MacBook Pro - Funky TrackPad Behaviour

While working on a BES 4.x install onto an SBS 2003 server, the MacBook Pro was serving as the source for the instructions via Safari: How to install BlackBerry Enterprise Express on a SBS 2003 Premium on the SmallBizServer.net site.

One of the little gizmos that I came back with after shopping around in the Microsoft Company Store was a Plasma Ball (WikiPedia). You know, the one with the little arcs inside of it that will follow the finger when it touches the glass ball.

The kids thing the ball is absolutely _kewl_!

The instruction page was already up, so the MacBook Pro was left alone for a while during the necessary steps on the part of the SmallBizServer.net site that was showing.

After completing those steps, the MacBook Pro's TrackPad was behaving _very_ strange. The mouse pointer would jump about or seemingly right click (CTRL+Click) at will.

It took a few minutes to figure out what was going on because the Tecra S10's touchpad was not affected by the ball at all. One reboot later and the MacBook's TrackPad was still misbehaving.

The realization that happened was the fact that the plasma ball was plugged in after the page was brought up. Sure enough, when the plasma ball was turned off the TrackPad began to behave again.

Now there is a really strange one for the books!

Philip Elder

MPECS Inc.

Microsoft Small Business Specialists

Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Our I.T. Business Climate Today

After scraping off the ice on the back door to see the temperature, this is what I saw:

Yes, that is –31 Degrees Celsius or  -23.8 Degrees Fahrenheit.

We are in the midst of a fairly long running cold snap here in the Greater Edmonton Area.

So, “glass half empty” or, “glass half full”?

While in Redmond, some folks complained about the cold at –3 Degrees Celsius one morning. Meanwhile us Western Canucks, who were used to colder weather, were walking around not so bundled up and smiling.

I personally love the cold. I can bundle up against it. Can’t say the same for the heat! ;)

Now, we can look at the current state of I.T. in the SMB marketplace in the same vein.

Things are _really_ frigid right now. Business owners are holding onto their bucks, waiting for things to look up despite what folks say that “manage” our economies.

On the other side of that coin is the ongoing increase of the Cloud Services momentum into the SMB space which is seemingly putting another cramp on the small I.T. company’s revenue.

So, “glass half empty” or, “glass half full”?

Probably one of the most important things we small I.T. shop owners need to do in the immediate to near future is take stock of our business, the local and Cloud technologies we work with, and how our business will look in 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, and 5 years from now.

For those small I.T. shops that have technicians employed, get them in on the stock assessment too. It is a good thing to have a few more heads involved that are more technically minded. Add sales folks if there are any employed as well to provide feedback and perspective on what is selling and what is not.

Once that stock has been taken, look for opportunities in new local and Cloud based technologies that are coming down the pipe. Build a Business Plan around current and future offerings.

The time to look into where the company will be in the future is now. Otherwise, there is such a thing as Too Late (Vlad’s Thanksgiving post with some Wisdom on making it).

Despite the cold, there really is something positive to be found in the midst of the cold (glass half full! ;) ):

We smile because of the winter beauty that brings squeals of delight to our children when they see the snow! The winter really is beautiful. :)

Thanks for reading!

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Microsoft And A Zune HD

The reason for the low posting numbers this last week was due to my being in Redmond at the Microsoft campus with other MVPs for an MVP Deep Dive.

It was fun and amazing to meet all so many Microsoft folks that hail from so many different parts of the world.

As much as the folks on the outside, us, can give Microsoft a hard time for whatever, there is something to be said about a company of Microsoft’s size being able to attract such amazing talent from _everywhere_!

My glimpse into the Microsoft culture while on their main campus in Redmond was a real positive one. Kool-Aid? Maybe, but keep in mind that I have had my fair share of experience working for employers of various sizes and in various industries. And, based on that experience as limited as it is, Microsoft has something really neat going on there.

Okay, so on the way from the hotel in Bellevue to the airport I asked Dennis the Town Car driver if there was a Frys between us and the airport and he said there was one in Renten.

So, we stopped . . . and I picked up a Zune HD (Wikipedia – Official site does not seem to work) along with the in-car charger and broadcast component. Hopefully at some point we here in Canada will see the Zune HD product line released.

Neat! :) 

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Light Blogging Lately

Things have been pretty busy for us lately, so blogging has been, and will be light for this week!

Thanks for reading. :)

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

A Windows 7 Feature I Like – Windows Explorer Check Boxes

The little things about a product can make or break the way we think about it.

One thing I _really_ like in Windows Explorer is the ability to select items using check boxes:

In previous Windows OSs we needed to hold the CTRL key while clicking to select or deselect any items.

Not anymore. We can fly through the items list not working about clicking on something or hitting the wrong keyboard to wipe out the already selected items.

To enable the feature:

1. Open Windows Explorer
2. Tap the ALT key on the keyboard to drop down the menu items if not visible.
3. Click Tools.
4. Click Folder Options.
5. Click the View tab.
6. Scroll down to the Use check boxes to select items and check it.
7. Apply and OK.

While you are at it, uncheck the Hide extensions for known files types. Why this setting is enabled out of the box is unknown, but not being able to work with a file’s extension can be a real pain.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Using the Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer

So, when things are seemingly broken with Exchange connectivity from the Internet, where do we turn?

The Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer:

• Microsoft Exchange Remote Connectivity Analyzer

There is, however, a very important security caveat when it comes to some of the connectivity tests:

Do you see it?

Yes, there is a requirement for a domain username and password!

So, when it comes to testing certain types of connectivity to Exchange, we need to set up a temporary username and password and once we are done delete that account.

Other than that _small_ caveat, the tool is very helpful! ;)

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

SBS 2003 – Determining ISA 2004 Version And Service Pack Level

We needed to figure out what service pack level one of our ISA 2004 on SBS 2003 installations has:

• ISAServer.org: How to Determine the Correct ISA Server SE Version and Service Pack Information.
• ElMajdal.net: ISA Firewall Quick Tip : How To Determine Which Service Pack is Installed On ISA Server 2004.

This is the grid from the ISAServer.org site:

In our case, our version number is 4.0.2167.907 which indicates that it is Service Pack 3 with at least one update beyond that.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Open Value Windows Desktop OS Software Assurance Benefit – Order That Media?

As part of our Open Value Agreement we get access to most product’s media that we are licensed to whether via download or physical media mailed to us.

We have been so busy that we have not been into our licensing portal for a while:

Under Software Assurance benefits we have the ability to request the physical media which we do for archival purposes.

With the advent of OS loading via USB flash drive though, it is becoming less and less a necessity to order the media . . . other than having it in the software archive for the day we may need it and the ISO would be no longer available for download or on any of our storage systems.

SBS 2003 RTM comes to mind as a product that we no longer have access to via TechNet download or elsewhere, but we run into the need to load up every once in a while for client migration testing or recovery testing.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Error Within 24 Hours On Fresh H-V 2K8 R2

We ran a test on one of our freshly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 servers to see if we ran into this issue.

• Intel Server System SR1630HGP 1U
• Intel Server Board S3420GPLC integrated
• Intel Xeon Processor X3450
• 16GB Kingston ECC
• Intel RS2BL080 6Gbps SAS 2nd Generation PCI-E
• 3x 450GB Seagate 15K RPM SAS in RAID 5
• Intel RAID Smart Battery for the RAID controller

The server has only been up and running about 24 hours. We have been running some stress tests along with some test VM installs and backup restores as Hyper-V guests.

This is the Crash Analyzer Wizard’s results (DaRT MDOP product):

So, after a relatively short period of use the problem has reared its head.

• Our previous post: Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix.

It looks as though the hotfix is an absolute must for any Technician’s Thumb Drive and a required install on any server that will utilize Hyper-V on Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series CPUs!

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Hyper-V On Nehalem CPUs Error – CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT Critical Hotfix

Via Slashdot:

• Slashdot: Hardware: Microsoft Advice Against Nehalem Xeons Snuffed Out.

The Microsoft Knowledgebase article with the hotfix:

• MS Knowledgebase 975530: Stop error message on an Intel Xeon 5500 series processor-based computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 and that has the Hyper-V role installed: "0x00000101 - CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT"

We are just in the process of implementing Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 on the new Intel Nehalem architecture in both the Intel Xeon Processor 3400 and 5500 series.

So, finding out about this particular problem before the boxes went into production is a good thing.

The update begs the question though, does the hotfix really resolve the conflict with the CPU architecture?

It looks as though we will be doing a bit more testing than we normally do on new platforms to make sure that things do not blow up on us with the new soon to be deployed production Hyper-V boxes.

One of the linked articles from Slashdot is a good read:

• The H: Processor Whispers - About War and Peace

UPDATE: Here it is:

As a test, we did not install the update on a freshly installed Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 box and the above happened about midway through our second VM setup.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Intel RAID Controller RAID Smart Battery Backup Installation Caveat

Most Intel add-in RAID controllers have an option to add a battery backup unit for the onboard cache memory.

When the battery is installed, the RAID on Chip processor has the ability to cache data in memory and work on it on the fly while in cache RAM instead of passing all data plus parity bits through to the disks.

A list of the battery backup units and the RAID controller(s) they are compatible with can be found here:

• Intel Support: RAID controller and Battery Backup Unit compatibility list and product codes

Once the battery backup is installed on the RAID controller or connected to the RAID controller if the battery is remote to it, the actual battery charging process will not run until the server has booted up.

Simply plugging the server in after installing the battery backup will not initiate a charge.

So, for existing servers where the battery backup has been added in, the ability to enable Write Back Mode with BBU Present in the RAID controller’s BIOS will be available, but Write Back Mode will not happen until the battery is charged.

The server will need to be booted up and either idled or tested for at least 24 hours before the battery will be fully charged. Once charged, a reboot will allow the RAID controller to initiate Write Back Mode. Charge status is indicated in the RAID controller’s BIOS information screen during the boot process. It may also be indicated in the RAID Web Console.

For new servers, the point is fairly moot since the battery can charge while the server is being burned in. The final RAID configuration would be set after the burn-in period along with the Write Back Mode setting.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

WSUS – Error 33002 – Access to module dbo.spConfiguration is blocked because the signature is not valid

This one has showed up on a few of our WSUS v3 based SBS 2003 R2 boxes after the last post update reboots. And, there are _lots_ of them:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE
Event Category:    (2)
Event ID:    33002
Date:        12/1/2009
Time:        5:40:43 PM
User:        NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Computer:   SBS
Description:
Access to module dbo.spConfiguration is blocked because the signature is not valid.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

Another example of the error:

Event Type:    Error
Event Source:    MSSQL$MICROSOFT##SSEE
Event Category:    (2)
Event ID:    33002
Date:        12/1/2009
Time:        5:40:43 PM
User:        NT AUTHORITY\NETWORK SERVICE
Computer:    SBS
Description:
Access to module dbo.spReturnStateMachineTransitionEventLogEntriesFromError is blocked because the signature is not valid.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

The only thing to come up in our searches to fix the problem were to do the following:

1. Start –> Run –> Services.msc [Enter]
2. Right click and Restart Windows Internal Database.
3. Right click and Restart Update Services.
• 
4. Verify that there are no more errors in the logs.

The solution was found on Experts-Exchange: Event ID: 33002 Access blocked because signature is not valid.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Two Excellent Blacklist Lookup Tools

Here are two excellent online tools for looking up a client’s IP to see whether they have been blacklisted when troubleshooting e-mail flow.

For a complete RBL rundown, this is the one:

• MultiRBL: The complete IP check for sending Mailservers.

Our results from this one:

The APEWS listing is for our ISP. The others are not relevant.

And, one that can be used from the sending mail server itself:

• Multi-RBL Lookup Tool

Note that this second link has a self-issued certificate so a certificate warning will greet you.

The IP address of the Internet gateway will be automatically present in the Multi-RBL Lookup Tool.

Our results from the second tool:

In our case we use ExchangeDefender both for our incoming e-mail and as our SmartHost. So, we do not need to worry too much about being blacklisted because of our ISP or the IP address we have here locally.

The other listings were due to the fact that we have SMTP traffic restricted to ExchangeDefender server IPs only.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

FreeBSD Root Exploit Zero Day

Way back when we worked on a grid project based on what was then a beta version of VIA’s “new” dual processor EPIA DP-310 series Mini-ITX embedded board.

As part of the pilot we put the grid together based on existing EPIA series embedded boards and signed an NDA with VIA to gain access to the then beta DP-310.

The grid OS was going to be FreeBSD.

Our goal was to put together an ultra low power consumption setup that would provide an excellent performance/watt value.

For us, the kybosh on the project ended up being VIA’s decision to kill the DP-310 product line altogether.

As a result, we still keep an eye on anything *BSD though it has been a while since we have loaded up either FreeBSD or OpenBSD due to time constraints.

• The H Security: Root exploit for FreeBSD.

It seems that there is a pretty deadly Zero Day vulnerability in FreeBSD that allows for full root.

Since a significant portion of the Internet’s backend runs on top of FreeBSD, this Zero Day has some pretty significant implications.

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer

Windows 7 – Connecting To A Legacy HP LaserJet 5Si

We have this old workhorse of a printer that we received way back when from a new at that time client. It had not been “working” for a while. They wanted a new printer which we ended up selling to them.

After tinkering with the printer it turned out to be the no-name refill toners they were using that was causing the problems.

When we installed an HP genuine toner and ran a number of cleaning pages through the print quality became quite reasonable.

A new fuser, 128MB in 16bit 32MB DIMMS, and a duplex unit courtesy of eBay brought the printer up to where we could use it for a lot of our bulk printing needs.

Now that our office systems are on Windows 7, there was no time since the upgrade to get the LaserJet 5Si connected to them since the OS does not have a built-in driver for it.

To boot, the product page for the LaserJet 5Si has no information on Windows 7 driver compatibility.

Jump up a few generations in the product line to the LaserJet 8150 product page and we see a different story:

The links to the Universal Print Driver are provided.

Here is what we need to do:

1. Download and save the HP LaserJet Universal Print Driver (HP Support Search)
2. Double click on the downloaded file.
3. Uncheck the When done unzipping open: .\Install.exe.
• 
4. Choose a directory to unzip to.
5. Click the Unzip button.
6. Click Start –> Printers [Enter].
7. Right click and Add Printer.
8. Our LJ 5Si is network connected, so we are using the Add a local printer option.
9. Create a new Standard TCP/IP Port and Next.
10. Type the IP address of the printer 192.168.40.5 (your printer’s IP) and click Next.
11. At the Install the printer driver window click the Have Disk button and navigate to the unzipped HP Universal Print Driver folder.
• 
12. Choose the PCL version and click Next.
13. Name the printer and click Next.
14. Choose to share or not.
15. Set as Default, or not, and click Finish.
• A test page will confirm that everything is working as expected.

Now, once the printer has been installed, we need to make sure that the printer’s installed options are showing up as expected. Otherwise, we will not be able to duplex or pick up paper from an add-on paper tray.

1. Right click on the printer’s icon and click on Printer Properties.
2. Choose the Device Settings tab.
3. Verify that the correct options and paper types are set.

We have all of our printers in our workstations set to duplex by default to save on paper. To do that, after checking the printer options we click on the General tab and click on the Preferences button. There we will find the Print on both sides option to check.

We now have our old workhorse printer connected to our Windows 7 workstations.

BTW, this printer is still quite young at 267,691 pages printed since day 1 and actually somewhat comparable to the newer printers at 24 pages per minute!

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

*Our original iMac was stolen (previous blog post). We now have a new MacBook Pro courtesy of Vlad Mazek, owner of OWN.

Windows Live Writer