likely, all of the will be used at one time or another over the next 48 hrs. I've been through this 2 times in the past, once during Hurricane Charley and I forgot the other storm but Charley was definitely the biggest. During the storm, the EOC lost power but we did run on generator for about 2 days. There really was no issues with the PCs (our IT office is awesome and all of the IT techs do a great job "running" the place). I basically got paid to sit there and do nothing. I guess its ok, FEMA paid the bill. Anyway, just wanted to write a quick post about IT departments during a storm. We definitely do whatever we can to keep critical operations running just as smooth as if there were no storm.

Ok....time to give credit where it is due. Miekiemoes helped me finish getting my friend's laptop back to normal tonight. If you read her post about the VIRUS ALERT! next to your system clock, you will discover exactly how fix this issue...I mean exactly....no joke....seriously. This post is so detailed that I actually made a joke in my comment to her asking if she created the virus! I worked on this laptop for 4 hours last night where at least I was successful in removing the virus categorized as Trojan horse agent.zak from his AVG scan. But the Trojan does some very strange things as Miekiemoes touches upon:

1) After pressing the start menu, most of your normal options are gone (like control panel, my documents, log off, etc). Apparently, the Trojan disables these items in an attempt to stop you from being able to remove the Trojan.

2)It also disables the registry (regedit.exe). Fixing spyware/virus laden computer in the past, getting into the registry is a MUST. I was shocked when I got a message saying "Your administrator has disabled registry access". Uh, hello, I was logged on as the Administrator!

3) Adds VIRUS ALERT! after the clock down in the system tray. Also in the Computer Properties area.

4)But the most annoying issue is the fact that the Trojan actually manages to delete your Windows Product ID. This then causes Microsoft to determine that your PC now has an illegal copy of Windows XP!!! Incredible! I've never seen a virus/spyware do something like this before!

As stated above.....I fixed everything based on the instructions listed here in Miekiemoes blog. If this ever happens to you, be sure to check her blog first.

I finally figured out why IE7 has been opening slow for the past few weeks. At first, I blamed it on the fact that I have a totally wireless connection now on my desktop due to my current living situation. But that was not the problem. Then I decided to search Google for answers to IE7 slowness and I discovered some discussions but none related to me. So, I decided to add another hard drive to my PC with Vista preloaded on it to see if IE7 was still slow. And of course, it opened within 2 seconds (unlike the 17 second delay I had been experiencing).

side note: Firefox was slow as well.

The only difference besides the fact that this was a bare bones Windows Vista setup is that I did not have an Anti-virus program installed yet. Up until now, I had been using Computer Associates Internet Suite (free from Brighthouse). I had a stripped down version of only the Virus protection since Windows Defender is enabled by default on Vista. I decided to install the free version of AVG for Virus protection. Guess what....IE7 still opened within 2 seconds!

I guess I must have never noticed the slowdown or it just started. Maybe from the latest updates from Computer Associates. Anyway....AVG is now my virus protection software of choice for Windows Vista.

Being an HP Certified Professional has its advantages. Sometimes we have to replace parts for desktop PCs and laptops. If you read my post a few months ago relating to a Toshiba tablet repair, you''l know that I was happy for repair shops. But in this case, our outside vendor (which will remain anonymous because they really are awesome...except for the prices) wanted $850 for the repair job of replacing a system board for an HP NC6230 laptop. I'm getting pretty good at these replacements so I decided to see if I could find the part online for a cheaper price. Upgradebay.com had the replacement board for only $354. Granted, it is refurbished, but I am Ok with that because if its not so a working board Upgradebay has a 30 day warranty for returns.

4 Hours later....I was done! Yeah, this has been the hardest replacement I've done to date....but I saved the client about $500.

Oh yeah.....the problem was with the PCMCIA slot, some pins were bent due to someone trying to jam a Sierra Wireless Sprint card into it.

Today's post is related to a product that I came across while troubleshooting my own PC. I usually do not use registry repair tools because I would rather go into the registry myself and attempt to fix the issue. But the majority of my readers probably would rather use a trusted software tool to handle these types of issues.

I recommend using XP Repair Pro for the following reasons:

1) XP Repair Pro has had over 2.71 million downloads in less than three years, and has quickly become one of the most popular system utilities on the market today.

2) It has no spyware, adware or viruses. (You would be surprised about this fact, there are products out there that claim to help you get rid of problems but only create more)

3) It fully supports Windows Vista, Windows XP and Office 2007


You can more information about this product Here

Recently, one of our work PCs was unable to execute any program ending in .exe. This can be very frustrating and immediately the client thought that the PC was infected with a virus. While this can happen, in this case, the program responsible for virus protection actually failed.

During the day, our office was in the middle of receiving some SMS packages related to the new Symantec EndPoint Protection. While 99% of the PCs were upgraded successfully, the PC in question failed to upgrade properly.

This then caused no application ending in .exe to open. I have never experienced this before! I was about to re-image the PC but that is the easy way out. If anyone knows me, I will troubleshoot an issue for hours if I have to. (In my opinion, that is the best way to learn).

So began my troubleshooting of this .exe issue. First, I was shocked that I could not even get to the Internet, but then I thought, oh yeah, Internet Explorer is an application so of course it will not open either! I went to another computer and began searching online for solutions. I found a website that already had the answer to my problem: exefix_xp.com

All I had to do was download this file and it fixed the registry entries for the .exe file association automatically.

Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk, even though its done automatically, your PC could crash and become unbootable. If you are able to, back up all important data before continuing.

You can find more information about this on Winhelponline.com

As most of you know, I am a big fan of Microsoft products. This includes Windows Vista and Virtual PC. Now granted, I do not know too much about Apple and its Macs but I am learning. (Watch for a future post on how I got a Mac on a Windows domain). Seeing these "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" commercials, you think that Microsoft would retaliate with ads of their own......well, the wait is over!

Check out this article on Channel Web. From what I've read, Windows Vista is clearly better than any OS Microsoft has designed so far. Not to mention more secure. Think about it, when Window XP first came out, everyone complained about it as well. I'd really like to see someone that knows nothing about Windows XP start using Vista and see if they don't love it. It all depends on what one is familiar with. People hate change....but most of the time, change is needed.

In my opinion, Windows Vista is just what we need to have a better PC experience. But, I do give credit to my graphic design friends out there, so stick with your Mac! What are your thoughts?


The other day, a client of mine had a Windows XP machine that could not get its Windows Updates from Microsoft. The following error appeared:

Error Code 0x80072F8F

Not sure how it happens but apparently, the date and time on the PC is so different from the Windows Update site that the error appears.

The solution is quite simple and is listed on Microsoft's website. Apparently, this must be a normal issue if there is an entire support page for it. It even happens on Windows Vista.

I will be posting more of these type of problems/solutions in the next few days. It has been a busy few days at work and there have been lots of issues that I have not seen before.

Stay tuned for some more Windows XP troubleshooting tips.

Yesterday, I came across a PC at work that had a faulting application error related to shell32.dll. This happened while the person was using the Windows XP Search Companion to search for a file. About half way through the search, the following error appeared:

Faulting application explorer.exe, version 6.0.2900.3156, faulting module shell32.dll, version 6.0.2900.3241, fault address 0x00103537.

I've looked through some Google searches and really can not find an answer to my problem so I guess its time to reimage the PC. The PC has only been running for about 3 weeks anyway but just not sure what caused this problem.

I've tried all of the so called "Registry fix" programs out there including Regcure but nothing worked. I am assuming something got corrupt and sometimes reimaging a PC is much quicker than attempting to pull out our hair trying to solve an issue that seems to be unsolvable. I've even tested for possible spyware. I've also tried upgrading the PC to Windows XP SP3 but the error still appears while searching.

If anyone has an answer....please comment below.

Many Windows users complain that unlike its Linux and Mac competitors, Vista doesn't have a very good "out of the box" image editor. Paint has been around for many years, with only small improvements. Windows Photo Gallery lets you do some basic image editing (adjusting brightness and color saturation, cropping, etc.) but it's pretty limited. Neither supports layers, lets you sharpen photos or contains much in the way of special effects. Sure, you can get PhotoShop or Paint Shop Pro but that will cost you from one to several hundred dollars. If you need more than you get with the built-in tools but not the complexity and sophistication of the expensive commercial ones, check out getPaint.net, a free image editor that works great on Vista.

You can read about it here: http://www.getpaint.net/index.html

Apparently, the new Symantec product called Symantec Endpoint Protection may cause Blue screen errors in both Windows XP and Vista. Our Windows department at work recently begin upgrading individual workstations to this new version and Blue screen errors began almost immediately. Here is an example of the error message some of our PCs are getting:

Faulting application Smc.exe, version 11.x.x.x time stamp XXXXXX, faulting module ntdll.dll, version 6.0.6000.16386, timestamp XXXXXXX, exception code 0xc0000005, fault offset 0x00061635, process id 0x694, application start time XXXXXXXXX

Basically, the solution is to turn off some of the protection included in the software package....if you ask me, what's the point? If its going to cause errors, why even release the software.

Just another case of a vendor not testing software 100% before releasing it. Don't get me wrong, I am a big fan of PC security, but if a product does not do what it should, don't release it until fully tested.

Symantec support is available here

Recently, I found out that Road Runner High Speed Online from Bright House Networks has more than one service plan for their customers to sign up for. I have been using RR for the past 5 yrs and all this time, I've been paying $44.95 per month. Now while I love my high speed connection, $44.95 a month was starting to seem a little bit silly. (I do have the option to use my work laptop with a sprint card for free while at home). So I decided to call Bright House to see if they offered any cheaper options for high speed connections.

Sure enough, they do.....and after comparing plans, I decided to go with Road Runner Lite for $29.95 per month. Actually, I am not sure if this is a special or not, but the Sales Rep informed me that for the first 6 months, I would only be paying $19.95, then the normal $29.95 per month price would kick in. She also informed me that I would not even notice a difference in speed. Well, she was right...and it makes me so mad that I've paid almost double the price for the past 5 yrs.

Anyway, if you are looking to lower your High Speed Online cost per month, Road Runner Lite is a great option.

Today during my usual search of product pricing, I came across a website that deals with PC memory upgrades. I've been searching for some new RAM for my PC at home and since its important to make sure you purchase the correct RAM that matches what is already installed, I figured I would search online for a website that will have compatible RAM for my Dell E521 desktop.

I already discussed earlier the benefits of adding RAM to your PC so I figured I would take my own advice. I have Windows Vista and although my PC came with 2GB of RAM, I decided to upgrade to 3GB for now since that is all I can afford at the moment. Upon looking at the PC3200 DDR400 SDRAM Upgrade prices at Memory Deal, it looks as though I found the correct RAM module for my PC. I will have to go with two 512MB 184-PIN PC3200 modules. For $19.88 each, that is an awesome price!

Memory Deal also does a great job of explaining about every type of RAM available. Whether its Apple Memory & MAC RAM, or if you are looking to do a 2GB Memory Upgrade, they explain it all! I love this website and it will now be the first website I check for PC memory prices.

Check them out today: Memorydeal.net