Solution: Mouse Cursor in Windows 7 Disappears
I reinstalled Windows 7 on my MSI Wind U123 today because of a number of problems with sound input and PulseAudio on Fedora 13 that I couldn't be buggered to fix. After the install, I ran Windows Update as normal, rebooted, and then noticed that my mouse cursor was gone. I could still click around and select things, so I knew the mouse was working, however I couldn't see it.
Searching Google proved worse than useless. The two best solutions listed were to either enable pointer tails (annoying) or lower the hardware acceleration level on your video card. Although true that both of these options will work, they both suck.
The real fix? Install the correct video drivers. As it turns out, when I ran Windows Update I accidentally selected the Intel Graphics driver update, which caused the problem. After downloading and installing the correct driver direct from Intel the cursor suddenly reappeared. Magic!
TL;DR Version: If your mouse cursor disappears, go to your video card manufacturer's website and get the drivers from them.
An HTC DoA: Part 1
When Google first offered the Nexus One in Canada (by making a GSM version for AT&T, which is compatible with Rogers, Telus, and Bell in Canada), I jumped on. I had my order in the day the web store was updated, and in my hands by the end of the same week. Despite the cost, I consider it the best gadget purchase I've ever made.
Fast-forward to last week. With my wifes birthday coming up, I thought it would be nice to surprise her with a trip to the local Telus dealer (her carrier) for a shiny new phone. After looking at their offerings (the only two real considerations were the Motorola Milestone and the HTC Hero), she decided that she'd come down with a case of Phone Envy and wanted a Nexus One as well.
So, no big deal - we ordered the phone and waited. Unfortunately, due to the stat holiday on July 1st, the phone didn't arrive on Friday like expected and instead came in yesterday (the following Monday). I left the phone plugged in to charge, and when the light turned green to say all was well I fired it up.
And waited.
And waited some more.
The Boot Screen on my other, unlocked (and functional) Nexus One
After about five minutes of staring at the above picture (minus the lock on the bottom, as I hadn't gotten around to doing that yet), I got the feeling something was wrong.
I powered off the phone by pulling out the battery, then booted in to HBOOT mode (hold down the VOLUME DOWN key while pressing Power). That worked fine, so I tried to enter recovery. Unfortunately, I was met with the same screen. I tried several more times for both normal mode and recovery without success. Then I gave up and called Google.
At this point, I'd like to point out that I'm fairly certain it's just a software error. Unfortunately, the only way I could really do anything about that would be to Unlock the phone, which voids the warranty. As such, the call to support was warranted.
I called the number listed on the Google Phone Contact Support page (1-888-48-NEXUS) and after a few quick IVR choices I was greeted nearly immediately by a tech. He asked about the problem, what I had tried, and immediately agreed the phone was D0A and would need to be replaced. That's when things started to go downhill.
The problem is that I live in Canada, and HTC has a different policy for international orders than their standard 'send you a replacement and then send the old one back' policy for domestic ones. If you live in Canada and get a DoA phone, you have two options:
- Send it back via their normal repair process and get a refurbished phone (no option for a new one)
- Initiate a 'Buyers Remorse' return, get a refund for the device, and then order a new one.
The choice was fairly obvious - I ordered my wife a new phone, so that's what she was going to get. After gathering a little more information, the Google tech transfered me over to HTC support to process the return order.
As the new tech was going over the specifics, a thought occurred:
Me: Okay, so I do the return, and within 14 business days of you receiving the device and okay'ing everything, you credit the purchase price back, correct?
Tech: Yes, that's correct.
Me: So what about the duty charge that I had to pay CoD?
Tech: Oh, that. Hang on. --Pause-- Okay, I checked on that, and what happens is you'll get some paperwork from us once the refund has been processed. Once you have that paperwork, contact Customs and they'll be able to issue a refund.
So at this point, I may have to wait three weeks for credit from HTC (although apparently it usually doesn't take that long), and then I can file a claim to get my ~$70CAD that I paid for taxes back.
All was said and done, and I prompted received a confirmation email repeating what the agent said. However, as of posting I still haven't received a FedEx shipping label in my email as promised. I called HTC back, and they escalated the ticket and said they'd resend the label, so now I'm waiting on that. Once I've got the label in and the phone sent away, I'll order another N1 and see what happens.
Howto: Find the Serial Number on a new Dell Monitor
I picked up a few Dell P2210t 22" widescreen LCD monitors the other day.
Very nice!
As part of my asset acquisition process, I have to document serial numbers and assign an asset tags to each new asset. When I turned the monitor around, though, I ran in to a problem:
WTH?
Hey, uh, Dell? Did you forget something?
Well, actually they didn't. Apparently all of the required labeling is too much of an 'eye sore', so Dell has decided to hide it:
Pretty Sneaky, Dell
I would have appreciated it if Dell would have made more of an effort to point out where it is (I actually had to refer to the unpacking diagram to show me), but that's it. Hidden with the USB ports is a small little pull-out card. Now that I know it's there, though, it does make it easier to get a serial number off of a monitor when I have to figure out which asset belongs to which program when someone has inevitably pulled off the asset tag.
Fun Fact - Number of times the word 'ass' appears in this post: 6.
Dell Packaging
I ordered a bunch of new kit last week, and in typical Dell fashion they decided to send the order to me as they get the parts, rather than just send it all at once. This morning, I received the first piece:
Seriously, Dell? All that for one lousy DVI extension cable? Well, at least they're still better than HP.
From the Search Results: Backing Up
To the person who found my blog by searching for "raid 1 backup", please note: RAID IS NOT AN ACCEPTABLE BACKUP SOLUTION!
Any method of RAID (other than RAID0) is good for protecting against failing hard drives. However, it is by no means a backup solution, as it doesn't save your data from things like accidental deletion, file system corruption, users, and malicious software. If you're looking for a backup solution, investigate external hard drives, SAN/NAS devices, tape backup units, etc....
Please. For the sake of your data, get a real backup solution.
Short: Kensington 0, Me 1
Kensington makes a decent desktop lock. However, they're nothing that ten minutes and a pair of wire snips can't take care of - it's a very effective way of unlocking a case when the key has been lost for years....
As a side note, the magnets in old hard drives make for a perfect method of removing small metal shards from ones flesh. Just sayin'.
Support: I Want This Guy On Speed Dial
Although today has been a real Gong Show, my morning was brightened by, of all things, a chat with Dell Support:
10:04:03 AM System You are now being connected to an agent. Thank you for using Dell Chat
10:04:03 AM System Connected with ***_Oliver_******10:04:08 AM ***_Oliver_******: Hi, thank you for contacting DELL Canada support, my name is Oliver, how may I help you?
10:05:01 AM Laslow: I have a system that is unable to POST. If I remove the video card and use the onboard video, it POSTs fine. If I take the video card from an identical unit and try that, it also works fine. It appears that the video card is defective, and I need a replacement sent out.
10:07:13 AM ***_Oliver_******: I'll do my best to assist you with this one.
10:07:48 AM ***_Oliver_******: I could see here that system is an ***** and warranty is active until *****.10:07:55 AM Laslow: That is correct.
10:08:58 AM ***_Oliver_******: I'll replace this.
10:09:13 AM ***_Oliver_******: Would you like me to send an onsite tech ?10:09:21 AM Laslow: No thank you - the part will be fine.
10:09:33 AM ***_Oliver_******: May I have the shipping address?
10:09:58 AM Laslow: ***** ***** ***** *****
10:11:23 AM ***_Oliver_******: By the way, may I know who's the registered owner of the system?
10:12:46 AM Laslow: ***** ***** ***** *****
10:13:28 AM ***_Oliver_******: Thanks. I'll go ahead and process the case and dispatch. This would take me about 5 minutes. Hold on.
10:13:34 AM Laslow: Thank you.
10:13:39 AM ***_Oliver_******: Would you like me to send the reference numbers thru email instead?
10:13:50 AM Laslow: That would be greatly appreciated.
10:14:49 AM ***_Oliver_******: Please wait for the part next business day. Return to us the old part not later than ten days once the replacement part is received. You could use the same box that came in with it.
10:14:54 AM ***_Oliver_******: Anything else I can help you with?10:15:09 AM Laslow: No, that is fine. Thank you very much! You have been very helpfull!
10:15:19 AM ***_Oliver_******: Would you like me to contact you to followup on this?
10:15:36 AM Laslow: No, that will not be required.
10:17:39 AM ***_Oliver_******: Ok. Thank you! Thank you for choosing DELL, have a good day!
10:17:51 AM Laslow: Thanks again!
Support: Those Pesky BIOS/Windows Video Drivers
Yesterday, a staff member told me one of the public-access computers was on the fritz - specifically, the screen was black and the fans were on full. Going over to investigate and try the basic troubleshooting, it looked like it had a dead motherboard, so I took it back to my work bench for further troubleshooting.
As the system was a Dell, it had a set of Diagnostic LEDs on the front to help diagnose the problem. Unfortunately, looking up the Optiplex 745 manual, it didn't list the particular code the lights were showing: 1 3 4.
Looking through the listed codes, most of the ones related to 1 or 3 4 were for either faulty RAM or a bad memory controller, so I started there. I tried removing one stick, then replacing it and removing the other, using a completely different stick, and then none at all. Each time I was met with the same diagnostic code, 1 3 4.
Convinced I had the problem pin-pointed, I tried to get on to Dell's Live Chat Hardware Support to get a replacement motherboard as the system was still covered by Next Business Day parts. The site, unfortunately, was down, so I was forced to call Dell instead.
Now, there's a reason that I typically use Live Chat instead of the phone. The main reason is on Live Chat, I can quickly bang-out the troubleshooting I've already done, and 9 times out of 10, the tech will just send me the part. Phone support is rarely that easy, and this time was no exception.
The wait time was average (maybe about 5 minutes), and once I got the agent on, I quickly rattled off my troubleshooting and told him the diagnostic code. He put me on hold for a few minutes and when he came back, told me that the diagnostic code 1 3 4 on an Optiplex 745 means the video card isn't working. Figuring it would be easy enough to test, I pulled out the PCI-E video card and switch to the onboard video. Sure enough, it worked.
At this point, I figured we'd be done. I didn't have another PCI-E card to make sure it wasn't the slot, but I supposed out loud that if I got the replacement card and it didn't work, I could always send it back, make another call, and get a motherboard sent out. The 'tech' had another idea, though.
Him: There's actually one more troubleshooting step I'd like to try.
Me: Okay, what's that?
Him: Well, leave the video card out, boot in to Windows, go to Device Manager and remove the device. Then turn the computer off, put the video card back in, and see if it work.
Him: I just want to see if the driver is the problem.
Me: ...what?
At this point, I nearly hung up the phone. Instead, I figured a little education would be in order.
Me: Okay, I think you might be a little confused. The problem is that, with the video card in, the system won't even POST properly. I fail to see how a Windows driver could possibly be the problem, because at this stage in the boot process, the computer has no clue what operating system is on the hard drive. It hasn't even looked to see if there's a hard drive there. How can a driver possibly be the problem.
Him: Sir, it's just part of my troubleshooting process.
Me: Okay, I'll humor you. I'm going to pretend to boot my computer.
Him: No, I need you to actually--
Me (interrupting): Now I'm going to pretend to open Device Manager. Oh, would you look at that! Because the video card isn't present, it's not showing in the list.*
Him: ...oh. Well, I guess we can send you a replacement video card....
Me: I thought so.
This morning, I received a call back from Dell asking me if I'd received the video card. I said no, and he told me that the card had been delivered and signed for. Figuring that maybe Purolator had delivered it to the wrong office, I put the agent on hold and checked around, but nobody had received anything today. Going back to the agent, I asked who signed for it, at which point he informed me that it hadn't been delivered yet and would likely arrive this afternoon. Gee, thanks for that.
*Note: I'm aware that you can make Device Manager show non-present device by following this KB article, however that would have only confused the poor agent and wouldn't have made a difference anyway.
Short: From the Search Results
To the person who found my blog my searching for "where is the power button on ibm x3400":
Behind the front cover (you have to remove it - it pops off on the left-hand-side), in the top-left, immediately beside the power light, as below:
It's the white button beside the green power light
IBM has a sense of humour?
A few weeks ago, my Exchange Server had a series of unfortunate problems, and in the end the planar board had to be replaced (I'll eventually get around to doing a blog post about that gong show). When the (first) replacement board arrived, I had to take a picture of the asset labeling on the box. In light of the whole situation, 'C0KZUP' was certainly appropriate.
The entry for 'Loc-emplacement', whatever that is.
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