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That’s the message that was popping up and stopping the Portege going into hibernate mode following the addition of 1GB of memory (taking the system to 2GB in total). Turns out there is a fix for this issue when the system is running Windows XP, XP Tablet or MCE.

Microsoft Knowledge Base: 909095

Beats us why Microsoft haven’t released this as a Windows update. Anyway, it works a treat for this problem.

Technorati Tags: bug, KB909095, MCE, hibernate, media center edition, memory, Microsoft, Portege, tablet edition, Toshiba, Windows, XP

In an earlier posting we highlighted how Acrobat Reader was negatively affecting IE7. However, even after implementing the solution proposed we were still finding occasion problems with IE7 on the Portege M400!

Some further research revealed the issue to be a problem with the fingerprint biometric software. An upgrade to the latest application / driver package fixed the remaining issues with IE7…. well we can but hope it is now fixed.

It would appear that IE7 is extremely fussy about plugins playing nice and obeying the Microsoft plugin rule book. Most problems with IE7 can be traced to a misbehaving or badly written addin. Craig Murphy has done an interesting and informative blog posting on fixing addin problems with IE7.

Technorati Tags: Acrobat Reader, IE7, Internet Explorer, plugins, Portege, Toshiba

… well actually you should be a little worried about viruses.

However, you should be petrified about rootkits. Robert Vamosi has written an excellent article called, “Rootkits for fun and profit”. It highlights how rootkits are the emerging threat for Windows users.

Similarly, Mark Russinovich recently gave a presentation on Advanced Malware Removal that contained information on detecting and cleaning the most malicious of this nastyware. This is a highly technical session and features advanced techniques, which should only be attempted by highly skilled professionals.

We had a computer in for repair that had many viruses, loads of spyware and the Rustock.B rootkit. The vast majority of the common security application didn’t even detect it. It wasn’t too easy to cleanse the computer and get it operating normally again. So be warned!

Technorati Tags: antivirus, antispyware, malware, Mark Russinovich, rootkit, security, spyware, virus, Windows

How do you know when you’re spending too much time using computers?

Perhaps this video will act as a warning:

Technorati Tags: addiction, amusing, computers, joke, YouTube

This blog posting is based on a true story. We’re singling out Norton products since Norton Antivirus 2006 was the chief antagonist in the support incident. However, the nature of the problem being explained, and further the solution offered, can be applied to many other security products from a variety of vendors.

Symantec have their own “Security Center” that takes over the functionality of Windows Security Center. The latest range of Norton products has other protection features, such as Worm Protection, that are sold as effective protection for Windows. Mmmm!!! Take a Symantec jimmie (installer) and voila, the user facing Windows security features have been replaced.

But what do you do when Norton is uninstalled, you’ve ran the special Symantec cleanup tools and hacked the last remnants of Symantec and Norton from your system, only to be greeted by Norton’s grubby footprints all over Windows Security Center?

Well don’t waste your time calling Norton Support as they will just go through what you’ve already done and declare your system clean of Symantec products, with a concluding comment that the problem is an issue for the PC manufacturer. Don’t waste your breath attempting to explain that it is the Norton uninstaller that has failed to do the complete job of restoring the system to a pre-Norton state as the support agents don’t know how to fix this type of problem.

So what has happened?
The uninstaller has failed to purge the WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) repository correctly thereby leaving it in a corrupt or inconsistent state.

Can it be fixed?
Yes, it can be fixed by repairing or rebuilding the repository. The method to do this depends on the version of operating system that has been trashed.

More details and the fix can be found in this Microsoft article:
WMI Isn’t Working!

Technorati Tags: antivirus, microsoft, Norton, security, security center, Symantec, Windows, WMI

Following on from SPAM Mobile Calls we hope to have solved the problem in the main by signing up for the Telephone Preference Service.

All our telephone numbers, both landline and mobile have now been registered which strengthens any incident reports that may be filed with the Information Commissioner. Actually, the landlines were done a while back and it has certainly reduced the number of cold calls we’ve been receiving.

We’re also going to start recording these types of calls and starting our conversation out with a warning that “Calls may be recorded for legal purposes.”

Cold callers beware…. we’re now prepared for you.

Technorati Tags: 0845, cold calling, information commissioner, telephone preference service, spam