Author: Bob Lin

Q: What to do when my computer is attached by ransomware?

chicagotech.net: It is not recommended to pay ransom not because it does not guarantee a solution to the problem, but also it may cause other issues.

You may visit nomporerasom.org to download and use their decryption tool.

Situation: The client has a problem to print multiple copies. When he tries, he get this message: Only one copy was printing while more than one copy required. RAM disk is full or not enabled. Or, SSD or SD Card is full.

Troubleshooting: If it is HP printer, try to disabling Mopier mode.

1. Start > Devices and Printers
2. Double-click printer
3. Double-click “Customize your printer”
4. Click “Device Settings” tab
5. Scroll to bottom of page and change “Mopier Mode” to Disabled under the “Installable Options” group.

If it is Kyocera printer, you may try to install Printer RAM Disk.

Note: 1. If this printer is in server, please enable Printer RAM Disk.

2. You may need to restart Pinter spooler on both server and client.

Situation: The client is running Windows 10. His computer is frozen when installing Windows 10 update.

Troubleshooting:

1. Close the Settings app and reopen it.
2. Launch Services.msc and check if the following services are running:
   • Update State Orchestrator
   • Windows Update

3. Restart the computer and then try it.

Situation: Whenever the client installs Windows update, it causes network traffic problem and makes internet slow.

Troubleshooting: We recommend to setup WSUS server to download the updates and distribute them to all computers .

Also, Microsoft recommend this:

The following group policies can help mitigate this:

• Blocking access to Windows Update servers: Policy Turn off access to all Windows Update features (Set to enabled)
• Driver search: Policy Specify search order for device driver source locations (Set to “Do not search Windows Update”)
• Windows Store automatic update: Policy Turn off Automatic Download and Install of updates (Set to enabled)

Other components that reach out to the internet:

• Windows Spotlight: Policy Configure Windows spotlight on lock screen (Set to disabled)
• Consumer experiences: Policy Turn off Microsoft consumer experiences (Set to enabled)
• Background traffic from Windows apps: Policy Let Windows apps run in the background

Situation: The user has HP Photosmart Plus B210. After replacing the cartridge, the printing job is blank.

Troubleshooting: 1. Installed latest print driver.

2. Reset printer and cartridge.

3. Clean printer head.

4. Finally we find the problem is “The aliment process failed”.

If you experience a Windows problem or Windows update problem, you may try to run System file check (SFC) and to fix it.

To run a system file check (SFC)

Go to start>Type CMD

Right click and run as Administrator

Type sfc /scannow

It may shows one of three possible results:
Windows did not find any integrity violations (a good thing)

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and repaired them (a good thing)

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some (or all) of them (not a good thing)  If you get this message run DISM as described below

To RESTORE health (recommended)

Use DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth to scan the image for component store corruption, perform repair operations automatically, and records that corruption to the log file.  This generally takes 15-30 minutes depending on the corruption and size of the partition.

Note: 1. You may have to run this up to 3 times to fix all the problems.

2. After running DISM it is a good idea to re-run SFC /scannow to make sure all the issues were fixed.

3. If you get the error message “cannot find source files”you need to have an ISO file mounted and need to specify where it is located with the below command. The ISO must be exactly the same version as the running OS.  An ISO of 10586.0 will not repair a running system of 10586.35 because it has additional updates and files.

Situation: The client has a Thinkpad X1 Yoga with full charged battery. He can’t turn on the laptop with power plugs in and full battery charged. When pressing the power button, the power light is not on. When you plug the power on, the power light on for sends and disappears.

Resolution: reset battery

1   Remove Laptop bottom cover.

2   Disconnect two battery connections.

3  Disconnect coin-cell (CMOS) battery.

4. Disconnect the cable in the power button.

5. Press power button a few times to drain capacitors

6. Put all connections back and try again.

Situation: The client accesses gofundme website fine. However, he can’t make payment.

Troubleshooting: 1. Add the website to security settings.

2. Try different browser and computer.

3. Check the company firewall settings.

Situation: When the use uses Office 365 Outlook to send an email with PDF attachment, she gets this error: “operation failed”.

Troubleshooting: 1. enable/disable Exchange cache mode for a test.

2. Check the attachment permissions.

3. Repair Outlook.

Situation: The client is running Windows 2016 Hyper-v and moves the VM to different drive. Now, they can’t start the VM.

Troubleshooting: 1. They should not us copy and past to move the VM. They should use export.

2. Hyper-V virtual machine may not start, and you receive a “‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005)” error message Every Hyper-V virtual machines has a unique Virtual Machine ID (SID). If the Virtual Machine SID is missing from the security permissions on the .vhd or .avhd file, the virtual machine does not start, and you receive the “‘General access denied error’ (0x80070005)” error message that is mentioned in the “Symptoms” section. Please refer to this article:

Google Custom Search Hyper–V virtual machine may not start, and you receive a “’General …support.microsoft.comhttps://support.microsoft.com/…/hyper–v–virtual-machine-may-not-start-and- you-receive-a-general-access

3. There are two ways to fix the problem. The easy (but completely insecure) fix is to give Everyone full control of the virtual hard disk file. The “correct” fix it to give read and write access to the virtual machine’s SID.

You can find the virtual machine’s SID by using the Get-VM cmdlet in PowerShell. For a VM named New Virtual Machine the command would be:

Get-VM 'New Virtual Machine' | Select-Object VMID

4. Update the Permissions

The solution is to give the SID Full control of the VHD using the command line.

Tip: Rather than type (or mistype) the SID by hand, cut and paste it from the event log message or from the XML file name in the Virtual Machines folder.

The command:

icacls <Path of .vhd file> /grant "NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\<Virtual Machine SID>":F

Note that there is no space before the :F. For example:

icacls "D:\Virtual Machines\VM01\Virtual Hard Disks\DRIVE01.VHD" /grant "NT VIRTUAL MACHINE\6B78D45F5-71DF-4725-B4B2-E651800BE80EF":F

Once that permission has been added, you should be able to start the virtual machine.

5. Updating the NTFS level permissions: 1.  On the destination server, Right-click on the shared folder and select Properties. 
2.  Select the Security tab. 
3.  Click Edit button and click the Add button in the permissions dialog box. 
4.  Click Oject Types and select Computers if not already done and click OK
5.  In the dialog “Enter the object names to select” provide the name of Hyper-V host machine and click Check Names
6.  With the Hyper-V host machine name select, click Allow by “Full control” and click OK

Updating the share level permissions:1.  On the destination server, Right-click on the shared folder and select Properties. 
2.  Select the Sharing tab. 
3.  Click Advanced Sharing…
4.  On the Advanced Sharing dialog, click Permissions  and then Add. 5. Click Oject Types and select Computers if not already done and click OK
6.  In the dialog “Enter the object names to select” provide the name of Hyper-V host machine and click Check Names
7.  With the Hyper-V host machine name select, click Allow by “Full control” and click OK