Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x800703

I just built a new computer and ran into some issues installing Microsoft Windows Vista. I was getting this message: “Windows cannot install required files. Make sure all files required for installation are available, and restart the installation. Error code: 0x800703E6”. I would get past all the install windows and even copy all the files. It was the expanding files part that would fail.

My first guess was to remove a stick of ram. I have heard that before and I was at 4G with the 2 sticks. That did not help this time. I ran the memory tests and everything was ok. I left that second stick out while doing the rest of my tests.

I looked for the error code and I found a KB article (KB930984) that described my exact problem. It indicated that my firmware on my DVD drive was causing the issue. Either update the firmware or copy the files to the disk. I copied all the files to my C: and rebooted. I let it boot from the hard drive and ran into the same issue. I saw another site suggest that the DVD drive needed to be the slave on the IDE cable. Changing the jumper didn’t fix that either. I disconnected the DVD drive and the installer required that I had one.

I thought that was odd. I had an old DVD drive that windows would see but could not see any disk inserted. I set it up and started the install over. It still complained about the DVD drive. After placing a copy of all the files and the main disk and booting from it, the install would still look for the install files on the DVD. I still had the install disk in the drive during some of my tests. That would explain me still getting the error when I thought I had ruled the DVD drive out.

After some more searching, I found the solution. Installing Vista from Hard Disk, USB Disk or Memory Stick. I selected the repair option instead of install after reading that. Ignored the drive selection and started the command prompt. I ran the fallowing commands:


c:
cd /boot
del bcd
bcdedit /createstore
cd ../sources
setup


The install went smooth after that. After the install finished, I reformated and installed Vista 64 bit. I was using my 32 bit disk because its a known good one. I was having issues so I wanted to eliminate variables as much as I could.

I copied all the CD files to the C: again but it failed to boot. I booted to the DVD but droped to a command line and ran the install off the hard disk. I did not have any other issues with the rest of the install. I even did that last install with both sticks of ram.

BIOSTAR TForce TP35D2-A7 with Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 requires bios update

TP35D2-A7 needs bios update before it can use an E8400. I just purchased this combo. I could not find any clear details if the CPU and motherboard would work together. Several user reviews on newegg.com and posts on some over clocking boards indicated they work with each other. When I powered up my machine for the first time I discovered they don't work out of the box.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor

BIOSTAR TForce TP35D2-A7 LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard

The power supply would turn on, all my fans would spin up, and then they would all spin down. Power would recycle and it did the same thing over and over. I looked to the manual for the TP35D2-A7 and it indicated 2 LED status lights were on the board. Neither one lit up and that indicated unusual mother board or CPU issue. In the over clocking section of the manual it indicated the power would cycle like I was seeing when clock settings did not work with the CPU.

I was reading on the Biostar page and it does not list the E8400 as a supported processor. In the FAQ they had a question on support for the 45nm processors and it indicated a bios update was needed. I saw this before I made my purchase. When I ran into this issue, I expected that I needed to do a bios update. The catch is if you need a supported processor installed to update the bios. If this was my first build and all I had was the E8400, I would have been dead in the water. That was my situation.

I work in an IT department so I took my computer in with me the next day. I used a processor from a work machine to get it to boot up and flashed the bios. I placed the E8400 back into the mother board and it booted up without issue.

To sum it up, you will need a bios update for TP35D2-A7 if you are going to use an E8400 with it and you need a working processor to update the bios. I was using the E8400 but the same should hold true for the E8200.

Tortage: Age of Conan Database

Tortage Age of Conan Database and Reference Site is my next project. I am looking to build a item and quest database for Age of Conan. Age of Conan is a new MMORPG that will be released shortly. I was a World of Warcraft player and I used sites like that all the time.

At this point the game does not support mods. Once they add that ability I believe I can write some data mining mods from inside the game that will automate the process. I bet I can data mine it from the back end, but its so much easier when the program makes the API calls available to you. The advantage the in game mod can provide is location tracking when they pick something up or complete a quest.

Until the support for mods is available I will work on other related projects. One of my first ones is a talent calculator. Someone makes one for every game. This time it may as well be me.

Work has already started. I have purchased the domain name tortage.com and have a server up an going. A place holder page is in place so search engines can start indexing it. The server is a low end Linux box at the moment. When it starts to generate traffic, I plan to find a good host. I would rather save the cost of hosting it for now.

Some of you are asking why the name Tortage. Tortage is the starting are in Age of Conan. Your first 1-20 levels in AOC are spent in that area. It the place where you are introduced to the game and given the information you need to get started. That's the same idea behind the website.

*DNS setting are still getting adjusted, so its possible the site will be dark for the next few days.

Internal error occurred on the report server. See the error log for more details. rsInternalError Get Online Help EXECUTE permission denied on object

I was working with SQL Server Reporting Services subscription and ran into this error:
An internal error occurred on the report server. See the error log for more details. (rsInternalError) Get Online Help EXECUTE permission denied on object 'sp_verify_job_identifiers', database 'msdb', schema 'dbo'.

It looks like a permissions issue. After some searching on the error I found a post over at Karim's Blog with the solution. He provided the a script that adds execute permissions to several objects in the database.

Here is his script:

USE master
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_notify TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_enum_jobs TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON master.dbo.xp_sqlagent_is_starting TO RSExecRole
GO
USE msdb
GO
-- Permissions for SQL Agent SP's
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_help_category TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_category TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_job TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobschedule TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_help_job TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_delete_job TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_help_jobschedule TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT EXECUTE ON msdb.dbo.sp_verify_job_identifiers TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT SELECT ON msdb.dbo.sysjobs TO RSExecRole
GO
GRANT SELECT ON msdb.dbo.syscategories TO RSExecRole
GO


Custom RDP Solution Part 3 (RDX)

Here is an update on my custom rdp solution.

Initial testing only uncovered minor issues. After those were resolved we deployed it to a few of our users that connect to all of our terminal servers. I am using it when I VPN into my work machine. Several high traffic machines were secretly changed over. Not only was the change over smooth, the users had no issues with it.

We are ready for production. As we rebuild or deploy new machines, my new client goes out with them. Once I have about 10% deployment penetration, I plan on pushing it out domain wide with group policy.

Tweaking Vista

I recently made the jump to Vista. I feel like I now have it tweaked and performing reasonably well.  I can sit here and type to the sound of my keyboard keys and not to the grinding of my hard drive.  Vista spent a lot of recourses just being vista and not doing anything useful. 

 

I like to pull up task manager and see that CPU usage dance between 0% and 2% as I type this.  I have a little blog authoring tool open and IE displaying my last search behind me.  I also trimmed the memory usage down, but I cant get it anyplace close to XP or server 2003. 

 

Most of my tweaking was done by disabling services to features that don't add any value.  I have disabled everything possible that does not impact my use of Vista.  I have some things enabled that I would remove if I did not VPN regularly.  Here is my list of running services that I felt are required for a stable functioning computer.

 

get Outlook 2007 work with Lotus Domino server using DAMO

At my place of work the email system is lotus notes. The lotus domino server was set up with fairly open access for the longest time. We could use any client we wanted if we knew how to configure it. A while ago they took steps to secure it and closed off POP3 and IMAPI access.

That left us with having to use only Lotus Notes. For Outlook 2003 I was able to use Outlook 2003/2002 Add-in: Notes Connector from Microsoft. When Outlook 2007 was released, Microsoft never updated that addon. IBM also did the exact same thing. The IBM addon is called Domino Access for Microsoft Outlook . After some digging, I was able to get the IBM DAMO connector to work with Outlook 2007.

The first question is where do I find or download the DAMO? The simple answer is that you get it from your server administrator. You cannot download it as an individual component. You have to install a copy of the Lotus Domino server to get the DAMO installer. I have no clue why IBM does not provide it as a standalone download. I also do not see it hosted anyplace else. I am reluctant to host it myself because of that.

So to get your hands on it yourself you will have to download a trial copy of Lotus Domino 8 (or whatever the current trial is) from the Lotus downloads page. This does require registration, but its fairly painless. When you do the install, you can deselect everything except DAMO. I somehow lost the DAMO installer when I tried it, but was able to do a computer search to find it.

Once you do the install, you must add the install location (%ProgramFiles%\DominoForOutlook) to your Path variable in environmental variables. Make sure that all other lotus locations in that path variable are after the one you just added. I did see a registry key to check. Mine was set to the correct value by default.
computer\hkey_current_user\software\microsoft\office\outlook\addins\inotesoutlookaddin.addin
Change LoadBehavior to 3.

The next issue you will run into is missing emails or messages that don't replicate into outlook. By default, you will only see the last 90 days of messages and will be limited to 200M of email. In the Outlook tools -> options -> Domino Preferences you will find a replication section. Bump it up to 365 days and 1600M. Then close out of Outlook and reopen it. Once it finishes replication, go back in and lower the number of days in those options. If you leave the number at 1 year replication will be slower day to day.

So far it has worked very well. I am still looking into an issue where a message with a corrupt message body does not show up in Outlook but does in Lotus.