Print: Computer Repair Diagnostics Sheet

 

 

Document Name: Computer Repair Diagnostics Sheet

Formats: OpenOffice, MS Word

Modifiable: Yes

Download: OpenOffice (25KB)

MS Word (82KB)

Description: A simple document that Computer Technicians can use in order to keep track of a unit while it is in the shop. 

The sheet can be used in conjunction with electronic repair tracking software, I’ve seen that having a piece of paper that says “Customer called on 28/10/08 and said DO NOT WIPE DATA!” is much more effective and noticable then noting the same message in the electronic system.

Cost? Free and given by theFakeGeek to those that need it.

Disclaimer: I give this away and am not responsible for any of its use. It is public domain.

 

 

 

Fix: Windows Installer or Windows Updates do not work

Problem: You cannot install any applications that use the Windows Installer service. You get errors like “Windows installer service cant start Error 193:0xc1.”

Fix: The installer service is corrupted or its start value is changed.

This is quite a common issue for some reason. Users may also encounter errors when trying to use Windows Update to get the latest updates from Microsoft. I’ll list two possible fixes.

THE FIRST METHOD:

We will reset the Windows Installer service.

  1. Please open a new command prompt window. (If you’re using Vista make sure to run it in administrator mode.)
  2. Type in: “net stop msiserver” Press enter.
  3. Type in: “MSIEXEC /UNREGISTER” Press enter.
  4. Type in: “MSIEXEC /REGSERVER” Press enter.
  5. Type in: “net start msiserver” Press enter.
This will reset the Windows installer service and dll files. It should fix the issue. 

 

THE SECOND METHOD:

The second method is extremely simple. You need to go to Add/Remove Programs (or Programs and Features in Windows Vista) and uninstall the Windows Installer program. Then go to the Microsoft Website and reinstall the program. You can find the link to the Windows Installer Installation program here.

Good luck! If you have any questions just ask in the comments/forums.

 

Is your AMD Phenom based PC slow?

Hey guys,

Reader Mike pointed my attention to a post on Hardware Canucks which describes a problem with certain AMD Phenom processors. It seems that a patch from AMD is bringing down processor performance significantly and is especially noticeable when playing games. Says Hardware Canucks:

“Fast forward a couple weeks, AMD users applying the patch have noticed severe slow downs in their systems. For a patch that was intended to improve performance – this sure isn’t doing it, in fact it has almost made it worse.”

The post goes on to detail a procedure to disable the fix and bring performance back to what it should be. Please follow this link to find the fix as detailed by the author.

Basically you need to download the following programs:

TLB_ver_1.05.rar (hosted by Original Website)

TLB_ver_1.05.rar (mirror by theFakeGeek)

CrystalCPUID

THE METHOD:

  1. Extract CrystalCPUID to a folder.
  2. Extract the TLB program to the same folder as CrystalCPUID.
  3. Launch the TLB_disable.exe program in Administrator mode.
  4. Set the TLB_disable.exe program to run from start up. You can do this by either creating a shortcut in the Start up folder or through Task Scheduler. 
The unfortunate thing about the fix is that you need to run the TLB program every time you boot up the computer (Windows reverts to the broken settings at every boot). But it should not create a noticeable slowdown and the performance increase you recieve by disabling the fix is quite impressive.

 

*Note: I have not tried this myself but have heard from another tech who has. Therefore you use this fix (as with all fixes on this site) at your own risk.
 

Urgent Update for MS Windows – MS08-067

CRN has alerted us to an urgent update for a variety of versions of Microsoft Windows,

Microsoft (NSDQ:MSFT) issued an emergency critical update Thursday addressing a malicious Internet worm that could allow attackers to infiltrate systems remotely and take control over users’ computers without any user interaction.The critical update is one of a handful of out-of-band patches released in the past few years, experts say. Microsoft issues regularly scheduled updates on the second Tuesday of every month, which has become known in IT security circles as “Patch Tuesday.”

The fact that Microsoft has released what is known as an “out-of-band” patchindicates that the vulnerability is pretty severe, experts say.

You can download the update by running Windows Update, or download it directly from the TechNet website here.

 

 

Looking for Acer drivers? Find them here.

Looking for drivers for your  Acer notebook/desktop? Finding them hard to find? Unfortunately the official Acer sites are not very forthcoming with drivers for every unit especially if the unit is a few years older.

Fortunately there is always a second option if you look hard enough. The Acer Europe site hosts a FTP server that has the Vista and XP drivers for a variety of notebooks and desktops. Following are the links.

Drivers for Acer notebooks:

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/

Drivers for Acer desktops:

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/desktop/

Acer proprietary software:

ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/utilities/VistaET/

Thanks goes to Christopher for the great tip! Note that there are many other folders filled with BIOS flashers and drivers for devices such as bluetooth devices and manuals for cameras. Unfortunately all Acer units are not here. Does anyone have the link to another FTP or site with those drivers? Feel free to contact me and I’ll put it up.

Hope this helps you guys. What sites do you use when you’re looking for drivers? Let me know.

 

Tweak: Speed up the shutdown of Windows

 




Tweak Name: Speed up the shutdown of Windows

Tweak Type: Registry Modification

 

 

One annoyance that I sometimes have with windows is its randomly long shutdown times. Windows doesn’t seem to be doing anything during these times but just takes a long time to shut down.

Today’s tweak will give Windows a timer, forcing it to shut down within 3000 milliseconds. That should be enough to be noticeable on some systems. A word of caution: some programs do not like this tweak because it shuts down the computer before the program can finish its processing. I have only seen issues on a very small percentage of systems, most will work great after the tweaks is applied. (There is also the argument that if it is so easy to increase performance then Microsoft would have done it. The response to this argument is that Microsoft has been overly cautious in the past, enough to drastically lower the potential on new technology.)

Fortunately you can always change the registry key back to what it was if you have a problem.

Registry location:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control]

Change the value of the “WaitToKillServiceTimeout” key to “3000”.

If you need any help getting to the registry just ask in the forums.

 

200 Ways to Revive a Hard Drive and Recover your Data

The following post is completely taken from an article entitled “200 Ways to Revive a Hard Drive.” It appears that it is made up of Tech Rupublic users’ tips on how to get data off a failing hard drive. I found this document on a disc called “Tech Tools” and I reproduce here for all you guys to enjoy.

If you have a dead or failing hard drive these tips can get it back up and running temporarily so that you can get your data back. However read the disclaimer before trying any of these tips.

*DISCLAIMER*

These tips were not made by theFakeGeek.com or any person associated with the site. They are reproduced here on the site in the belief that it was the authors intent that the document is in the public domain. The methods and recommendations contianed in this post do NOT belong to theFakeGeek.com and are not being recommended. The information is made available for intellectual and theoretical use only. theFakeGeek.com and it’s agents and people associated with the site are not responsible for any results of following the methods outlined in the below file. The file below is hosted by the site for educational purposes only and the understanding that it is public domain.

By downloading the PDF listed below I understand and understand the above disclaimer and hereby state that theFakeGeek is not responsible for any damage caused by this information.

 

 

Fix: Recycle Bin not Displaying Deleted Files

Problem: The Recycle Bin no longer displays any of the files that you send to it, or keeps showing files after you’ve emptied the bin.

Fix: The Recycle Bin is corrupted. Flush it.

In this case the Recycle Bin has become corrupted (for whatever reason) and we need to delete the folder that holds the Recycle Bin data. This will reset the Recycle Bin.

Unfortunately there are two different methods; one for Windows XP and one for Windows Vista. They are similar with the exception that the files you must delete in each Operating System is different. I’ll outline both methods.

THE XP METHOD:

This is how you fix the issue in Windows XP:

  1. Open up a command prompt.
  2. Change to the root directory of your Windows install (in most cases it will be C:\). Do this by typing: “CD C:\”
  3. Type in “rd recycler /s /q” to delete the folder.
  4. Reboot the computer. Windows will create a fresh healthy copy of the “Recycler” folder.

THE VISTA METHOD:

This is how you fix the issue in Windows Vista:

  1. Open up an elevated command prompt. (Right click on the command prompt icon and select “Run As Administrator”.
  2. Change to the root directory of your Windows install (in most cases it will be C:\). Do this by typing: “CD C:\”
  3. Type in “rd $Recycle.bin /s /q”.
  4. Reboot the computer. Windows will create a fresh healthy copy of the “$Recycle.bin” files
How to explain this problem to the client: The file that stores the Recycle Bin settings and files has been corrupted by another program. What I did was delete the Recycle Bin file and replaced it with a fresh healthy file.
Tell me how it goes on the forums!
 

Internet Fix: Faulty Norton Dependancies

Note: This is a part of a collection of posts that deal with fixing internet problems. Each post will address a different problem and provide a fix.

One reason you might find that your internet does not work is because of a faulty uninstall of Norton (sigh -that software never seems to catch a break.) What seems to happen is this:

  1. You uninstall Norton.
  2. Norton leaves parts of itself in the registry.
  3. ???
  4. Your Internet breaks.
The problem here is that Norton leaves keys in the registry that try to load the Norton program before they load internet services. Many firewall programs do this to make sure that protection is loaded before internet connection is established. The problem here is that the Norton uninstaller does not remove these keys. Windows will just freeze the internet connection process after it fails to load Norton.
There are two ways to fix this:
  1. Run the Norton Removal Tool. It’s much more thorough then the included uninstaller and should delete the keys that were left behind.
  2. Manually edit the registry. 
The following steps will allow you to fix the problem through the registry:
  1. Open up the Registry Editor.
  2. Navigate to  the following key: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DHCP”.
  3. Open the value “DependOnService”.
  4. Delete any references to “SYMTDI” or “NISDRV”.
  5. Navigate to the following key: “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\NetBT”.
  6. Open the value “DependOnService”.
  7. Delete any references to “SYMTDI” or “NISDRV”.
And that’s it!

 

NOTE: Thanks goes to the author of this site for providing a fix to this problem.

 

How to explain this problem to the client: The uninstall of NAV did not finish completely and left parts of itself in your computer. These parts broke the internet connection process. I simply removed those faulty parts.

Good luck and tell me how it goes on the forums. 

 

Fix: “\windows\inf\biosinfo.inf is missing or corrupt”

 

Problem: After installing XP SP3 you get the following message: “\windows\inf\biosinfo.inf” is missing or corrupt. 

Fix: File biosinfo.inf is broken. Replace it with a working version.

The knowledge base article that describes this problem says that this problem may occur after an update if you have “third-party” software installed. The article does not mention SP3 since it was written in 2005 but instead talks about upgrading to Windows XP from a different version of Windows. It really does not help us with SP3 issues

So to be quite honest I don’t know why this error occurs except that I’ve seen it once on a computer after I had removed a whole ton of spyware on it and then installed SP3. I rebooted and received this error.

So what to do? Fortunately Windows is a smart cookie and stores backups of important system files that are modified by the update process. So we merely need to replace the broken file with the backed up healthy file.

You will need to boot into recovery console to replace the file or use software such as the Ultimate Boot Disc for Windows to replace the file. With the ultimate boot disc you merely need to copy and paste, with the recovery console you need to use command line tools.

I’ll outline the recovery console process.

 

THE METHOD:

  1. You need to load into the Windows recovery console using your Windows XP OS Disc. I’ll assume you know how to do this. (If you don’t it’s really easy, just ask me on the forums and I’ll be glad to outline the steps.)
  2. Type in “delete C:\Windows\inf\biosinfo.inf”
  3. Type in “copy C:\Windows\ServicePackFiles\i386\biosinfo.inf c:\windows\inf\biosinfo.inf”
Note: If your directory is assigned a letter other then “C” replace that appropriately.

How to explain this problem to the client: This error occurred because updating to Windows XP SP3 did not agree with another program/setting on your system. I merely replaced the faulty file with a healthy one and your system is good to go!

Good luck and tell me how it goes on the forums.