New Audio Driver update for Studio 1535

Dell support released an updated Audio Driver for their Studio 1535 for an ongoing Audio issues complained by a growing number of users. Dell suggests downloading and installing the recently released and Audio driversBIOS version A05 update.

A discussion on Dell’s community forum about the said Audio issues with the new Dell platform, Studio 1535, was answered by Dell liaison who provided the supposed to be fix on the current issue.

Source: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_audio&thread.id=44143&view=by_date_ascending&page=5

Dell Support releases fixes on XPS 630i Fan and other issues

Dell’s Support site has just released fixes for ongoing XPS 630i issues. Included in the updates available in their support site includes System Utilities Firmware, ESA Perfomance, and BIOS updates. These should put a halt on the continuing debacle that customers are experiencing with their XPS 630 machines. As of the record, there has been a never-ending exchange of troubleshooting and work-around by customers in the Dell Community Forum that led to nothing. Good thing Dell paid close attention to the growing number of posts on the said issue that accumulates every day.

The respective fixes and enhancements on the new updates are the following:

1. System Utilities Firmware: Update to address fan run away problem with existing NvPerformance software and Master I/O Firmware.

2. ESA Performance: Update to address fan run away problem with existing NvPerformance software and Master I/O Firmware.

3. BIOS Update: Fixes can’t update ESA firmware issue after run Delldiag.

The downloads can be accessed on this link:

http://support.dell.com/support/downloads/driverslist.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=gen&ServiceTag=&SystemID=XPS_630I&os=WLH&osl=en&catid=&impid

Good job Dell! ü

Source: http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=HotTopics&message.id=35&~ref=crss#M35

Beware: Virus Anti-virus — Antivirus2009

“Antivirus 2009 or Antivirus2009, is a rogue anti-spyware application that created to ruin the integrity of our computing experience. Antivirus 2009 is fake and malicious, with the intent of screwing up your computers. Antivirus 2009 is a clone of the infamous Antivirus 2008. It is somewhat ironic to see a fake antivirus application got upgraded. Guess we are living in an usual world and nothing really surprises us anymore. Generally, Antivirus 2009 usually comes up after you installed a video codec that come with Trojan, malware and virus. Antivirus 2009 normally generates fake and misleading system popup error messages so end-users will be tricked into purchase Antivirus 2009.

It is extremely important to remove all the components of of the Antivirus 2009 and all the malware and trojans that it might have come bundle with (such as zlob.trojan, trojan.vundo and Trojan.Downloader). To effectively and safely remove Antivirus 2009, we have created a manual removal instructions. Be sure to back the data up before proceeding. Good luck!”

Download SpyHunter Spyware Detection Utility

**Manual Antivirus 2009 Removal Instructions:

Stop Antivirus 2009 Processes:
>>Steps on how to do this
av2009.exe
av2009[1].exe
AV2009Install.exe
Antivirus2009.exe
Antivirus 2009.lnk
Uninstall Antivirus.lnk
Find and Delete these Antivirus 2009:
>>Steps on how to do this
av2009.exe
av2009install.exe
av2009install_0011.exe
av2009[1].exe
Antivirus2009.exe
ieupdates.exe
scui.cpl
%program_files%\antivirus 2009\av2009.exe
%startmenu%\antivirus 2009\antivirus 2009.lnk
%startmenu%\antivirus 2009\uninstall antivirus 2009.lnk
winsrc.dll
%desktopdirectory%\antivirus 2009.lnk
winsrc.dll
ieupdates.exe
av2009install_0011.exe
av2009install.exe
%program_files%\antivirus 2009\av2009.exe

Remove Antivirus 2009 Registry Values:
>>Steps on how to do this
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run ieupdate

**As an alternative resolution, you can also download MalwareBytes’ Malware software. Restart the system after downloading and running the application and problem should be fixed. If the link doesn’t work, just go to download.com and download it manually.

Sources:

http://www.xp-vista.com/spyware-removal/antivirus2009-antivirus-2009-removal-instructions

http://www.download.com/Malwarebytes-Anti-Malware/3000-8022_4-10804572.html?hhTest=1&tag=lst-1&cdlPid=10876030

Error 623 appears after pulling up IE.

You might encounter symptoms when wired and wireless connection gives out an error 623 after you pulled up IE, irregardless if its IE6 or IE7. Another hint is you’re connected to WLAN but cannot browse.

CAUSE
You may receive this error message if the VPN connection is configured to use a dial-up connection that has been deleted.

RESOLUTION
To work around this issue:

1. Click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Network and Internet Connections.
2. Click Network Connections.
3. Right-click the VPN connection, and then click Properties.
4. Click to select the Dial another connection first check box, and then click the appropriate dial-up connection. If there are no dial-up connections to select, you may have to create a dial-up connection and repeat these steps.

If your VPN connection does not require a dial-up connection, click to clear the Dial another connection first check box, and then click OK.

Dell Update on nVidia GPU issue: Limited Warranty Enhancement to All Affected Customers Around the Globe

I’ve bump into an info news from Dell that they’ll be offering a 12-month limited warranty enhancement specific to the nVidia GPU issue with the systems listed below. This would apply to all customers around the world and they’re also planning to add more 12 months coverage for the said issue to the existing limited warranty of  up to 60 months from the purchase date:

Dell Precision M2300          Latitude D630          Vostro Notebook 1400
Dell Precision M4300          Latitude D630c        Vostro Notebook 1510
Dell Precision M65              Latitude D820          Vostro Notebook 1710
Inspiron 1420                     Latitude D830
XPS M1330                          Latitude D620          Vostro Notebook 1310
XPS M1530

More information will be announced in a couple of weeks. Please stay tuned.

Source: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/08/18/nvidia-gpu-update-dell-to-offer-warranty-enhancement-to-all-affected-customers-worldwide.aspx

Annual Bossies Awards 2008

Well, some of you might find it unusual for software to walk on red-carpet but they do. Indeed, they’re being awarded the same Oscar-recognition for their exemplary and outstanding performance in the software landscape and IT computing of today’s world.

The Annual Bossie (short for Best of Open Source Software) Awards 2008 celebrated this year’s best of the best free software. Editors, analysts and reviewers from InfoWorld (formerly published by known open-source critic, Ethernet co-inventor Robert Metcalfe) had a really hard time deciding who to recognize among the millions of open-source software floating in the world of computing today. Among the most easy top picks were OpenOffice.org, Wikimedia, Firefox, Ubuntu and MySQL. All in all, 60 products in eight categories were named as winners.

The complete list of winners for this year’s InfoWorld BOSSIE Awards:

Best of open source in application development

• db4o, Object Database
• Git, Version Control
• HttpClient, Web Client Library
• Intel Threaded Building Blocks, Parallel Programming
• JBoss Drools, Business Rule Management System
• Open Flex, Rich Internet Applications
• Prototype, JavaScript Framework
• soapUI, Web Services Test Tool

Best of open source in productivity applications

• Audacity, Sound Editing
• Blender, 3D Modeling
• Firefox, Web Browser
• GIMP, Image Editing
• OpenOffice.org, Productivity Suite
• PDFCreator, PDF Creation

Best of open source in enterprise applications

• Alfresco Community, Content Management
• Compiere, Enterprise Resource Planning
• dotProject, Project Management
• Hyperic HQ, Application Monitoring
• Intalio BPMS, Business Process Management
• JasperReports, Reporting
• Liferay Portal, Enterprise Portal
• Magento eCommerce, E-Commerce
• Pentaho Open BI Suite, Business Intelligence
• SugarCRM, Customer Relationship Management

Best of open source in collaboration

• Elgg, Social Networking
• MediaWiki, Wiki
• VNC and Chicken of the VNC, Remote Control
• Scalix, Mail and Calendar
• WordPress, Blog Publishing

Best of open source in networking

• Asterisk, IP Telephony
• AWStats, Log File Analyzer
• InSSIDer, Wireless Network Scanner
• Nagios, Server Monitoring
• NDISwrapper, Wireless Network Interface
• Vyatta, Router, Firewall, & VPN
• Wireshark, Network Protocol Analyzer
• Zenoss Core, Network Monitoring

Best of open source in platforms and middleware

• CentOS, Server Operating System
• JBossESB, Enterprise Service Bus
• MySQL, Database
• phpMyAdmin, MySQL Administration
• Puppy Linux, Small-Footprint OS
• Talend Open Studio, Data Integration
• Ubuntu, Desktop Operating System
• VirtualBox, Desktop Virtualization
• Xen, Server Virtualization

Best of open source in security

• AppArmor, Application Security
• Metasploit Framework, Penetration Toolkit
• Ophcrack, Password Cracker
• SmoothWall Express, Network Firewall
• Snort with BASE, Network Intrusion Detection
• Splunk, Security Log Analysis
• TrueCrypt, Disk Encryption
• Untangle Gateway Platform, Gateway Security

Best of open source in storage

• Amanda, Network Backup
• FreeNAS, Storage Server
• WinMerge, File Management
• SMART Monitoring Tools, Disk Monitoring
• StorageIM, Storage Administration
• Free Online Backup, Online Backup

Congratulations to everyone, uhm software…okay, thing? Two thumbs up!

To read complete story, go to InfoWorld’s report by Doug Dinsley.

Source: http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/08/04/32TC-bossies-2008_1.html

Virtualization for Dummies now available for download

Okay, please don’t get over-excited yet and learn first what “virtualization” means.

If you consult wikipedia about it, you’ll learn that it refers to “the abstraction of computer resources”, a term which is basically a broad. In a much simpler sense, it means the creation of a virtual version of anything, like a storage device, a Operating System, a server, or network. A common example of this would be the partitions in the hard drive to, in some way, virtually create two or more separate hard drives in one actual hard drive. You’ll learn more as you go through the whole e-book about Virtualization for Dummies.

Download the free .pdf Virtualization for Dummies e-book.

Source: http://www.itworld.com/virtualization/53932/free-copy-virtualization-dummies-now-available-instant-download

Network Map Does Not Display Computers Running Windows XP and Vista

Network Map Does Not Display Computers Running Windows XP

When you run Network Map in Windows Vista®, computers that are running Microsoft Windows® XP do not appear on the completed diagram.

Cause

Network Map in Windows Vista diagrams the connections between network devices to help you troubleshoot connectivity problems. Network Map uses a discovery protocol called Link-Layer Topology Discovery (LLTD) in order to query the other devices on the network to determine how the network is organized. Computers that are running Windows Vista include the software components that implement the LLTD protocol. For network computers that are running Windows XP to appear on the map, they must have a discovery protocol enabled that can respond to the mapping computer’s requests.

Solution on Windows XP

For computers running Windows XP to appear on the Network Map diagram, you must download and install the LLTD Responder component. By installing the LLTD Responder, and enabling File and Printer Sharing in Windows Firewall, a computer running Windows XP can respond to other Windows Vista computers on the network that are attempting to create a network map.

The following procedures are performed on a computer running Windows XP.

**To install the LLTD Responder onto a computer running Windows XP

1. Download the update for Windows XP from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=70582
2. Run the update on the computer running Windows XP that you want to appear on the Network Map.
3. On the Software Update Installation Wizard, click Next.
4. On the License Agreement page, read the license agreement, and if you agree to the terms, click I Agree, and then click Next.
5. On the final page of the wizard, click Finish.
6. If you are prompted to do so, restart your computer.

You can verify that the LLTD Responder is successfully installed and running.

**To verify the LLTD Responder is installed and running

1. On a computer running Windows XP click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Network Connections.
2. Click Local Area Network Connection, click Properties, and then view the list of items used by the network connection.
3. Ensure that the Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder check box is selected.

Prior to generating a new Network Map in Windows Vista you must ensure that Print and File Sharing is excluded from Windows Firewall filtering.

**To exclude File and Printer Sharing from Windows Firewall

1. On a computer running Windows XP, click Start, click Control Panel, and then click Network Connections.
2. Click Windows Firewall Settings, and then click the Exceptions tab.
3. If necessary, click Edit, and then select the File and Printer Sharing check box.

Solution on Windows Vista

After performing the procedures in the preceding section, you can generate a new Network Map for all computers on the network, including those running Windows XP.

**To generate a new Network Map and connect to all network computers

1. On a computer running Windows Vista, perform the following steps to generate a new Network Map:
2. Start Network and Sharing Center .
3. On the right side of the Status section, click View full map.
4. Right-click the computer running Windows XP, and then click Open.
5. If connectivity issues persist, perform the following steps:
6. Ensure that File and Printer Sharing is excluded from Windows Firewall on the computer running Windows Vista.
7. Consider excluding other services from Windows Firewall on the computer running Windows Vista.

Source: DellCommunity Forums

Issues after installing XP SP3 or Vista SP1 w/ Norton 2008

Symptom:

Problems occur after installing Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1 with a Norton 2008 product installed

Numerous registry keys are added when you upgrade to Windows XP Service Pack 3 or Windows Vista Service Pack 1 with a Norton product installed. Because of these registry keys, you may experience one or more of the following symptoms:

•       Windows Device Manager is empty
•       Missing Wireless network adaptors or other hardware devices
•       Unable to connect using a wireless adapter

Solution:

To fix the problem, download the SymRegFix.exe file.

Source: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/sharedtech.nsf/docid/2008061807392313

Vista SP1 pre-release error “Your Windows License Will Expire.”

Problem: Vista SP1 pre-release error “Your Windows License will expire”

A user who installed pre-release build of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) may experience a message stating “Your Windows License will expire in X days”.

Solution:

Uninstall SP1 from the system before the expiration date shown.

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Programs.
3. Click Programs and Features.
4. Click View installed updates.
5. Click Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330).
6. Click Uninstall.

Source: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/954753/en-us