Over the Thanksgiving holiday, Norton Internet Security decided it would go on vacation. This inveriably caused some trouble with secure (https:) websites not wanting to load. Partner program, Norton Antivirus, did not leave, but instead decided that it didn't have to be enabled since it was left there alone. Didn't matter how many times enable was selected, it just didn't want to go to work.

Solution: Run LiveUpdate manually to apply all available updates and reboot.

All is well with my bits and bytes.

 

 

( disable NIS2005 NAV2005 NAV NIS )

D2266 system type
D33007 system board
Unit was just fine yesterday but now has strange trouble. Power supply voltage is off on a couple leads. Purple reports 6.4 volts and Blue is -10.7 volts.

Replace power supply and system is fine for about a half hour. Internet Explorer seems a little funky and then Windows XP locks up. Reboot and system comes up very slowly. Attempt booting to BartPE CD, but it loads verly slowly as well. Reseat everything I can get my hands on. Re-goop the processor grease just in case.

Received the following error with no USB devices attached:
(Red X) Power Surge On Hub Port - A USB device has exceeded the power limits of it's hub port. For assistance in solving this problem, click this message.

Windows Sound Service is failing to load and sounds are unavailable from within Windows.

I'm afraid we've got a bad motherboard or processor. Unfortunately, there aren't many options in the BIOS for tweaking any settings.

 

 

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After installing Norton SystemWorks 2006 the iOmega Zip 100 fails to work properly. Engage in online chat with iOmega support to discuss issue. He recommends removing the IomegaWare software. The drive immediately starts working.

After rebooting, discover the drive is inaccessible again. Looking in My Computer, the icon for the drive has changed from a cute little blue Zip drive to a plain looking icon. The name has also changed from Zip-100 to Removable disk.

Try upgrading the driver using Device Manager but no better driver can be found using the Microsoft magic services that Windows XP sometimes uses corretly. Try removing the device and rebooting. This seems promising since the hardware is detected and installed again, but Windows still has trouble accessing the disk. Notice that if I disconnect the power to the drive after it has been removed from Device Manager and then waiting to reconnect the power until after rebooting and back at the desktop, hardware installs but works just fine until the next boot.

Try online support again, but this time the tech tells me the drive is no longer supported and asks for $25 to help me. At this point performed the following fix:

• Remove device IMG VP0 using Device Manager
• Disconnect power to Zip 100
• Reboot
• Allow system to come up all the way
• Reboot again (this step is the key)
• After system has come back up and calms down, plug the power into the Zip drive
• Access Zip just fine
• Reboot with no disk in drive
• Insert disk and test successful
• Reboot with disk still in drive
• Test just fine

This doesn't touch on the funtime antics GoBack dealt during the SystemWorks installation. Wow! Those were some good times. uh .. not !

 

 

( Zip 100 Parallel )

One of our IOmega USB hard drives went out. Luckily, it was within the one year warranty, but was outside of 90 days so I had to contact a technician about troubleshooting before they would give me an RMA number.

After receiving the drive I went to install it, but first noticed the working drive was showing up as two different letters and would not work properly.

This trouble was corrected by shutting down the system and powering off the USB drive. Then boot the system with the drive still off. Next, power up the unit and click Refresh in Device Manager.

I tried swapping drives, but the repaired one began prompting for drivers. I tried using the same instructions as last time, but the same options were not available.

I had to download and install this driver package. It prompted me for PPA3.mpd which was located in C:\Windows\System\IOSubsys as well as an old folder called C:\OldHardDrive\CDEXTRA.OLD\DRIVERS\STORAGE\IOMEGA\PPA3 The install then complained that it already had a newer file so I answered yes to keep it. Following a reboot, hardware was detected so I pointed it to Universal Serial Bus Controller and then a disk drive was detected and driver automatically installed. Unfortunately, two drives show up on the system. Run through the disconnect procedure and after the system is back up, power up the drive. Now only one drive shows and it is working properly!

 

 

( P/N 31459800 Model LDHD080-U )

LinkSys 4-Port Firewall/Router Model # BEFSX41
Router is unresponsive to commands, but appears to be allowing traffic to pass through it to the local network server and to the internet. Systems with 192.168.*.* addresses are working just fine, but some units have those creepy 169.*.*.* addresses. Try releasing and renewing IP address of two stations. The one that was working successfully releases it's address, but neither system acquires IP from network.

Research issue briefly before cycling power on unit. System seems fine, but since this is a recurring issue, go ahead and upgrade firmware to 1.50.18 from 1.45.6 and reset configuration on router. Confirm server and internet are working from all stations. Recommend setting static IP addresses if issue resurfaces.

1.44.3, Dec 24 2002 is an old version that seems to be stable. I know of one in place for over a year with no noticeable trouble.

 

 

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Last week (November 7-11) several servers requested a reboot brought on by Microsoft Updates being applied automatically. The last reboot took place on Friday at the end of the day. This was a good time since Exchange failed to come back up!

Scenario:
Two Microsoft Exchange 2003 Servers. One on Windows Server 2003, the other on Windows Server 2000. Both servers configured to be Active Directory domain controllers. One server relays email through the other.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005, Server 2003 lists the following updates as installed:
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - November 2005 (KB890830)
Security Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB896424)
Office 2003:
Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter (KB907492)

Thursday, November 10, 2005, Server 2000 lists these updates:
Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool - November 2005 (KB890830)
Security Update for Windows Server 2003 (KB896424)

The Fix:
Microsoft Article ID : 896703

• Run PolicyTest.exe to analyze access rights.
  
• Run setup /domainprep from the Microsoft Exchange Server CD on the Exchange server that is not having trouble, but apparantely is now missing some security information.
• Restart Exchange services on both servers.

This is what I found when running policytest: (the names have been changed to protect the innocent)

===============================================
Local domain is "MYDOMAIN.com" (MYDOMAIN)
Account is "MYDOMAIN\Exchange Enterprise Servers"
========================
  DC      = "SERVER1"
  In site = "Default-First-Site-Name"
  !!! Right NOT found !!!
========================
  DC      = "SERVER2"
  In site = "Default-First-Site-Name"
  Right found:  "SeSecurityPrivilege"

Below is a list of EventLog messages we were receiving on the second server. No errors were apparent on the first server which happens to be the main Exchange server. Apparently, the security information was removed, but didn't cause any trouble until Exchange was restarted during the reboot.

Source: MSExchangeIS
Event ID: 5000
Unable to initialize the Microsoft Exchange Information Store service. - Error 0x80004005.

Source: MSExchangeIS
Event ID: 1121
Error 0x80004005 connecting to the Microsoft Active Directory.

Source: MSExchangeFBPublish
Event ID: 8197
Error initializing session for virtual machine SERVER2. The error number is 0x8004011d. Make sure Microsoft Exchange Store is running.

Source: MSExchangeSA
Event ID: 9098
The MAD Monitoring thread was unable to read its configuration from the DS, error '0x80004005'.

Source: MSExchangeDSAccess
Event ID: 2103
Process MAD.EXE (PID=2092). All Global Catalog Servers in use are not responding:

 

 

( Events: 5000 1121 9098 Win2k Win2k3 Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server Standard Edition kbexchesm kbprb KB896703 )

Verify Java is working and it's version number

.. also has links for downloading from Sun website

 

 

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Quoted in-directly from Symantec's website: Original Article

To locate the Grc.dat file on the parent server:

• If the parent server is Windows NT/2000/XP, then copy the Grc.dat file from the VPHOME shared folder on the parent server. By default, the shared folder points to <OS drive>:\Program Files\SAV on the parent server.
• Note: If Symantec AntiVirus was upgraded from Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition 7.x, the default folder is <OS drive>:\Program Files\NAV\. In some cases, both locations may exist, but only one will be active. If necessary, copy the Grc.dat file to both locations.

To copy the Grc.dat file to the client:

• On Windows 98/Me clients, copy the Grc.dat file to the folder in which Symantec AntiVirus is installed: (pick one of the following)
• C:\Program Files\Symantec_Client_Security\Symantec AntiVirus
• C:\Program Files\Symantec AntiVirus
• C:\Program Files\Norton AntiVirus
• Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 8.x
• On Windows NT clients, copy the Grc.dat file to the following folder:
• <OS Drive>:\WINNT\Profiles\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition\7.5
• On Windows 2000 or XP clients, copy the Grc.dat file to the following folder:
• <OS Drive>:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Norton AntiVirus Corporate Edition\7.5
• Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 9.x
• On Windows NT clients, copy the Grc.dat file to the following folder:
• <OS Drive>:\WINNT\Profiles\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition\7.5
• On Windows 2000, XP, or 2003 clients, copy the Grc.dat file to the following folder:
• <OS Drive>:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Symantec\Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition\7.5

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LinkSys 16-Port Workgroup Switch ( Model: EZXS16W ) went out after a recent storm. Actually, it's power transformer ( Model: AD 3.3/5 ) (3.3VDC at 5.0A center positive) took a surge and made itself into a stinky-crispy blob.

Already in place is a LinkSys 8-Port router ( Model: BEFSR81 ) which had enough ports to handle all devices. Unfortunately, the server's network link to the router mysteriously goes down for about 2 seconds every 2 or 3 days. This causes much distress to shared Microsoft Access databases and ends up with a server reboot to correct slow network performance.

Upgrade the router firmware from version 2.42.7.1 dated June 28, 2002 to 2.45.0 dated June 3, 2004. Install LinkSys 16-Port Switch ( Model: SD216 ) and move devices off router.

Beware of LinkSys cheapo routers causing flaky network connections.

 

 

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