Techno Button Master

I have been testing out Data Protection Manager 2007 as a replacement to Symantec (Veritas) Backup Exec

I came accross a wierd error. I had two servers that have teaming enabled, but one of the team member adaptors are disconnected (physically) this was causing DPM Agent to fail to connect to the DPM server, It seems that Qos is not working under a failed team? I need to check that out.

Error (one of them)

A DPM agent failed to communicate with the DPM service on xxxx.yyyy.com because of a communication error. Make sure that xxxx.yyyy.com is remotely accessible from the computer running the DPM agent. If a firewall is enabled on xxxx.yyyyy.com, make sure that it is not blocking requests from the computer running the DPM agent (Error code: 0x800706ba, full name: xxxx.yyyy.com).

So if you are getting strange connectivity errors, or failed jobs for no other reason.. Check your teams/qos and general network.

Good luck

I always like a little cmd alternative to fifty mouse button clicks (yea I know) and when I was having issues with one client with SCCM & OSD I had to use this, Basically once client was not installing a netork card driver, it would if I did it manually from inside WINPE ( press f8, type MMC and then add/remove computer management) there seem to be 2xdriver in the c:\drivers and although I dont yet know where this duplication is, I have to get this computer out today. So I found DEVCON

What is it? Basically what you do in device manager with a mouse this will do from CMD with some heavy options.

1. Get DevCon HERE
2. Extract to c:\devcon
3. in CMD goto c:\devcon\i386\ and execute devcon
4. In my case the command was devcon inf hardwareID
5. devcon update %path_to_inf%\b44win.inf PCI\VEN_14E4

you get the idea,

the Hardware ID the really an interesting thing, if you ever need it then you can do devcon find * | more and you will get a nice list of all your hardware..

UPDATE –

Actually that failed aswel, supid computers are stupid.

In the end I basically did the follwoing

1. mounted the WIM image
2. edited the sysprep.inf to include
   • DriverSigningPolicy=Ingore
   • UpdateInstalledDrivers=Yes
3. unmounted and commited the changes
4. edited the sysprep in the sccm DP (just incase)
5. updated the DP and WIM DP
6. retried
7. Done

SCCM can be a pain in the ass.

Good luck!

I have been testing redeploying xp via sccm r2 (beta) and I want to get it working with a single image, multiple HAL and from a vmware image,

I had mega problems with pxe booting and denying and failing, the logs are saying either the netbios or the guid are not matching.. i found a useful post

http://myitforum.com/cs2/blogs/cstauffer/archive/2009/05/11/configmgr-osd-mdt-clear-pxe-cache.aspx

basically, restart the “Windows Deployment Service” on the SCCM machine, this will flush the log and allow the machine to boot..

thanks

I had to install a cm1312nfi on windows 7 x64 as a test for network upgrades..

The normal CD drivers will not load all the software using the normal typical install proceedure, the setup will complain that it wont install as a RUN AS or Windows 7 is not Vista/XP

1. Open Computer
2. Look for HPzsetup
3. Right Click and Select Properties
4. Click Compatibitly
5. Choose windows vista SP2 & runas administrator
6. Click OK
7. done

Easy

***New update***

Why do Sony always prove to be the most anoying support service. Anyone who knows me knows that I always choose/recommend Sony Vaio, I love the look of the laptops and they are generally better (lighter etc) but when I have an issue they always try and avoid responsablity. It is so frustrating.

I have started to embark on a quest to find the truth, anyone use to work for sony support? let me know what the deal is..

I will update this with information and responses.. if they come.

UPDATE 1.)

Sony are messing with me and not responding to emails. the last one they sent me was asking me to clarify if they had my laptop? they dont even know this? I doubt it.

Sony Repair Management,

Please could you notify me of receipt of this email and the complaints procedure.

Details:

[Case ID #:xxx49]

Issue Number: xxxx600

Extended Warranty Code: xxxxxxx037

Complaint.

1.)    There is a incorrect diagnosis of the device in question and there should be an onsite repair as per the warranty details

1. There is only normal wear and tear on the device (scratches, scuffs)
2. The problem is internal in the monitor braces being loose and not providing support (as per my youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y08qQZFzp4Q)
3. Support staff should not be able to make a ruling based on their interpretation and with no explanation

2.)    The service level from technical support is poor and attitude of some staff is aggressive and presumptuous

1. The support staff are generally rude and seem to enforce a deny before allow mentality
2. I was not called back (except the first time) for this problem when promised
3. I was hung up on twice and no one called me back (thanks)

3.)    This problem has occurred on another of our SONY G11

1. s/n xxxxxx450/xxxxxxx63
2. EXT WARRANTY xxxxxx71
3. The support staff suggested that this is NOT ON RECORD, inferring that I am a liar
4. This has in fact happened before, contrary to that the support staff member stated “I have not heard of this before, no one here has”
5. The problem has resolved by replacing the monitor brackets using the onsite warranty

Generally:

This problem is obviously the same as the other G11 that had the same problem. This should be repaired under warranty and done onsite with no cost to our company. Support staff should not be able to rule based on their own experiences alone as this is going to cause inconsistencies for support requests (like this)

Other notes:

I know this is not an issue for your company as I am just a drop in the ocean, but I have purchased many Sony devices in the last 18-24 months and I feel strongly that this has impacted my preference towards your company. I have a strong feeling that this is going to cause me to change to another company, this is not a threat (as if I could with my low buying power) but just a fact.

Items I have paid for

1. G11*Monitor arms loose (under warranty)
   1. Broken screen repaired (paid 700£ thank you)

Please respond to this email addressing all the problems here in.

1. 1. G11*
      1. Monitor arm loose (make me pay £220)
   2. TZ11*
   3. TZ11*
   4. Z21
   5. Z21
   6. S Series*
      1. Keyboard malfunction (took a call to my account rep to get Sony to fix it, thanks again)

*Denotes purchased from Sony Directly

NB: I will be posting this and any responses (on Monday 28^th) on my website (www.buttonclicker.com) if this is allowed under the terms of the warranty. Please notify me if this is not allowed.

So sony replied with

Dear Mr xxxxg,

Thank you for contacting us.

I see that you have a unit in for repair, serial xxxxxx50-xxxxxx01. Is this the unit that you are refering to?
We look forward to your response.
Regards,

xxxxn
Sony Vaio-Link Team

So I am far less impressed now as compared with last week. We have spend thousands of dollars with Sony and this has pushed me into the ASUS realm.

Options

- Try to resolve with Sony directly
- Involve The Consumerist or another high profile site
- Legal avenue
- Government agency

***New update***

Got an email from sony today (2 days late)

Dear Mr xxxx,

Thank you for your reply.

As you have stated your VAIO has not been collected for repair as yet. Our repair center have been in contact with you and issued a quote for the repair of your unit. We have received your email however as there is damage to your VAIO we can only arrange for the unit to be picked up for an out of warranty repair. If you would like us to contact you over the phone to discuss this further please provide a two hour time frame between the hours of 8:00 to 18:00 GMT Monday to Friday.Alternatively you can call us on 08702402408 for In Warranty units and 09050310006 for Out of Warranty or NON-EU units.
Regards,

Hugh
Sony Vaio-Link Team

So I had enough and took it apart, and guess what. There was a screw loose inside the monitor bracket area, that screw must have been incorrectly installed when Sony replaced the screen a few months ago. So there was no damage and there was no wear, it was just sony sucking at being good.

Here are the images:

I got this app from madoco’s custom HERO rom HERE and although its a useful app there is one draw back, It seems to default to GMAIL contacts and not Exchange and there is no way to select it? So when I scan a buisiness card, it just goes to my gmail account. that sucks.

any ideas?

I actually like Sony, Alot of posts and comments are always bagging it, but if you can get one, I recommend it.

One thing I ALWAYS hated about Sony, is the lack of options in the BIOS, actually almost none. Then I discovered this Post. This will enable you to enable VT (which Sony disable citing some stupid reason) and typically me being the inquisitive type I wanted more.

I found another Post (Japanese) that had a similar option but with a new address. This will enable alot more options, I mean ALOT.

here is the run down.

*** BE AWARE ** THIS MIGHT DESTROY THE WORLD INCLUDING YOUR LAPTOP ***

This was only tested on my laptop, Sony Z21-mn and it works perfectly.

1.) Download EFI_BOOT
2.) Get a USB Thumb Drive
3.) Format USB Thumb Drive to FAT32
4.) Extract EFI_BOOT to the FAT32 Drive
5.) You should see this

6.) Restart Laptop with USB Drive attached
7.) Eventually you will see a GRUB screen
8.) At the GRUB screen type

***** USE ZERO “0″ not “o” (bad font) ******

setup_var (press enter)

type

setup_var 0x25a 0×1 (press enter)

Power Off

Power ON

Press F2

New BIOS OPTIONS AHOY!

It has been pretty hot these last few weeks in London (really..) and in my little room it gets even hotter.. So I decided to get some water cooling for my CPU. I don’t really need it but I wanted to try and over clock a little more and reduce the noise a bit, This is what I got and the installation.

- Domino A.L.C http://www.coolitsystems.com/index.php/domino-alc.html

The box is smartly packed and comes with

• 1x Complete sealed water-cooling (self contained)
• 1x Brackets for different CPUs
• Screws and bits

The installation is as follows. Attach rear bracket, Clean CPU from old thermal compound, Attach mounting screws and then tighten. Finally you need to install the FAN/Controller/Pump part. This means pulling the rubber mounts until they “pop” (you will know what I mean), The entire installation was easy enough and only took a few minutes ( I am installing an 850watt Antec next week so I will tidy up then).

The benefits were noticeable, Low temps even though I am running my 920 @ 4200mhz. On medium (auto) I will never go above 44 Degrees C. That’s MUCH better than before and I feel has covered the costs.

PROS

• Good cooling Compared to Intel Cooler
• Smart Control with LCD
• Easy Installation

CONS

• Not really that quiet (if you want low temps)
• Cant seem to expand to include Video/Main board cooling
• LCD requires a clean side case or no side case (me)

I have run Windows 7 on my Sony Z laptop since early beta versions and I have never had a single problem, especially BSOD. Microsoft recently released the final RTM on TechNet, so I decided now is a good time to test it out!

This is where it gets problematic; I am getting so many different errors, like

stop 0x0000000a
stop 0×00000019
BSOD BAD_POOL_HEADER

that’s the ones I remember, So what the hell is going on here? How could windows reject my computer so badly and so randomly? I have been able to get into safe mode only a couple of times and I have reinstalled Win7 about 10 times, Trying different combinations of RAM and Wi-Fi switch states etc.

This is a work in progress but I feel it has to be either the SSD or the WIFI. but being a laptop (Sony) its hard for me to disable/enable hardware before windows has even begun.

I will update..

Update:

I am doing a long extra extended wipe of the SSD, I am probably killing it but why not!

I used a Linux boot cd (Ubuntu server)
got to a shell and ran

dd if=/dev/zero of=dev/sda

so

dd (copy) if(source)/dev/zero (zeros) if(destination)=/dev/sda(SSD DRIVE)

also I am going to install from USB Key THIS ONE and not DVD..

Well that worked?
What was different form last time?

- I formatted the SSD (long)
- I Installed from USB Key
- I installed with the LAN Cable in
- I had the wireless switch off.

So far so good..

Etrust has expanded to a heavy resource hog. Even tweaked to exclude certain files/folders/processes it seems to lag the entire computer down..

Just check the services, count them 5 !

Crazy

Now I know I could most likely trim them down, but I don’t see the point now. CA Etrust is using way over 100mb of ram, that’s not acceptable in any situation and I can feel the computer being pulled into the pits of hell by Etrust, Its time to declaw and uninstall CA Etrust

What are my options?

For now there is only one. ForeFront (read up, Its actually good)

This is going to be a new install and deployment of Forefront to the entire domain, I am testing the rollout now and its actually working pretty well.

As I try to use Systems Centre Configuration Manager (SCCM) for application deployment (among other things) these are the special steps I took

1. Install & Configure Forefront Server (New Physical)
   This is easy, Just follow the prompts and guides from MS
2. WSUS Server
   You need to follow this guide WSUS FCS Updates
3. Follow this guide to deploy FCS Client with SCCM Deploy FCS with SCCM
   The only difference with my installation is that I did not use a TASK Sequence to remove the previous Antivirus. I don’t like the idea of having a system unprotected for any amount of reboots.
4. I created a New Program for the FCS Client that had to run another software package (etrust uninstaller)
5. Etrust remover.bat was basically just a msiexec that called for it to be removed.  here is the BAT if you dare to use it :

net stop ITMRTSVC
net stop InoRT
net stop InoTask
net stop InoRPC
REM ITM
MsiExec.exe /X{847501DF-07C0-4691-B04A-893929F108AE} /qn
REM AV
MsiExec.exe /X{85F88F9C-6EB2-426B-88AB-28DA4A3526B9} /qn
exit

This seems to be effective in removing the old and installing the new.

Microsoft forefront has so many good points its hard to imagine how anyone will compete, the reporting is great! It also scans for security problems (service packs or weak passwords etc) I only hope it will handle viruses better or at least as well as CA, Not that viruses happen very often anyway, due to my heavily fortified virus proof(ish) boundary.

How does FCS seem to me? 43MB service, nice.

EDIT

Here are all the required MSIEXEC commands to remove etrust

MsiExec.exe /qn /X{847501DF-07C0-4691-B04A-893929F108AE}
MsiExec.exe /qn /X{85F88F9C-6EB2-426B-88AB-28DA4A3526B9}

This was the final part of the CA Story, Seems to have only left some empty folders..