Stefan Helander

Windows Vista hangs on Welcome screen

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I had a HP desktop PC running Windows Vista that sometimes hanged on the Welcome screen (displayed after entering the password to login). The problem occured randomly but started to occur more and more often causing trouble for the user. Just waiting for the Welcome screen to dissappear (for hours) didn’t help.

I applied different solutions found on the Internet including registry changes, uninstalling HP credential manager and others. One solution suggested on the Internet forums was to reformat the machine and factory install it. Not a preferred solution but ultimately the only thing left to try. 

The machine ended up in my workshop but before formatting it I opened it while running on my workbench. I noticed this machine had a built in flash drive used for Windows Readyboost (in order to make the machine boot faster and load programs faster). I was a bit curious since I hadn’t seen this solution before. The flash memory was connected to the motherboard through a cable. I accidently touched the cable gently and immediately the flash drive dissappeared and reappered in Windows opening the screen asking me what I wanted to do with the newly inserted flash drive. 

This made me suspect that the cause of the problems has been the readyboost located on a flash drive with a poor connection. I disconnected the flash drive completely and the machine have never again had the "hang on welcome screen" problem. Although it doesn’t load programs as fast as before it is way better for the user to have a machine that doesn’t hang on the welcome screen.

Stefan Helander

VMware vSphere client 4.0 crashes when trying to upload a file to datastore

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 Suddenly my VMware vSphere client version 4.0.0 started to crash when I try to upload a file to the datastore. This happens on both my Windows Vista and XP boxes running the VMware vSphere client.

The problem is similar to the one described in this KB article concering Windows 7 clients. However, the solution is the same. The VMware vSphere client does not crash if it is started by right clicking and runing it as administrator.

Stefan Helander

Compaq HP 6910p with builtin 3G/GSM modem and Windows 7

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A while ago I decided to start fresh with my HP Compaq 6910p laptop so I installed a new harddisk and Windows 7. My 6910p has an internal 3G/GSM modem (HS2300). When visiting the HP Support & Drivers page for the 6910p and Windows 7 I discovered there are no drivers or software for this 3G modem under Windows 7.

However, it turns out that both the driver and the connection manager for Vista works in Windows 7.

Download and install:

  1. HP WWAN Broadband Wireless drivers
  2. HP WWAN Connection Manager
  3. HP Broadband Wireless Client for Vodafone (or if there is one for your provider, pick that one instead)

If your 3G/GSM provider is Vodafone you’re done now. In my case I use the Swedish provider Tre (3). To use the Vodafone Connection Manager with another provider you must find out your providers APN and what number to dial (normally *99#). For Tre in Sweden the APN is "bredband.tre.se".

To use the connection manager with another provider just edit the connection profile that was installed by default and change (if necessary) the number to dial and the APN. To use Tre in Sweden the profile should look like this:

 

 

Stefan Helander

Screen is displayed upside down or sideways on my laptop with Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10

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Just press and hold CTRL and ALT and then press the up arrow and the screen will return to it’s normal orientation.

In order to support devices with different orientation you can rotate the screen. The screen can be rotated left (left arrow key), right (right arrow key), upside down (down key) and normal (up key) while pressing CTRL and ALT.

My guess this is going to be the next practical joke at the office 🙂

In case the keyboard shortcut doesn’t work, it can also be fixed through control panel settings described in this article.

Stefan Helander

Connecting Remote Desktop to console screen

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When you connect to a Windows XP with remote desktop (RDP), you automatically get connected to the console, i.e. the same screen/session that a local user is logged into.

Starting RDP in console modeHowever, if you connect to a server, like Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you will not get connected to the local console session, but instead to a new session. Sometimes it is necessary to connect to the console session, for example when troubleshooting a problem and there is an error message on the console session screen.

To start the remote desktop in console mode you click on the Windows Start button and type in the Run or Search field:

For Windows XP:

mstsc /console

For Windows Vista / 7:

mstsc /admin

And then press enter or click Run.

Stefan Helander

Pimping the laptop with a Solid State Drive

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Intel Solid State diskSome week ago my laptop complained while trying to save a file that there was some error writing to the disk. I had two choices – wait until the harddisk breaks, preferably when I am overloaded with work and a deadline is coming up (that is a law of nature). Or I could buy a new disk now and replace it before disaster happens. I choose the not so adventurous way and decided to do something about it now.

I’ve been glancing at the dropping prices of Solid State Drives as they are faster than mechanical and probably lasts longer. My choice fell on the Intel X25-M 2,5″ 80 GB SSD SATA/300 MLC 34 NM from the swedish supplier called Dustin. I must mention the super quick delivery Dustin (in assistance by the swedish post) had. I ordered the device late tuesday night in their web shop. Wednesday morning around 10 i got the delivery note by mail. At 13.00 the very same the delivery guy rang my doorbell. That is impressive!

The installation was easy. Just unscrew the drive bay, uninstall the old harddisk and replace it with the SSD. Be sure not to touch the connectors of the SSD disk as it is sensetive to electric discharge. I partitioned the disk with dualboot running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in one and Windows 7 in the other. Boot time is impressive as you can see in the videos. My laptop has a new life!

Stefan Helander

Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III AF-2840 in Windows Vista

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So, did you also try to get this negitive/slide scanner to work in Windows Vista?  No success? Thought so. Unfortunately I have found that Minolta scanners seems to have kind of a short life cycle in the eyes of the manufacturer. Like many other computer accessories that are not professional grade, drivers are availible for the current operating systems but when new arrives there just isn’t being any drivers developed. For this scanner I believe it was Windows 2000 and possibly Windows XP it had drivers for. But the arrival of Windows Vista was the death for this otherwise perfectly good scanner.

Minolta Dimage Scan Dual III AF-2840Like cameras, a good scanner do have a longer life cycle than normal computer accessories, which means that updated drivers are needed. Hopefully manufacturers will pick that up. Even though this scanner is not a professional grade scanner it has good performance and when sold it was not cheap, more in the price class of a good camera. I think as a consumer you should expect a bit longer life than that. Enough complaining.

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Stefan Helander

Windows XP users should immediately upgrade Adobe Flash plugin

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Microsoft has sent out an urgent message encouraging all Windows XP users to upgrade their Adobe Flash plugins immediately due to a security issue. This includes users of both 32 and 64 bit Windows XP and both SP2 and SP3. The current version of Adobe Flash plugin is version 10.0.42.34.

The latest version of Adobe Flash plugin can be downloaded here.

Stefan Helander

Windows won’t boot and you need the data on the harddisk?

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There is a nice solution to this little problem – called Active@ boot disk LiveCD. Download it as an ISO image (on another working computer of course), burn it to a CD and boot from the CD on your malfunctioning computer. The LiveCD is filled with utilities for you to get your valuable data off your crashed computer.

Even though there is a working free download I would encourage everyone that finds it valuable to pay the license so those guys at LiveCD can continue their good work on this product.

Stefan Helander

All icons on the desktop has Microsoft Internet Explorer icon

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There is a practical joke being spread to Windows Vista users trying to fool them to associate .lnk (shortcuts) files with Microsoft Internet Explorer (MS IE). The so called joke in this is that it is very easy to do, but almost impossble to undo of you are not a skilled computer technician. This is because there is no possibility for the user to “unassociate” a file extension once it has been associated.

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