Outlook 2003 messages stuck in outbox. The outbox is empty.

ran into this strange problem. Basically, the problem is stuck read receipts.There is a utility to clean out the receipts. I used outlook spy. More info and instructions can be found at the website below.


http://www.outlook-tips.net/howto/delete_rr.htm

XP Service Pack 3: Access Denied

I had a stubborn service pack 3 issue. Luckily, there is a solution on the internet.

I found out about it on this website.

http://www.askvg.com/windows-xp-service-pack-3-sp3-setup-error-access-is-denied/

I uploaded the bat file needed here

Here is the excerpt from the website:

Service Pack 3 setup error. Access is denied.

OR

Service Pack 3 setup error. Service Pack installation did not complete.

If you are also facing the same problem, then follow these simple steps and your problem should be solved:

1. Download and install the Subinacl.exe file from here.

2. Open Notepad and paste following code:

cd /d "%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools"
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
subinacl /subdirectories %windir%\*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f
secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

3. Save the file with name "SP3.bat".

4. Now right-click on the file and select "Run as administrator". It might take some time to complete.

5. After completion, restart your system and now you should be able to install SP3.

Who crashed me? Find out why windows is crashing

There is a free "home" version that deciphers the minidumps that windows creates when it detects a crash. I recommend this software for anyone trying to decipher what piece of hardware or driver software is causing the failure.

My google mail will not open, Activex problems.

I had a customer complain that her email was not working. I checked out the email on my side of the world and everything was working great. Since it worked great for me, it must have been something wrong with her computer. I was right, when she logged into the webmail client it was throwing an error and sending her back to the sign in page.

" Gmail requires ActiveX controls to be enabled. Your browser seems to be IE and ActiveX seems to be disabled.”

I checked the settings in internet explorer. They all checked out. It turns out, a file needed to run activex in internet explorer was unregistered after the customer's last bout of spyware removal. msxml3.dll
To fix I simply:

Clicked the 'Start' button in Windows.
Selected 'Run.'
Entered 'regsvr32 msxml3.dll' in the 'Open:' field,
Clicked 'Ok'

For some discussion from the web on this issue goto:
http://www.googlecommunity.com/about15269.html

Cold Power - Laptop motherboard is bad or is it?

Here is a tip to all the people whose laptop will not turn on. I have had customers pay $300 to get a bad diagnosis on laptop that will not turn on.
::Cough::Tech Room in Newport Beach::Cough::

I got a laptop to sell on eBay from a client who had a laptop diagnosed as having a bad motherbaord and not worth fixing. I do not know why the client did not take the laptop to me in the first place but it was probably a good thing in the long run. It turns out that the power supply did not supply power anymore. The DC jack was not defective nor was the motherboard faulty. If the technician would have bothered to touch the power supply, after an hour of being plugged into the wall , the technician might have noticed the power supply was cold. ..

I ordered a $30 power supply(off eBay) for the Sony Laptop and presto, laptop turneth on.
I think the concept the helps out is that electricity gives off heat.(exothermic) If the power supply is working it should get moderately warm. Some get hot!

I have used this same theory to help a customer whose scanner was not working anymore. The AC Adapter(power supply) was not getting warm. On closer inspection, the ac adapter was falling apart.
Before one assumes a Laptop's dc jack or motherboard is bad there should be some evidence. I.E. the DC jack might wiggle or the laptop has a burning smell etc.

Missing CD-Rom or DVD-RW Drives

Once every 3 months or so I have see a recurring problem. I have only seen this problem on XP and earlier versions of windows so I hope it is fixed by now in newer versions. If someone installs burning software or other DVD/CD-Rom type software on a computer., it can make the drives disappear. The drive(s) will get power and the trays will eject. However, the computer will not be able to burn cds or read any disks. Device manager might show up with a yellow exclamation point or it might not.

The key to fix it is remove the upper or lower filters settings in the Windows Registry.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060

Click the link above for more info or to download the file to fix this problem.
Backup copy here http://fixingmypc.com/DeleteLowerAndUpperFiltersForCDDevices.msi

Screen goes Blank loading windows xp

An interesting variation on the blank screen/no video when loading windows xp problem. Normally, i blame the video card driver or the graphics driver as device manager calls it. I simply enable vga mode before xp loads and then fix the underlying driver issue. The weird thing with this computer was that the monitor would go black/blank even in vga mode and safe mode.

I loaded up my trusty bart pe / winPE boot cd and all off the computer's functions work flawlessly. I checked for weird spyware and other malware issues to see if they were to blame. I checked all of the usual suspects. I figured the problem was a weird registry or setting issue. Since this was an XP computer, system restore was enabled and had snapshots going back as far as 3 months. I accessed the hidden file in the root of the drive containing backups of the major registry branches. I renamed the current registry hives,( system and software) to system.old and software.old. Next, I simply copied the respective hives to their new home in c:\windows\system32\config
Almost magically, the pc fired up and the screen had color in all the right places.

I could have googled the problem as I am sure there are many solutions to this problem. Yet, I think this solution was very effective. There was no data lost and the only problems would be if the customer had installed any recent software or hardware in the last 7 days. Fortunately, that was not the case.