HP PSC 2410 Photosmart keeps clicking when turned on, won't print

An HP PSC 2410 photosmart all-in-one printer (thats the printer fax scanner copier model) won't print anything. When its first turned on you can hear a constant clicking sound. If you look closely at the scan head its lit up and moving slightly, almost like its jammed.

The problem was caused by dirty glass and the scan sensor not responding correctly. Dismantling the top of the scanner to clean it is straightforward - once you know the magical HP sequence to dismantle the top and take the 5 screws out.

You'll need a Torx T-10 screwdriver and to take a look at the photos in this HP document
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00553775&cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&product=303753&dlc=en&lang=en
Basically, unclip the scanner cover, undo the 3 screws, prise the control panel cover off from the front edge. Gently push the catch into the hole below the Black copy button. Slide the panel towards the front. You'll find 2 more screws under there that will release the glass. Clean the underside and re-assemble.

Unexpected shutdown after restart of SBS 2011 on Hyper-V with Remote Desktop

Got a client with Small Business Server (SBS) 2011 running on Hyper-V Server Core 2008 R2. I always remote in to load updates by using Remote Desktop (or Terminal Services client or Remote Desktop Services or Client or whatever its called this year)

I noticed this particular server always gives an Unexpected Shutdown after I click Restart once the updates are loaded. Also if I manually choose to Restart.

Couldn't see what was causing it until I came across this thread where a load of people with Blackberry Enterprise Server were having the same problem (this is a Dell Poweredge by coincidence too).
http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/winservergen/thread/d10b8ba4-5b1a-440f-bc3c-2e8d02d10896

Scroll most of the way down for the post from JakesRNC. Its a quick and dirty fix but does the job. Putting 'net stop "Blackberry Controller" in the shutdown script for the server with Group Policy.

On the server,
Start > Run > gpedit.msc
Computer Config > Windows Settings > Scripts > Shutdown
Add a script with
   name = net
   parameters = stop "Blackberry Controller"

Symantec Mail Security ate all my disk space

An SBS 2008 server running on Hyper-V Core just ran out of disk space on the system volume. When I checked I found a 10GB Symantec Mail Security for Microsoft Exchange (SMSMSE or is that Information Foundation for blah blah) log file hiding in C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\SMSMSE\6.5\Server\logs.

I deleted it, but within a couple of minutes the free disk space had gone again. A scan of folder sizes using my old trusty dirsize.exe (and a second opinion from FolderSize) didn't show the culprit. The space had just disappeared. After rebooting the server and stopping the Mail Security services another log file appeared in the same directory.

Installed the latest version of SMSMSE (6.5.6.268) but it was still a problem. Turned out to be corrupt virus definitions and corrupt spam rules (Brightmail)

Shut down all three SMSMSE services,
delete the VirusDefs0000000x folders from C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Symantec Shared\definitions\AntiVirus
and delete the following from C:\Program Files (x86)\Symantec\SMSMSE\6.5\Server
- bm_ruleset folders
- .sequence.0 and .sequence.2
- hashes
- blrm

Then run Liveupdate with certified definitions from SMSMSE Admin Status page

IE 9 won't open or save attachment in OWA webmail on SBS

That new locked down IE9 is giving me hell on the SBS servers. Latest was to stop me saving a licence file on a remote server I was logged into. No errors, just wouldn't open or save or save as.

Messed with security xones, trusted certificates, activex filtering

Found the answer on Andy Grogan's blog

Internet Explorer > Internet Options > Advanced

scroll most of the way down the list, and untick this option

Do not save encrypted pages to disk option

I can't open the Word/Excel attachment in email

If you receive an email with a file attached and the filename ends with DOCX or XLSX or PPTX that you can’t open with your version of Word/Excel/Powerpoint, its probably because the file is saved in the new format for Office 2007 and Office 2010.

The older versions of Office 2000, 2002, 2003 can’t open these without an update.

Microsoft have made a converter available as a free download:

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=3

Alternatively you can upgrade to the latest Office 2010 Home and Student (3 pack) for around £89 or
if there’s a pupil or older student using the computer, buy the special education version of Office 2010 Professional Plus from
www.software4students.co.uk approx. £40
You just have to specify the school/college/uni and students name

QR code generator for address details

Wouldn't have thought it was that hard but something like the first six hits from Google all failed to generate a working QR code. Was only after something basic with Name, Email, Mob and Website. Got lots of spurious characters appearing in the text fields :-(

Anyway the winner was http://goqr.me/

Simple to use, variety of formats and sizes and the QR works - shock! Tested successfully with red Laser on the iPhone.

(I would reproduce here but seeing as it has my son's mob, email and facebook page, maybe not)

AVG 2011 Internet Security Business Edition reports NDIS driver not found

Just upgraded a client from AVG 9 to AVG 2011. This was to the Business Edition of AVG Internet Security (and Anti-Virus) 2011.

One of the laptops running Windows XP SP3 failed to uninstall the previous version properly then screwed up the install of the new one.

When you opened the AVG Console, the Firewall reported an error 'NDIS driver not found'.

Running a repair install didn't help and that article about manually installing the AVG Network Filter Driver from Local Area Connection properties didn't work either.

I did an unistall of AVG and was still connected to the Internet and network ok, however when I looked in Network Connections there was no Local Area Connection and no Wireless Connection.

To fix that I went into the Device Manager and uninstalled both LAN and WLAN devices. Then did a Scan fro Hardware Changes to reinstall them. That did the trick and AVG 2011 reinstalled successfully after that, presumably finding the NDIS that had been MIA.

Rather than doing a full AVG uninstall and reinstall, maybe worth testing if uninstalling and reinstalling the LAN and WLAN devices recovers the NDIS error ...

SBS 2003 mailbox limit and warning over 2GB

Its not often that I don't find an answer to an SBS admin question on Daniel Petri's excellent website. He's got a post about loading up ADSIEDIT to set a mailbox limit warning higher than 2GB. Basically the standard Exchange Server Manager won't edit the values higher than 2GB so you have to dive into obscure Active Directory attributes to load a bigger value.

At one particular client that didn't work and he kept getting daily warnings, which in turn meant I got a daily prompt ;-) There is a global setting that affects all mailboxes fortunately and it worked at this particular client.

I tracked down an article to set the global mailbox limit higher than 2GB. Use ADSIEDIT but drill down to the attributes at this location:

Configuration [YOUR_SERVER.YOUR_DOMAIN.london]

CN=Configuration,DC=YOUR DOMAN,DC=london

CN=ServicesCN=Microsoft Exchange

CN=YOUR_DOMAIN

CN=Administrative Groups

CN=first administrative group

CN=Servers

CN=YOUR_SERVERNAME

CN=InformationStore

CN=First Storage Group

CN=Mailbox Store (YOUR_SERVERNAME)

Move Sage Payroll data

Just had a client going from Sage Payroll 2011 on a standalone PC to a network version on the server.

It was surprisingly straightforward! I just copied the Company.001 directory from the PC's payroll directory in to a shared folder on the server.

Then ran the latest Payroll setup CD on another PC and told it to open the payroll.mdb from that shared location when prompted.

The answer to telling the original standalone PC to switch to the network data was prompted by this post http://www.great-one.co.uk/archives/132

But on this version of Payroll I had to copy the paydata file from the new PC to the old.

Advantage of doing this was I could easily revert to the standalone Payroll if there was a problem with the network version.

Recover Administrator domain password for server 2008 (and SBS 2008) on Hyper-V

I've worked out a top tip for resetting a forgotten domain administrator password in Small Business Server 2008 (SBS) - which is effectively the same for Windows Server 2008 - except its running on Hyper-V and you can't get the Windows-U command to the remote session.

(That is the Windows command key near the bottom left of the keyboard pressed at the same time as the 'u' key)

Follow these instructions from woutware
http://www.woutware.com/blog/post/How-to-reset-the-domain-administrator-password-on-Windows-Server-2008-with-just-the-Windows-Installation-Disk.aspx
(He's also got a link to a Youtube video in case you're having trouble)

which are basically:
* Insert the original Windows Server 2008 installation DVD.
(You'll need to do this in the Hyper-V settings to allocate the drive to the guest OS)
* Reset the computer, boot from DVD.
(watching for the press a key prompt)
* Choose option "Repair your computer".
* Start command prompt.
* C:\
* CD C:\Windows\System32
* MOVE Utilman.exe Utilman.exe.bak
* COPY Cmd.exe Utilman.exe
* Restart windows
* At the login screen, type Windows-U, this fires up cmd.exe now
* NET USER administrator
* Presto! Login as administrator!
* Now repair computer again and move the original Utilman.exe back.

Now if your server is virtualized with Hyper-V you'll be connected via Remote Desktop or Hyper-V Manager. Pressing Windows-U starts the accessibility program on your local PC not the remote server session.

The trick is to run the remote session in full screen mode (note this is different from maximised). On Hyper-V Manager you can get that option from the View menu or you can press Ctrl-Alt-Break.

In full screen mode, the Windows-U command will be successfully passed to the server and you can complete woutware's instructions to load a command shell and use the NET USER command to reset the password.