Dell Optiplex 755

I have been setting up some Optiplex 755s and started to get machines which failed to install Windows XP. I had forgotten that you have to switch the SATA configuration from AHCI to IDE - the alternative would be to add SATA drivers during the install. Oh - and the machines had the BIOS locked and noone knows the password, so I had to remove the password jumper on the motherboard to get access!

Antivirus clash!

I have just serviced a very nice laptop - it should have been fast, but actually was so slow it was unusable. The problem turned out to be multiple antivirus programs running at the same time. Booting in safe mode and removing two of them fixed the problem!

Windows 8

Support for Windows XP ends on April 8^th 2014. This means that you need to upgrade to a later version by then, as after that date updates will become unavailable and the operating system will become unworkable.

Windows 8 is unlikely to be widely taken up in the business world and Windows 7 is the better choice. The equivalent end-of-support date for Windows 7 is 14/1/2020.

A license for Windows 7  costs around £85 per machine.

Wireless adaptor resets

A couple of people have reported recently that they need to keep resetting the wireless adapter on their laptop. This can be done by following the troubleshooter wizard, or the command-line utility DevCon could be used to make a little script to disable/reenable the wireless adapter, but it's annoying!  

Here are some of the suggestions for things to check/do:
1. Get the right drivers for the network adapter
2. Update router firmware, and try changing it to a different channel (if you have access to it)
3. Check for viruses and malware
4. Reset winsock
5. Make sure there are no conflicting wireless devices nearby (eg mobile phone)

It's also worth testing the machine on battery only and on the mains.

Controlling the sound

Someone asked me how to control a laptop's sound level without needing to press the function key / Fn button - not a very handy key combination if you're also trying to play music.

I looked up a utility to help with this - and it looks very helpful! It's called nircmd and seems to be able to do a whole range of things! WARNING - I have not tested this (yet).

 We can set up any Windows PC to have the sound controlled through any key we assign:

Download “nircmd.exe” from http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/nircmd.html

In a command window, type

nircmd.exe cmdshortcutkey "~%folder.desktop%" "Louder" "CTRL+SHIFT+M" changesysvolume 1000

nircmd.exe cmdshortcutkey "~%folder.desktop%" "Quiter" "CTRL+SHIFT+U" changesysvolume -1000

These commands will create 2 shortcuts on the desktop. The specified key combinations will increase or decrease the volume. Delete the shortcuts and it will remove the hot-key functions from the system.

Or we can make it mute/unmute the sound altogether with these:

nircmd.exe cmdshortcutkey "~%folder.desktop%" "Mute Volume" "CTRL+SHIFT+M" mutesysvolume 1 
nircmd.exe cmdshortcutkey "~%folder.desktop%" "Unmute Volume" "CTRL+SHIFT+U" mutesysvolume 0

There is also a utility called “volumouse” which allows us to set things up so that the mouse wheel acts as a volume control.

Service Pack 3

Windows XP Service Pack3 doesn't want to install on this PC that has been off for a while. It cannot access the registry keys that it needs to. Luckily there is a Microsoft Fixit (#50389) which sorts out the required permissions. After running this, SP3 installed OK.

Outlook password

It's funny, however long you spend fixing problems, there are still new challenges lurking! This one I have never met before...Outlook repeatedly asks the user to type their password. It accepts it when it is typed, and fetches and sends emails, but next time it asks again...and again!!!

None of the obvious fixes worked - checking the password in the account settings, making sure that it was set to remember the password, creating a new Outlook profile. The answer is pointed out on the Microsoft support site, and involves deleting the registry subkey for the "Protected Storage System Provider". Doing this effectively deletes all the stored passwords for this user account. Once re-entered, this user's system then started to behave again!