How to Solve 90% of BlackBerry Problems

As I’ve stated many times before, I’m a high school computer technology teacher.  In South Africa, BlackBerry is currently the most awesome thing among most teenagers.  Having been a BlackBerry user since before it was mainstream (yes, I could be a hipster if I wanted to!) I know quite a bit about the phone and its inner workings.  So when the kids come to me with BlackBerry issues, I can almost always get it sorted out one way or another.  This often makes me seem more awesome than I actually am (though I truly am awesome, I don’t deny it!)

I have found that most BlackBerry issues (including the cases where the phone is stuck in a reboot cycle and won’t finish, or sometimes won’t even come on at all) can be solved simply by updating the firmware.  This sounds extremely difficult, and many technicians will have you believe that it is, since they will charge you around R300 or more to do it, and then you will have to “send in your phone” for around 2 weeks.  But in reality I regularly do it for the kids at school, it takes me no more than an hour, and I usually don’t even charge them a cent.  No specialist equipment required.  And this is how I do it:

First, here’s what you need:

1. A PC.  I have a quad core gamer’s PC running Windows 7 Ultimate, but it works just as well on my laptop running a Celeron CPU and Windows 7 Home Basic.  So you don’t need a powerhouse.
2. Your BlackBerry phone’s USB cable.  You get this with your phone, but it’s pretty standard these days.
3. An internet connection.  I have an uncapped connection at home, but you should make sure that you have at least about 250MB of data available (you will probably need less, though).
4. The BlackBerry Desktop Software (can be downloaded here; at present it’s around 120MB).  If you have an older BlackBerry you may have the software on your phone’s SD Card or a CD that you got with it, but newer versions don’t come with the software included, and I would recommend rather getting the latest software anyway.

Before we begin, let me just state that if you choose to follow these instructions, you do so at your own risk, and I take no responsibility for any damages or losses incurred, blah blah blah.  You know the story.

FIX NUMBER ONE:

So once you have everything that you need, it’s time to get going.  First, connect your phone to the PC using the USB cable, and make sure that you are connected to the internet.  Then you can fire up the BlackBerry Desktop Software.

Now you have to give your PC some time.  Though the software opens fairly quickly, it’s going to take a while to detect and properly install and configure your phone.  I suggest that you go and make a cup of coffee or something. 

You will know that it’s ready when you click on the “Device” menu at the top and the “Update” option is available:

Go ahead and click on “Update”.  The software will go online and search for updates to the operating system itself.  If it finds an update, it will give you the opportunity to install it (it will backup all of your data first and restore it after the update is complete; the entire process should take around 1 hour).  If there are no updates available, you will see the following screen:

At this point it’s your choice if you want to enter your email address.  I’ve done it before, but I’ve never been informed of any updates, so it’s probably a waste of time.  I might be wrong.  The important thing, though, is to click on “View other versions”.  That will open a screen similar to this:

If you keep the “currently installed” version selected, and click on “Install”, it won’t update anything, but it will still backup all of your data and reinstall your current operating system, effectively solving many software-related issues, including the “not booting up” problem.

FIX NUMBER TWO:

There’s another less drastic thing that could be done to solve some (less major) issues: an application update.  Usually you will be notified by BlackBerry App World when updates to your normal apps are available.  But sometimes you have non-App World apps installed, or your Core Applications may need an update.  If that is the case, again fire up Desktop Software with your phone connected to the PC and with an active internet connection.  Then go to the top left of the screen and click on “Applications”.  After a few minutes you will see a screen that looks something like this:

In this screen you can see that the BlackBerry 6.0.0 Core Applications component had an update available (indicated by the red star, and also in “Application Summary” at the bottom of the screen).  So when you click “Apply” it will download the update from the internet and install it on your phone.  This solves many issues, including the “Your phone is in need of a BlackBerry Identity update” message.  After you run this, you shouldn’t have that problem anymore!

Well, boys and girls, I hope I helped someone here today.  Now that I made this information available for free, I will be charging to provide this service, and it will take 2 weeks, so learners of Primrose High, be warned!

Anyway, until next time, be blessed!

Awesome Windows 7 Password Hack

First of all, my disclaimer: THIS IS SPECIFICALLY MEANT TO GIVE YOU ACCESS TO A PC THAT YOU LEGALLY HAVE A RIGHT TO ACCESS BUT SOMEHOW GOT LOCKED OUT OF, AND NOT INTENDED TO BE USED FOR ANY ILLEGAL PURPOSES WHATSOEVER.

Right, now that's out of the way.  I am currently a full-time high school computer technology teacher.  And as I'm sure all the other computer technology teachers around the world would agree, you always have a few learners who just want to see the world burn.  They will do whatever they can to hack the administrator password, and occasionally, they will manage to do it and you as the teacher will be locked out.

Maybe you are one of us.  Or maybe you just lost access to your PC through some other means.  But either way, if you are reading this, chances are that you managed to get locked out of your Windows system and you need to "hack the password".  So here's a nice little trick that I discovered recently:

1. Get Linux.  Yes, I know this could take some time, but even a very small version of Linux will work.  You get some that are smaller than 100MB, a rather fast download, but then you will need to know Linux' command prompt in order to do what you have to do.  But even the regular CD-ROM version of Ubuntu will be perfect, and it will at least have a graphical interface to help you get around.  So go and download any Linux ISO.  Here are links to some of them:  Ubuntu     Linux Mint     Damn Small Linux
2. Make your ISO usable.  You do this by either burning it to a CD / DVD, or by making a bootable installation flash drive using UNetbootin.
3. Now make sure that the disc is in the drive, or your USB flash drive is connected to a USB port, and reboot.  Enter your BIOS (usually using "DEL" or "F2") and set your PC to boot FIRST from the appropriate device (CD / DVD or USB).  Then save your settings and exit.
4. As soon as the system boots up, you should see a menu with a few options, including something similar to "Install" and "Run from CD".  Choose the option that allows you to run Linux without installing it first.
5. When you are presented with a Linux desktop, open the file manager (in Linux Mint, there's an icon called "Computer" on the desktop).  Then open the PC's main hard drive, and navigate to the Windows\System32 folder.
6. Now copy the cmd.exe file to your desktop.
7. Find the file called "sethc.exe" and rename it to anything else (just to make a backup).
8. Now go to the "cmd.exe" on your desktop and rename it to "sethc.exe", and COPY (NOT CUT) the renamed file to the System32 folder.
9. Now (still in System32) find the file called "Utilman.exe" and rename it to anything else (again, to create a backup).
10. Now go back to the renamed cmd.exe on your desktop and rename it again, this time to "Utilman.exe" and copy it to System32.
11. Now reboot your computer and remove the disc, making sure that you boot to the Windows 7 drive.
12. As soon as you are presented with the Login screen, press Windows Key + U.  Normally this would open up the Accessibility Options screen, but that has now been replaced with an Administrator-level command prompt!
13. In the command prompt window, type the following: net user accountname * (obviously replacing "accountname" with whatever the account's name is).
14. You will be asked for a password.  Type the password (no nothing will appear on the screen) and press enter.  Re-enter the password and press enter again.
15. Close the command prompt and login with the new password, and voila!  You are back in Windows.  You can now go back into Linux and delete the changed sethc.exe and Utilman.exe, if you want to, but if you never use accessibility options, why bother?

To see a video of how it's done, feel free to check my YouTube channel.

Happy hacking! ;-)

Windows Essentials 2012 Released

Mere months before the release of Windows 8, Microsoft recently released Windows Essentials 2012 (previously known as "Windows Live Essentials").

All in all it's more of the same; no big changes that I noticed, except for Live Mail loading a bit faster (which is a good thing!).

The full package includes Mail, Messenger, Writer, Family Safety, Photo Gallery and Movie Maker, as well as new addition, Microsoft SkyDrive.

All in all a fairly useful download and not a total waste of time.  If you use any of the Essentials applications, you will probably be glad you downloaded it.  But if you aren't currently a user of any Live Essentials applications, then maybe you should skip this download.  In all likelihood you won't miss it.

For more details, click here.

Or if you want to download it directly, click here for the web based installer, or alternatively click here for the offline installer (full installation package).

ZorinOS Revealed…

In a previous post I promised that I would review ZorinOS.  For those who missed it and are to lazy to go back and read it, or for those who forgot about it, let me explain it again quickly.  ZorinOS is a Linux operating system, which is distributed free of charge.  It’s built on Ubuntu, which is probably the most popular Linux distribution out there.  The Core Edition is distributed free of charge, but there are also Multimedia, Gaming, and Ultimate Editions available to purchase.  ZorinOS claims to have Windows-like interfaces and good Windows compatibility, as well as being faster than Ubuntu.  Well, thanks to one of my students I finally got my hands on ZorinOS 4 Core Edition, and as promised, here are my thoughts.

My overall first impression was good.  I installed it in a dual-boot configuration with Windows 7.  The installation itself was virtually painless; my only complaint is that the partitioning section could be a bit complicated for new users (even the Wizard interface can easily overwrite your other OS accidentally if you’re not careful).

I was very impressed when Zorin booted up and, after logging in, I saw what could easily be mistaken for Windows 7:

The desktop, the “Start Menu”, even the Control Panel, were all so similar to Windows 7 that someone who’s used to working in Windows 7 will be able to work with ZorinOS very easily.

ZorinOS also comes with the “Look Changer”, which is used to change the interface.  The Core Edition comes with interfaces that makes ZorinOS look like Windows 7, Windows XP, or the more “Linuxey” GNOME interface that Ubuntu uses by default.  The other editions also have other interfaces to choose from, such as a MacOSX Interface.

Even the Windows XP interface looks very realistic:

I was also very impressed with the software included with ZorinOS.  It includes most of what Ubuntu offers – OpenOffice.org, the JukeBox Music Player, etc.  But it comes with the Google Chrome browser by default instead of Mozilla Firefox, which would be a good thing for most people, but I personally prefer Firefox over Chrome.  Luckily there’s the built-in Browser Changer which can easily install another browser if you aren’t satisfied.  ZorinOS also comes with all of the codecs and software needed to play MP3’s, DVD’s and other media files, which is one thing that I always felt was missing from Ubuntu.  (And before my Ubuntu-fan friends complain about that statement, yes, I know why support for those things were left out, but in a world where PC’s are used more and more to watch DVD’s and listen to MP3’s, I find it very absurd that an OS should ship without support for it.)  In other words, just like Windows 7, ZorinOS just works straight out of the box.  With Ubuntu I always had to download about 500MB’s software just to do the things I wanted to do; not so with ZorinOS.

The claims about being very Windows compatible… Well, yes and no.  The Windows compatibility relies on two things – WINE (the Windows compatibility layer for Linux – it’s “NOT an emulator”), and the PlayOnLinux system (which also uses WINE).  So in theory there’s nothing that you can run in Zorin that you can’t run in Ubuntu if you manually install WINE and PlayOnLinux (it’s installed by default in ZorinOS); however, I find that WINE is configured better in ZorinOS.  I managed to install and run Microsoft Office 2007, for example, without changing any settings:

But having said that, it isn’t perfect.  I had some problems installing Office 2010, Paint Shop Pro, E-Sword, and a few games.  But that’s where PlayOnLinux comes in – I was able to get Far Cry 2 running perfectly, but only after PlayOnLinux downloaded about 300MB of extra files from the internet.  After that I had a 13fps improvement over Windows 7, which is awesome.  But still, if I have to download 300MB of data from the internet every time I try to install Windows software, my internet cap simply won’t last.

Concerning the claims about being faster than Ubuntu – It booted almost 5 seconds faster than Ubuntu 10.10 on my PC, and most software also loads faster.

So in conclusion: For Windows users who want to move to Linux for whatever reason, whether it’s because Linux is free, or because they want more stability or power, or just want to try something new, ZorinOS 4 is the perfect Linux distro to go for.  For die-hard Linux fans, ZorinOS is still as good as any other version of Linux.  It’s 100% pure Ubuntu under the hood, and the good old Terminal is just a mouse-click away.  But it’s still lacking in the compatibility department, and in a world where PC games are overwhelmingly Windows-based, that’s a bit of a problem.  But even in that area, I’ve had fewer problems installing Windows games in ZorinOS than in any other distribution of Linux.  In my opinion, and for my purposes, ZorinOS 4 is the most perfect Linux ever; and that’s not just because it looks like Windows.  I’ll be watching this one with interest!

Lourens, out.

Over-Rated Technology Rant

I apologize for my intermittent posts the last few months; I've been really busy trying to find my feet in my new job.

Today I want to rant a bit about what I feel is the most over-rated and overpriced piece of technology ever. I am talking, of course, about the Tablet PC.

I mean, honestly. What makes a Tablet so awesome? I don't think a tablet can do anything that can't be done on another device just as well, or even better, and usually with more style.

For example, what can you do on an iPad that I can't do on my BlackBerry? My Berry can send and receive e-mails, browse the web, play music, take photos, show movies, and open and edit Office documents, just like a tablet. But even more, my Berry can also make and receive calls, send messages, and fit in my pocket, all of it at a fraction of the price of a Tablet.

So my question is this: Why are tablets so popular then? Could someone please explain it to me? The discussion is open. Feel free to comment.

Lourens, out.

My Frequent Web Stops

I know, I know. I'm really not living up to my early blogging promises, am I? My sincerest apologies. But, here I am.

Now, unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on a working copy of ZorinOS yet, and due to my new teaching career I really didn't focus as much on migrating to Ubuntu as I planned. So don't expect a discussion on any of those subjects yet. Rather, in this post, I would like to share some of my favorite on-line places with you.

Firstly, there's Facebook. Obviously I don't really need to say much about it. I know, their privacy and security features are notoriously pathetic. But hey, none of that has ever affected me before. I find that Facebook is a great place to find old friends, and an even greater place to maintain some form of communication with people that are far away or that I just can't reach regularly in any other way in these rushed times. Yes, I'm addicted to Facebook. So sue me.

Secondly, there's Weather24. A very informative, though sometimes completely inaccurate, weather service. And I can access it from my BlackBerry, which definitely gives it Brownie Points.

Thirdly, theres PCMech. In their own words, "Helping Normal People Get Their Geek On". An awesome resource of IT and computer-related news and tips. They even inspire some of my own blog posts. I'm subscribed to their weekly newsletter, so I can get all the PCMech goodness in my inbox.

There are also quite a few blogs that I love to visit, some of them purely for entertainment purposes, and others for their intellectual or spiritual content:

• Blog of Ice: This blog belongs to my oldest friend and his wife (oldest not by age, but simply because we've been friends the longest, since 1st grade). They emigrated from South Africa to Sweden a few years ago, and this blog lists their interesting (and often humorous) experiences.
• Me, Myself and I: A blog by a very sweet person. She's sharing her struggles with Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously known as Multiple Personality Disorder), and the healing process that she has to go through to deal with all of the abuse she went through in her childhood. A very thought-provoking (and often tear-inducing) read.
• Purple Black and Blue: Another blog by an old High School friend of mine. It's about abuse, all kinds of abuse, and ways to fight it. Very interesting thoughts and facts, and a good read for anyone, especially those of us with children.
• 4 Seisoene: Mostly an Afrikaans blog, but with some very creative and inspiring thoughts by another old school friend of mine. Highly recommended as a light but uplifting read.
• Life and Times of Jaco the Wizard: He describes me as being "...the proverbial band-camp IT geek". Very appropriate, since we really got to know each other in our High School Marching Band. Jaco (a.k.a. The Wizard) is very passionate about photography, and he shows off some of his work on this site, as well as sharing some humorous and thought-provoking insights.

I hope you will get as much out of these pages as I do. If you have any recommendations, please leave a comment...

Lourens, out.

The Return of the Penguin

I apologize for my absence of almost 3 months. The truth is that very little has been happening IT-wise that I felt worth discussing. But today is different...

According to several rumors (some of them from very reliable sources, but please don't quote me on any of this since I'm not to be held responsible for any false information, I'm just telling it as I hear it), Microsoft isn't doing as well as expected. Some of these rumors state that there is a lack of confidence in Microsoft's current CEO, Steve Ballmer, even from within Microsoft's own staff. Even worse, some rumors say that Windows 7 isn't selling as well as Microsoft estimated, and even that they went so far as to lie about these sales figures to the public. Not exactly painting a pretty picture, is it?

But a cold hard fact is that Windows XP will officially be showing its age this year (it is, after all, 10 years old). You see, several new technologies will be emerging this year, including USB 3.0 and the ability to access hard drives over 3TB in capacity. These are major advances. And none of these technologies will be supported in Windows XP. Despite this fact, web statistics show that at November 2010, a whopping 47% of computer users were still running XP (compared to the second highest number, 28.5% of people running Windows 7).

People have two options - Either they have to upgrade to Windows 7, or they have to migrate to another OS. I personally support both options.

Firstly, let me make plain once again that I am a big fan of Windows 7. If you look at some of my previous posts you will see that I am quite impressed with many of the changes that Microsoft made to their software and business approaches in the last year and a half. And I stick by that - really, I'm all for buying a Windows 7 license.

But I also have to admit that the other option is starting to look better and better each day. When it comes to migrating to another OS, I wholeheartedly recommend going for Ubuntu.

I won't be going into detail now, since I already did a review of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS in a previous post. However, let me just mention that I'm running the above-mentioned version of Ubuntu alongside my Windows 7 installation, and I find myself booting into Ubuntu more and more often, and less and less into Windows. I'm basically only using Windows for gaming right now.

The reason why I recommend Ubuntu over other distributions of Linux? Thank you for asking. Well, there are various reasons, among others:

1. Ubuntu is probably the most popular Linux distribution.
2. Ubuntu is very user-friendly.
3. The learning curve for someone migrating from Windows isn't that complicated.
4. It's a very stable, fast, and well-supported operating system.

However, another Linux distribution has recently come to my attention. It's called Zorin OS.

Zorin OS is based on Ubuntu, so it has the same support and stability levels. But it is optimized for people migrating from other operating systems. It claims to have better Windows compatibility, even claiming to play many Windows games faster and better than Windows itself. And it includes a way to change its user interface so that it can look and function exactly like Windows XP, Windows 7, MacOS, and others. Sounds impressive indeed...

I will be looking into Zorin OS in the next few weeks, and I will post my findings as soon as I have them. I am also planning to explain the process of migrating from Windows to Linux in more detail soon, so for those of you who are interested, check back soon. But for those of you who are sticking with Windows, don't worry, I'm not planning on abandoning the system completely. This blog is, after all, not dedicated to Linux but to IT in general.

So until next time, be blessed.

Lourens, out.