The self waking computer
So this problem has been bothering me for months and being the busy guy I am, I’ve ignored it as it was a small annoyance until this weekend. In the morning, I’d put my computer to sleep, then when I’d come home my computer would be on. Some would ask what’s the problem with that? Well the problem is that I set no wake-up timers and wake-on-LAN is turned off. So when the power went out while my computer was updating itself because it decided to turn itself back on while I was away…it forced me to do a restore from my Windows Home Server. Thankfully the WHS backup worked great.
So I set out on hunting down the problem and I’ve compiled all the helpful hints and processes I’ve found for tracking down why your computer is turning itself back on.
The Problem
My problem specifically stemmed from that I have Windows 7’s Media Center installed, setup and with the guide updates turned on.
The Solution
Some general maintenance should always be done first to avoid getting to far into the problem and realizing your computer just needed an update.
1. Update your computer with Windows Update (Windows Vista and Windows 7 users just go to the Start Menu and type in the search area “Windows Update” without the quotes to get them started).
2. Go to your computer’s website and download the latest BIOS update. Refer to the manufacturer’s instructions and update your BIOS via it.
Next, if you’re still having problems, it’s time to start troubleshooting. You can find which devices are set to be allowed to wake up your computer by running the following command in the command prompt: powercfg –devicequery wake_armed . If you see something in there out of the ordinary, or that makes you palm –> face then you’ve probably found the culprit and can GOTO 10: rejoice AFTER turning off the device’s ability to wake the computer by performing the following: in device manager, right-click the device listed in Step 2 and select Properties, switch to Power Management tab and clear the checkbox of Allow this device to wake the computer.
Now for me, none of these got me to the solution because it was Media Center’s scheduled update task that was causing the problem, not hardware. So if you find yourself sifting through devices that all seem to be ok, then you should continue on like me and check your Event Viewer (a quick shortcut to the Event Viewer is to go to Start –> Run then type eventvwr.msc and hit enter).
Now look through the System log first, and the Application log second as that should be the proper order of probability. If you find that your computer seems to be waking up at say 4:17pm everyday like mine, then look for events around that time, usually right next to the first event at that time, that could be a culprit like a scheduled task.
I found event stating that mcupdate_scheduled had requested to wake the computer. It looked like this:
Event Source: power-troubleshooter
The system has resumed from sleep.
Sleep Time: 2009-11-07T17:01:22.662051300Z
Wake Time: 2009-11-07T22:14:14.102034400ZWake Source: Timer - Windows will execute '\Microsoft\Windows\Media Center\mcupdate_scheduled' scheduled task that requested waking the computer.
Since it was listed as a scheduled task in the Event Viewer, then I knew to continue on to the Task Scheduler to remove or change that task’s properties (a quick shortcut to the Task Scheduler is to go to Start –> Run then type taskschd.msc and hit enter). From the Task Scheduler you can either search for the task name, or browse down through the hierarchical menus. The path through the menus is given to you from the item found in the Event Viewer. Thus I navigated down the folders from Microsoft –> Windows –> Media Center and then found the mcupdate_scheduled task. From here you can delete the task or modify it’s properties, like I did, to simply not allow the task to wake the computer to perform the task. Voila!
As always, feel free to comment if you need help with a similar issue!
Print Spooler Problems in Vista Business
For starters, if you have any problem with a printer networked or otherwise in Windows Vista, you should definitely check out Microsoft’s online resource at http://support.microsoft.com/gp/printing_problems, more than once it’s saved me from having to explain solutions over the phone and even saved me hours of googling at work.
Now my specific problem occurred on a user’s computer in my office. When they would select or try to print to a certain printer it would declare loudly “The server for the ‘Lexmark T632 PS3’ Printer does not have the correct printer driver installed. If you want to search for the proper driver, click OK. Otherwise click Cancel and contact your network administrator or original equipment manufacturer for the correct printer driver.”
![clip_image002[4]](http://www.gotdibbs.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/clip_image0024.jpg "clip_image002[4]")
Now that problem I believe stems from users in the building doing their own windows updates and installing an updated version of the driver locally on their machine which is then either getting corrupt or causing a conflict. Either way, it’s a problem and I can’t update the printer driver because of the practices in use at our company.
So what I went ahead and did was some research into the problem and found this handy article at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/810894 for the same/similar problems in Windows XP. Now figuring that XP’s schema was close enough to Vista’s I went ahead and followed the article to the letter. Which everyone else from here on should NOT or at least be careful to backup your changes to the registry. Normally I do, but I was a bit hasty in my actions this time around. We always think we know what we’re doing, but we often don’t.
I went through it all and deleted out the WDS Monitor as I assumed it came with one of the printer drivers that was installed on the machine at the time. Apparently it’s a newer service that doesn’t appear in the list of “don’t delete these registry keys” included in the article because I was working off an article for XP and applying it to a Vista machine. Thus when all was said and done I was greeted with “Windows cannot connect to the printer. Operation could not be completed (error 0x000003eb).”
Google did not help with this new problem. Thankfully I had remembered seeing some out of place registry keys and went and grabbed them from a different machine. I exported the WDS monitor entries from a good machine and ported them to the troubled machine.
After getting those entries back and restarting the machine, I went to Control Panel –> Printers –> File Menu –> Server Properties –> Drivers and then manually uninstalled the driver for the problem printer. This allowed me to reload and reconnect to the network printer after restarting the spooler service.
Need more details or help? Feel free to comment on this and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
New Features in the Zune 4.0 Software Update
There are a bunch of great new features in Zune 4.0. If you've gotten tired of the slowness of iTunes on your PC or just don't find that Windows Media Player handles right, you've got to check it out. It's incredibly fast, is optimized for windows 7 and has some great new features like Smart DJ. Check out the video for a walkthrough!
Windows 7 Backup to a Network Location
Along with a slew of “hidden” new features in Windows 7, there comes one that I have personally been looking forward to for a long while. The Windows Backup and Restore Center from Windows Vista performed it’s task well enough, however, it did not allow you to use the GUI to backup to a network location. Well, you guessed it, in Windows 7 you now can. In Windows Vista if you had wanted to perform a full automatic backup to a network share or mapped drive, you had to use a command line utility called wbadmin (view process details here), now you just use the Windows Backup and Restore Center. It’s important to note that the backups are incremental after the initial backup, and therefore take less time than the initial backup. Another great feature of the new Backup and Restore Center is that if you create a full backup, you end up with a VHD (Virtual Hard Drive) file that you can add as a boot device in Windows 7 and thus boot into a backup of your system if need be while not making changes to your current system. I’ll guide you through the basics of setting up a Network backup, and provide resources for all the other subsets of this new feature set.
Launch Backup and Restore
To start off, you’ll want to launch the Backup and Restore Center. The way I launch is through the Start Search. Simply access the Start Menu, and in the search bar type Backup. The Backup and Restore Center should likely be the first result as shown. You can also access the Backup and Restore Center from the Control Panel or from System Properties.
Setup Backup Scheme
From the home screen of the Backup and Restore Center, select Setup Backup in order to create a scheduled network backup of your files and/or entire hard disks.
Wait for Windows Backup to start and then, from the window that is presented, select the button labeled Save on a Network.
At the new screen, enter the network location you are wanting to backup to and enter the credentials (if necessary) for the network share. You can browse to a network location, or you may simply enter it in the Network Location form field. You must make sure that the folder on the network location or share you chose already exists before Windows Backup and Restore will let you select that location.
Select OK from the previous screen, then wait for the Network Location to be verified. If you have problems here, drop me a comment. After it validates, it will return you to the backup location selection screen. Simply select the network location you just configured, then click Next. To continue, select the Backup Type. You can perform two types of automatic backups, a custom or the (as I call it) “guess and pray” Let Windows Decide option. I prefer the custom backup as it allows you to see exactly what is being backed up.
From the next screen that is presented, you simply select the folders and drives you would liked backed up as well as whether or not to backup all required system drives. Note: if you check the option to Include a system image of drives, this will allow you to boot from the image that is created as well as have an easier time restoring files. This option obviously requires a fairly large chunk of hard disk space. Simply select Next to continue. From the confirmation screen, about halfway down, you can click Change Schedule in order to have the automatic backup run at different times. After you have everything situated right, review your selections and select the Save settings and run backup button.
The backup will initialize and run for the first time, then every time according to your schedule. You can select the button labeled View Details to watch the progress or cancel the backup. You may also return to the Backup and Restore Center at anytime to change the schedule at which the backup is run. Once again, it’s important to note that the backups are incremental after the initial backup, and therefore take less time than the initial backup.
That should do it! If you have any problems, feel free to drop a comment on this post and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible!
Important Tips
To create a one-time backup, use one of the options from the left menu of the Backup and Restore Center. The Create a System Image option is the one I use to backup my whole hard drive to a network share, and looks like the image below. You simply follow through the wizard.
Viewing files in a backup is pretty easy to do, but the steps are laid out for a rather nice solution to viewing backups by mounting the backup as a virtual hard drive in Windows 7 here: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/networking/?p=1902.
A more in depth view on how to restore files can be found here: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/1838/using-backup-and-restore-in-windows-7/. Note: the article does not discuss network backups, but instead covers backups to local drives. However, the principle is the same.
To restore a completely destroyed Windows 7 computer, if you can access boot options by pressing F8 just before the Windows boot logo shows, you can access Recovery options or you can insert your Windows 7 installation disc. From either option you want to select Repair your computer followed by the radio button labeled Restore your computer using a system image that you created earlier. In order to use this option however, you must have
Music of the Week September 8th, 2009
Just as a friendly little feature, every week I post music that I’ve been listening to in order to share and spread the wealth. Turns out that YouTube follows the same schedule I do with their Music Tuesdays! However, I generally choose slightly different music 
Armin van Buuren feat. VanVelzen - Broken Tonight