“How to stop the ‘SBCore Service’ Service” or “How to use SBS2003 as a normal server”
AKA How to stop Windows SBS2003 from shutting down automatically.
Most of this info was found here: http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?t=173731
Note: Removing this service apparently violates the license agreement for Microsoft Small Business Server. See the details here if you care.
Tools you’ll need – Process Explorer from www.sysInternals.com http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/default.aspx
As you probably know, you have a service called “SBCore Service”, which executes the following process: C:\WINDOWS\system32\sbscrexe.exe
If you kill it, it just restarts – and if you try and stop it you are told Access Denied.
If you fire up Process Explorer, you can select the process and Suspend it, now we can start to disable the thing.
Run regedt32.exe and find:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\SBCoreRight click this, choose Permissions and give the “Administrators” group on the local machine full access (don’t forget to replace permissions on child nodes).
Press F5 in regedt32 to refresh, and you’ll see all of the values and data under this key.
Select the “Start” DWORD and change it from 2 to 4 – this sets the service to the “Disabled” state as far as the MMC services snap-in (and windows for that matter) is concerned.
In the original instructions, the author left the service as Disabled and just denied access to the executable:
Next, adjust the permissions on the file C:\WINDOWS\system32\sbscrexe.exe so that EVERYONE account is
denied any sort of access to this file.Then go back to process explorer, and kill the sbscrexe.exe process, if it doesn’t restart – congratulations!
Load up the services MMC snap-in and you should find that “SBS Core Services” is stopped and marked as Disabled.
I decided that I wanted the service gone completely, so (after exporting it), I just deleted the registry key while in regedt32.
After rebooting, I verified that the service was indeed gone from the list of services in MMC, and there was no sbscrexe.exe process running. Then I moved the file sbscrexe.exe from C:\windows\system32 into a tidy little folder along with my exported registry key to keep for future evaluation. Something like a disgusting little bug under glass.
How to disable hibernation in Windows Vista
4GB of wasted hard drive space for something I don’t use. Now you can disable it in 1 second:
Win-R, cmdto open a command prompt.- Type
powercfg -h offand press <ENTER>.
That’s it.
Installing an OEM Intel 2200bg Mini-PCI card into a BIOS-Locked HP/Compaq nc8000
Thought this was worth a try, so I grabbed a $7 mini-pci card off ebay, and after waiting about a month for shipping from China, installed it into the laptop. Only then was I hit with the dreaded:
104 unsupported wireless network device detected, system halted, remove device and restart
Ack. OK, so a quick search brought up this thread from 2004 with many, many angry people trying to figure out how to make this cheap card work without having to buy the HP “version”. Turns out it’s pretty easy. A little bit risky, but easy.
Take the keyboard off the laptop, but don’t unplug it - you’ll need it.
Take the cover off the mini-pci slot.
Boot the computer off of a knoppix or whatever live CD. I used knoppix 3.8.2 (2005-05-05) as suggested. At the boot screen, HOT-PLUG THE MINI-PCI CARD before pressing <ENTER>. That is the risky part, although it seems to work OK. Now press <ENTER> and the system will boot into the default knoppix environment. Also, don’t forget to plug the regular network adapter into something, since you’ll need internet access.
Open a root terminal session.
Check to see that the wireless card was detected using
# iwconfig
It’ll say that lo and eth1 have no wireless capabilities, and show you some mumbo-jumbo about eth0. It’s not important, just remember that eth0 is your wireless card. Or eth1 if that’s what it tells you. Either way, just remember.
You can also use “ethtool -e eth0″ to dump the existing EEPROM configuration to the screen so you can write it down and revert back to it when the FCC comes knocking on your door. You may want to practice this entire procedure a few times in order to make sure you have enough time to finish before they break the door down and confiscate your laptop.
Now all we have to do is download a mystery driver that looks like it might have originally come from sony, and is still (as of April 2008) available here: http://www.geocities.com/sonyirclib/ipw2200.tar.gz. I’ll keep a copy of it somewhere in case it disappears, so if you’re polite and have good acceptable grammar, I might make it available to you.
So, in your terminal session, do this:
# mkdir /usr/tmp
# cd /usr/tmp
# wget http://www.geocities.com/sonyirclib/ipw2200.tar.gz
# tar xvzf ipw2200.tar.gz
# cd ipw2200-1.0.3
# ./unload
# ./load
# ethtool -E eth0 magic 0×2200 offset 0×8 value 0xf5
# ethtool -E eth0 magic 0×2200 offset 0×9 value 0×12
# ethtool -E eth0 magic 0×2200 offset 0xa value 0×3c
# ethtool -E eth0 magic 0×2200 offset 0xb value 0×10
You have just downloaded and extracted a new wireless driver, unloaded the default knoppix one, loaded the downloaded one, and re-programmed the EEPROM with values that the HP laptop will accept. At this point, you should be able to shut down the laptop, make sure the little antenna connectors are plugged into the mini-pci card, re-assemble everything, and boot normally. The new EEPROM values will fool the laptop into thinking that this is a real HP wireless card, so only you will know that it was only $7 and not $200!
“the iscsi name specified contains invalid characters or is too long”
This applies specifically to the iSCSI Intiator for Windows XP, but might apply to other versions as well.
Check to see if there are underscores in your volume group and/or volume names.
Downgrading from Vista to XP on Gateway MX8711 and similar Vista-only laptops without a floppy drive.
OK, I was going to finish this off at some point, but I’ve gotten busy with other projects, so I figure I might as well post what I have so far… If there’s any interest, let me know and I’ll see if I have any more useful insight…
Step 1: Get this stuff:
- Intel Matrix SATA drivers for the Intel(R) 82801GBM SATA AHCI Controller, Network Adapter Drivers for the Intel(R) PRO/100 VE Network Connection, and Video Drivers for the Mobile Intel(R) 945GM Express Chipset Family.
- nlite.
- Your Windows XP CD.
Step 2: Make a new XP CD:
- Install nlite
- Create a new XP CD, and slipstream the Intel drivers you downloaded in Step 1 using nlite.
Step 3: Install Windows XP:
- Installation should be straightforward if you have created your new XP CD properly. The hard drive will be detected without having to press F6, and the network card and video card will work out of the box.
Step 4: Find the other Gateway drivers (I managed to find a laptop in the 64xx series that had most of the same internals, and XP drivers…):
- Audio: (SigmaTel Unknown @ Intel 82801GBM ICH7-M - High Definition Audio Controller [B-0])
- Wireless: (Broadcom 802.11g Network Adapter)
- XP Update for Modem to work properly:
- Modem: (Motorola SM56 Data Fax Modem)
- Touchpad:
- Card Reader:
Procrastination and Firewalls
I was working on a post about downgrading a Gateway MX8711 from Vista to XP, but it was more fun to go through some old files and put the Smooth And Naked page back up… Also fitting because Smoothwall 3 was just released.
