Dell 725 inkjet printer driver setup for Windows 7, 8 and 8.1, 64-bit

Just upgraded a Dell Vostro laptop to Windows 8.1 and the Dell 725 inkjet printer stopped working. At first there were no errors, nothing appeared to happen, no jobs appeared in the print queue. Then it turned into a communications error and a recommendation to enable bidirectional communications - which was already set. Just check that you're on the correct USB port (Printer > Properties > Ports), it appeared incorrectly as COM1 at one point. The correct USB port did show the printer greyed out when disconnected or turned off and then coloured in when online - but still wouldn't print.

I had a lot of trouble tracking down the correct driver. Dell's support website no longer lists Win 7 64-bit for that printer model. However if you look at their full Dell 725 ftp listing, it does show a download ... its just doesn't work with all the spaces in the link. Manually downloading R146546.exe based on that link turns out to be the Japanese version - sigh!

Fortunately Silicon Guide's Dell 725 printer listing has the correct 64 bit Windows 7 / Vista driver, labelled as version G8, A01.

Once run, that should unzip to the c:\dell\drivers\R146546 directory and open a window listing the files. Right-click on setup.exe, click Properties > Compatibility and set to Windows Vista and Run As Admin. Now run the setup and it should proceed normally.

Only problem I came across was one PC where there were still some earlier drivers installed, causing a conflict with this version. Remove the Dell 725 printer from the Devices and Printers Control Panel. You also need to go into Print Server properties too, into Drivers. Click the Change Driver Settings to get admin access. Then remove the Dell 725 driver and package. Look in Control Panel > Programs and uninstall Dell 725 printer. Reboot and look in C:\Windows. Do a search for files starting DLC* and delete the ones you can. That should clear all the old stuff ok, follow the above instructions to install the correct driver. Good luck!

Access to 1and1 VPS on alternate port 8443 (also 4343) via ISA 2004 server, can't find isa_tpr.zip / isa_tpr.js

One of the hosted management tools is the 1&1 VPS login which uses SSL to port 8443 to login. At one client site they're still using an old ISA 2004 firewall and proxy, which blocks this login.

Adding a rule to allow traffic to 8443 doesn't fix this, you need to allow SSL over port 8443.

There's a good note on isaserver.org, which is probably the best source for this product, however it refers to a download for isa_tpr.js from isatools that is no longer available. After a few dead-ends I found the isa_tpr.zip download on Trend Micro's website. You need to set an SSL port of 4343 for their Worry-Free Business Security (WFBS) console too.

Run these lines in the command prompt of your ISA 2004 server
     cscript isa_tpr.js /add ssl8443 8443
     cscript isa_tpr.js /show

Then restart the Microsoft Firewall service to apply.

Photos from two cameras out of sequence because of time difference

I was taking photos on a school trip recently and got back to discover the two cameras I was using had different times set. So when you put all the photos in a directory and sort in time order, they're out of sequence.

I found a quick and easy fix (assuming you're happy to fire up a command prompt) with Matthias Wandel's jhead EXIF jpeg header manipulation tool

simple case of running the command

• jhead -ta+00:10 IMG*.jpg

to add 10 minutes to all the Canon images

and then

• jhead -ta-00:06 P*.jpg

to take 6 minutes off the Lumix images

Job done, back in sequence - its a powerful tool.
Will certainly be back to use that one again.

Its a fax from your dog Mr Dansworth ..

Quite possibly the funniest Far Side cartoon ever.
I start giggling with just the thought of it.

Restore Office Accounting 2009 on Windows 8 and SQL communication error

A Windows 7 PC that had been happily running Office Accounting 2009 refused to boot and couldn't be repaired, although all the files could be accessed ok by slaving the hard drive off another PC.

Just to make matters interesting, the replacement PC is Windows 8. I installed SQL Express 2008 (with loads of warnings about compatibility - just agree and make sure you load SQL 2008 SP3).

When I tried to restore an accounting backup it failed with SQL communication errors. Typically;

A network-related or instance-specific error occurred while establishing a connection to SQL Server. The server was not found or was not accessible. Verify that the instance name is correct and that SQL Server is configured to allow remote connections. (provider: Named Pipes Provider, error: 40 - Could not open a connection to SQL Server)

Also tried creating a new accounting database and got the same SQL error about not being able to communicate.

I ran through the standard procedures for enabling remote access to SQL and ensuring the SQL protocols were setup correctly. Thanks to Beth Massi for a really helpful article about installing SQL Management Studio. But still no luck.

I eventually tracked it down to the Office Accounting Data Tools (remember to Run as Admin), look in Settings and there was a blank entry for the SQL instance name. I updated to SQLEXPRESS to match the instance name installed earlier (you can see it in the Control Panel > Programs list or any of the SQL tools) and communication was established.

I was then able to restore a backup ok.

Also able to copy the SBD and SBL files over from the old drive and use the Data Tools > Advanced Tools > Attach Data File to reconnect the latest Office Accounting database so we didn't lose any transactions since the previous backup. That's covered in Microsoft's move accounting database article. Worth noting that the Data Tools now list the SQL instance as MSSMLBIZ

Intel 330 SSD in Dell Latitude D830 with Windows XP needs AHCI not ATA mode

Just fitted a 120GB Intel SSD model 330 into a 3yr old Dell Latitude D830 running Windows XP Pro. The drive imaged over and loaded ok (although I wasn't able to use the Intel Data Migration Software - it crashed on install). Imaged it with some third party software instead and a cheap USB SATA adapter.

I noticed the boot time wasn't improved as dramatically as I'd expected. Ran the AS SSD Benchmark test and some of the figures were on the low side, especially the 4K-64Thrd Read value of 17.26MBps. But it did remind me in the top left that the controller was using the BAD old PCIIDE driver (dated 2006) and so wasn't in AHCI mode.

Switching ATA to AHCI isn't straightforward, however check out the post from kent1146 here.

This method worked perfectly, even down to the identical Intel 82801HEM/HBM SATA AHCI controller. I used the current Intel Matrix Manager 8.9 download (note Rapid Storage Technology isn't compatible).

After rebooting back in AHCI mode, the AS SSD Benchmark came in at 103MBps for the same test - now thats more like it. And boot time is rapid.

Windows 7 Devices and Printers icons take forever / missing

Had this on a Win 7 Pro desktop PC in an SBS 2011 network. Couldn't print from Outlook or Excel reliably. Then spotted Devices and Printers appearing to hang.

Starting BlueTooth and disabling AV made no difference. Cleared temp files and ran chkdsk, no luck. Same problem when logging in as a different user with admin rights.

Finally tracked it down to corrupt System Restore. In Control Panel > System > System Protection there were two entries for C: drive, one listed as off and one listed as missing. Click Configure for the missing one and turn it off. Then click Configure for the remaining C: drive and turn System Restore back on, allocate 5% disk space (or similar).

Did a reboot to be sure and the Devices and Printers was working ok again.

Some more info at TechArena about corrupt system restore and error 0x8007007b 

Lenovo Z370 laptop Atheros AR9285 wireless not connecting to networks

Strange problem with two identical Lenovo Z370's (well one pink, one black). The pink one always connects, the black one sometimes fails to connect - it just reports a generic connection failed error. Tried reinstalling drivers, deleting wireless settings, removing anti-virus/security.

It also fails on other wireless networks, so its not down to the router. Both laptops had dentical drivers - the AR9285 v9.1.0.314 dated 12 Aug 2010 (Windows 7 64 bit) which is the latest that Lenovo list for that model. I also tried imaging the laptop from pink to black - but same problem, which started me thinking it was a hardware fault.

However before I went down that route I spotted an updated HP driver for the AR9285, which seemed to go as high as 9.2.0.444 for the EliteBook 6930p. Having a good search around the Lenovo site uncovered a 9.2.0.115 dated 24 Nov 2010 for a Lenovo G470 (also available for the IdeaPad Z570)
http://consumersupport.lenovo.com/uk/en/DriversDownloads/drivers_show_4134.html
I had to run the installer twice (first time uninstalls) and then the laptop connected immediately.

Wireless connects reliably now.

'sent on behalf of' user@gmail.com with own domain name - stop gmail doing that

Just set up a couple of gmail accounts for friends' kids and registered their own domains for them. You can easily add the new email address to gmail so it uses their own domain (eg kid@kidsname.com) instead of a generic gmail.com one (look under Gmail Settings > Accounts & Import > Send As)

However using the standard setup which specifies using Gmail's own SMTP server to send mail out, the message arrives in Outlook with a 'sent from user@gmail.com on behalf of kid@kidsname.com. Looks a bit messy and gives away the gmail username.

You can stop that sent on behalf of from appearing by changing the Gmail settings slightly. Go back into the Send As setting mentioned above then click Edit info for the own domain name entry (kid@kidsname.com).

Specify that you want to use the domain's own SMTP but delete the smtp.kidsname.com entry and change to smtp.gmail.com (yes yes, same server as before, but it doesn't add that sent on behalf of label sent like this). Use the user@gmail.com login and password, specify TLS and port 587.

Symantec 12.1 LiveUpdate incorrectly reports low disk space

I've got 23GB free on this laptop and Symantec EndPoint Protection Small Business 12.1 keeps insisting I need to run disk cleanup to free some disk space.

I found this recent Symantec post that talked about proxies causing that problem
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH157197
but I don't think that applied on this site

I then found this old (!) 2008 post talking about the same problem with Symantec EndPoint 11.02 and how to fix it by removing the check from the registry
http://www.symantec.com/connect/forums/live-update-low-disk-space
except I couldn't find that value in my registry.

I did work it out in the end, I'm on 64 bit Windows 7. The equivalent location to check in the registry is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
where I found the entry for ALUAlert and deleted it :-)

I did also note that in the Control Panel under Symantec LiveUpdate Settings > Update Cache, the max cache size was only 10MB so I bumped that up to 100MB.

Only thing is I don't know which fixed it now :-(