Windows Update error 80245003

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

One of my Windows Vista PCs has been refusing to download updates from Windows Update, reporting that:

Windows could not search for new updates
Error(s) found:
Code 80245003

A bit of googling turned up various forum threads/blog posts about this article but most of them recommend stopping the Windows Update service, renaming/removing the %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution folder, restarting the Windows Update service and attempting an update. That seems to work but Jeroen Jansen’s post on the subject included a very useful comment with this little gem:

“Actually you don’t have to delete the entire SoftwareDistribution folder, just the folders inside it with update cache. This way you can keep the update history.”

I renamed each folder one at a time and it seems that it was WuRedir that was causing the error on my system (that is to say that after that folder was renamed, Windows Update ran successfully, even after restoring all of the other folders, therefore maintaining my history and other configuration).

I’m not sure if it was as a direct result, but I’m pretty sure Vista switched from using Windows Update to Microsoft Update at the same time.

Two methods of avoiding Windows Vista product activation

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A few months back, I wrote about how Windows Vista product activation works for volume license customers.  Last night I was searching to find out what the grace period is before activation is required and I stumbled across some interesting articles. You see, it turns out that there are three main problems with product activation:

  • Corporate IT departments want to produce customised Windows builds.  These builds must be valid when deployed to client PCs (i.e. the product activation period must not have expired!) and, as the product activation timer is ticking away during the customisation process, there needs to be a method to “rearm” product activation.
  • OEMs want to ship pre-activated versions of the operating system (an arrangement with which I’m sure Microsoft are happy to comply as they need OEMs to preload their operating system and not an alternative, like, let’s say… Ubuntu Linux!), so Microsoft provides these so-called Royalty OEMs with special product keys which require no further activation, under as scheme known as system-locked pre-installation (SLP) or OEM activation (OA) 2.0.
  • Anti-piracy measures like product activation is that they are to hackers like a red rag is to a bull.

The net result, it seems, is two methods to avoid product activation.  The first method, can be used to simply delay product activation, as described by Brian Livingston at Windows Secrets. It uses an operating system command (slmgr.vbs -rearm), to reset the grace period for product activation back to a full 30 days.  The Windows Secrets article also describes a registry key (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SL\SkipRearm) and claims that it can be set to 00000001 before rearming, allowing the rearm to take place multiple times (this registry key is reset by the rearm command, which is also available by running rundll32 slc.dll,SLReArmWindows); however, Microsoft claims that the SkipRearm key is ineffective for the purpose of extending the grace period as it actually just stops sysprep /generate (another command used during the imaging process) from rearming activation (something which can only be done three times) and does not actually reset the grace period (this is confirmed in the Windows Vista Technical Library documentation).  Regardless of that fact, the rearm process can still be run three times, giving up to 120 days of unactivated use (30 days, plus three more rearms, each one providing an additional 30 days). That sounds very useful for both product evaluation and for corporate deployments – thank you very much Microsoft.  According to Gregg Keizer at Computer World/PC World Magazine, a Microsoft spokesperson has even confirmed that it’s not even a violation of the EULA.  That is good.

So that’s the legal method; however some enterprising hackers have a second method, which avoids activation full stop.  Basically it tricks the operating system into thinking that its running on a certain OEM’s machine, before installing the relevant certificate and product key to activate that copy of Windows.  The early (paradox) version involved making hex edits to the BIOS (hmm… buy a copy of Windows or turn my PC into a doorstop, I know which I’ll choose) but the latest (vstaldr) version even has an installer for various OEMs, and if that doesn’t work then there is a list of product keys which can be installed and activated using two operating system commands:

slmgr.vbs -ipk productkey
slmgr.vbs -ato

I couldn’t possibly confirm or deny whether or not that method works… but Microsoft’s reaction to the OEM BIOS hacks would suggest that this is not a hoax.  Microsoft’s Senior Product Manager for Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA), Alex Kochis, describes the paradox method as:

“It is a pretty labor-intensive [sic] process and quite risky.”

(as I indicated above).  Commenting on the vstaldr method, he said:

“While this method is easier to implement for the end user, it’s also easier to detect and respond to than a method that involves directly modifying the BIOS of the motherboard”

Before continuing to hint at how Microsoft may respond:

“We focus on hacks that pose threats to our customers, partners and products.  It’s worth noting we also prioritize our responses, because not every attempt deserves the same level of response. Our goal isn’t to stop every ‘mad scientist’ that’s on a mission to hack Windows.  Our first goal is to disrupt the business model of organized counterfeiters and protect users from becoming unknowing victims.   This means focusing on responding to hacks that are scalable and can easily be commercialized, thereby making victims out of well-intentioned customers.”

Which I will paraphrase as “it may work today, but don’t count on it always being that way”.

Ask for genuine Microsoft softwareNote that I’m not encouraging anybody to run an improperly licensed copy of Windows.  That would be very, very naughty. I’m merely pointing out that measures like product activation (as for any form of DRM) are more of an inconvenience to genuine users than they are a countermeasure against software piracy.

Disclaimer

This post is for informational purposes only. Please support genuine software.

Introducing Windows Server 2008

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Windows Server 2008 logoWhen I logged on to the Microsoft Connect site this morning, I noticed that the beta program for Windows Server codenamed Longhorn has been renamed… it seems that I should have checked in on more details from Bill Gates’ WinHEC keynote, where he announced that the product will be called Windows Server 2008 (no surprises there then).  Actually, dull as it sounds, I think that’s the right name - it’s clear and unambiguous (although I expect the product bundling will be confusing as always).

Reinstalling Windows Home Server

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

After replacing a failed hard disk yesterday, I needed to rebuild my Windows Home Server (WHS).  The process was surprisingly straightforward – having suffered a total disk failure, I had no data to worry about (in any case, the server only contained client PC backups), so all I needed to do was re-install the software (although I’m not sure what the effect of product activation would have been as I hadn’t activated WHS when the disk crashed) and re-establish my configuration changes (firewall changes, language settings, date and time, etc.).  One item I had expected some trouble with was the remote access address but because this is linked to my Windows Live identity, it was re-established automatically and so the only concern was reconnecting my client computers.  I had to recreate the user accounts manually but to reconnect an existing client computer, it was as simple as running %programfiles%\Windows Home Server\discovery.exe (thanks to GordonTGopher and Ken Warren for helping me out on that one at the WHS forums).  This added the computers back into the WHS console and that night, the backups ran as normal.

One more item that may be useful (it certainly saves using the Windows Home Server client connector CD), is to note that the client software is available at \\servername\software\Home Server Connector Software\setup.exe (via Optika’s workaround to beta feedback request 262981).

Windows Home Server will be available in both hardware and software form

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

In a recent post, I commented on Microsoft’s early indications that Windows Home Server (WHS) will be an OEM-only product – a great shame for many users who would like to put an old PC to use as a home server.  The topic has been raised as a beta feedback request 272635 as well as on the WHS forums and, following Bill Gates’ announcement at WinHEC, it would seem that WHS will be available both as a hardware appliance and in (OEM) software form.  That means that registered system builders will be able to install the software on a customised PC… I’m not sure if that extends to people like myself who intend running WHS on a repurposed PC (a configuration which is now running well with the latest CTP build).  There will also be various ISV-supplied add-ins for protection against viruses and malware, media sharing capabilities, home security, and home automation.

That’s some consolation (I’m sure I will be able to get a system builder copy somehow) but it will also be interesting to hear the price point at which Microsoft intends to pitch WHS.

Struggling with SATA

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

One of my PCs includes a Serial ATA (SATA) controller (Silicon Image SiI3112A SATALink – BIOS v4.2.83 and 32-bit Windows driver v1.3.68.0) together with a Seagate ST3500641AS (500GB SATA) disk. Both these devices were added in preparation for installing Windows Home Server (so I haven’t tried them with any other operating system, although I suspect the results would be similar) and I’ve been having trouble with the system’s stability – suffering occasional crashes (sometimes followed by an inability to find the disk) and frequently seeing the following errors in the event log:

Event Type: Error
Event Source: si3112
Event Category: None
Event ID: 9
Date: 13/05/2007
Time: 12:22:25
User: N/A
Computer: servername
Description:
The device, \Device\Scsi\si31121, did not respond within the timeout period.

Event Type: Error
Event Source: Disk
Event Category: None
Event ID: 11
Date: 13/05/2007
Time: 13:54:00
User: N/A
Computer: servername
Description:
The driver detected a controller error on \Device\Harddisk0.

MaplinThe first message doesn’t mean much but following the link from Event Viewer to the Windows Help and Support Center indicated that the disk event ID 11 means IO_ERR_CONTROLLER_ERROR and can be caused by a loose cable. The controller card (bought last week) was supplied with a power cable but not an interface (data) cable, so I bought one at Maplin for £4.99. When I got home I found that the data cable connector housing made the connection too tight against the power cable, making it a slightly incorrect fit (although probably good enough). Armed with this new advice, I set off to buy another cable – this time for £2.99 from a local computer services company… a perfect fit, with a latching connection and less expensive (that’s why it pays to shop locally!). Unfortunately though, this new cable didn’t resolve my disk errors.

Googling the error messages hadn’t turned up much; however searching for the disk model number told me that my disk is actually 3Gbps-capable and that, even though SATA/300 devices should be compatible with SATA/150 controllers, there can be issues with legacy controllers when a technology called spread spectrum clocking (SSC) is enabled. Seagate supplies a utility to enable/disable SSC on their SATA drives bit it won’t run under Windows, so I created an MS-DOS 6.22 boot floppy disk (thanks to bootdisk.com) and ran the utility from MS-DOS. As it happens, SSC was already disabled on my disk but it was worth checking out. Another potential issue is the autonegotiation between SATA/300 and SATA/150 and, following the Seagate SATA troubleshooter, I found this advice:

“Some older 1.5Gbits/sec SATA cards do not support auto negotiation with newer 3.0Gbits/sec drives… Seagate Barracuda 3.0Gbit/sec drives can be forced to 1.5Gbits/sec to allow support with these older SATA cards.

To force the Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 drive to 1.5Gbits/sec mode, apply a jumper to the outer most pins of the jumper block…

This jumper block uses a 2mm jumper. This is the smaller of the standard jumper sizes.”

Seagate knowledge base article 3116

After digging around in my “box of PC bits and bobs”, I found a suitable jumper and applied it; however I followed the diagram in Seagate knowledge base article 2850 (which relates to certain Maxtor SATA drives):

Maxtor Serial ATA jumper options

Instead of this, subtley different one (which I found afterwards in the ST3500641AS Product Manual):

Seagate Barracuda Serial ATA connectors and jumper options

After having applied the jumper to the wrong pins, there were no more disk event ID 11 errors and, as it seems that those pins are for factory use only, I have no idea what they meant; however, after a few hours, I saw the si3112 event ID 9 errors return, so I decided to switch the jumper to the location in the second diagram. I won’t go into the details of what heppened next, suffice to say it resulted in a blue screen of death, followed by a hard disk that no longer spun up and a warranty call… oops!

After receiving a replacement disk, I rebuilt the system (without any jumpers on the hard drive) and confirmed that the errors still occurred with a new disk (ruling out a faulty component as the cause). Then, I shut down the system (always a good idea before performing hardware maintenance) and fitted the jumper to the outermost two pins. Since powering on the computer, there have been no errors, so (fingers crossed), it looks as though the problem was down to a SATA/300 drive and a SATA/150 controller.

I’ve since come across a low-cost SATA controller with an eSATA port, based on a VIA VT6421A chipset (which could actually provide me with some more flexibility – and I can still return the first controller for a refund); however, having got a working driver and hardware combination, I’m reluctant to switch to another chipset (and another set of problems)… maybe that’s something to consider if I experience any more problems later.

If only all warranty calls were like this…

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A couple of years ago, I had the misfortune to require warranty support from Dell (a frustrating experience). Then, problems with my IBM ThinkPad left me stuck between a 3-year hardware warranty and a 90-day software warranty. Well, thankfully my recent experiences with HP have been considerably better.

Last year I had some warranty repairs carried out on a couple of my notebook PCs – the warranty cover was for a back-to-base repair: a courier arrived from DHL and packaged the computers, then a few days later they were returned with the faulty components replaced.

Then, yesterday, one of my hard disks failed. I checked the warranty status on the Seagate website (one of the reasons that I use Seagate drives is the 5-year warranty) but it wasn’t valid as the component was originally supplied by HP. So, I called HP, who were happy to take my word that a few whirrs and clunks from the disk, then nothing (except a system that was stuck attempting to boot from drive C: ) meant that this device was broken and needed to be replaced (even if I did have to explain to an overseas call centre operator that I work for a company with 20,000 employees and I couldn’t check every address they had on their system for that company name, but that my home address certainly wouldn’t be there). Half an hour later, HP (or one of their agents) called me to check the part number and promised me a replacement within 24 hours.

By 9:00 this morning, I had a package containing a new drive in my hand (even if the courier didn’t know anything about collecting the faulty component) and a few minutes later I had installed it in my system. By lunchtime, everything was up and running again. Then, I found the instructions that told me to package the failed drive in the box used to ship the new replacement and peel off the label, underneath which was a pre-paid returns label. All that was needed then was a call to UPS to arrange collection and a few minutes ago, the same UPS driver returned to collect the package.

Overall, it was a positive experience (as positive as a wrecked hard drive can be) – less than a day of downtime on a standard parts-only warranty. Thank you HP.

Windows Home Server – first impressions, mass storage drivers and clients that won’t connect

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

Windows Home Server logoIn my post about Microsoft’s Vista after hours event, I mentioned Windows Home Server (WHS). Over the weekend, I installed the April CTP of Windows Home Server (build 1371) on a PC at home and I’m pretty impressed.

WHS is based on Windows 2003 Small Business Server and consequently has a pretty solid codebase. In the April CTP, the product’s lineage is very visible, with a the title Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server Setup during text-mode setup, a Windows Server 2003 splash screen and the desktop displaying the version information as:

Windows Server 2003 for Small Business Server Evaluation copy. Build 3790 (Service Pack 2)

I installed the product on an aging Compaq DeskPro D500SFF (Pentium 4 1.5GHz CPU) upgraded to 768MB of RAM (I’m sure 512MB would have been fine but I’d already upgraded it) with a Sony DWG120A DVD±RW dual layer recorder, white-box Serial ATA (SATA) controller (Silicon Image SiI3112A SATALink BIOS v4.2.83) and a Seagate ST3500641AS (500GB SATA) disk.

Rather than reviewing WHS (as other people are better at that than I am – Paul Thurrott has a review of the WHS April CTP and APC has a review of WHS beta 2), I’ll just highlight a couple of issues that it took me a while to resolve:

  • The WinPE 2.0-based installer didn’t recognise my SATA controller (but it did give me a straightforward interface for loading the correct drivers) – I know that SATA support in Windows is still patchy, but I would expect a new product to have been updated with current mass storage drivers for a common chipset (ironically, Windows Update pushed some updated drivers after installation)! I downloaded the latest SiI3x12 32-bit Windows base driver (v1.3.67.0, dated 30 March 2007) and, when prompted by the installer, I supplied them on a USB key; however this failed setup once it entered text-mode (it couldn’t see the USB key) so I tried again using a CD. Again, text-mode setup failed as it will only accept updated drivers (after pressing F6) from drive A: so I ran the whole process again, this time using a floppy disk (which felt like a return to the 1990s). Even though the GUI-mode and text-mode setups both require their own drivers to be loaded, it seems that they have to be from the same media.
  • I had a few issues with my media (file copy errors), despite downloading the ISO twice (on two different machines) and writing the DVD (using two different drives) at the slowest possible speed; however I decided to skip the files that couldn’t be read (mostly non-English language files but also one hotfix for Microsoft knowledge base article 929644, which is not available publicly). This may have been the cause of a later error – Windows Home Server setup error. Updating Windows Update Redirector failed: cannot complete this function. (error code 0x800703eb) but after setup consequently failed, I restarted the computer, after which it resumed installation, updated the Windows Update Redirector and ran the rest of the setup routine with no further issues.
  • When installing the client connector (on a Windows XP SP2 PC), I was unable to connect to my home server. As product intended for home users, WHS expects all devices to be on the same subnet; however my home network is split across multiple subnets (I also elected not to use the default server name). The WHS help text refers to this as an advanced network configuration and WHS requires that a manual connection is made. Unfortunately, connecting directly via IP (or name) also failed, informing me that A network error has occurred. Please verify that your network connection is active and that Windows Home Server is powered on. Then, I found a very useful troubleshooter for WHS client joins which let me ascertain that all was well with my server so I started looking at firewalls. After enabling firewall logging on the WHS network connection, I could see connections being dropped from one of my own subnets. I then edited the firewall exceptions list, changing the scope from my network (subnet) only to a custom list of subnets for the following services (any externally-accessible services were left at their defaults – i.e. HTTP on TCP 80, HTTPS on TCP 443 and Windows Home Server Remote Access on TCP 4125) and successfully joined the client to my WHS:
    • File and printer sharing (TCP 139 and 445, UDP 137-138).
    • HTTP (TCP 88).
    • HTTPS (TCP 444).
    • Remote Desktop (TCP 3389).
    • Windows Home Server Computer Backup (program exception).
    • Windows Home Server Diagnostics (TCP 5247).
    • Windows Home Server Transport Service (TCP 1138).
    • Windows Media Connect (TCP 10243, UDP 10280-10284).
    • UPnP Framework (TCP 2869 and UDP 1900).

Despite these problems, I want to stress that WHS is shaping up to be a great product. It is beta software and that means that problems are to be expected (I have filed a few bug reports already, as well as a couple of feature requests – namely that I would like to be able to join WHS servers to a domain and apply group policy and that I would like to be able to access WHS on my own domain name, rather than via a Microsoft-supplied address).

There’s more information about WHS at the Windows Home Server blog.

Corrupt Firefox profile preventing access to the WordPress visual editor

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

For the last few weeks (ever since one of the all-to-frequent Firefox crashes that I experience) I’ve been unable to use the WordPress visual editor to write my posts.  If I switched to another machine then everything was fine – the problem only existed in Firefox on one machine.  After seeking help on the WordPress support forums, someone tactfully suggested that I ask for help on the Mozilla forums… I wasn’t hopeful (as this problem seemed to be specific to WordPress); however the advice I was given was spot-on – it turns out that my issue was a corrupted Firefox profile.

After creating a new profile and copying key settings from my old profile (I copied bookmarks.html, certs8.db, cookies.txt, formhistory.dat, history.dat, hostperm.1, key3.db, mimeTypes.rdf and signons2.txt), I was able to relaunch Firefox and everything was back to the way it should be, complete with browser history, bookmarks, cookies, stored password, etc.  It should also be possible to copy items such as user preferences, search plugins and extensions but that’s not recommended if there were problems with the previous profile, so I reinstalled the couple of Firefox add-ons that I do use (the British English Dictionary and Web Developer extensions).

Mac vs. PC (vs. Linux)

Posted on By Mark Wilson
This content is 18 years old. I don't routinely update old blog posts as they are only intended to represent a view at a particular point in time. Please be warned that the information here may be out of date.

A few months back, I wrote a post about the Mac vs. PC ads (which, funny as they are, as a user of Macintosh, Windows and Linux PCs, I find to be a little misleading sometimes and downright untruthful others) before following it up when I heard an amusing Mac vs. PC parody on BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show. It was interesting to hear that Mac Format magazine judged the ads as ineffective because the largest group of consumers to whom they appeal are already Mac users (although Apple’s continuation of the Get a Mac campaign would suggest that it is working for them) and, in the comments on my recent post about some of the consumer-targeted features in Windows Vista being just as good as the functionality offered by Mac OS X, I was criticised for saying:

“Apple’s Get a Mac campaign draws on far too many half truths that will only become apparent to users after they have made the decision to switch, splashed out on the (admittedly rather nice) Apple hardware and then found out that the grass is not all green on the other side.”

Regardless of the effectiveness (or honesty) of the original ads, late last night, whilst researching for my rebuttal of those comments, I came across some more Mac vs. PC ads:

I’ve said before that the whole “my operating system is better than your operating system” nonsense is quite ridiculous really but the TrueNuff guys have it all just about summed up:

“Why would you love a Mac? Computers are computers. Macs are great. So are PCs. So are toasters – what’s your point? It’s just a computer – get over it.”

I’m enjoying the spoof ads though!