Kingston Lee

There's an exciting world out there, and I want to conquer it.

Bang! Wild West Show Release Date

I’m so excited for the expansion for this game!  Apparently, June 4th is when the European game stores get it, and there is no official date for North America, however the estimate is late June.  That’s the end of THIS month!! So excited.

Check out the Davinci games site: http://www.dvgiochi.com/giochi/wildwestshow/?id=36

Not Enough Server Storage

I found this incredibly useful today:

http://winhlp.com/node/40

Error messages:

  • Not enough server storage is available to process this command.
  • Not enough memory to complete transaction. Close some applications and retry.

These error messages on a computer, which we will call computer A, can indicate the IRPStackSize bug on the other machine, the server that has the share, which we will call computer B. Go to that other computer, B, open the event log, and check for event ID 2011. If this is present, it is a strong indication for this particular bug. The two computers again:

  1. The computer trying to access a share on the other computer over the network, displays the error message, “Not enough …”. Let’s call this one the client.
  2. The server where the share is, needs to have its IRPStackSize parameter increased. Let’s call this one the server, even if it is just a desktop computer.

To repair it, you have to set or increase the IRPStackSize parameter in the registry on the server where the share is, i.e. on computer B.

There are many reports (below), indicating that a value of 15 is not enough, and only values in the range of 16 to 25 solved the problem.

The most successful values used to be 16 and 18, but recently we have more reports of 20 and more. If you want to solve the problem quickly, try 20.

It is not quite clear whether higher values incur any cost in terms of memory usage or performance, but it is conceivable that they don’t. If so, then we probably should just set the value to its maximum of 50 and forget about it.

And don’t forget to reboot after each change, because only that makes the new value effective. Thanks to everybody who tested and reported!

Please add a comment below to report which value you used to make it work. If you find the time to experiment, please report the lowest value that worked. Please try also to set it back to a lower value and recheck whether that indeed makes it fail. Reboot after each change.

Here is the offending registry value:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\LanmanServer
\Parameters
IRPStackSize DWORD 0×0000000f (15)

Check for the presence of the value named IRPStackSize. If it doesn’t exist, create it as type DWORD and make sure you have the capitalization absolutely correct (5 upper case, 7 lower case characters), because the system strangely seems to depend on that. Make sure also that you haven’t by mistake added a leading or trailing space as described in this comment below.

With base set to decimal, enter the value 16 or higher. 15 is the default, so entering 15 should have the same effect as removing that value altogether.

Reboot the computer (or restart the server service, as described in the comment below: Worked for me).

Certain software, when installed on the server, also causes this error. One frequent culprit is Norton AntiVirus, which tends to change the registry parameter. See also: How to remove Norton software. Other culprits seem to be Acronis TrueImage, version 10 or 2009 or higher, Seagate DiscWizard (a rebranded version of Acronis TrueImage), IBM AntiVirus, Microsoft’s Bitdefender, and Symantec EndPoint Protection (version 11+). Some reports state that only uninstalling solves the problem. If you have such a case, please report your findings here.

Check also this Microsoft Knowledge Base article. It does not mention Windows XP, but applies to XP as well.

Antivirus Software May Cause Event ID 2011 (Q177078)
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/177078/

NotePad++ – Comparing Two Files

I’m trying to see the difference between two text files on my Windows machine.  NotePad++ is one of my favorite text editing tools on Windows.  You can tab different files, set the view to different languages, and add-on extra useful plugins.  One of these useful plugins is Compare.  Here’s how you get NotePad++ and use compare.

Install NotePad++

  1. Download the latest  NotePadd++ executable file here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/notepad-plus/files/ (Currently 5.6.8)
  2. Run the Installer, I usually use the defaults

Using Compare

  1. Open NotePad++
  2. Open Two Files
  3. Click Plugin > Compare

Bangs – Take You To the Movies

April Fool’s Internet Jokes of 2010

So, I’m trying to find the web’s April Fool’s Jokes and just put them all in this post. If you find any, just post it in the comments! Thanks!

Google get’s switched to Topeka

Youtube.com has Textp http://www.youtube.com/videos?s=rf

http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/unicorn-meat.shtml

Bang! The Game Character Pictures, Part 1

So, while I was scouring the internet for more information on Bang! The Wild West Show expansion, I ran into more information for Bang! The Game. I’m the crazy guy constantly updating the Bang! Wikipedia page about new information about the upcoming video game and new expansion pack.

I ran into some pictures of what the game play would look like and here’s the first set of character pictures: Calamity Jane, Willy the Kid, Vera Custer, and Jose Delgado.

Windows XP – No Audio Hardware

So, I’m on my work laptop trying to stream my music from SubSonic (will write an article up later) when all of a sudden, I realize nothing is playing. I click the volume control icon, and a status message tells me that there’s is no Audio Hardware installed.

First thing I do, is access Control Panel > Audio Hardware, where it tells me “No Audio Hardware”. Strange. This was working last night.

I decided to check the Windows Services Console and check the Windows Audio service.
Start -> Run -> “services.msc”

Lo and behold, Windows Audio service is not on. Ding Ding Ding!

Now to listen to some John Mayer err… Ke$ha Music.

Star Wars Gangsta Rap: Chronicles

Thanks Ivan!! This is AWESOME!!!

Star Wars Gangsta Rap: Chronicles

SQL Server 2005 Smart Defrag Page Count

For the past year or so, I’ve taken a role to try to upkeep the maintenance of our SQL Server Database Systems.  One of the problems we were having was with defragging indices and updating statistics while international customers were accessing the systems.

I started working to find a Smart Defragging solution that would not Defrag every index on every system.

I was able to use SQLFool’s  Automated Index Defrag Solution with some small modifications, including increasing the page_count criteria from 8 to 1000 and adding a variable for fillfactor.

http://sqlfool.com/2009/03/automated-index-defrag-script/

How to Speed up the iTunes to iPhone Sync process

I’m very glad that Apple decided to backup iPhones at every sync since many times we might accidentally delete a lot of stuff. However, there are times where I just want to sync one or two applications or songs, and I have to wait 20-30 minutes for the backup step to complete.

Here’s a few methods to skip the backup process:

1. Press the ‘x’ next to the backup status screen (Easiest, not recommended)
2. Install BackOff from DigiDNA (Best Solution)
3. Update the configuration file to skip backups. (Most difficult, most risky, not recommended)