Some Thoughts on the Nokia Lumia 920

The purchase of the Lumia 920 was unfortunately a fiasco. The Rogers kiosk in West Edmonton Mall (Rogers Wireless – Phase II by West 49) really gave me a hard time. The kiosk is run by Digital Communications Group. Needless to say, after that experience we will not be back to any of their stores.

On to the White Nokia Lumia 920.

Wow, is it _heavy_! This is one solid phone and will take a bit to get used to the weight.

One would not think of it, but button placement on the Samsung ATIV S was a real pain. The buttons on the Lumia 920 are in a perfect spot.

Power is right where one’s ring and middle fingers sit naturally so powering up and down is easy. The volume and camera buttons are on the same side and in easy reach.

The ATIV S has the volume along the bottom, so when the phone is rotated landscape for tapping messages the volume control slider occasionally comes up due to a knuckle hit on the button. A real pain. The power switch is on the left near the top of the phone when screen faces forward. That was always tough to get to or it would be hit accidentally while landscape tapping.

WOW! The Lumia 920 takes _awesome_ pictures and the first shot is fast!

My daughter took that shot in the passenger seat while poking around the phone. We were driving West into a full-blown 1630 Hours low horizon sun. The camera compensated really well for the light changes especially considering I’m wearing a black shirt!

Suweet: When the phone was first fired up the first question the OS asked was: Do you want to restore your settings from the ATIV S phone?

Answered, “Yes” and about 10 minutes later _everything_ that was on the ATIV S was now on the Nokia. There are a few apps/games that are stuck in the download queue that need to be looked at though.

Screen: The screen quality is noticeably better on the Lumia. This was surprising as Samsung makes one of the better quality LED/LCD panels out there. Everything is crisp, clear, and colour rich on the Lumia’s screen.

The screen’s glass is a bit thick so it will take some getting used to when it comes to tapping out messages.

In the end, the original decision to run with the Samsung was a solid one. Yes, we have the added cost of the Samsung however we now have a reasonable “loaner” if the Nokia gives us any issues, plus after having worked on the Samsung for a couple of months or three the contrast between the two already stands out.

We shall see what happens three months down the road! :)

Note that the Rogers LTE version of the Nokia Lumia 920 has _all five bands_ for the LTE radio where TELUS and Bell tend to strip bands out. This is important for those that intend to roam into the US or other areas of the world.

Also, the Lumia 920 on Rogers has 32GB of internal storage. So, no real loss there since the ATIV S had 16GB of internal and a Micro-SD card at 16GB.

Vlad: I stuck with Windows Phone because I do like the OS. Yes, it has its issues. Another reason is that I am heavily invested in the Xbox Music Pass music content. It has literally saved me four figures worth of downloads on other services that would otherwise get trashed.

The one thing that bites about Android is this: In our make-up art class yesterday (Anne-Marie and I have been going to art class once a week during the school year together for over three years now) Anne-Marie finished her piece. Dixie, our art teacher, likes to take photos of the finished work. She has an S3. She said yes to an Android update the other day.

Guess what her complaint was? And, I’ve heard this many times before after Android updates...

Since the update things are missing and other things don’t work. Her camera on the phone can no longer focus on the art pieces that she takes shots of plus, as above, things are missing and/or now broken.

At least with Windows Phone updates I know that the phone will be the same after the fact.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

The Verdict: 2 Months in and Xplornet Does Indeed Trump Hotlink Wireless Service

Here we are two months later after posting this:

• Rural Wireless ISP Review – Hotlink Wireless Versus Xplornet WiMax

We signed up for the 10Gbit plan and have been more than happy with the service.

One thing that is readily apparent for us, or will become so for those making the transition, is that Windows 8 is bandwidth hungry.

Wherever there are two or more Win8 profiles hooked into a Microsoft ID any changes made on one, depending on the services, will be replicated to the others.

Well, I download a lot of music on my Windows Phone 8 device and thus that gets replicated to all Win8 machines I sign into with my Microsoft ID or domain account that has that ID integrated.

Our network at home that Xplornet services is our primary video, television (we do not subscribe to cable/satellite), movie, and entertainment via Zune/Xbox Music Pass and Netflix.

Other than the occasional stutter on the standard definition movies we have streamed in via Zune/Music Pass (which look _way_ better than Netflix) we don’t see much.

The shaping becomes apparent when downloading content like updates, large PDFs, and other files. We can get several downloads going at around 125KB/Second despite our connection being 10Gbit. One would expect one download, like Exchange 2010 Service Pack 3 would come down at 800KB to 900KB per second. Nope.

We can however have several downloads going at the 125KB/Second rate.

So, we leave the large downloads for our office connection. :)

In the end our decision to change our ISP provider from Hotlink has been a very positive one. The step up in the monthly fee has been more than worth the ability to have five to eight stable RDP sessions to our client sites at any one time.

Plus Internet streaming content comes down at a reasonable rate with very little interruption.

Our recommendation: Choose Xplornet WiMax if there is an option between Hotlink and Xplornet.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

About Had It With My Samsung ATIV S Windows Phone 8

Here we are a number of months in since purchasing the new Samsung ATIV S to replace my ageing HTC HD7 phone.

The major killers at this time are:

• Bluetooth just cuts out. Period.
• I’ll be on a call when Bluetooth on the phone will seize up. No sound or voice in/out.
• A full power-down and up is required.
• I’ve taken to hard power cycling the phone once every three or four days to avoid this.
• Go figure, Bluetooth just died. :P
• The camera takes _ages_ to focus and shoot the first time.
• Can’t count the number of shots missed because of this.
• Taking video is hit/miss with focus.
• This one is a real pain. There is no way to focus like the HD7 had by touching the screen. Screen touch is start/stop on the ATIV S.

We’ve seen it said that it is a phone and not a camera.

Well, in my case I use the camera on the phone almost all of the time here in the shop to take product shots, screen shots, build process pictures, and so much more.

The above is a shot of our yard after having 5 or 7 centimetres of snow fall a week or two ago.

This shot is sunrise over the city of Edmonton on my way into the shop.

The camera takes pretty decent pictures though the size of the sensor really limits the quality of the shots.

Call quality wise the phone has been pretty good though at times it takes a long time to pick up LTE from our provider’s tower here at the shop even though there are five bars. This seems to be a regular experience where the phone will show 4G instead of LTE.

Some pluses that Windows Phone 8 does have despite problems with this particular handset:

• Organizing the tiles by size makes at-a-glance for important items simple.
• Voice recognition for in-vehicle hands-free is excellent for calls and hands-free texts.
• Any vehicle that has the ability to tap into the phone’s address book has been flawless to date.
• When bonding the phone to a rental I use “Delete Me” as a tag just-in-case I forget to remove the phone.

So, while overall Windows Phone 8 is a good step forward this particular handset is a real dog. Whether this is tied to the hardware or the platform has yet to be determined. Since the provider’s warranty is 30 seconds or 30 feet, whichever comes first, we are left to Samsung’s warranty support.

Now we get to see how Samsung performs in the RMA department. :P

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 New Cumulative Enterprise Hotfix Rollup Released

Microsoft has released a series of updates that aggregate a number of hotfixes released since Windows 7/Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 into one spot. Note that this spot is not Microsoft Update _or_ WSUS.

• Microsoft KB 2775511: An enterprise hotfix rollup is available for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Normally for hotfixes we would have to link into each hotfix’s download site and go through the e-mail return with password protected ZIP archive (in most cases) process for _each_ hotfix contained in this one update set.

To get the updates we are required to step out of our normal update routines and download them from the Windows Catalogue site.

1. Go to the Windows Update Catalogue site.
• Note for users running as Standard User a UAC with admin credentials will be required due to a plug-in requesting install rights.
• 
• IE10 on Win8 with Compatibility mode enabled ends up with:
• 
2. Type 2775511 in the Search field and click Search.
• 
3. We can then add the required update download files to our “Basket”.
• 
4. Click the View Basket link.
5. Click the Download button.
• 
6. Click the Browse button and choose a folder to download the updates to.
• A UAC Prompt will happen at this point.
• Though, Win7 with IE9 seems to have stalled at this point on our download attempts. :(
• 
7. We ended up needing to Run As Admin and elevating Internet Explorer when starting the browser before we finally saw this:
• 
• But, then we get this:
• 

Oh well, we tried Win8 with IE10, Win7 with IE9, and Win7 with IE8 with all failing.

We tried Run As Admin with UAC via the domain admin account to start all of the IE versions on each OS and still hit a roadblock.

We shall try again later. :(

Once we do have the files we will be able to see about how we will deploy them at client sites.

Hat Tip: Susan Bradley the SBS Diva

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

SBS Standard’s Gift to SMB IT Going Forward

Another comment made on Susan’s blog post here: A social question about the future of SMB servers

SBS fit the bill for SMB IT infrastructure and did so beautifully. It provided an awesome Enterprise oriented platform for our SMB clients. Many of us have seen jealousy in the eyes of our fellow Enterprise IT Pros since SBS 2003 and the RWW were first released.

Many of us have probably been through the flame wars that *NIX folks would toss our way, even Enterprise IT Pros too, about having everything on one box and EXPOSING it to the Internet?!?!?

One big plus that has become one of the guiding lights for me through all of the pain and angst of figuring out where we (MPECS, Monique my wife and co-owner, and our contractors) fit in to the new Cloudy picture is that SBS has given us a blueprint (no pun intended on the book) to move on with.

What is that blueprint?

• AD/GPO structure
• Exchange and its configuration out of the box (lots to learn here)
• File Resources and management (reports, quotas, etc.)
• WSUS and patch management
• Reporting (we know we need something right?)
• RDS (RDGateway, RemoteApps, and RDS to users) ***
• SharePoint

SBS gives us a clear vision into how Microsoft would and does configure the individual components built into the SBS Suite of products.

There is a learning curve involved here. No doubt about it.

But, we have the tools today that can get us to the point of virtually automating the install and configuration of most of the above bits today in PowerShell and to some extent the new Server Manager and Exchange Admin Console.

In the end, the message here is a hopeful one. On-Premises will be around and we plan to be there to integrate the solution set in a Microsoft Best Practices manner. SBS gives us a very important glimpse into those “Best Practices”. :)

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Some thoughts on possibly migrating to Windows Server 2012 Essentials and Cloud

This post is a copy of a comment left on Susan Bradley’s post here: A Social Question About the Future of SMB Servers.

In our move from SBS to the Stack we've seen about a 15% increase in overall licensing costs for our clients (Open Value Agreement with the 3 year spread payment option).

Most businesses can absorb a 15% uptake on their server side licensing costs. Those that can't have other problems needing to be dealt with first.

We've done a few 2012 Essentials with Exchange 2013 greenfield deploys and are relatively happy with the results barring a few deadly misses in Exchange 2013 RTM.

Many of you may have used our SBS 2003 to SBS 2011 Standard migration guide. It's one of the busiest pages on our blog. One of the reasons that guide and the others that we have was put together was due to the terrible documentation from so many different Microsoft sources for the whole process.

Why should the SBS to W2012E migration documentation be any different? It is not, in fact as already mentioned it is worse than before.

The biggest drawback to bringing a well thought-out SBS Standard setup into a W2012E via migration is the huge step back we would take with the AD/GPO structure.

SBS 2003, 2008, and 2011 Standard all had a beautiful OU structure that was easy to manage with simple to deploy targeted GPO settings.

With W2012E we lose all of that and in the end had to resort to WMI filtering to gain some of the targeting we had previously.

Since RDS has been a part of our client's licensing makeup since Day 1 with us we will be avoiding W2012E. RDWeb on 2012 or even 2008 R2 works well as a landing page. Users can then open their RemoteApp or log on to their internal desktop PC or dedicated VM.

DirectAccess gives our clients the ability to access their files seamlessly. Again, all are on Desktop OS SA+MDOP with Enterprise on their laptops. So, this is a fairly seamless transition from VPN.

Yes, the solution stack is a bit more complex. But, and I mean BUT, we gain access to the ability to put together solutions that we could only have dreamed of with the one-box solution SBS gave us.

Is W2012E a worthy successor of SBS? In all reality we are comparing Apples to Oranges here. IMNSHO W2012E is a blip on the road to the Cloud in Microsoft's eyes.

It is up to us to build and provide the best on-premises SBS-Like IT Solution our clients need.

While many Cloud vendors, including Microsoft, can’t seem to see beyond their particular vision for SMB IT over the next five to ten years those of us on the ground have a _very different_ vision of what SMB IT is all about.

To us, the Cloud tends to be a cookie cutter solution. That is, the customer must fit their business structures _into_ the Cloud Vendor’s product confines.

SMB IT is anything but cookie cutter.

When we are invited into a small business to have a chat with a business owner or business IT contact about their IT needs and how to address them we have a distinct advantage over Cloud.

1. Face-to-Face time. We build a business relationship with our business contacts _and_ their users.
• This is one area of SMB IT that surveyors, enterprise oriented vendors, and others always seem to miss or outright get wrong.
2. We tailor an IT Solution to the client’s very particular needs.
• We don’t modify their business processes to fit a cookie-cutter solution.

The idea here for us is to take what the business has already built up in the way of business processes and workflows and help them grow more efficient.

The attitude that SMB IT belongs in the Cloud, whether it be from Microsoft, Cloud vendor, or Cloud Proponent is at best misplaced.

I really wish folks would stop telling us that on-premises IT Solutions for SMB should not exist anymore.

Ultimately, the decision is up to the small business owner and IT management to decide what is best for their company.

We prefer to give SMB IT an on-premises virtualized solution stack that incorporates all of the SBS Standard goodness across two to four virtual machines (VMs) as an option and then _let the market decide_ whether Cloud or on-premises is right for them.

The EOLd Essential Business Server in a virtualized setting would have been a great product to build a virtualized product stack today with almost the entire greenfield deploy being wizard driven. A solid migration story may have changed that product’s longevity too.

It is our end-game here at MPECS Inc. to provide the best on-premises solution stack that our client’s IT budget can buy.

And, with our blog here, as well as others, and the SMBKitchen initiative it is our goal to provide SMB IT Solution Providers with the best Microsoft Stack solution _your_ clients can buy along with the skillset needed to properly deploy and maintain that solution set!

Providing SMB businesses with an SMB IT Solution built on the Microsoft Stack that runs stable and provides the same SBS like experience they are all used to is one of the _only_ ways we can push back against the Cloud’s onrush.

Remember, value is not about the lowest price. If it was, Wal-Mart would be the _only_ retailer on the block and Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Cadillac would be out of business.

And, cost of “ownership” is always higher when someone else owns the equipment. That is one reality that has yet to be made concrete in the SMB Cloud initiatives.

One more thing, Susan and I have been having an ongoing conversation since the above was posted. Might be wise to have a boo yourself. :)

• Susan Bradley’s post here: A Social Question About the Future of SMB Servers

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

HP LaserJet JetDirect Password Forgotten

We have an HP LaserJet 4350DTN printer that was configured prior to our involvement with a firm.

The JetDirect print server installed in the printer is protected by a password.

• HP Support: HP Jetdirect and Embedded Jetdirect Inside Print Servers - Making HP Jetdirect Print Servers Secure on a Network

Well, the above HP Support document tells us that the JetDirect unit will need to be cold reset. But, there is no link or direction indicating just how this would be done.

Any search online came up with third party sites.

So, we tried “cold-reset 4350” in HP’s Business Support Center and came up with:

• HP Support: HP LaserJet 4250 and 4350 Series Printers - Performing a Cold Reset

From the above support page we get the following instructions.

To perform a cold reset:

1. Turn the printer power off.

2. Power on the printer and watch for the memory count to begin.

3. Hold down the SELECT (Checkmark) button, when you see the memory count begin.

4. Continue holding down the SELECT (Checkmark) button until all three printer control-panel lights flash once and then remain on. This might take up to 10 seconds.

5. After the message SELECT LANGUAGE appears on the display, press the UP ARROW button or the DOWN ARROW button until COLD RESET appears on the display

6. Press the SELECT (Checkmark) button. The printer performs a cold reset and then continues its power-on sequence.

7. Check all I/O settings and reset any user-set printer configuration values.

Once the printer had finished its boot cycle we were able to open the JetDirect web management page and see all of the configuration tabs without the need for the long-forgotten password:

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Nothing short of a shock: TDSSKiller says 2 threads detected during scan

Okay, when one hits something that may cause a question about the integrity of a system we delve into our tool chest to start pulling things apart.

TDSSKiller from Kaspersky is one such tool that we turn to if there is a suspected rootkit problem.

During the TDSSKiller scan we saw 2 Threats Found until the scan completed.

That was a bit of a heart stopping moment as the system that was being scanned is used for online banking and other such sensitive transactions (user runs as Standard though).

Once the process completed we were presented with the above.

It's almost laughable that the two "Threats Found" where HP driver related! :P

BTW, Kaspersky has an awesome free tools reference page.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

Our Largest Disaster Recovery Navigated Successfully To Date

This was posted to the Spiceworks forum here: Announcing the Master of Data Disaster Contest!

One of the largest catastrophic failures that we successfully navigated took out a client's SBS 2003 R2 Premium server. There were a number of factors involved in this failure including heat (server closet did not have active cooling and the landlord did not have the HVAC set up correctly so heat was pumped in from above the false ceiling during the winter months), a SATA RAID array having failing members, and eventually the RAID Controller and disks doing a full-stop.

It took a week using various SwingIT methods (Jeff Middleton's SBS Migration methodologies) to recover their SBS to a lab server in our shop, SwingIT recover the AD/Content to a new server, forklift the Exchange databases, and drop the new server back into their office. ShadowProtect was an important part of this recovery.

After that week the _only_ user related problem we had after dropping the new server in and bringing it online (it used the previous server's name) was two users that called because they could not log on. While connected to the backup DC they had changed their password. Since the recovered server was using an AD that was a week old they had to use their previous password to log on. As noted in one of the linked posts we did end up needing to rebuild the forklifted Exchange 2003 databases.

The first heart stopping, cold hands inducing, and sinking stomach moment:

• http://bit.ly/KQPOAj (SBS, ShadowProtect, and an Event ID 55 NTFS Error ...)

The second heart stopping, cold hands inducing, and sinking stomach moment where server death was now known to be immanent:

• http://bit.ly/XQMXAx (Images No Good ... Catastrophic SBS Failure ... Down What?!?)

Now, becoming less and less relevant but having a second DC on an SBS STD network can be a killer when recovering:

• http://bit.ly/KJ8lOE

SBS - Exchange Information Store is Corrupt? Recreating the Store

• http://bit.ly/14padWb
• Once we were down the line from point of recovery we still had issues with the Exchange databases we forklifted into place. This post outlines all of the steps to get content out of Exchange, create a new database set, and merge it back in. Exchange 2003.

SBS & ShadowProtect - Some Hardware Independent Restore considerations

• http://bit.ly/Xo0akx
• This post is relevant for any full bare metal or hypervisor restore of a server.

SBS Disaster Recovery - Finished

• http://bit.ly/10a5Kd9

As noted in the Event ID 55 NTFS post, previous to this recovery BackupExec had totally failed us in a failure at this client site (heat and IDE/SATA are a killer combination). After three days on the phone with Symantec support we cut loose and rebuilt the domain and data from scratch managing to pull their entire data set (short 24 files belonging to one partner) back together. That's when we went looking for something better and came to ShadowProtect by StorageCraft.

Since this last major recovery we have been fortunate that we have not had any major failures to deal with.

And, just this week our client with the many major failures has moved to a new business condo they purchased. We will now have a proper climate controlled server room for their IT solution to live in. No more heat problems! W00t!

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

V6 Excessive Oil Consumption and IT Networks

One would wonder what an engine’s excessive oil consumption might have to do with an IT network.

And, why would one want to keep an ongoing maintenance contract in place for their IT infrastructure when it just seems to work on its own?

Years ago I was working in an engine remanufacturing facility. We worked on everything from the Geo 3 cylinder all the way up to The Big Three’s big block engines with a few Cummins and CAT engines in between.

A fellow with a relatively new Ford pickup brought it in to the shop to see why the engine was going through a litre with every tank of gas.

After we ran tests on the engine it turned out that his three or four year old engine was cabbaged. No compression.

After a series of questions back to the owner it was discovered that he had not changed the oil since he had purchased the truck. The owner’s manual indicated zero maintenance to 160KM was his response.

A good part of the plant’s crew were on hand to see what was going on under the valve covers and the intake that hid the block’s valley.

The oil, that is the oil that was still liquid, kept channels cut into the oil that had gelled up. The oil gel (sludge) was everywhere flowing oil was not. It was not difficult to see the flow patterns in the oil galleries and return passages in this particular motor. The patterns in the oil pan were nothing short of fractal and amazing.

Needless to say the fellow did not get his core deposit back as the block from his truck was virtually useless.

Since an IT Solution is a very complicated set of components brought together to suit a client’s needs one cannot expect that solution to run in tip-top shape without ongoing maintenance.

On top of that if an auto manufacturer issues a recall due to a sticking throttle that may cause uncontrolled acceleration will the owner keep driving their vehicle or schedule the needed maintenance? They will probably schedule the needed maintenance at the soonest possible time.

There is a need to stay on top of patches. From operating system patches to very important security patches the network needs to be maintained and kept tuned up for the best overall performance.

Many Line of Business (LoB) applications introduce ongoing changes to the network setup. Sage, Intuit, Thompson-Reuters, CCH, and many other LoBs require server side updates and SQL integration that need ongoing care.

That is what we do. We design, integrate, and support highly complex IT Solutions that provide a stable platform for the life of the IT Solution.

We believe that a well managed IT Solution gives our clients the best value for their IT Budget. And, depending on the industry our prospective client is in the above may be one of the ways we approach this particular discussion.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer

We don't like physically moving servers. Period.

Over the years we have learned may lessons. One of the particularly valuable ones is that we prefer to not move a server once it has been in production.

This particular server is an Intel Server System R2208GZ4GC 2U that has been online for about 90 days.

The server was moved just recently to their new location.

Things went well after firing the server up and bringing services online but today, after being online this last weekend, we came in to some errors.

The status indicator was blinking red. In the Intel Active System Console indicated that we had two error conditions in place:

• Warning: Memory Channel G1 disabled due to ECC fail.
• Critical: Blower 2 not present.

After opening the top we could see the above. We re-seated the fan with nothing happening.

So, since we were going to be removing the air duct to get at the memory we went on to check the fan power connector and sure enough it was loose.

We moved the memory stick into another channel to see if we were having a board issue or the memory was faulty.

When we booted the server up we received the three BIOS POST beeps that indicated faulty memory. Sure enough, the little red light followed the problematic stick. But this time we had two fault conditions.

After a few memory channel swaps to figure things out we ended up with the following:

A call into Kingston support and we had an RMA and an advanced swap set up for the problematic sticks. Their support and RMA process has always been consistently good.

In the end it is our preference that once a server has entered service it never gets touched until it is heading for the recycling bin.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

Chef de partie in the SMBKitchen
Find out more at
www.thirdtier.net/enterprise-solutions-for-small-business/

Windows Live Writer