hpoeng07.exe ate my PC

Just a quick post. I hope it gets indexed by google as this is a nasty one. A document got stuck somehow on our Hewlett Packard G series and hpoeng07.exe ran t0 99% of processor time blocking everything else out or slowing it to a crawl. I checked the printer manager and a document seemed to be stuck. i tried to delete it but could not. I think the spooler was basically trying over and over to free itself which is what was stealing the processor.

After many tries the solution:

1. Ran the task manager (hold CTRL and ALT keys with left hand then dab DEL withright to show)

2. When to the process tab list and selected hpoeng07.exe Clicked end process

3. As I had the printer list open I noticed theprinter was also deleted. (If it isn't try deleting it now the hpoeng07.exe process has been stopped)

4. Obviously if you restart teh machine at this point the problem may just come back. So what I did was added the printer with the same name in the printers list. i.e. I went Add Orinter, followed the steps and ensured it had the same name as it originally did. Seems to be working and this instance of the printer should hopefully block the stuck one from reappearing when if the machine restarts.


The file is from quite old HP printers nearing the end of their life but I hope this tip helps someone!



The tech. bloke

4204 WINS could not read from the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) socket

Bit of a catchy title to todays blog huh?


Source: WINS
Event ID: 4204
Total Occurrences: 36
Message: WINS could not read from the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) socket.

This error message appears in Windows 2003 and repeates over and over every 40 minutes, regular as clockwork ...and I am not the only one suffering. I repeat the solution here because I found it in only one place and after hours of searching: http://www.tutorialsall.com/SBS/WINS-error-244747/

So mirroring the solution on this blog is going to do nothing but good right?

I've kept the longsome signature tag / disclaimer as I guess that's important to Microsoft. Same here - Use at your own risk. Having said that all this fix does is turn off some kind of intermittent server bleep! by making its interval so long it isn't seriously going to reoccur any time soon.




John
Vivamex IT Recruitment
www.vivamex.co.uk
info@vivamex.co.uk

----------------------------------------------------



From your problem description, I understand this issue to be: the SBS
server is experiencing the following error on WINS: "Event ID: 4204 - WINS
could not read from the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) socket." These errors
occur every 40 minutes. If I am off base, please feel free to let me know.

I believe that this issue is the result of a destination host unreachable
message being sent in response the WINS service Automatic Partner
Configuration function. The default is for a multicast service announcement
to be sent out over the wire every 40 minutes. The feature is designed to
let the WINS servers announce themselves for automatic replication. The
idea is as an alternative to statically configured WINS replication
partnerships. Most people are not using this and your issue should be
easily resolvable with the following registry settings:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Wins\Parameters
Entry Value Name: UseSelfFndPnrs
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: 0

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Wins\Parameters
Entry Value Name: McastIntvl
Data type: REG_DWORD
Value: FFFFFFFF

Furthermore, there are also some cases that this issue is caused by Network
Appliance (unknown brand) send the ICMP Port Unreachable back to the server
from the IGMP (multicast) WINS packets. You could take these Network
Appliance offline to resolve this issue.

If you have any questions or concerns related to this issue, please let me
know.

Thanks and have a nice day.

Best Regards,

Steven Zhu
MCSE
Microsoft Online Partner Support
Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
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by entering the secure code mmpng06 when prompted. Once you have
entered the secure code mmpng06, you will be able to update your profile
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When is a password cache safe?

Tricky isn't it? You have an ever growing number of passwords and nowhere to store them. If you just put them on your desktop and the machine is stolen, lost or compromised they will all be open to everyone. If you put them in Excel and protect the sheet you obviously haven't searched the Net recently for MS Office security crackers. (There are many - most Office applications are easily cracked). So what does that leave - the old stalwart of paper and pen perhaps? To me that's vulnerable to physical issues such as fire, burglary flood and just plain mislaying the list. You can actually back up paper if you really want to go that way. ...It's called a photocopier. Online storage then - but who's servers do you trust? I did actually use an old Hotmail account for storing passports at oen point. It worked but I need a net connection all teh time and it became abit clunky finding things.

This leaves password cache programs. You know what worries me about them irrespective fo whether they are paid for or free? Who the hell wrote them and what are they potentially doing with the information? What if the program lay dormant for years sucking up my ID and then spilled it's guts back to its master one 1st April (fools day in the UK).

You know... I think at last I have found the answer. It's here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/keepass Sourceforge is a well respected open source software server where people collaborate and share code behind their software. The great thing about KeePass is not that its better than other password caches, but that you can see the code and if you are that paranoid take it away and read it to see in detail what the program is capable of doing. While I'm not paranoid enough to do that myself I am very sure "the community" as mass gatherings of open source developers are called most probably has (so I don't need to?).

It's enough for me to trust this little desktop application and benefit from the single password opening up multiple others that it offers, together of course with the ability to safely back up copies of the database so I need never lose a code again. I've even put in some other things, like the number of a combination lock we have in the office. If somebody does steal my PC the passwords are safe because they would need to know the master code first. Just having my code database is not enough.

So is that where I keep my bank numbers? Nope - They are solely in my head. Good though KeePass looks it's still IT and if this blog is about anything it's about my deep mistrust of such things despite working in the industry.

On the other hand there is no backup for my brain. Guess I'll just have to keep the one copy in my possession very safe from extreme sports, bar fights and London traffic!

Regards




Vivamex Limited
IT Recruitment by people who know IT
www.vivamex.co.uk

Philips VOIP 321 on Windows 2003

The VOIP 321 is a great phone in principle. It connects to your landline as a DECT (standard wireless telephone) handset and also to Skype - offering both completely wires free.

OK so we want to run Skype cordlessly. What computer system shall we connect it to? The one that's on the most would be ideal really wouldn't it. But that's the server and it runs Windows 2003 (aka W2K3)..

The VOIP 321 only works on XP or Windows 2000 according to the box, the help and the product sheet. And as we will see it actively tries to stop you running it on Windows 2003 at several points. But a bit of low cunning got us there in the end, so read on if you want to do the same...

We plugged the handsetbase into the server's USB and it was recognised as a Human Interface Device (HID) by windows itself. This seemed to go smoothly enough and the Microsoft drivers installed without problem. Always a worry here that I should have used some special Philips drivers instead of Windows just dowingits thing, but as it turns out later the Philip "driver" in question doesn't work quite like that and there is no conflict. You will probably be nagged to reboot. (Like all Microsoft products the HID driver wants a reboot if you so much as sneeze near it). We decided to ignore this for the time being and press on a little further first...

Trying to install the phone software instantly results in failure as we are told that we have the wrong operating system. No problem. Use windows explorer to look at the CD , right click on the setup EXE file, select properties, choose the compatability tab and set the mode to Windows 2000. The setup program then runs.

Next issue - should I update Skype or use the copy on the product disk? I chose to download the new copy despite dire warnings from Philips on screen about compatability. Actually I am more worried about Skype running on W2K3 than I am about the phone not working so I go for the upgrade. Post download it just works, despite also saying that it's for 2000 and XP only.

Unsuprisingly we don't have audio cards in our servers, so I rebooted the server at this point to allow the drivers to take effect. Then when it restarted I went via the control panel to audio devices and ensured VOIP 321 was the recording and playback device (as instructed by the Philips user guide and onscreeninstructions). Then I rebooted as the Microsoft driver install had been complaining about needing to do so.

When it came back Skype worked OK but he handset didn't. Bah!

We wondered what was wrong and read the manual where it talks of some sort of desktop icon. We simply did not have one under Windows 2003. Where there is a desktop icon there is a program. We looked in the windows Start Menu and the Program Files directory but could not see anything new or Philips branded at all.

This was a bit of mystery so we went to one of the desktop machines and installed the software there. The promised icon appeared after the install and chained itself into Skype as Philips had promised. We also had a little look at the start menu and the program files directory. There under Philips\voip321 was the new "driver" as they call it. Hmmm so it comes up on XP but not Windows 2003. Sounds like an installer problem.

We put the CD back in the Win 2K3 system and explored the disk. There we found a setup subdirectory and tried to run Setup1.exe in there by hand. Yes - it was the correct installer but it was having any of Windows 2003. We tried the compatability check again and the installer ran, but half way through it said "compatability check" in its progress bar and refused to go any further.

This really should be the end of the story - Failure! But I came up with a further bit of brute force.

We went back to the XP machine and copied the Philips\VOIP321 directory in its entirety from that machine to the same subdirectories under program files on the server. I clicked the EXE and of course it said we had the wrong operating system again. (Damn you Philips!). So I set the compatability mode to Windows 2000 and tried again.

Success!!

The so called driver ran and caused Skype to open - where we said it was OK for Skype to always trust the Philips program.

Hand set comes alive and on pressing the big red (S) it does now come up with contacts. We tried a call and it worked. Guess what? The computer that is on all the time now has the Skype phone that we want on all the time.

I think the only thing left is to set the Philips program to run automatically when Windows starts - and I'll leave that to you to sort out.

Oh and Philips if you read this: Yes your VOIP321 phone does work on Windows 2003 with no problems at all. I have no idea why you would want to put in program code that keeps saying it doesn't throughout the install process. Servers are on all day and are the ideal place to connect a VOIP phone in the middle of a small office - but they also often run Windows 2003. Is it just me or are you annoying your customers for no reason?




John
http://www.vivamex.co.uk
IT recruitment by people who know IT

The day all the files disappeared

I had left my mail open and went to do some other things. When I came back there was an error message saying that the mail file would not open. No problem - as that's usually a network failure. I looked at some files on the server to check the connection in general and they weren't there.

*Sharp intake of breath*

No files. Not a sausage.

This clearly couldn't be true so the next thing I did was turn everything off and on again in case I was somehow stuck with an old or partial view of things. It's often worth trying, but no dice. The files were still missing.

Never mind we have backups (using a program called Genie). I looked at where the files are stored and to my horror say the most recent file was 6 months ago. For some reason the backup schedule had quietly failed and we had not noticed. A lesson there - check your backups periodically even if you think they are working.

At this point mild panic set it. But we computer experts and made of sterner stuff.

You have all your files missing and a viable old backup. Pop quiz - what do you do? If you think the answer is to install from the old backup you got the answer wrong. When files go missing it is because they have been marked for deletion. I say marked because what happens is that Windows just makes the space available for programs to reuse. It does not actually securely delete anything. So that... The very worst thing you can do to a location where files just vanished is copy something onto it such as reinstalling a poor/aged backup. That would write to the disk where your files are still lying hidden and potentially scribble data all over them because they look like empty space.

No - the answer is that your backup set isn't going to go away. You can try that option any time as a nuclear last resort. What you need to try first is undeleting the files that mysterious vanished. To do this you need an undeleter or uneraser.

Where do these come from? In general its best to try either a cover disk or a download site because those places have editors who will delete anything that is proving a worse cure than the problem. We went to http://www.download.com andhad a look. Searching for undelete or alternatively unerase will find you some options. If you are wise the next thing you will do is read the user opinions of these downloads. Some unerasers will only handle a few files, some only show you what they could allegedly undelete if you paid for them and some only recover files below a certain size.

We tried a few on sample files that I deliberately created in word and excel and then deleted. They failed to recover the data despite being able to see it. So we didn't go for them.

I then tried O&O disk recovery which we had a copy of from a cover disk. It recovered everything but named it the same... FILE00001.XLS FILE00002.XLS etc. When I opened these I found they were indeed our lost Excel files (hoorah). But there were so many of them and also some broken ones that were from way back and only part recovered. We decided that the problem was the tool was simply too powerful. We wer clearly using something that ignored what it knew of file names and crawled the whole disk in fine detail looking for anything that might be of a known type. In short it looked an outstanding tool for utter distaster recovery but was inappropriate for a simple case of accidental deletion.

We then looked round O&O's site and found their uneraser. The fact that disk recovery tool had worked (and we also know of their market leading defrag tool) now gave us confidence. Uneraser is one of those tools whose demonstration mode is to show you what it could unerase if it wanted to. We ran it on our damaged server and it immediately identified and named the missing files. ...Pretty encouraging.

So wallet in hand we bit the bullet registered the thing and received the license key. Of course if your mail went with the server you will have to use a hotmail account or something, as we did, to retrieve the key. Don't buy an uneraser on line and have the key sent to your broken mail account. ...That would just be dumb :-)

Ran it again and unerased to a completely different hard disk. This is one important step! Never unerase to the same disk as the one with deleted files on it if you can help it. It's worth sticking in a drive from an old PC or taking your hard disk round a mates - anything other than writing files onto the very space you are trying to retrieve. We were lucky. Being a server it genuinely had two large disks and we unerased from one to the other.

Bingo! all our files came back. So chalk one up to O&O. To say it was painless, once we had headed in this directionis an understatement. It found andput back a whole tree of over 1.6 GB from a single command directed at the root of those files.

Later when we put the files back inplace and started using things we found the main mailboxes were missing and had not unerased. I presume because they were in progress when the crash occured and did not have the same "simply deleted" status. :-(

We are going to have a go with O&O disk recovery and see if we can pull those files back from the disk now using its heavier capabilities. ...But that's another story and another tool for another day. Worst case we can use that old backup I was talking about to fill in the missing files, bar recent mails.


John
http://www.vivamex.co.uk
IT Recruitment by IT People

Fear and Loathing

This is a blog about IT based things that played us up at Vivamex and we EVENTUALLY got out of somehow or other.

Our company is part data management expert consultancy http://www.vivamex.com and part IT recruitment agency http://www.vivamex.co.uk. So when it comes to computers we do have a fair idea of what's going on and why. Yet still the fiendish little beasts insist on giving us problems on a frequent basis. why? Why? WHY!?? (Oh but we hate it when they do).

Having said that, we do have a lot of experience at picking out and applying solutions, so what we are going to do here is make a few notes as we go along that may be useful to others with similar issues. Then we'll index the blog up on Google and elsewhere so you can perhaps find it if you are stuck and our own IT problems will do someone else some good.

There are plenty of other help sites out there. But they often give clues and half answers. Plus of course some sites are now insisting that you register or worse still pay before you can see the answers. Here you'll get a full blog style commentary - including some flavour of our annoyance at our own difficulties, so at least you won't feel alone in your own troubles. And of course no registration or payment. We are all in this together after all.

For the computers hate us too. 'Tis sadly true.

...But then they hate everyone.