The drive was on, the cables were in. Unplugging and reconnecting the USB cable popped up a Windows message saying the “USB device was not recognised”. The first thought was a swearword about the last time I had done a backup of that drive.

I had already noticed that my iPod didn’t seem to be visible to iTunes but dismissed it as something to dealt with later. Now it was apparent that the issues were related because I go the same message when I tried reconnecting the iPod.

These devices were connected to different USB ports on the front and back of the machine. Because they were different kinds of devices from different vendors it didn’t seem likely that it could be a vendor driver issue. A restart improved nothing.

Checking the System Control Panel Hardware Device Manager properties for the all the machine USB ports showed nothing untoward.

Luckily, I am not the first to see this issue and it is all explained in this very good article. If you are in a hurry the answer is to shut down the machine, unplug the power for a while, and then restart it.

Unbelievable to an old hack like me, it actually does make a difference removing the physical power for some things!

This article will show you how you can reset the error message and get that document printed. I discovered the answer here but I thought some pictures would probably help.

(The 2430DL and other Konica Minolta 2400/2500 series printers use the same parts so this should be just as applicable to them)

Obviously you do all the following steps at your own risk.

So the display shows

Drum cartridge
end of life

(I should have taken a picture, shouldn’t I!)

Firstly where is the drum cartridge?

Open the top of the printer using the handle underneath the exit paper tray.

Inside the printer you can see the green handle of the drum cartridge. The drum cartridge collects the waste toner and eventually fills up. The printer calculates when it should be full and displays the warning that it is end of life. It isn’t, it is just a calculation and you can eek more life out of the cartridge until it is really full.

For the record I reckon you actually get about 6500 pages from a toner cartridge if you are married to a primary school teacher, with about the last 500 from a drum which is stated as being at 0%. I will update this article to say how many extra pages I got after the ‘paper-clipping’ the drum.

(Of course you already know you can do a lot more printing from the toner cartridges than the printer actually says… don’t you? Maybe I should do another article with info on that, including the weights of full and empty toner cartridges…)

So how are we to get rid of the message?

We need our secret ingredient, a paper clip.

Open it out to get rid of the longer loop. We only need the shorter loop (you could use wire for the task but a paperclip seems to be exactly the right size). Snap off the longer loop by repeatedly bending the wire till it snaps, or use a pair of wire clippers.

Switch off the printer.

Take the drum cartridge out of the printer and put it on a desk. In the top right corner you will see a fuse.

Lever the fuse out carefully with a biro.

If you examine it you will see it has no internal wire. What I think happens is that the printer passes a current over the fuse at a high enough current to blow the fuse. If current passes, the printer knows that a new cartridge has been inserted and it will restart it’s drum use counter. So we are going to place the fuse inside the inner loop of the paperclip. It will fit quite snugly.

Carefully put the fuse back into the holder, making sure that the paperclip loop is visible. The loop itself is held in place by the fuse which in turn is held in place by the fuse holder.

Look inside the printer. You can see the two copper strips used by the printer to touch the fuse ends. We are going to allow current to pass between the two strips using the paperclip loop, thereby fooling the printer into thinking we have fitted a new drum cartridge.

Put the drum cartridge back into the printer and shut the printer top.

Power up the printer. After all the normal self tests have completed, together with any calibration, you will see that the ‘end of life’ message has gone.

Switch off the printer and remove the paperclip loopp from the fuse. Place the fuse back into the holder and put the drum cartridge back into the printer and power the printer up.

You may now print again. Just make sure the document was really worth all the effort.

I like it, a lot, but there are many different makes these days, under a variety of names, so how do you know which are good?

That is what I hope to tell you… so onto the Bombay Mix, in order of eating – reviewed by myself and occasionally also my middle son.

Name: Spicy Balti Mix
Maker: Cofresh, Leicester (www.cofresh.com)
Purchased From: Tesco, Loudwater
Look: Larger noodles, contains red-skin peanuts, obviously green peas and chick peas.

Opinion: Really quite spicy. Good crunch.

Name: Mild Bombay Mix
Maker: Cofresh, Leicester (www.cofresh.com)
Purchased From: Tesco, Loudwater
Look: Larger noodles, contains red-skin peanuts, obviously green peas and chick peas.

Opinion: Somewhat bland and lacking in heat. Good crunch and not unpleasant if you really don’t want to surprise or harm your guests!

Name: Bombay Mix
Maker: Imperial, Wolverhampton
Purchased From: Asda, High Wycombe
Look: Traditional sized noodles, with split lentils and red-skin peanuts.

Opinion: Mild flavour with clear cinnamon taste and smell. Refreshing change from normal style but can be a bit overpowering after 4/5 mouthfuls.

Name: London Mix
Maker: Imperial, Wolverhampton
Purchased From: Asda, High Wycombe
Look: Traditional sized noodles,  with  split lentils, red-skin peanuts and chick peas.

Opinion: Pleasant enough but not very spicy. Tend to end up with a dry mouth quite quickly.

Name: Delhi Mix
Maker: Imperial, Wolverhampton
Purchased From: Asda, High Wycombe
Look: Traditional sized noodles, with split lentils, red-skin peanuts, chick peas, and green peas (that are coloured red)

Opinion: The extra green peas (that are red…) make this really quite hard work on the jaw and makes it even more mouth drying than the London Mix. Again like London Mix it is not very spicy.

Name: Bombay Mix
Maker: KCB, Bradford (www.kashmircrownbakeries.com)
Purchased From: Exotic Foods, High Wycombe
Look: Traditional sized noodles, with two kinds of split lentils and red-skin peanuts.

Opinion: The King of Bombay Mix. The right amount of crunch and the right amount of spice.

Name: Bombay Mix
Maker: Krunchi, Walthamstow
Purchased From: Exotic Foods, High Wycombe
Look: Mixed size noodles,  split lentils and red-skin peanuts, all with a definite reddish tinge

Opinion: The large noodles tend to dry the mouth out and dull the taste, but the peanuts are very good and overall there is about the right level of heat.

Name: Karachi Crunch
Maker: Imperial, Wolverhampton
Purchased From: Asda, High Wycombe
Look: Traditional sized noodles,  split lentils and peanuts, with sunflower seeds and puffed rice.

Opinion: The dry roasted peanuts and sunflower seeds nicely dominate the taste of this pleasantly spiced snack. You don’t really notice the puffed rice and the lentils are barely present in the taste. A nice change from the usual mix.

Name: London Mix
Maker: Cofresh, Leicester (www.cofresh.com)
Purchased From: Asda, High Wycombe
Look: Traditional sized noodles,  two kinds of split lentils and red-skin peanuts

Opinion: Almost as good as KCB Bombay Mix though slightly less peanuts and a shade less spice mean it can’t quite muster as many points.

Name: Luxury Bombay Mix
Maker: Imperial, Wolverhampton
Purchased From:
Look: Traditional and larger sized noodles,  split lentils, red-skin peanuts, cashew nuts, and chickpeas.

Opinion: Disappointingly floury version of Imperial London Mix with added cashew nuts. Far too much noodle floor.

Name: ASDA Snacking Bombay Mix
Maker: ASDA
Purchased From: ASDA
Look: Traditional and larger sized noodles,  split lentils, red-skin peanuts, and chickpeas.

Opinion: Looks better than it tastes. Lacking in heat and surprising dull taste. Not at all cheaper than buying the ‘asian’ packaged foods from the ‘World Foods’ section of the supermarket. This was in the crisps and snacks aisle so perhaps it is quantity that is meant to be the attraction.

Name: Kerala Taste Spicy Mixture Hot
Maker:
Purchased From:Best Foods, Surbiton
Look: Traditional sized noodles,  oddly shaped gram flour spindles, curry leaves,  ground nuts , large potato fritters.

Opinion: Definitely hot, this was a flavoursome Sri Lankan take on Bombay Mix. (Maybe there was something political in not calling it Bombay Mix?)

Name: Go Snacks! Bombay Mix
Maker: Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Leicester (www.cofresh.co.uk)
Purchased From: Tesco
Look: Traditional sized noodles,  split green and yellow lentils, red-skin peanuts.

Opinion: Although it looked a bit bland, this was actually quite tasty with a reasonable afterburn in the mouth. It was a bit short on peanuts as far as I was concerned.

Name: Cofresh Bombay Mix
Maker: Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Leicester
Purchased From:
Look: Traditional and larger sized noodles,  split lentils, red-skin peanuts, and chickpeas.

Opinion: A reasonable combination but the larger noodles were a little drying. In this instance my son got to them before I did…

Name: Haldiram’s Bombay Mix
Maker: Haldiram Manufacturing Co PVT Ltd, New Dehli (www.haldiram.com)
Purchased From: ASDA
Look: Traditional sized noodles with peanuts, peas, and an abundance of yellow split lentils.

Opinion: Slightly hot on the back of the throat with a distinctive and not altogether pleasant aftertaste, on the barbecued side, perhaps because of overheated asafoetida/mango powder?

Name: Chewra Mix (Delicious Bombay Mix Variety)
Maker: Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Leicester
Purchased From: ASDA, High Wycombe
Look:Traditional and larger sized noodles with peanuts, peas, plain and coloured chickpeas, split lentils, puffed rice.

Opinion:A colourful and quite tasty mix, though tending towards drying the mouth, again because of those larger noodles.

Name: Saki Savoury Snacks Bombay Mix
Maker: Saki Snacks Ltd, Perivale, London
Purchased From:
Look:Traditional and larger sized noodles with lots of peanuts, peas, plain and coloured chickpeas, split lentils.
Bag Size: 140g
Price: £1.00 (July 2010)

Opinion:Reasonable taste, though very mild. Nice peanuts. Perhaps tending towards staleness.

Name: Kashmir Mix
Maker: Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Leicester
Purchased From: ASDA, High Wycombe
Look:Larger sized noodles with peanuts, green split peas, chickpeas, and lentils.
Bag Size: 500g
Price: £? (September 2010)

Opinion: Dull/bland, with a hint of heat at the edges.

Name: Classic Bombay Mix
Maker: Regal Fine Foods, Bradford (www.rfplc.com)
Purchased From: Medina Stores, Newcastle
Look: Traditional sized noodles with the odd large one for good measure, redskin peanuts, lentils
Bag Size: 450g
Price: £1.29 (September 2010)

Opinion: An excellent taste and look. They have kept it simple and that has paid off.

Pictures to follow:

Name: Bombay Mix
Maker: UK Snack Ltd trading as A.Nageena, Leyton, London (www.nageena.net)
Purchased From: Newsagent, High Wycombe
Look: Traditional noodles with a few of the larger size, peanuts and cashew nuts, lentils and split peas, golden sultanas, coconut
Bag Size: 120g
Price: £0.59 – (2 for £1) (July 2010)

Opinion: Everything looked normal as I poured it out onto the plate, and taste-wise it was fairly run off the mill with peaks of mild heat. The flavour was naggingly odd at times and then I realised it had sultanas…

Name: Bombay Mix
Maker: NBTY Europe Ltd, Burton on Trent
Purchased From: Julian Graves, High Wycombe
Look:Traditional sized noodles, well coloured, peanuts, lentils, chick peas, raisins – though I could find no trace of them in the bag, thankfully.
Bag Size: 400g
Price: £0.99 (October 2010)

Opinion: Moderate heat and moderate taste. Attractive colour. A middle of the road snack and a good introduction to Bombay Mix.

Name: Bombay Mix
Maker: Marks & Spencer
Purchased From: Marks & Spencer, High Wycombe
Look: Larger and traditional noodles, peanuts, cashews, pistachio nuts, toasted coconut flakes
Bag Size: 300g
Price: £2.05 (October 2010)

Opinion: An upmarket presentation of Bombay Mix but rather dull in the heat department, and over complicated in my opinion. The coconut and pistachio nut combination adds a sweetness that is rather like having sultanas. Good if you want to make a good impression to the upper classes but won’t win you any favours with an asian audience.

Name: Khatta Meetha
Maker: Haldiram Manufacturing Co PVT Ltd, New Dehli (www.haldiram.com)
Purchased From: Medina Stores, Newcastle
Look: Very pale on the plate, traditional and thin noodles, puffed rice, green peas and peanuts.
Bag Size: 200g
Price: £1.39 (September 2010)

Opinion: The pack proudly says ‘zero cholesterol’ but it is instead sickly sweet with 7% sugar content. Far too sweet for mass consumption, and not enough peanuts.

Name: Hot Bombay Mix
Maker: KCB, Bradford (www.kashmircrownbakeries.com)
Purchased From: Medina Foods, Newcastle
Look: Darker traditional sized noodles, peanuts, mixed lentils.
Bag Size: 450g
Price: £1.29 (November 2010)

Opinion: Oh Lordy. A beautifully spicy, tasty mixture evocative of my 1970′s upbringing. Hot on the back of the throat without being acrid. Just what I expected from KCB.

Name: Kashmiri Mixture
Maker: Haldiram Manufacturing Co PVT Ltd, New Dehli (www.haldiram.com)
Purchased From: Medina Stores, Newcastle
Look: Darkish, traditional and micro noodles, cashew nuts, puffed rice, musk melon seeds
Bag Size: 200g
Price: £1.69 (September 2010)

Opinion: Another Zero Cholesterol bag with a (rather ineffective) ziplock which is good for keeping the contents fresh. Definite zing of heat and strong taste of cumin and mace. Unusual texture is interesting and this does make a nice change from traditional Bombay Mix. Recommended as something worth trying.

Name: Traditional Savoury Mix – Bombay Mix
Maker: Ginni Enterprises, Middlesex
Purchased From: High Wycombe Grammar School
Look: Traditional sized noodles, sometimes aggregated. Peanuts, lentils.
Bag Size: 140g
Price: £0.60 (October 2010)

Opinion: Nothing special in terms of presentation or taste.

Name: Bombay Mix
Maker: Yaadgaar,
Purchased From: Medina Foods, Newcastle
Look: Small noodles, plenty of lentils, peanuts.
Bag Size: 380g, well actually tub sized because it is served in a tub and not a bag.
Price: £0.99 (November 2010)

Opinion: Quite ordinary in texture and taste albeit with a distinct lemon aftertaste, though there is no mention of lemon as an ingredient or flavouring. Might be unpleasant eating in larger quantities.

Name: Indian Style Bombay Mix
Maker: Tesco
Purchased From: Tesco, Loudwater
Look: Contains sultanas… but otherwise a standard mix with larger size noodles.
Bag Size: 200g
Price: £1.10 (October 2010)

Opinion: Slightly drying, though the sultanas do actually add to the flavour by giving a sweetness. Nothing special.

Name: Sunrize Snacks Bombay De Luxe
Maker: Wilton Wholefoods, Salisbury
Purchased From: Village Store, Bradfield (Berkshire)
Look: Larger noodles, marrowfat peas, chick peas, peanuts, lentils.
Bag Size: 125g
Price: £1.75 (January 2011)

Opinion: Reasonably tasty, and the larger noodles don’t dry out your mouth. Expensive but edible.

Name: Rajbhog Punjabi Mix
Maker: Rajbhog Foods Ltd, Wembley (www.rajbhogfoods.co.uk)
Purchased From: Medina Foods, Newcastle
Look: Small noodles, peanuts, lentils, green peas, potato chipsticks.
Bag Size: 300g
Price: £0.99 (October 2011)

Opinion: It says “Too Tasty To Put Down” but it isn’t. It is actually quite dull. The chipsticks are interesting but don’t make up for the lack of peanuts.

Name: Regal Bombay Mix
Maker: Regal Food Products Group Plc, Bradford
Purchased From: Medina Foods, Newcastle
Look: Larger noodles, peanuts, lentils, chick peas, green peas.
Bag Size: 450g
Price: £1.09 (October 2011)

Opinion: Classic ingredients and a classic taste. Very good combination and got a definite thumbs up from my children.

Awaiting Pictures:

Name: East End Bombay Mix
Maker: East End Foods plc
Purchased From: Medina Foods, Newcastle
Look: Larger noodles, chick peas, peanuts, lentils.
Bag Size: 400g
Price: £0.99 (October 2011)
Opinion: Nothing special, pleasant enough but tending to blandness. Excellent price makes this a good way to start children on the path to loving Bombay Mix.

Name: Go Snacks! Bombay Mix
Maker: Cofresh Snack Foods Ltd, Leicester (www.cofresh.co.uk)
Purchased From: Asda
Look: Traditional sized noodles,  split green and yellow lentils, red-skin peanuts.
Bag Size: 400g
Price: £0.87 (January 2011)
Opinion: A new pack design, now with more peanuts but a blander flavour, which is a shame. Seems to be quite lacking in any chilli spice punch which perhaps explains it’s relatively cheap (albeit special offer) price.

Test results coming soon, when I have finished eating the other bags:

Name: Smart Price Bombay Mix
Maker: ASDA
Purchased From: ASDA, High Wycombe
Look: Larger noodles, split peas, chick peas, peanuts, cashew nuts, lentils.
Bag Size: 200g
Price: £0.59 (reduced from £0.69, November 2010)
Opinion: Looks cheap…

Name: Best-in Spicy Bombay Mix
Maker: Bestway (Holdings) Ltd, London
Purchased From: ‘an asian food store’, High Wycombe
Look: Larger noodles, peanuts, lentils, split peas, raisins, cashew nuts
Bag Size: 450g
Price: £1.15 (February 2011)
Opinion: Oh dear, raisins

It was a simple problem, caused by a simple oversight, but it took quite a while for the cause to become apparent.

If a VPN client attempted to connect (using IPSEC/UDP), it would fail and a log of the session would show DEL_REASON_PEER_NOT_RESPONDING as the cause. The ASA never seemed to show any relevant debug information, in fact it seemed to be oblivious to the fact that a client was trying to connect.

Here is the full client log (in this case from an OSX machine), with the peer address changed to 1.1.1.1:

Cisco Systems VPN Client Version 4.9.01.0230

Copyright (C) 1998-2009 Cisco Systems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Client Type(s): Mac OS X

Running on: Darwin 10.4.0 Darwin Kernel Version 10.4.0: Fri Apr 23 18:28:53 PDT 2010; root:xnu-1504.7.4-1/RELEASE 1386 i386 Config file directory: /etc/opt/cisco-vpnclient

1              17:40:35.421 08/11/2010 Sev=Info/4     CM/Ox43100002 Begin connection process

2              17:40:35.422 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     CM/Ox43100004 Establish secure connection using Ethernet

3              17:40:35.422 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     CM/Ox43100024 Attempt connection with server “1.1.1.1″

4              17:40:35.422 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     CVPND/Ox43400019 Privilege Separation: binding to port: (500).

5              17:40:35.422 08/11/2010 Sev=Info/4     CVPND/Ox43400019 Privilege Separation: binding to port: (4500).

6              17:40:35.422 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/6     IKE/Ox4300003B Attempting to establish a connection with 1.1.1.1.

7              17:40:35.510 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/Ox43000013 SENDING >>> ISAKMP OAK AG (SA, KE, NON, ID, VID(Xauth), VID(dpd), VID(Frag), VID(Nat-T), VID(Unity)) to 1.1.1.1

8              17:40:35.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IPSEC/Ox43700008 IPSec driver successfully started

9              17:40:35.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IPSEC/Ox43700014 Deleted all keys

10             17:40:40.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/0×43000021 Retransmitting last packet!

11             17:40:40.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/0×43000021 SENDING >>> ISAKMP OAK AG (Retransmission) to 1.1.1.1

12             17:40:45.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/0×43000021 Retransmitting last packet!

13             17:40:45.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/0×43000021 SENDING >>> ISAKMP OAK AG (Retransmission) to 83.244.132.215

14             17:40:50.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/0×43000021 Retransmitting last packet!

15             17:40:50.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/0×43000013 SENDING >>> ISAKMP OAK AG (Retransmission) to 1.1.1.1

16             17:40:55.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/Ox43000017 Marking IKE SA for deletion (I_Cookie=15E3249D9DD68494 R_Cookie=0000000000000000) reason = DEL_REASON_PEER_NOT_RESPONDING

17             17:40:56.052 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4     IKE/Ox4300004B Discarding IKE SA negotiation (I_Cookie=15E3249D9DD68494 R_Cookie=0000000000000000) reason = DEL_REASON_PEER_NOT_RESPONDING

18             17:40:56.052 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4      CM/Ox43100014 Unable to establish Phase 1 SA with server “1.1.1.1″ because of “DEL—REASON—PEER—NOT—RESPONDING”

19             17:40:56.052 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/5      CM/Ox43100025 Initializing CVPNDry

20             17:40:56.053 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4      CVPND/Ox4340001F Privilege Separation: restoring MTU on primary interface.

21             17:40:56.053 08/11/2010 Sev=Info/4     IKE/Ox43000001 IKE received signal to terminate VPN connection

22             17:40:56.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4      IPSEC/Ox43700014 Deleted all keys

23             17:40:56.552 08/11/2010 Sev=Info/4     IPSEC/Ox43700014 Deleted all keys

24             17:40:56.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4      IPSEC/Ox43700014 Deleted all keys

25             17:40:56.552 08/11/2010 Sev⁼Info/4      IPSEC/Ox4370000A IPSec driver successfully stopped

There are lots of other articles explaining what DEL_REASON_PEER_NOT_RESPONDING might mean, but none say what turned out to be the (in hindsight) obvious answer… no crypto map had been applied to the outside interface.

The PIX had the single line:

crypto map remote interface outside

(where remote was the name of the list of commands that matched the incoming LAN to LAN and dynamic VPN clients)

This had been missed from the ASA configuration.

Once entered, everything sprang into life. I don’t know whether the error was made by me tweaking parts of the configuration or ignored by the Cisco PIX to ASA Migration tool (seems unlikely) but as usual, it is obvious when know what is missing.

So the issue is or was how you get a # (hash) character to display on screen. It’s easy if you are using the UK keyboard on OSX, you use ALT-3. But under Windows (XP) that had no effect, and nor did any other set of key sequences I tried.

and then a thought… sure enough CTRL-ALT-3 produces the #.
(except in Pidgin for some reason)
(and except in Word where it seemed to change the style until I set it to be the shortcut to enter #)

A few more things of note that might save you endless Googling about using the keyboard with Windows:

CTRL-ALT-DELETE is CTRL-ALT-DELETE or CTRL-ALT-KEYPAD_FULLSTOP

Using the F10/F11/F12 volume buttons requires you to install Bootcamp 3.0 and then apply the Bootcamp 3.1 update. If you don’t install the update the keys stop working after some time. It would be nicer to extract the keyboard driver but I couldn’t find  way to do that in the 3.1 update. Once you have installed the files and restarted you will find that your hard disk has been renamed to “BOOTCAMP”. The F7/F8/F9 media keys work with iTunes if it is the uppermost application. There are two Apple Services that can be set to Disabled in Control Panel:Administrative Tools:Services to speed up your reboot time -  Apple OS Switch Manager and Apple Time Service. They serve no function when you are running on native Windows XP (but they are used when you run on Windows on Bootcamp on an OSX machine).

The print screen key is F14. No need to use any modifier keys.

I’ll put some screenshots up sometime.

Try as I might, and despite other people obviously having success with Trixbox and Asterix, I have not been able to get a working BLF on the Linksys 942 with the provider VOIPfone.

They publish notes on their support for busy lamp on the Snom series of phones, but they state that their custom SIP system doesn’t necessarily work with other vendors. Snom themselves document their BLF support.

I don’t blame VOIPfone for what is otherwise a great VOIP service but I would like to get it working!

So what have I done?

The following line entered against an extension under the admin advanced GUI on the SPA942 should work:

fnc=blf+sd;sub=204@$PROXY;ext=204@$PROXY;vid=1

where

sd means speed dial (so one can call 204 with a single button push, this works!). It is the extension entry in the ‘sub=’ portion of the command that indicates the extension number to be dialled.

204@$PROXY is the extension number of the extension you want to monitor, and $PROXY is a shorthand that substitutes the name of the SIP server (in my case sip.voipfone.co.uk). I use the VOIPfone PBX service so your format of extension number may well differ.

vid=1 may well not be needed but it forces the entry to use the defaults from line 1 which is of course defined to be a registered extension with VOIPfone. This is supposed to be the default action anyway.

The diagram below shows the entry in situ:

All that happens is that the light associated with line 2 blinks amber, meaning there is an issue.

This posting does throw some light on it being a Linksys specific thing but using the ‘usr=’ format of command didn’t appear to make any difference to me.

Maddening!

Using the remote or on-set controls had no effect, you could not select another digital TV channel, nor could you bring up the digital TV menu, guide, info, or anything else. You could switch to another source including analogue TV without a problem, and once there you could select a different channel in that source (a different analogue station for example).

No amount of switching off or powering off made any difference so it was clear that the software had got a glitch in some register and I would have to reset the box. Of course it was Christmas and a weekend as well, so there was no telelphone support from Samsung until the Monday.

Samsung LCD TV Remote Control

Surfing for a solution to reset the TV, I found a posting in AVForums.com which explains what had to be done but I thought a bit more detail would be welcome.

With the television in standby mode, use the following Samsung remote keys (I have remote model BN59-00516A), one at a time, in the following order:
INFO
MENU
MUTE
POWER

The TV will power up and after a short delay, it will show the system menu.

Samsung LCD TV System Menu

We need option 12: RESET.

You CANNOT use the numeric keys to enter the selection. Use the down arrow key on the circular keypad (see picture) to get to option 12, and then press the right arrow key on the circular keypad to make the selection.

Circular keypad on Samsumg LCD TC remote control

The screen will show the word “resetting” in yellow and then both the software and hardware are actually reset back to the initial set up screen.

You will now have to search for both analogue and digital TV services, entering the time and date into the set when prompted. Once this has been completed, you will have normal service resumed.

Why did the issue happen in the first place, after 30 months of flawless service?

Perhaps I changed channels just as there was a complete dip in signal and that confused the TV – I doubt I will ever know but there have been no ill effects in doing a reset. I can give no advice on the other values on the service menu except that there seems little point in just trying them out for the sake of it!

Harp Job Ad

I remembered that when I saw it I thought that it was the most specific job ad I had ever seen. It still makes me chuckle now and wonder whether they ever did find someone. The company still exists so I imagine they must have done.

It just goes to show that there is a job for everyone and someone for every job, somewhere.

UPDATE:

I contacted Ardival Harps about the cutting and they remembered it as being in The Times in 1993, and apparently it was voted “Visa Job of the Year”. The applicant who got the post is still there. Nice.

I then realised that I was selecting not PDFCreator as my printer but the recently installed Presto! Pagemanager PDF writer printer. This had been installed when I connected my new Canon PIXMA MX850 multi-function printer jobbie.

I figured that was causing a problem so I uninstalled it. No change.

I decided it was time to update PDFCreator even though it hadn’t had a problem the month before, or the month before that. I was on 0.8.0 which it turned out was quite old. An upgrade to 0.9.5 from http://www.pdfcreator.de.vu/ brought everything back to life.

Perplexing!

I had not installed anything that might have interfered with application launch, or at least not that I could remember. I did a spyware search using Spybot Search and Destroy, nothing untoward found. I did a system restore to before the time I went away, no change. I then thought that perhaps it was something in Spybot that was stopping the process launch, so I uninstalled the application, still no better.

The only cure each time it happened, was to select Shut Down from the Start menu and wait for it to close all the open processes. This would take a long time, and require me to manually intervene to OK the closure of the applications that had started as processes in the background. Often it would hang after closing all the applications and require me to hold the power key for 5 seconds for a hardware reset (if this happens, always wait for all your system toolbar applications to be closed first as they will have files open that could be damaged).

I was getting really irritated, mostly because no amount of google-fu would turn up the same issue with a solution. I started preventing applications from running at startup time trying to find the one that was being errant, nothing helped though.

In the end I set aside time to restart the machine and then started uninstalling applications I no longer used. I figured I was going to have to reinstall and I might as well make the backup beforehand as short as possible. Deleting the unused applications was cathartic but of course it didn’t help the real issue.

Eventually I got into the habit of starting the machine and immediately launching the task manager so I could see what processes were hogging the CPU or determine if something untoward was being launched in the background.
…And then I noticed the page file usage was high.

Somehow my large manually set Page File size had become System Managed and was set at 704K.

Using Control Panels, System Properties

then Performance Options

and then Virtual Memory

I altered it to 3070 which is well above what I should ever need and the problems disappeared. Fingers Crossed but it’s been three days without an issue with the machine running all the time and overnight AV checks, BOINC, Google Desktop Indexing etc running.

Mid July 2008: The issue came back for 2 or 3 days for no apparent reason. In my latest fit I upgraded BOINC from 5.8.16 to 5.10.45 and so far, no more problems. Is this the final solution?

Feb 2010: I still see this issue from time to time.