713 IT Support Tech Blog
713 IT Support news & things I think other techs would find interesting
Windows Server 2012 R2 Direct Access grabs port 6602 needed by Server Essentials Connector
If Googling brought you here, I hope the title says it all for you. I recently deployed a Server 2012 R2 machine with the Windows Server Essentials role enabled. The Anywhere Access / Remote Web Workplace component was very interesting, but just would not work for me....
Citronix Tech Services is now 713 IT Support
I started Citronix Tech Services almost 10 years ago in my parent's garage in South Florida. I was sick of the IT office grind and I struck out on my own. The citrus-based name and logo were inspired by sunny South Florida. Like many Texas transplants will tell you, I...
TECH NOTE: How to migrate from AOL to Google Apps
NOTE: This guide is intentionally written very sparsely. It is not a step-by-step guide for a layperson. I cannot and will not hold your hand while you do this. I wrote this guide because I didn't see anything like it online and I wanted to leave it...
TECH NOTE: You can’t skip a CHKDSK on a MacBook Pro running Bootcamp
Something I learned the hard way yesterday. Due to some odd glitch in the Macbook Pro (untested with other models) running Bootcamp 3.2 (untested with other versions) for Windows XP (untested for other versions of Windows), the keyboard (both physical on-laptop and...
TECH NOTE: Can’t Activate XP after a Repair Install, because you can’t get past the “Please Wait” screen?
So there's this fun bug in XP SP3/IE8 where if you do a Repair Install on a computer that already has IE8 installed, you'll end up stuck on a "Please Wait" screen forever once you get done with the repair install. The fix (detailed here) is to boot into Safe Mode,...
TECH NOTE: Latest Firmware for the ZyXel ZyWall 10W is v3.62(WH.14)C0
I have a client with an ancient ZyWall 10W that isn't even listen on ZyXel's page anymore. I can't find documentation on it anywhere. It took me forever to find the latest firmware for it, so I thought I'd share it here and hopefully save some people the trouble. I...
![TECH NOTE: How To Remove A Bios Password From an Insyde H2O EFI BIOS [UPDATED]](https://713itsupport.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/27/2012/01/sblocco-bios-acer-insyde-h20-400x250.jpg)
TECH NOTE: How To Remove A Bios Password From an Insyde H2O EFI BIOS [UPDATED]
The old version of this guide was very complicated and convoluted. If you can boot into Windows, then you shouldn't need to mess around with PLoP or any other nonsense, just change a flag in the ini file of the Windows flash program and you're set. I need to add the...
TECH NOTE: How to Change AutoCAD 2012 from a Standalone to Network License
Just a quick post on another tip that I figured out while solving a client's problem. If you have AutoCAD 2012 configured for standalone licensing, but then later set up a license server, you don't need to uninstall AutoCAD to then reinstall it with network licensing....
TECH NOTE: How To Remove A Bios Password From an Insyde H2O EFI BIOS
UPDATE: If you can boot into Windows, then try this updated Windows-only method I had a customer drop off a laptop with a BIOS password locking the customer out of the BIOS settings. The laptop was an eMachines E527-2537 running Windows 7 x64. Normally, you can reset...
KHOU Interviews Citronix Tech Services
I did an interview with KHOU the other day for a piece on the lawsuit mentioned earlier and how it was progressing. They were at my lab for an hour or so and ended up using about 15 seconds of footage. Like the video says, computer repair work isn't the most glamorous...
Citronix Tech Services and the Institute for Justice sue Texas
I was in Austin last week with Mike Rife of AustinPCTech and Thane Hayhurst of iTalent Consulting Group and we filed a lawsuit, with the help of the Institute for Justice (IJ), against the State of Texas for a law they recently passed requiring computer repair...
Texas DPS Sets Up Licensing Stings
I wrote a few weeks ago about a new law that would require Texas computer repair shops to get private investigator's licenses in order to do many types of computer work. While no one has been prosecuted under this new rule, the first "victim" of the Texas Private...
Texas PIs Try to Legislate Themselves Out of Obsolescence, PC Techs Under Fire
In this day of MySpace, FaceBook, and GMail, digging up dirt on someone takes little more than guessing the name of their dog. Private Investigators, who long to return to the good old days of going through someone's trash, staking out a house while leaving the...
How to Make a Cheap and Easy USB Key Holder
I keep half of my computer repair tools on a USB Flash Drive (the other half I keep on bootable CDs). I found myself often losing the flash drives or otherwise destroying them in my pockets. I came up with a great way to make a cheap (or free!) holder for these keys...
TECH NOTE: How to Update Your AntiVirus Software
When one talks about antivirus definition updates, one usually speaks in terms of Manual and Automatic updates. A manual update is performed by going to the antivirus vendor's website, downloading the definitions, and then either installing them by running a program...
TECH NOTE: Is Your Antivirus Software Updating Properly?
You don't know how sad it makes me to see things like this This client's copy of Norton Internet Security expired over a year ago, meaning that for a whole year it has been running with old virus definitions. Why are virus definitions important? Well, image that a...
TECH NOTE: Odd Video Artifacts Reveal Memory Corruption
I recently had a customer drop off a laptop that was having very odd issues on the screen. There were all sorts of artifacts scrolling up and down the screen, with an odd checkerboard pattern that changed randomly based on mouse movements or even touching the...
