Hyper-V on the Dell Optiplex

With the correct BIOS settings enabled on a E8500 processor (see http://processorfinder.intel.com/ for the processors that support EM64T, Virtualisation and Execute Disable which is needed for Hyper-V to work), and with them and the Trusted Execution property set to On in the BIOS I got the following errors with Hyper-V RC1 on Windows 2008 Enterprise Server RTM (running Server Core):

• Hyper-V launch failed; Either VMX not present or not enabled in BIOS.
• Hyper-V launch failed; at least one of the processors in the system does not appear to provide a virtualization platform supported by Hyper-V.

Fixed this by rebooting and pressing F2 to enter the BIOS and disabling the following settings

• Security > Execute Disable (set to Off)
• Performance > Virtualization (set to Off)
• Performance > VT for Direct I/O Access (set to Off)
• Performance > Trusted Execution (set to Off)

Press Esc and save settings. When the server reboots do a hard power off. Power on, and then in the BIOS again ensure that the following is set:

• Security > Execute Disable (set to On)
• Performance > Virtualization (set to On)
• Performance > VT for Direct I/O Access (set to On)
• Performance > Trusted Execution (set to Off)

Press Esc and save settings. Hard power off again once the server reboots. Turn power on and let computer boot normally.

At this point I got an Hyper-V error in that the entries in the event log above did not appear anymore, but were replaced by an error indicating that Hyper-V was not installed.

So I removed Hyper-V by running:

• ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V /uninstall

and reboot.

Reinstall Hyper-V by downloading the latest build and install it using:

• wusa

or if you have the latest build already installed, then reinstall using:

• ocsetup Microsoft-Hyper-V

Media Player 11 jumps or skips near end of songs

Finally fixed this one! On Windows Media Player 11, running on Vista on Dell hardware the sound-card (with a SigmaTel device) would ruin the end of every song, but sync the song to a mobile device or use a different media player (VLC for example) and the songs play the bit near the end fine.

The problem is the device and its interaction with Windows Media Player. For the device you need to disable the playback enhancements.

This is done from Control Panel > Sounds. Right-click the Speakers/Headphones entry and choose Properties. On the Enhancements tab select Disable all enhancements. I did not need to reboot or even restart Media Player as I have read reported.

SMTP Server for Orange Mobiles Running Windows Mobile 6

For a while now I have been unable to send my personal email from my mobile phone (running WM6 on the Orange network in the UK). I could download email via IMAP from my server (not hosted by Orange), but never send.

So after doing a bit of research I discoved that the SMTP server is smtp.orange.net, but that did not work. Further playing around with the settings on my found found me clicking the Advanced link under the SMTP server field in the account options settings. Here I choose Orange World as the network, and emails were instantly sent.

Instructions: From your IMAP account in WM6 click Menu > Tools > Options. Click your IMAP account in the list (or add a new account), click Next (filling in fields correctly if adding a new account) until you get to the Outgoing (SMTP) mail server page. Here enter smtp.orange.net and click Advanced Server Settings.

Under Advanced Server Settings select Orange World for the value of the Network Connection. Click Done and then Next a few times until Finish.

Blogger Blogs in Outlook - Incorrect Dates

This has been obvious to me for a while - whenever I viewed this blog in Outlook 2007 via the common RSS feed store, the dates were all incorrect and so new posts appeared at random within the list.

I finally found a fix yesterday - the post was based upon ATOM technology and not RSS technology. I have therefore changed the subscribe link on the site to add ?alt=rss to the end of the link.

If you subscribe to this blog please delete it from your feed store in IE 7 and resubscribe at http://reidablog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss.

Exchange Server 2007 Rollup Update 5

The latest version of the Exchange 2007 update is Update Rollup 5 for Exchange Server 2007 - this can be downloaded from here (64 bit and 32 bit versions now available).

Microsoft plan to do these releases rather than issue hotfixes as the method of engineering Exchange has changed since the previous versions, and KB937194 describes why this is. Each update rollup contains all the previous updates, so you only need to deploy this patch and not any earlier patches as well.

If you have not yet installed Exchange 2007 yet, copy this patch to the Update folder on your installation point and it will get slipstreamed into the installation automatically upon running Setup.

Note that unlike updates #1 and #2, a 32bit version of this update is available so this update can be applied to test and virtual computer systems and labs.

Error Code: 500 Internal Server Error. The network logon failed. (1790)

This is an error visible in the web browser when connecting to a HTTPS web site behind an ISA Server.

The problem is that the firewall access rule for this web site in ISA Server is forwarding the requests to an internal server on a port that it is not listening on. For example you connect to https://server.example.com and the ISA Server forwards this request to http://internalsrv. On the Bridging tab check that the mentioned port(s) are actually working on the internal server. For example if you are listening in ISA Server on 443 for a SSL connection and the SSL/HTTPS port is ticked make sure that the port is 443, and that the web server internally is listening on 443. If its another number make sure that it is meant to be the other number and not really 443 or not ticked at all. Ditto for the HTTP port, which is 80 by default.

Can't Update Media Player Library on Windows SmartPhone

I have found for a while now that I could not view the Windows Media Player library on my phone, and everytime I viewed the library I got a dialog saying "An unexpected error occured". But now I have fixed it. It must have been a corrupt copy of the libary database on the SDCard in my phone.

To fix:

Delete the MSMETADATA folder in the root of the Storage Card.

If using File Explorer on your device note that it's not visible by default. You have to select the "Show All Files" option in File Explorer. Once deleted rebuild your library using Media Player, and see if that helps.