Firestone Technical Resources, Inc
Providing personal service for your impersonal technology.
Epson seems to have discontinued support for the TM-T88ii receipt printer. The only available drivers for this printer by Epson is for 32-bit operating systems up to Windows XP. The POS58 Driver for another branded printer has been found to work both with Windows 7 x64 and the Epson TM-T88ii printer.
The printer driver might be found at the following location.
After setting up a new laptop computer with Windows 7 Pro 64-bit, I found that I was unable to access any of my workgroup servers or access my Windows XP workstations. Each time I would attempt to make a connection either using the UNC name and path or using the IP address I would get an error indicating that the spelling was incorrect or that it could not find the location specified. One of the errors I receive is as follows:
Windows cannot access \\{ComputerName}
After upgrading a vSphere vCenter appliance to v5.1 Update 2 we found the the vSphere client installed on a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 host machine would fail to connect to the vCenter Server 5.1 due to an unknown error.
vSphere Client could not connect to {vcenter_server}.
While fixing a client computer I kept having an issue trying to update their Malwarebytes application. Each time the update would attempt to run it would just hang. The system was fairly clean with the exception of one malware application, Babylon Toolbar. The system was also installed with Norton Antivirus, which has not been an issue in the past.
After several attempts to get the update...
Each time Fedora would release a new version I would install a fresh install of the latest version. The difficulty was always trying to remember how I setup the previous system so that everything would work. In this case the primary function of the Fedor server was for web site hosting. These are the typical steps I used to create my Linux server based on research from others that have posted their process as well as my own experience in the process.
One additional aspect of this process was to support Joomla installations. You will note specific configuration settings that relate to the operation of Joomla in Linux at the end.
Upgrading to Intuit's QuickBooks Enterprise 2013 seemed to be an easy task at first, even though the step by step documentation was next to impossible to find on Intuit's web site. However, it took several hours to track down what seemed to be a simple issue, getting the multi-user mode working again.
Here are some steps to follow for upgrading QuickBooks Enterprise 2013:
Just Say NO
Promoting your business with as little expense as possible is a top priority for any business startup. Keeping the overhead costs of marketing to a minimum can be difficult when so many solicitors are telling you how they can get you noticed in printed materials, radio, TV, or the Internet for a small fee. The temptations they offer sound good, but the return on your investment (ROI) might not be as good as promised. You need to learn to say "NO" early on. Practice that a few times, go ahead and just say "NO".
Client's HP Pavilion M9400t was reported as having a noisy fan and then would not boot any longer. The power supply was the primary reason for the system not powering but after replacing the power supply the system would continually reboot. Using the F8 key while booting we were able to force the system to stop on the error and not reboot. This allowed the error message STOP 0x0000007B to be displayed. This error most often is reported when there is a hardware issue.
After backing up the hard drive using Norton Ghost, we went through a series of tests by removing hardware. In this case the video card was an add-in so it was removed but the problem still persisted. Next we checked the BIOS settings and noted the default for the SATA drive was set to RAID. We changed this to IDE and rebooted the system. The system booted normally.
Diagnosing e-mail issues is often a time consuming task. Having your e-mail address, especially a corporate domain, blacklisted on a private list is even more troublesome. Each vendor has its own process and Comcast has their own as well.
Reporting Blocked Email
Recovering various HP and even some Dell system after a hard drive failure without the recovery DVD's can be frustrating. If the owner forgot to create the DVD's, there is a chance that you can still burn them later once the computer is running again. If the owner created the DVD's and lost them, you might be forced to contact the vendor and purchase a new set.
Well, if the recovery partition is still accessible on the original drive, here is a how to recover from the HP recovery partition that might help get the system recovered to the factory default installation.
The SMTP Server Connection Diagnostics Tool is a free utility will enable you to troubleshoot SMTP Server issues more easily than using telnet. It supports both open and SSL connections and contains a built-in library of commands such as EHLO, DATA, RCPT TO, etc.. Nothing to install, just run the executable and step through your commands.
When using the recovery CD for various eMachines (T2080, T2792, T3065) with Windows XP, the computer hangs or freezes at the Name My Computer stage of the process. After spending some time researching the issue, other technicians have noted that the system is stuck trying to configure the video.
The easiest way around this is to shutdown and reboot in VGA mode as follows. If your not sure how to shutdown the computer at this point, just press and hold the power button for about 10 seconds until the computer powers off.
Repair Process
In our constant battle to clean up consumer systems and get them running like new again, we often have to remove a number applications we classify as "garbageware". The number of malware and garbage applications that willl install as a result of downloading something from the Internet is growing exponentially. If you think you found a free application on the Internet, think again before you download and install it.
There is a large varience of what this term garbageware is by various IT professionals, but here is how we define it.
While working on several home computer systems that had corrupt user profiles I needed a way to get a valid login. Windows XP, Vista, and 7 all have a default Administrator account that is disabled and hidden from normal use. This account sometimes will become available in Windows XP systems in Safemode, however you may need this available in normal mode.
We fix system regularly and so we have a recovery CD that we typically use, Hiren's Boot CD, to enable the local Administrator account. The Hiren's Boot CD has an application that will both reset the passwords and enable the Administrator's account. However at the end of the repair process we need to hide that local Administrator account again to protect it in case it is needed again later. The simple solution to this is to use the following steps.
The .NET Framework cleanup tool is designed to automatically perform a set of steps to remove selected versions of the .NET Framework from a computer. It will remove files, directories, registry keys and values and Windows Installer product registration information for the .NET Framework. The tool is intended primarily to return your system to a known (relatively clean) state in case you are encountering .NET Framework installation, uninstallation, repair or patching errors so that you can try to install again.
There are a couple of very important caveats that you should review before using this tool to remove any version of the .NET Framework from your system:
© 2013
Client's Macbook Pro 8 installed with OS X 10.7.5 Lion would boot up with out any chime, display the user login, but the cursor would just spin without completing the login process.
The client didn't have a backup so our first goal was to get a backup of the drive. That proved a bit of a challenge as it would not mount under any other system prior to v10.7.5. The system booted fine into the Disk Recovery partition, which allowed the disk repair to be run, however it found no issues.
© 2013
While working on a client’s Gateway LT2030u netbook running Windows 7, I ran into an issue resolving dns names to IP addresses. The computer had been infected with a number of malware applications, including some Trojans and a large number of adware entries in the registry. But those were all cleaned up.
Despite several attempts to clear out everything, including:
The computer still would not resolve a simple address like www.apple.com. IPCONFIG /ALL indicated that everything was configured correctly but Windows 7 still would not resolve the dns name.
Yes, a standard PING test to a physical IP address worked fine.
Most boot sector viruses detected by some of the best commercial antivirus software such as Symantec's Norton Antivirus, Microsoft's Security Essentials, or Kapersky's Antivirus can not be removed by these applications. And in many cases a boot sector virus is capable of alluding these applications unless the drive is connected to a clean system that has the AV software actively running.
What is a boot sector virus? This is a computer virus that infects a diskette or hard drive in the area which contains information about the configuration of the disk. The boot sector is used by many computer operating systems to determine how to access the diskette or drive. These viruses replace the critical boot sector program used to start the computer with their own malicious program often causing frequent computer crashes, allowing other malware infections, and performance issues.