MSI CR630 WiFi Card Issue – Steps to resolve

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We recently re-installed Windows 7 Professional on one of our clients laptops, a MSI cr630 ( AMD Processor ) and seen an odd issue with the wireless card. Windows 7 was reporting that no wireless networks were available.

The wireless card was installed correctly with no issues in Device Manager. The wireless card could also be viewed in the “Networking and Sharing Center”, under “Change adapter settings” and was reporting no issues or errors.

Pressing FN + F10 ( the wireless key ) made no difference in Windows or to the Wireless LED button on the front of the laptop.

We rebooted the laptop and checked the BIOS – just to make sure that wireless / bluetooth radio was not turned off – the BIOS did not have this option.

So we booted back into Windows to see if we could enable the wireless through the Windows Mobility Center. The Wireless option was greyed out – how bizarre!

Our next line of call was to check the settings through the device manager. The “Radio Power” option was set to “ON” already – so we set it to “OFF”, back to “ON” and clicked OK. Voila! WiFi back working again 🙂

We rebooted / powered the laptop off several times just to make sure the settings stuck and there have been no issues since.

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Driver Search Annoyances

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Recently we were asked to upgrade a customers machine to Windows 7, like any rebuild there is always the stray driver missing, unfortunately while manufacturer’s websites are great for obtaining drivers, they usually only have the drivers of the Operating System that was bundled with the computer when it left the factory line, this was the case for us.

Like most techies we’d get the hardware ID from the device manager, throw it into google (e.g ven14e4 dev 4727) and download the driver, however this has gotten noticeably harder in recent times, it seems a number of dubious websites mainly from the Russian Federation have somehow seriously manipulated the google rankings.

The dubious websites offers a “driver download” is usually a generic software package that either looks for money for the driver which it probably doesn’t have, or even worse…so use at your own peril!

So how do you get around this annoyance?

First off find out name of the device is using the device ID from the device manager..websites such as PCIDatabase.com and use software like UnknownDevices.

Next take a visit to the hardware devices website:

Below is a list of links to the common manufacturer’s that allow you to download from their websites

Most drivers can be gotten from the manufacturers websites, along with Microsoft’s comphrensive driver package and windows update…rebuilds are a lot less hassle then when they were in the days of Windows 95/98, 2000 and XP but there will always be one driver that will be the bain of you existence

Chose PlanIT Computing as your trusted IT Business Partner

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With IT playing such a key role in business today, companies partnering with the correct IT Solutions provider is a business-critical decision. Having a partner that you trust ensures that you get on with the day-to-day running of your operation while the IT infrastructure is left to your trusted partner.

When you engage PlanIT Computing to look after your IT needs, you are dealing with an Irish company that has been working with businesses like yours for over several years. We develop strong, long-term relationships with clients that are built on the core values of technical expertise, innovation, service and trust. Our values are at the heart of our mission, ensuring that our approach and solutions focus entirely on your business.

With PlanIT Computing as your IT Business partner you will have access to a team of dedicated IT experts. The team will work in partnership with you to develop a bespoke managed service, or network solution, that will suit your business, today and into the future. Our approach is constructive and proactive, which ensures that we focus on understanding your business, your target market and the available technologies to help assist you in the ongoing development of your business.

Call us now on 014852222 to discuss your IT needs and requirements.

VMWare Player Error message: “The MSI failed”

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One of our test beds was experiencing an issue upgrading the VMWare Player from version 3 to version 5.

Each time we tried to install version 5, the installer would try to uninstall version 3 and fail with the following message:

The MSI Failed” or The MSI Fails”

 

Trying to uninstall Version 3 through add/remove programs provided the same error.

The “Program Install and Uninstall troubleshooter” from Microsoft didn’t fix the issue either.

 

The solution was to launch the vmware install file from a command line with the following /z “action”=”install”

ie VMware-player-5.0.0-812388.exe /z “action”=”install”

 

This provided the fix and allowed VMWare Player to upgrade successfully.

If the above solution does not resolve your problem, please feel free to contact us on 014852222.

 

How to recover permanently deleted emails from an Outlook PST file

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Emptying your deleted items folder can be a costly mistake for any one not paying attention to what they’re doing. We’ve seen it happen so many times before.

Thankfully, there are several methods of recovering permanently deleted items from the deleted items folder in Outlook.

Please see below for a step by step procedure on recovering permanently deleted items from your Outlook pst file.

  1. First, MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR OUTLOOK PST FILE. This file is usually in your “C:\documents and settings\user\local settings\application data\outlook” folder. This step is critical.
  2. Make the following changes to the PST file you just backed up ONLY.
  3. Open a Hexeditor or download HexEdit from http://www.planitcomputing.ie/hexedit.exe
  4. Delete positions 7 through 13 with the space bar. Since you’re using hexadecimal numbering, this actually clears 13 characters in the following positions:  00007, 00008, 00009, 0000a, 0000b, 0000c, 0000d, 0000e, 0000f, 00010, 00011, 00012, 00013  (The editor displays the code “20” each time you clear a position with the space bar.)
  5. After clearing those positions in the file, save the edited PST file in the hex editor. Your PST file should now be corrupted.
  6. Run the Inbox Repair Tool, SCANPST.exe –  to recover the file.  ( On Windows XP, the file is located in C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Mapi\1033 ).  For additional information on the Inbox Repair Tool, see Microsoft Knowledge Base article KB287497.
  7. After creating a backup (which can be skipped because naturally you followed these instructions and made a backup and are now working from it), the Inbox Repair Tool repairs the damage and recreates the PST.
  8. Open the new PST in Outlook. The Deleted Items folder should contain all removed messages, so anything you’ve emptied will be restored.

You may have problems with very large PST’s. Either the Hexeditor will take an inordinately long amount of time because it’s scanning the file or will simply hang – you will need patience to find out.

Lastly, this is not a guaranteed fix, just one potential method of retrieving permanently deleted emails from an Outlook PST file.

If the above solution does not recover your deleted emails from Outlook then please feel free to call us on 014852222 to book a FREE data recovery assessment.

Pro-active IT Maintenance and Support

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Proactive Maintenance

Imagine being able to pinpoint and eliminate a problem on your computer network before any symptoms occur within the systems you use.   It would save you money in down time and keep your system running the way you need it to for your business to operate.

This is the advantage of proactive maintenance over reactive maintenance. Proactive maintenance provides corrective actions aimed at the sources of potential failure. The first logical step to proactive maintenance is the implementation of regular onsite inspections of your computer network and systems. We provide this service to our clients and they see the immediate benefit of it. After all, prevention is better than cure.

Remote Support

As part of our commitment to getting issues resolved as quickly for our clients, we also provide Remote Support. This means that we can (in most cases) log into our client PC’s/Servers via a secure channel from our offices and get to the source of the problem within a few minutes. We have found that most issues are resolved within 30 minutes.

Onsite Support

When Helpdesk support or our Remote support doesn’t successfully resolve the logged call, then we can dispatch an engineer (or team) to your offices to resolve the issue on-site. For our contract clients, our response times are fast and part of the contract and for all other clients it is based on a priority system where the most critical problems are addressed first.

Call us now in Dublin on 01 485 2222 or drop us an email on info@planitcomputing.ie to discuss your IT Support requirements.

SLA IT Support Contracts

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At Planit Computing, we offer a full range of support contract options especially to those clients who are heavily dependent on their computer network and IT systems for their day-to-day operations.

In order to minimise the downtime to our client, in the event of an IT problem occurring, we provide a service agreement that provides fast, reliable & professional assistance. Under the our support contracts we deliver a guaranteed 4 hour emergency response to critical issues, with remote access and telephone technical support provided immediately.

We offer a “full cover” contract, if you have any issue with your IT, you simply call us and we will fix it for you. It’s that simple! We also offer various other contracts that allow our client to purchase support time from Planit Computing at a reduced rate and whenever we provide you with IT support (offsite or onsite) we simply debit the time from your pre-purchased time.

Each contract and client is different, so contact us to arrange an assessment of your needs that are specific to your business.*

Call us now on 01 485 2222 or drop us an email on info@planitcomputing.ie to discuss your IT support requirements.

Managed Backups & Disaster Recovery Strategy

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We provide a fully managed and data recovery service which is about helping our customers manage the administration of their data backup and recovery needs.

In the main business environment, the days of tape backups has passed and the volume of data requiring to be backed up is greater than ever. We’ve seen the emergence of online/off-site data storage as well as in-house backup solutions that provide huge storage space and reliable backup recovery options for our clients, in the event of data loss or a disaster scenario occurring.

As part of our managed backup service, we monitor and proactively support your backup equipment, so you have less daily management overhead and reduce the risk involved with data and systems protection

Call us now on 01 485 2222 or drop us an email on info@planitcomputing.ie for a free consultation on your disaster recovery plan.

Understanding the importance of an IT Service Level Agreement

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Any organisation should have a formal support agreement in place with their IT service provider. However, many organisations don’t have a formal agreement in place and often those that do don’t always take the time to read and understand it. Any support or service agreement should clearly state what is included (and excluded) in the service provided.

Key aspect of any support agreement
The most important aspect of the support agreement is the SLA or Service Level Agreement. This is a common understanding of the service provided including response times, guarantees and warranties associated with the support of your IT systems, services and applications.

Multiple SLA’s depending on the importance of the system or service.
For example, critical IT hardware could have a 0 – 4 hour response time, along with the engineering time to resolve the issue, time to liaise with the hardware manufacturer to avail of warranty, spare parts etc.

Critical hardware devices include servers, network switches, firewalls, phone systems and can be thought of as systems that impact the entire organisation in the event of failure.
Non critical hardware such as laptops, PC’s and Printers might have a next business day response time as failure would not impact the entire organisation.

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IT Audit – Know your IT Systems

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Every business owner knows that if you don’t have information on how your business is performing you can’t set goals or resolve issues.

Planit Computing provide an IT Audit which is designed to give SME owners / managers an insight into what questions they should be asking to ensure that their IT systems are functioning effectively.

You’d be amazed how many people are doing things in round about ways because systems don’t work as they should.  If management don’t ask then they aren’t told.

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