Month: August 2011

  Symptoms: Windows updates pops up with the warning that Microsoft Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 updates repeatedly have to be installed. After a successful installation the pop-up windows starts again in a couple of minutes. Repetitive installation or new start does not solve the problem. Cause: The problem is caused by a false… Continue reading Microsoft Core Services 4.0 Service Pack 2 updates repeatedly

  Symptoms: Windows client does not show any new installable updates. After each restart and logon the computer CPU works at 50-90% for about 10 minutes. Under C:\windows\windowsupdates.log the last line include: 2009-02-27 17:13:48:934 1780 2b8 AU # WARNING: Search callback failed, result = 0x80244010 2009-02-27 17:13:48:934 1780 2b8 AU # WARNING: Failed to find… Continue reading Windows client cannot install new updates and the CPU is overloaded

  Symptoms:Your Latitude laptop cannot be shut down or restarted at all when on docking station model Standard E-Port Replicator. It shuts down without the docking station though. The typical behavioral pattern is as follows: you start the laptop with a mounted E-Port Replicator after that unmount/undock, then mount the laptop back again and try… Continue reading Dell Latitude E6400 Shutdown Problem

Symptoms: During boot process you press F12 to access DELL Diagnostics. You receive a message "DELL utility partition can’t be found"     Cause: This can happen if DELL’s hidden OEM partition has somehow become corrupt or is deleted or unavailable. For example if you replaced your HDD. Or if you reinstalled an OS, deleteing… Continue reading How to Recreate DELL Utility Partition

  Symptoms: Whenever you try to run sfc /scannow you get the following error: "Windows File Protection could not initiate a scan of protected system files. The specific error code is 0x000004dd [The operation being requested was not performed because the user has not logged on to the network. The specified service does not exist]."… Continue reading Sfc error code 0x000004dd

I just had a nasty experience under Linux: this is actually by default for windows administrators, I know, but still… The task was to recreate a logical volume using LVM, utilizing old hard disks. The online recommendation in such cases is to erase the data from the disks before assigning them to a (physical) volume… Continue reading Erasing GPT disk with dd