Posts by CimmerianX

Well, then that's no so good. I'd probably make a call to the manufacturer tech support. Even if it's out of warranty, they will usually still speak with you to diagnose. They just won't fix for free anymore.

I would take the drive out and make a full backup or take an image of the data right away.

IMHO, use the right tool for the right job. If you want an OS that supports all windows hardware and games, that's a job for windows.

If you want to run a linux distro, it's a whole different animal. Yes, you can find many distros out there (I like debian ubuntu myself). Yes, you can find linux version of alot of practical windows apps (i.e. mail clients, browsers, etc...) You get a lot more control over the os, no longer have to play the hardware upgrade game since you can run on almost any hardware, (insert all the other common reasons for linux).

Now linux is not windows. You can run WINE which will let you run some native windows apps within linux, but support app by app. And you might as well forget about 3dgaming in Linux.

khakilang's suggestion about a dual boot is a good start. Most live CD's will config the dual boot for you too.

I use a ubuntu 10.4 for my desktop and common apps. I use Virtual box and keep a Windows XP and windows 7 virtual machine ready to go to run the windows apps that don't translate well (specifically, outlook).

If you want to play, then boot native windows.

that's my 2 cents.

Oh yea... the fact that the unit boots and attempts to launch windows is great. Means that you only have a problem with the LCD and/or connector and not the motherboard.

So if you get your unit to boot, try safe mode before running a repair. As it is booting, use F8 then select safe mode. This will let your unit start with minimal services. This way you can certainly plug in a USB drive and get your most important data backed up.

Repairs are pretty safe IMHO, but I'm overly paranoid.

So it looks like your router is at 192.168.2.1.
Your printer is at 192.168.2.5.
Your PC should also be on the 192.168.2.x network. (check this by running ipconfig).

For testing, turn off the windows firewall. Turn off any other firewalls (i.e. Symantec end-point).

From the PC, ping the printer "PING 192.168.2.5". You should get a reply. Do you see this? If you don't, then there is some basic connectivity issue at play.

If you do get a replay, then all the wireless stuff is set up correctly. Then you can look for other issues. Some suggestions: make sure you download the latest version of the 'setup' application from HP's site and use that instead of the packaged CD. You could also just forgo the setup and map the printer via IP address and use the drivers. This would require making sure the printer had a reserved DHCP address from the router to avoid future issues.

I would replace that HTTP server with a CLOUD icon and label it "Public Internet". That's what you would usually find in the real world.

Refurbished usually refers to the gamit of returned and reboxed to a damaged unit that was repaired and reboxed.

I have purchased many refurbished items over the years. I just bought a wacom refurb tablet for 1/2 the price of a new one. They are great deals as long as they come with a warranty.

Just remember, anything (new or used) can have issues. Never buy anything from a questionable retailer. Always check for a warranty (even refurbs come with a warranty of some kind). When possible, purchase items with a credit card/charge card that offers purchase protection (i.e. AMEX automatically doubles the warranty).

New or used, things break. Just use common sense and don't buy stuff that 'fell off the truck'.

If you want a network wide count of the bandwidth, then this would have to be done at the router. If you monitor a single PC, then you might be missing all the xbox /ps3 downloads, wifi traffic, etc...

DD-WRT is not for the feint of heart, but it provides an excellent bandwidth counter that graphs in/out traffic over time. THat's the type of solution you need to get the answers you are looking to get.

An ISP router doesn't 'connect' you to a specific server. The router is the gateway to the internet by which your internal machines can request a service from a public server.

What kind of lab expriment did you run that 'shows' a server conencted to your router?

With freezing issues, I would do the following:

Boot into Safe mode (keep hitting the f8 key during the boot).

In Safe mode, run MSCONFIG. Select Diagnostic startup. And let the unit reboot.

This little app shuts off all the auto-run 'stuff' and lets the pc boot pretty clean.

If the machine boots and is stable, then 1st download MALWARE BYTES, a free malware scanner, install it, update it, let it run a full scan, and clean up any little nasties it finds.

Reboot. Run MSCONFIG again. Now check Selective startup and check Load system services. And hit ok to reboot. This loads all the services (look at the services tab). If the machine boots and is stable, then keep going.

Boot up, run MSCONFIG and check LOAD STARTUP ITEMS. This now will load all the items in the Startup tab. Reboot and see if its stable.

If the machine still has the freezing errors, then boot into safe mode again if needed, run MSCONFIG, and diable the the startup items. Then look in the startup tab. This is the itemized list of startup items. Check the first one, and reboot. If you're stable, run MSCONFIG, check the next one and reboot. Again, if you're stable, run MSCONFIG, and check the next one... and so on and so one. Eventually, you'll come to the task that causes the issues.

If it was just the screen, then you would see the 'boot' happening with the hard drive indicator and such. If there is zero activity, then its not a good sign.

MAny times with the graphics on the Mobo, if the graphic card is fried, the mobo is basically a loss.

Is the unit still under warranty? If not, be prepared for sticker shock and the cost of a replacement.

1st thing I would do is hook up an external monitor and see what the video looks like. If it works, then you have a damaged LCD. If the external vid also fails, then its probably the vid card. If the vid card is on the MB (as it usually is on laptops, then you would need a replacment Mobo.

Is the 3 year old laptop still under warranty?

I have a hunch that you may have to make that a batch file and use a GPO to run the file at logon. I've done similiar stuff with user home directories in VBS so it can't be much different.

I don't see why not. COMPUTERNAME is a system variable. I'm not 100% about mapping drives with the variable, but you can try it anyway.

It would be something like \\fileserver\backups\%COMPUTERNAME%

I run a Virtual DC for a network of 200. Have no fear. However, make sure you have a 2nd DC or good backups of your AD/LDAP. Although with only 4 machines, rebuilding the domain isn't such a big deal in the event of an AD database failure.

But 'virtual' is the way to go. IMHO

As for the HOW TO on a guest OS installation... look right here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc742460.aspx

Is the required port outbound or inbound?

If the request is to ensure outbound port TCP# is open, then you should be ok as long as you don't have any outbound restrictions configured.

If the request is for an inbound port #, then that's different. It's also a little out of the ordinary. Can you post the exact request? Lets see what it is they need exactly.

How is the computer on 2nd floor connecting to your hub/switch? Is it a direct run? Is there a cross connect? Is there a patch panel on the 2nd floor?

If you tried the PC in your office and it works, then its not the PC.

If you take your working PC and (what I assume is a working patch cable) up to 2nd and it fails. Then it sounds like a cabling issue to me.

You would need a cable tester to shoot the line and look for loss of connectivity, crossed pairs, shorted pairs, etc....

Some things I would check:

Look in the Windows Device manager. Do the USBs show up here? Any yellow warnings?

Look in Bios. Is there an option to disable the Front USBs?

Can you provide the logged in user with local admin rights (to allow the remap of lpt2). If the user can print through the gui, then its not a permission issue at the printer side.

Most likely, to get the script to work, you must run as admin... this will conflict with the existing logged in credentials of the user.

Grant the user temporary admin rights to the PC to test that theory.

ESXi is a barebones VMWare OS that only runs an a limited number of certified servers. This will not run on a PC.

You can try VMware Server or Workstation but will need to have them licensed. I think they did away with the trial period for these products.

I've used all flavors of VMWare and have also used Virtual box. Pound for Pound, Virtual box is just as capable as a VM solution when run on a PC. They both do exactly what they are supposed to do. With Virtual Box, there is no charge but limited support options (only the forum). With VMWare, it is more polished, and you get tech support for purchased products and the VM ware tech support is awesome IMHO.

Hard drives can also get develop a CLICK noise, a very fast 'click click click click'. It's indicative of pending drive failure.

I agree that you should open the machine. Power it on (careful not to touch anything) and try to isolate what device is making the click sound.

If it's the drive, and its under 1 year, you can most likely contact the vendor and get it replaced RMA. I do this all the time.

98 doesn't use NTLDR. That's the loader for NT/2k/ and up.

Are you sure its 98?

Regardless, if the OS won't boot. Best bet is to run a repair off the original media. If you don't have the media, then check your machine for startup options, something like "Press F3 to run utility". Some Sony units had the recovery in the Control Panel, something like "System recovery".

Before you do anything, it's a good idea to get a backup of your files.

Did you try setting permissions to everyone?

Take out the video card, replace if needed with another, then try the boot again in safe mode.

If the video card tweak was the catalyst, then removing it should help the issue.

The print driver will not give you an access denied. If its an HP, you can try the universal driver, or try any of the 'generic' drivers in windows.

If you currently have no IP address, yet you can surf, then there's some fantastic magic happening there. Do you have a 3G card in the unit (or other type of carrier) that gets you online?

You could try "SFC /Scannow" just to check for any bad files on the system.

IMHO, the 2 best free Antivirus products are AVG and Avast.

For an independent review: http://www.av-comparatives.org/

Avast gets higher marks for detection without false positives.

AVG is a fine product and I've used it for years, you'll like it. I've moved to avast since they did away with the yearly renewal for the free product.

169.254... is an ip that is assigned to your card when it is set to DHCP, but no DHCP server answers the request.

Are you using wired or wireless? Try connecting, then use "IPCONFIG /RENEW" to force a new DHCP address. Make certain you are on the correct Wifi SSID.

To get to a 1.1.1.1 server IP, you will need to be on the network and on a subnet that will route to that host. IF you don't get a DHCP IP, then you aren't going to go anywhere obviously.

So if the PC comes out of the 'locked' mode, and you can ping other hosts, then you know that everything up to layer 3 is working just fine.

Here's the question: When the machine is locked, do you mean screen saver, or do you mean standby/hibernate?

With standby or hibernate, many times, the pc will shut off power to the NIC which can interrupt the windows services. Especially if you leave it off for a long time. The authentication token (access token) can become invalid for a number of reasons especially of you are inactive for an extended period, change networks during the same session.... etc. OF course logging out and in would fix it since the token is created at logon time.

Well, that seems to tell me that the lpt2 is trying to configure itself, but now you have multiple connctions to the same host.

With a windows box, your machine can only be authenticated once. So, for example, if you connect to a drive share with UserA. To that machine, you are UserA. If later you try to connect to another resource (i.e. another share or port) with different credentials, it's not allowed.

As a test, can you set the permissions on the printer to EVERYONE then try the 'net use lpt2' command. This will tell you if the connection can be made at all. Then you can just concentrate on getting the user rights sorted out since that's all that would be left.

i didnt see you had an lpt1 already.

try:

net use lpt2 \\server\share

Yep, the router is configured with a Wifi Password. This password was set when the router was 1st configured.

Cabling up a PC to the router and hitting 192.168.1.1 will bring up the admin control for the router. Again, this router must have had the admin id/pw changed during the initial config.

If you don't have any of these items, or have forgotten them, then the only thing you can do is reset the router to factory defaults and start over. If you reset, you will lose ALL EXISTING CONFIGS. So make sure you know what you are doing and what is required to get back online. Is the modem bridging a conenection or does it make the PPPoE auth for you? If the router is doing PPPoE auth, make sure you have the id/pw. You reset to defaults with a paper clip inserted into the reset hole while powering on the unit (hold it in for 30 secs).

When you reset, you WILL be offline so make sure you have all the internet resources you need before trying it, including Linksys tech supp # and your ISP tech supp #.

When you look at the processes in the task manager, by default, you only look at your own session. Near the bottom should be a check box for "Show Processes from all users" (or something to that effect). That will list everything running on the machine, not just your own.

Sounds like you are trying to run the script or command without elevated privileges.

Try running the same batch file "As Administrator" and see what you get.

Even though you are sending credentials to connect to the remote resource, you may not be running the command to edit lpt1 with the correct privileges on the local machine.