Error Code 0×80096001 – Windows Vista
This morning, a co-worker asked me to help them with a computer they couldn’t fix. It was a laptop running Windows Vista Home Basic and it had NEVER checked for nor installed any Windows Updates. Every time the computer attempted to check for updates, it gave error 0×80096001. Thinking I would be slick and have it fixed in less than a minute, I tried the following that usually fixes almost any Windows Update problem I encounter:
net stop wuauserv
rd /s softwaredistribution
Y
net start wuauserv
But it didn’t work this time, the computer still failed to check for updates and still gave error 0×80096001. So then I figured I would just download the redistributable Service Pack 1 for Vista, install it, and see if it would take care of the problem. So I did…and it didn’t 
It gave the same error just a few seconds after starting the installation.
The Fix
Running out of ideas – I decided to reboot the computer, press F8, select the Repair utility, and run ‘chkdsk /f c:’ from the command prompt. It fixed a lot of issues with the file-system and everything is working/installing now after I rebooted.
In: general, windows, work
rsync to samba file-share
This morning I was working on a script to put in cron that would rsync a few local folders to a network file-share via samba. It was mostly working, but there was some data that wouldn’t copy over and the shell output was giving me the following error:
rsync: chown “/files/to/rsync″ failed: Permission denied (13)
After reading around a bit, I discovered that this was happening because I was using the “-a” argument for rsync. When running in archive mode, rsync attempts to chown files and that samba file-share may not be configured to give you permissions to do this.
So I fixed this little detail and now my script runs like a charm.
Intel ProSET – Wrong Language or Localization
I just had an employee bring his laptop to me and it was unable to see any wireless networks using the Windows Wireless Zero Config app. Everything seemed OK with the Intel wireless adapter so I decided to see if the PROset software utility would work instead. The problem was, the employee had the Chinese language selected as default in his Windows XP installation…
This caused PROset to attempt to display text in Chinese, but mostly only ????? was displayed. After consulting Google, I found a solution that ultimately allowed me to solve the initial problem. Here are the steps:
- Click Start, go to Run, type regedit, & hit enter.
- Navigate to the following in the Registry: HKLM\Software\Intel\Wireless
- Double-click InstalledLangID, click decimal, type 1033, & hit enter.
- Double-click InstalledLangShortString and change the value to ENG
- Kill and restart the iFramewrk.exe process OR just restart your computer.
Now Intel PROset should display legibly for you.
Windows 7 – Can’t See Specific Bluetooth Device
I ran into a problem on a co-worker’s Windows 7 computer yesterday when his bluetooth keyboard just stopped working. It was an Apple bluetooth keyboard, but it had been working fine for a couple of days so there shouldn’t have been an issue.
We started with some standard troubleshooting:
- Turned keyboard off, then back on in “discovery” mode. – Didn’t work, the computer wouldn’t see the device, but 3 other computers could see it and pair with it successfully…this told us nothing was wrong with the bluetooth module on the keyboard.
- Tried to discover and pair my Apple bluetooth keyboard with his Windows 7 computer. – My device was immediately discovered and pairing was not a problem…this told us there must be some glitch/corruption with the computer or bluetooth stack that is directly related to the hardware profile of his specific keyboard.
Once we were able to make this determination, we knew we had to find where the computer might be holding some information about this device. Our belief was that we could restore connectivity to the device by removing this information and allowing it to be regenerated. In our quest to find and remove this data, we went to:
> Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Devices and Printers
Sure enough, the keyboard was listed as a device. So we highlighted it and hit the delete key. As soon as we did this, his keyboard was “discovered” by the computer and it paired successfully.
I’m not sure if this was just a freak thing or if it might prove to be a more widespread issue, but if you have a similar problem perhaps this will give you a starting point. Please leave a comment if you experience an issue like this, if this fixed your problem, or if you found a different way to solve the issue.
In: general, windows, work
Make base-software installation a breeze with ‘Ninite’
Ninite was brought to my attention by a co-worker a couple of days ago. Since I’m always wiping hard drives and re-installing operating systems, I’m always spending tons of time installing what I like to call “base-software” so the client’s machine is mostly usable when I return it.
In my case, installing Firefox, Adobe Reader, Flash, Java, CCleaner, 7-zip, WinRAR, WinSCP, Putty isn’t necessarily time consuming…but it DOES save time being able to install all the latest versions at once. Plus the apps are silently installed in the background, with all the defaults, and NO toolbars or search-assistants are installed!
It also saves me from having to periodically update a local repository I maintain. In addition, I’ve also found Ninite’s offerings of AVG, Audacity, and Eclipse useful in specific cases.
In: general, windows, work
Thunderbird Won’t Open…
I use the Mozilla Thunderbird client to check our departmental e-mail account. This morning, it hung on me and I had to Force-Quit the application. Every time I tried to re-open the application after that, I kept getting the following message:
Close Thunderbird. A copy of Thunderbird is already open. Only one copy of Thunderbird can be open at a time.
Not wanting to restart my iMac – because of other tasks I had running and also because I was uncertain this would even help – I searched around and found this MozillaZine Knowledge Base Article. If you aren’t into all the technical stuff, here’s what it boiled down to for me…
My profile was locked and I had to unlock it. Depending on your OS, the lock may have the following file name:
- Windows – “parent.lock”
- Mac OS X – “.parentlock”
- Linux – “lock” and “.parentlock”
Once you know the file you are seeking, go to your Profile Folder and delete the lock file.
Please note that file names beginning with a “.” are considered hidden files and may not be viewable through a file/folder browser. On a Mac or Linux OS, the easiest way to remove the lock file is to use a Terminal application. Here’s how I did it:
rm /User/myusername/Library/Thunderbird/Profiles/myprofilestring.default/.parentlock
Of course I’m using a Mac, but the command in Linux will be similar just with a different location for the file.
In: apple, general, linux, windows, work
Mount Time Capsule in Linux
I recently decided to swap my home file-server from OpenSuse to FreeNAS. I needed to temporarily copy all the data somewhere, and my Time Capsule seemed to make sense. Only problem was, I’d never mounted it on my Linux box before. It turns out to be really simple though, here’s how:
- Create a mount point on your Linux box:
sudo mkdir /mnt/time_capsule - Mount the Time Capsule to the mount point:
sudo mount.cifs //IP address/"Time Capsule name"/ /mnt/time_capsule -o pass=password
In my case, the command looked like this:
sudo mount.cifs //192.168.1.10/"Clay's Time Capsule"/ /mnt/time_capsule -o pass=password
I hope this helps and I really recommend FreeNAS…you should check it out.
Symantec Endpoint prevents iPhone/iTunes sync – Windows
I just came across this issue this afternoon with one of our administrative employees. He decided to contact me after having attended my iPhone training course that is offered quarterly to our faculty/staff. He was unable to sync his iPhone 3G with his laptop because iTunes would lock up for several minutes after connecting the device and then pop up this error message:
The message: “iTunes was unable to load data class information from sync services” was quite cryptic and not very descriptive, but I was able to find an Apple Support Article – TS2690 Outlining 3 possible causes/fixes:
1. Ensure that you have the latest version of iTunes.
2. Outdated versions of Symantec Endpoint Protection may cause this issue. If Symantec Endpoint Protection is installed on your system, confirm that it has been updated to Manufacturer Release 3 or later.
3. If you have third-party Bricopacks like Vista Ultimate Inspirat 2 installed on this system, remove them to resolve this issue.
So we made an appointment and I stopped by his office to take a look and see what could be done. This specific issue was caused by a combination of #1 and #2. After updating to the latest version of iTunes and rebooting, I discovered the problem was still there. Then I discovered his machine was running Symantec Endpoint Protection MR1. After upgrading him to MR4, we were able to download/install iPhone OS 3.0 and perform a sync to pull in his contacts, calendar, and bookmarks.
KSOD Fix – blacK Screen of Death, Vista
This info was provided by Eric Jernigan of http://www.omrebels.com:
The blacK Screen Of Death is where you can boot up and only your mouse is showing…nothing else. Its caused by a bad log file and on boot up it tries to read the log file and just gets hung up.
REN C:\Windows\System32\Winevt\Logs Logs_Badmkdir C:\Windows\System32\Winevt\LogsDIR C:\Windows\System32\Winevt\Logs (just to check)
Dell Latitude E6400/E6500 Won’t Sleep
We have had a number of Latitude E6400/E6500 laptops that would not sleep, standby, hibernate, or whatever else when the lid was closed. To make things worse, opening the lid would result in the display not turning back on. Pressing keys, mouse buttons, track-pad, power button would not help.
It turns out this problem occurs if you have XP SP3 installed instead of Vista. Windows Update for XP includes a driver update for the integrated webcam called “Creative Technology – Streaming Media and Broadcast – Integrated Webcam”. Installing this driver causes the problem. To fix the issue, roll-back the driver to version 1.3.2.919:
If you don’t find this screenshot helpful, do the following:
- Right-Click on ‘My Computer’
- Click ‘Properties’
- Go to the ‘Hardware’ tab
- Click the ‘Device Manager’ button
- Click the ‘+’ beside ‘Imaging Devices’
- Right-Click on ‘Integrated Webcam’ and click ‘Properties’
- Select the ‘Driver’ tab and click the ‘Roll Back Driver’ button
- The driver version should be changed to 1.3.2.919
- Restart your computer if prompted and then you should be able sleep, standby, or hibernate the computer