Vista bug fixes and tips (that work!) .

bye Mozy, hello BackBlaze? Carbonite or Crashplan??

2011-02-04T09:58:00.003+11:00

UPDATED! UPDATED! See End of Post!A long time between posts, but thought this was worth sharing.Like many people I have been burnt by the sudden decision by Mozy to increase prices and move away from unlimited. The new Mozy plans make me unhappy. Why? Well I would consider myself an average user. I backup our family photos, ipod music library and some personal documents. Turns out that is 125.7Gb

nVidia... HP... Vista... Don't buy HP until you read this.

2010-06-10T10:38:00.003+10:00

It has been a long time since posting on this blog. It still gets regular traffic, nothing significant to get excited about but people do seem to be getting results from the solutions I posted. Which is why I haven't deleted the blog.Microsoft Office Error 52f gets the most Google organic results.The runner up is Vista USB device driver issuesThe reason for this post after such a long time is a

nVidia drivers cause 28.8% of crashes...

2008-03-28T16:54:00.010+11:00

This is firmly in the news category.There is a law suit in the works about the "Vista Capable" stickers and the accuracy of the aforementioned stickers. Turns out, in one of the court documents released nVidia drivers are the source of 28.8% crashes (see Ars Technica article).I've experience two nVidia problems (see nVidia tags). One of which resulted in the good 'ol Blue Screen Of Death (BSOD

Sidebar Gadget: Safely & Easily Remove USB Devices

2008-03-24T14:26:00.033+11:00

The Vista Sidebar is a fabulous piece of eye candy, and whilst maybe not as useful, flexible and popular as the Google Desktop Search Sidebar - if you don't need Google Desktop Search (and I don't, see this post) there is a neat gadget I found that will increase the utility of the sidebar.I found this great little gadget over at GadgetsForVista.net called RD Safely (RD for Remove Devices). It

TIP: Windows Vista SP1 standalone/manual install

2008-03-20T05:41:00.005+11:00

Now that it is released, I tried to install Vista SP1 using Windows Update. However, it Vista SP1 was not showing up even a few days after the release. This is not so much a bug, but probably Microsoft staging the release. But there is a work around...To Manually Install SP1Head on over to Microsoft TechnetFrom here you can download the Windows Vista SP1 Five Language Standalone installClick the

EDITORIAL: It's Official! Vista SP1 available now...

2008-03-18T20:17:00.002+11:00

It's official. Windows Vista SP1 is now available.IMPORTANT: Remember to BACKUP your data before you apply the update.The best way to get this is to run WindowsUpdate as the download size is only ~65Mb. This is because aside from new fixes, it also includes most other updates you "should" have already installed.If you are doing a standalone or network install, then download the full 450Mb release

USB External 2.5" Harddrive Not Detected/Error: Part 1

2008-03-08T22:48:00.013+11:00

This is in two parts because there are two separate but related problems. Part 1 is not so much of a Vista Bug Fix but some simple facts on external USB drives any why they may not work under Vista (or XP, Linux, MacOS or any other operating system for that matter.This is a good place to start if you plug in a USB drive and it doesn't actually show in Windows Explorer. If at the end of this post,

Windows Live One Care, Portable Apps (Pidgin, Thunderbird)

2008-01-25T21:41:00.001+11:00

Despite what it may look like from this blog, I'm not a zealot or fanboy of any particular company, software, operating system, etc. I am realist and pragmatic. Using what either a) works for me or b) satisfies some practical need.It's for this reason I use the excellent PortableApps suite as having a version of Firefox, Thunderbird, and other programs that run off a USB key means I can have

EDITORIAL: 2008 - is this Vista's year?

2008-01-03T14:15:00.001+11:00

I am sure the folks over at Redmond worry about this more than I do, but the question needs to be asked. Is this the year Vista will finally gain broad acceptance? Especially with SP1 due for public release (or now if you're really keen)?I don't believe it is (yet) but there's still a chance for Vista to make inroads in the second half of this calendar year. Why?Well over the Christmas/New Year

NEWS: Windows Vista SP1 - is it safe?

2007-12-13T06:02:00.000+11:00

NEWS:Well the time has arrived. Microsoft has released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate to the Public. At time of writing, you can find (if you're desperately keen) the direct link here.I am yet to install this - as opting to wait a few days for it to bed down in case reports come in that SP1 causes more problems than it fixes. Besides, my system (aside from the Blue Screen of Death

EDITORIAL: 12th November 2007

2007-12-12T21:34:00.000+11:00

NEWS: I recently (sadly) experienced a Blue Screen of Death failure with Vista. I have fixed the problem (related to corrupt nVidia device driver) but the fix is long and detailed. It required an additional PC (running XP) to review files). I am slowly working through the draft blog on how to fix this...In other news, I am going to (slowly) tidy up some of the old posts and add screen shots. I

MSN Messenger - Error 80048820

2007-11-05T21:37:00.001+11:00

This problem arrived inexplicably at a time I urgently needed to login to MSN Messenger. This is not necessarily a Vista Bug Fix as it can affect other versions of Windows - but given I have experienced this problem in Vista it's now on this blog! There seem to be a number of possible causes, for a full list see here. I simply tried one step and voilla! problem solved.Tested: Windows Vista Home

Windows Update Error Code 52F, Office 2003

2007-09-21T21:57:00.002+10:00

I'm a stickler for installing updates and I was being plagued by two failed updates:Office 2003 Service Pack 3Update for Outlook 2003 Junk Email Filter KB936677With the rather cryptic:Installation status: FailedError details: Code 52FVista's intelligent help system didn't seem to offer any insights. I was really at a loss, when I started vaguely recalled reading somewhere that when you install

update: DVD/CD Drive no longer works, visible...

2007-09-19T21:39:00.001+10:00

This bug seems to be fixed, or at least, it doesn't reoccur if you install iTunes 7.4.2.4. However, if the iTunes update does screw your drive again then the solution in this post should still help.Upside is now iTunes doesn't warn me on restarts to reinstall iTunes because CD burning software is corrupted. Yay!addthis_url=''; addthis_title=''; addthis_pub='

Loss of (previously working) video display...

2007-09-17T20:13:00.001+10:00

[[EDIT]]IMPORTANT NOTE: Before you try this fix, please read the updated post 11/11/07 here as failure to do so may result it more serious problems. This is an odd one and to be fair, probably not a Vista bug as such. After happily, and I sincerely mean that, using Vista for a couple of days I found on the next boot that my LCD display was showing "No Signal" after the PC had booted. I tried

DVD/CD Drive no longer works, visible...

2007-09-15T20:49:00.001+10:00

This bug seemed to come out of nowhere, but then I tracked it back to iTunes 7.4.1.2. It seems when this version of iTunes installs, it corrupted the CD/DVD driver database. This meant that whilst the drive was in device manager, it simply was not accessible to the system. This fix works, but it has an unintended side effect of currently rendering the CD burning aspect of iTunes inoperable. I

Vista USB device drivers not found... a fix!

2007-09-12T20:12:00.001+10:00

This was the first problem I experienced with Vista. I had a Sandisk U3 2GB Titanium drive which for some reason wouldn't detect under Vista. Vista would search for drivers, say they couldn't be found and ask me to insert a CD with the driver... and as you may know, only Win95 needs USB drivers.The fix requires you edit registry settings. I take no responsibility if this actually ruins your

about the blog

2007-09-10T23:10:00.000+10:00

I've started this blog because despite the recommendations of friends I purchased a a PC with Vista Home Premium. This is something I do occasionally regret, as I have encountered some bugs.In the interests of helping the broader Vista community, I am posting proven solutions here. By proven, it means I have a) experienced the problem and b) fixed it using the method described.The scope of this