Category: windows

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Samsung Q1 Ultra Wireless Problems

I have been messing about with evaluating a Samsung Q1 Ultra over the last couple of days. I was trying out Internet Explorer and was surprised to find that the Q1 was not connected to my wireless network. After some investigation I found out this evening and was disappointed to find that Windows Vista decided that the best thing it could do was disable the wireless adapter as it had a found a problem with it.

Samsung Q1 Ultra

Initially the problem I was having was that the device failed to connect to my wireless network, which surprised me, as I hadn’t really done very much with the Q1 except switch it on! I hadn’t installed any software (or even uninstalled software).

The wireless was on according to the Samsung software, but as far as Windows Vista was concerned there were no networks to connect to.

Very strange, after checking device manager (something I doubt any general user would do) I found that Vista had disabled the wireless adapter because it had found a problem with it. It didn’t tell me what the problem was, but was willing to go online to find a solution (well I would have gone online, but the wireless wasn’t working was it).

There didn’t seem to be any way of re-enabling the wireless adapter. I could have uninstalled it, but I wondered if Vista would let me reinstall the wireless adapter, I was pretty sure it might have got pretty obnoxious about it.

In the end I went with a system restore, something I do like about XP and Vista and restored the Q1 to this morning’s configuration which I know was working, and is working now.

I wonder if it was a Windows Update that caused the problem, I am not totally sure of the cause.

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Password Protected Sharing

In the two guides I have written (so far) on sharing files between Macs and Vista PCs, Sharing files between a Windows Vista Home Edition PC and a Mac running OS X Leopard 10.5 and  Sharing files between a Windows Vista Business Edition PC and a Mac running 10.4� I did not disable password protection on the Vista PCs.

This meant that users sharing files needed to enter a password (or have a matching account) in order to access shared folders on the Vista PC.

Password Protected Sharing

However if you turn off password protected sharing it is possible to share files without for the user on the remote computer who is accessing the shared folder to use a password.

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Windows on a Mac

If you want to run Windows on an Intel Mac there are basically four choices.

Boot Camp

http://www.apple.com/bootcamp

This is an either or situation, which means you are running Windows or OS X, therefore if you want to change applications you need to reboot.

Has the advantage that you are when running Windows for all intents purposes your mac is a Windows PC. This means that you get the full power of your Mac for running Windows.

You need a licensed copy of Windows XP *SP2* or Windows Vista

Comes as part of Leopard, so if you have Tiger you will need to upgrade.

Parallels and VMFusion

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

These applications create virtual Windows PCs, which allow you to run Windows (and Windows applications) at the same time as OS X and therefore you can switch between them withoout needing to reboot. There is a slight performance hit when running Windows in this way but for most people this is negligible. Also you will need a lot of RAM to run these, at leat 1GB and preferably 2GB of RAM.

Coherence mode on Parallels allows you to run Windows applications seamlessly alongside Mac applications.

Both require a Windows licence, but doesn’t need to be SP2, with Parallels you can even install and run Windows 3.1! Parallels XP support is excellent, however support for Vista is less good, so you can’t use things like Aero for example.

Crossover

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/

Allows you to run Windows applications (some but not all) within OS X and you don’t need a Windows licence as you don’t install Windows.

Downside is that it doesn’t work with all applications.

MacBook

Summary

Therefore there are four choices when it comes to running Windows on a Mac. Which is best? Well that depends much more on your needs when it comes to running Windows.

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TC1100 Wireless Problems, Sorted!

I have finally sorted out my HP TC1100 wireless problem. I was having issues getting the TC1100 to connect to my 802.11g Airport wireless network.

I had confirmed that the Intel 2200 BG card in the Tablet supports WPA and I have updated Windows XP to support WPA as well.

The Intel 2200 BG card also supports 802.11g.

I say that as the solution was to switch the Airport Extreme from 802.11g only radio mode to 802.11b/g mode.

In this mode the TC1100 has no problem connecting to my WPA/WPA2 network!

It’s not as even though the TC1100 is connecting at 802.11b 11 Mbps speeds, as the speed shown in the connection window though fluctuating is greater than 11 Mbps!

So if you are having issues connecting to an 802.11g network with a laptop with the Intel 2200BG card, revert to b/g compatability and see if that makes a difference.

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HP TC1100 Tablet PC Wireless Problems

Since I sorted out my new wireless networks, my HP TC1100 Tablet PC has been having issues connecting to the 802.11g wireless network.

TC1100

The 802.11g wireless network is using WPA/WPA2 encryption.

I have confirmed that the Intel 2200 BG card in the Tablet supports WPA and I have updated Windows XP to support WPA as well.

However the TC1100 fails to connect to the network. Initially I thought it was a channel 13 issue, but since changing to channel 6, I still can’t connect.

I have been through my settings and my own troubleshooting guide but still no joy.

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Vista Printing Success

The other day I mentioned I was having issues with printing from a Windows Vista PC to a printer on a Mac (running 10.4).

Well you know what I should read my own guides, specifically the guide on Printing to a printer on a Mac running 10.4.x from a Windows XP PC.

In that guide is the clear statement:

Choose the relevant Printer Driver (or click Have Disk and put in the relevant drivers disk). Note that you should only use the Windows driver if you have a Postscript printer

I forgot that you don’t use the Windows Printer Driver, you need to use a Postscript driver.

This only came to light when I decided to use Bonjour for Windows to install the printer and when it came to choosing the correct printer driver, the Bonjour Printer Wizard only gave me the choice of a generic Postscript printer!

And yes it printed, guide coming soon.