Technical Support Help

It’s been at least a month now since I lost my job. I don’t want to go to the details of what happened as I was really depressed during those times. People I interact with everyday wouldn’t notice that I was depressed. It sucks but that’s life. A new year has arrived and I am still out of work. I’m checking all those jobs being emailed to me by jobstreet and jobsdb but I can’t seem to pick the right one. I may be losing my magic in looking for work or I may still be in the depressed state. Money right now is zilch. Everyday I wake up in the morning I tremble in fear that I may not be able to support my family. I know I can do lots of things but it seems like something is preventing me from being motivated. I know my family is enough as a motivation but it seems like its not helping at all. I get into arguments with my wife which I am really trying to prevent. I don’t want to aggravate my wife’s condition by adding more problems. What I really need to do is find work or start a small business. I have all the online resources but I can’t really figure out where to start. I need help. To anybody who reads this blog I need help. It doesn’t have to be financial help(but that would be good too hehehe) but just to help me start something or point me to the right direction. I’m gonna list out the things that I can do.

1. Assemble computers
2. Troubleshoot and repair computers
3. Simple to Medium sized networks using active directory or peer to peer.
4. Setup wireless networks as WDS (wireless distribution system) for buildings (condos, offices, etc..)
5. Setup home wireless networks.
6. Build static webpages although I think I can manage to build interactive ones.
7. Setup internet and gaming shops.
8. All Windows OSes Administration (95 - Vista)
9. Linux server setup (Apache, email, sql, etc…)
10. Train people
11. Network Management.
12. Desktop support(software, hardware)
13. Laptop Support(software, hardware)
14. Remote administration and configuration
15. Remote support for desktops and laptops

So, to whoever reads this blog and could help please send me an email at em.cielo(at)gmail.com. All the help will be appreciated.

Thank you in advance…. Happy New year…

A lot has changed since the last time I wrote a technical article. I resigned, or rather lost my job with the big computer company. It was something I dreaded since last year. I know something bad was gonna happen. I placed it on the back of my mind and suddenly it jumped me in the face. I loved working for that company but when the people you work with trample down on you and you have no bullet to shoot back it just ain’t worth it anymore. I love the work that I was doing for the company but they didn’t seem to appreciate what I was doing. I guess it is really true that you cannot satisfy everybody even if you have been doing your best and sacrificing other very important things just to show these people that you are doing a good job. It still hurts every time I think about the things that transpired but I have to move on. I guess GOD never left me when I lost my job as I was able to immediately jump aboard another big company. I had negotiated a better salary compared to the other company. I never thought I would feel culture shock again, but when I joined this company it was totally different. I guess coming from 3 companies that are in the call center business and jumping out of it and entering, I guess we can call it more “regular” type of company, would result into a culture shock. It was funny when I joined this company I thought it would be just like any other company. I was surprised that this company was run like small businesses residing inside a big business where this small business would have to pay the mother business when things like computers, telephone equipment are required. You would here everybody in these company saying stuff like, “Machacharge ka diyan dahil bagong request yan.” If felt weird at first but I guess that’s how they operate. The company is big and is a global company. When I mean big I think the company has around 20k+ employees just here in the Philippines. I hope and pray that I could be more stable in this company. Good luck to me and to everyone who has a job.

And if you think there is no stop to those BSODs you see on Windows XP and Windows Vista, here’s one weird BSOD error message. 0xDEADDEAD. How strange isn’t it? Is Microsoft trying to be funny here or what? What’s the deal with this stop error code? So I wore my Sherlock Holmes hat and whipped out my magnifying glass and tried to find the cause of this issue. Most the the systems affected by this BSOD error are DELL Systems the XPS 1330 and XPS 1530 line. Using the microsoft debugger program it spewed out this driver file, NETw5v32.sys. This driver file is part of the beta drivers that Intel is going to release later this year. It is part of the Proset 12.0.0 driver set. The solution to this problem is to rollback the driver or try the drivers that are currently posted right now at support.dell.com. The NETw5v32.sys was purported to support the 3945ABG and 4965AGN adapter, but these adapters are still not in production.
Bug Check 0xDEADDEAD: MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH1 <— that is the complete error message. This is usually part of a debugging a driver to be used in windows. It is a manually initiated crash and according to the websites that I read there would usually be a registry that is manually added to cause this crash. Now if your system installed a driver that is still in beta and is still being “DEBUGGED” I guess that would result into this 0xDEADDEAD BSOD.

Any other ideas?

I’ve been getting a lot of calls recently regarding problems when logging in. When a customer logs in he gets the error “The user profile service failed to log on user profile cannot be loaded”. I noticed this problem when a certain windows update was installed on Windows Vista. I haven’t really pinpointed which update that was but there is a solution for this problem. Here are the steps to resolve this issue :

Log on with another administrator user profile or if you don’t have any other and you are the only user do the following:
1. Turn off computer
2. Turn on computer and press F8 while you see the DELL logo
3. On the Windows Advanced Options select Safe Mode
4. Open the Start Menu and type Regedit on the Start Search field
5. Go to the following entry:
a. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Profile List
6. There you will find the following information:

7. On the “.BAK” file you will find an entry with ProfileImagePath with the name of the user.
8. Delete the repeated entry that does not contain “.BAK”
9. Right click on the other entry and select Rename. Delete the extension .BAK for the original entry.
10. Exit Regedit
11. Restart computer.

Technical support has been getting calls regarding problems with Nvidia video cards. Customers are getting BSOD errors most of the time 0×0000008E pointing to nv4_disp.dll. There are several solutions floating around being used by technical support.

1. Upgrade the BIOS of the XPS system to the latest if there is any available bios update.

2. Downgrade / Upgrade the video card drivers. If you have the latest video card drivers downgrade to about 2 or 3 releases from the latest driver then work your way up. If symptoms persists downgrade to at least 5 releases of the driver from the latest one.

3. Download and install customized/tweaked video drivers. Some of the drivers you could download would be the Omega drivers from www.omegadrivers.net or the Xtreme-G Drivers from www.tweakforce.com

It’s more of a hit and miss situation with these drivers. I’ve seen an article with regards to this issue and that microsoft is suing Nvidia.

If anybody has any other solutions for this issue please post it here. Thank you.

Lost your Windows Vista password? You don’t want to reformat your system because you have a lot of data? YOu don’t have enough money to purchase tools that may be able to fix the problem? Then here’s a solution to your problem. Somebody was able to device a way for you to enable the Administrator account in windows vista and change your password. Windows Vista disables the Administrator account by default and sometimes this is really a pain in the but for me. Anyway here’s for everyone to use on how to change your Windows Vista password. You would need your Windows Vista installation disc for this procedure. I cannot really acknowledge who made this but one of our Resolution Specialists posted it on our database of Fixes. Here’s the “to the dot” procedure.

1. Boot from the OS cd

2. On the language settings screen, click the appropriate language in the Language to install list, click the appropriate time and currency format in the Time and currency format list, click the appropriate keyboard layout to use in the Keyboard or input method list, and then click Next.

3. On the lower-left corner of the Install now screen, click Repair your computer.

4. If the Windows Vista Setup program detects any problems on the computer, click No when the program displays the following message:

Windows found problems with your computer’s startup options.

Do you want to apply repairs and restart your computer?

5. In the System Recovery Options window, under Operating System, click Windows Vista (TM) Version, even if this entry is already selected, and then click Next to display the Choose a recovery tool window. Choose Command Prompt.

6. Type: c: (enter)

7. Type: cd windows\system32 (enter)

8. Type:echo ~takeown /f %1 /r /d y > TakeControlOf.cmd (enter)

9. Type: echo ~icacls %1 /grant administrators:F /t (enter)

10. Type: ren Magnify.exe Magnify.old (enter)

11. Type: ren cmd.exe Magnify.exe (enter)

12. Restart the computer

13. Click the Ease button on the lower left of the screen

14. Check the Make items on the screen larger (Magnifier) then click OK

15. Type: net user Administrator /active:yes (enter) – capital A

16. Type: exit (enter)

17. Restart the computer

18. Logon to the Administrator account

19. Access the “User Accounts” then remove the password of the user account that is blocked

20. LogOff then Access the account that was previously blocked to try if its accessible

21. Goto “c:\windows\system32″

22. Right click Magnify.exe -> properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner -> edit -> Administrators -> Ok

23. Edit -> Administrators -> Full Control -> Apply -> Ok

24. Rename Magnify.exe to cmd.exe

25. Right click Magnify.old -> properties -> Security -> Advanced -> Owner -> edit -> Administrators -> Ok

26. Edit -> Administrators -> Full Control -> Apply -> Ok

27. Rename Magnify.old to Magnify.exe

28. Launch Command Line

29. Type: net user Administrator /active:no (enter)

I have been in technical support for the longest time and I’ve experienced a lot of different kinds of tools to help our customers. One of the best things that the company I’m working at right now is the remote control tool that we use to help customers troubleshoot. It’s not really troubleshooting with the customer because instead of instructing the customer to do this and that we are the ones doing the work already. The customer has just to sit down and relax and watch his or her mouse move without them touching it. This is where the Go-To-Assist tool developed by Citrix. It’s a remote control tool which is 99.99% zero configuration when installed on the client side. Easy to manage and easy to use. Citrix recently released its Go-to-Assist Express Beta. It’s still in beta but it works really great. I have tested it in different types of connection and the performance is great. I have even tried it on a customer who uses a dial up modem and I was able to use it without a hitch. It really shines when you are controlling somebody on a highspeed connection.

“Q: How does GoToAssist Express Beta work?

A: GoToAssist Express Beta uses the same secure screen-sharing technology as GoToAssist to allow you and your client’s computers to communicate with each other via encrypted outbound TCP/IP connections. This allows you to see exactly what problem your client is experiencing and take control of their keyboard and mouse to resolve the issue remotely, just as if you were sitting at their computer.”

GoToAssist Express Beta link :
https://express.gotoassist.com

It’s been 2 days and my DSL line is really really slow. Bayantel seems to be having problems as I am not the only subscriber experiencing sluggish connections. I haven’t called up technical support yet as this might be a system wide issue. If by tomorrow the speed hasn’t improved I will definitely start complaining and will ask for that 500 peso rebate.

INFO : For those bayantel DSL users who has the ZTE ZXDSL 831IIseries and who wants to run the modem as router mode here’s the username and password.

USERNAME : admin
PASSWORD : bayandsl

I’ve recently encountered a new problem with one of the Dell XPS systems. The Dell XPS 420 suddenly loses audio output going to the speakers. If you check the sound option in control panel, the only device it detects or shows is the HDMI port. Funny thing about this is that the brand new XPS 420 does not have an HDMI port. Expansion cards installed are ATI TVTuner card and ATI HD 2600 XT video card. Both expansion cards do support Hi-Def output but they don’t have HDMI ports. XPS 420′s audio chip is from Sigmatel. If you reinstall the drivers downloaded from Dell’s website it tells you that the object/device cannot be found. The Dell XPS 420 audio works out of the box, PC-restore sometimes works but eventually it loses the audio again. I am thinking that there is a conflict with drivers on this system. Any ideas?

First log on the weblog! Will try to configure some more options. At least I know that this is already working! Yipeeee!!!!