Changing CRM server IP address resulted in massive slowdown

Posted on May 16, 2007 by ericgharrison
On Monday we moved our offices.  As part of the move, we changed the IP addressing scheme in our office.  As we started using CRM, we noticed that certain things were running quite slowly.  For example, if you attempted to open an Account window, it could take up to 15 seconds, even if you had just opened the same one a moment before!
 
At first I was ready to blame my desktop for this problem.  In troubleshooting it, I remoted into the server as administrator and tried opening some screens, and they opened quickly, making me think that it was my machine.
 
I then tried opening the screens from another computer, and found that they were opening slowly there too, which told me it was not my desktop, but server related.
 
It turns out that the IP address of the reporting server that CRM was pointed to was hardcoded as an IP address, rather than a DNS name.  The result of this was that every time a form was opened that referred to the reporting server, it was timing out waiting for the reporting server.  The reason the administrator wasn’t running into that problem was because as a "limited user" within CRM, none of the screens it has access to (or that I tested in any case) were tied to the reporting server.
 
The solution is to go into the following location in the registry: HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftMSCRM and correct the value in the SQLRSServerURL key.  In our case, I changed it from a hardcoded 192.168.0.2 to the proper DNS name (which is top secret :)).  Then I did a quick IISRESET and everything was golden.
 
Hope this helps someone! – Eric.
 
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XBox 360 – so much love, so much hate

Posted on May 2, 2007 by ericgharrison
It happened *again*.  Our XBox 360 died with the ring of 3 red lights.  This is the second time in six months this has happened.  Unfortunately, this time it was out of warranty, so I’m out $139 to get it repaired.
 
We use the XBox 360 pretty much every day.  Not so much as a game machine, but as a media center extender.  Our primary PVR is an HP Media Center equipped PC.  When we watch TV in the living room, we use the XBox 360 as an extender for it.  Due to this hardware failure, we’re going to have to use another extender while the 360 is off getting repaired.
 
Amazingly, when going through the process of getting the RMA, I was told that I was doing something wrong by plugging in the 360 into a UPS! The friendly tech support lady said that when you plug into a UPS, the 360 can not get enough power to drive the fans fast enough.  Why would they say this?  In the real world, you plug your valuable electronics into a UPS, especially when you live in the lightning capital of the world!  It’s pretty funny as I have my development workstation plugged into a UPS.  I’m pretty sure it draws a lot more power than a 360 does, and yet, it continues to run just fine.
 
Word is that later this year, a new revision of the 360 will be out.  It will feature a smaller die processor, which should help reduce heat.  If our 360 dies again after the renewed warranty expires (we get another year for paying for the repair), we’ll probably get a new revision model. If it isn’t out after that, I’m not sure we’ll get another one or repair this one if it breaks again.
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Entertainment | Leave a comment

Hitachi’s explanation of perpendicular technology

Posted on April 26, 2007 by ericgharrison
I’m pretty sure I’m not normal.  This Hitachi, um, demo of perpendicular storage technology appeals to me…
 
Enjoy the show, and make sure you can hear the song!
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Food poisoning sucks in so many ways!

Posted on April 4, 2007 by ericgharrison
Karmic retribution is a bitch.  While eating some Chinese food with friends on Friday night I mentioned that the last time I had been really sick was something like 10 years before and it was from food poisoning.  We all had a good chuckle.
 
At 3am Saturday morning I woke up and began the first of many rushes to the bathroom.  For the next 24 hours I was capable of only rushing to the bathroom and laying in bed.  I managed to eat one Ritz cracker.
 
Sunday was spent in bed recovering, with fewer rushes to the bathroom.  I ate a bowl of plain oatmail (a curse on that damn Quaker Oats guy!) and a bowl of soap.  Neither stuck around for long.
 
Monday I was able to be upright for about an hour and actually made a very short visit to a client to fix a system that had been disabled by a server upgrade the previous week.
 
Tuesday I was half normal and finally I managed to eat enough food to begin to sustain me. I went to a prospect meeting and got stood up.
 
Finally today I feel mostly normal, except for an entirely rational fear of Chicken and Mushrooms, and a bit of lingering weakness and queasiness.  Tonight I have to spend four or five hours at a client site.  Let’s hope I have the stamina to do it!
 
The killer of all this is that in addition to the physical aspects of being sick, it hurts a small and growing business.  A few weeks ago the sales side of our company was laid out for two weeks with that horrible lingering flu / cold that was running around, then I got struck down!
 
Let’s hope that everyone remains healthy, the business continues to grow, and that blogging will resume!
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Food and drink | Leave a comment

Can’t say anything nice?

Posted on March 21, 2007 by ericgharrison
You know how you’re told that if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all?
 
Notice how quite the blog has been this week after a burst of blogging last week?
 
Notice how I’m not saying anything about Microsoft right now?
 
That’s all I’m saying for now (glances over at the Mac Mini which just hums along quietly…)
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Computers and Internet | Leave a comment

Is your Media Center system not recording shows properly?

Posted on March 13, 2007 by ericgharrison
Even if your PC running Microsoft Media Center Edition was fully patched for the daylight savings time change, there is a problem effecting many people where shows that were scheduled to be recorded did not correctly change their record start and stop times.
 
Thus many people, including myself, have had shows missed.  I’m quite cheesed that I missed the latest Battlestar Galactica!
 
The fix, as discovered by someone over the www.thegreenbutton.com is to go into your channel configuration, deselect all but one channel (that you’ve never recorded anything from), click save, wait for the CPU to go back to idle, then go back into the channel configuration, reselect all the channels (or at least those that you watch), and save again.
 
At that point, all times for all recordings should be fixed.
 
Good luck!
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Great short video – Shift Happens

Posted on March 12, 2007 by ericgharrison
I picked this up off of Joe Healy’s business blog.
 
What a great video!  Everyone should watch it.  For those of us who have been around for a while, it just drives home that what we’ve seen so far is nothing compared to what’s coming! 
 
My first home computer had 4k of memory – notepad.exe in Windows Vista takes around 150k. 
 
The first terminal I used had a 300 (30 characters / sec) baud modem. My current broadband connection is 800,000 characters / sec.
 
The first floppy disc I messed with was 8" across.  The first one I owned was a 5.25" single sided floppy that stored 160k and it cost several hundred dollars, in the early 1980’s.  Hard drives will reach roughly one terabyte this year (something like 6 million times as big).  For $500.
 
The first LCD monitor I bought was 16" and cost well over $1000.  Today I run a 24" that cost under $700.  And that’s in just 5 years.
 
Imagine where the next 10, 20 and 30 years will take us!
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Entertainment | Leave a comment

Problem with your Windows phone and DST?

Posted on March 11, 2007 by ericgharrison
As everyone nows, the dates that daylight savings time changes have changed.
 
Cingular, who is my carrier, sent me a sms text message about the fix needed for my 8125 phone.  I installed the update last week with no problem on both of our 8125’s.
 
This morning, while all of our PC’s and servers reflected the correct time, our Cingular phones did not.  After some research it turns out that the patch didn’t quite work properly.  The way to get your phone working properly again is simple though (all of these steps are on your phone, not your PC):
Click on the Start menu
Click on Settings
Click on the System tab
Click on Clock and Alarms
Change the timezone to a timezone that is at least an hour different from the one you’re in now.
Accept the prompt for changing the timezone
Go back into the Clock and Alarms option
Change the timezone back to your real timezone
Accept the prompt for changing the timezone
Wait a few moments and you should see the time correct itself.
 
Make sure that you’ve applied the patch before you do this.
 
Good luck!
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Computers and Internet | Leave a comment

Ever install Microsoft Office with the wrong key?

Posted on March 6, 2007 by ericgharrison
This evening I had to get a copy of Infopath 2007 on a notebook to run a toolkit that MS provides.
 
Unfortunately I used a key that had been used before, and activation was rejected.  It was a simple mistake, and it turns out, easily corrected.
 
Rather than uninstalling and reinstalling using the proper key, just go to this article and delete a couple of registry keys.  The next time you run an Office program, you’ll be prompted again for a product key.  Simple and fast!
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> Computers and Internet | Leave a comment

Getting MS CRM updated for daylight savings time changes

Posted on March 4, 2007 by ericgharrison
This could be quite a project. 
 
If you run a Microsoft Dynamics CRM system, you must go to this page to review and begin working on updating your systems to handle the changes to the daylight savings time laws.  Even if you are in a state that doesn’t follow the DST changes, you still need to update all of your systems to handle them, as there is a chance that you could travel to a place that does follow them, and then you’re up a creek!  It should also be noted that some users in Mexico who might have set their timezones to one in the United States will need to change theirs to one in Mexico.
 
The good news is that Windows systems that are being updated either through Microsoft’s automatic updates or an internal corporate update server (using either Small Business Server R2 or Windows Software Update Services) will have at least some of the patches in place.  But the CRM patches themselves won’t be automatically put into place, so you must take the time to handle this in the next five days.
 
Happy updating!
<span class="entry-utility-prep entry-utility-prep-cat-links">Posted in</span> MS CRM | Leave a comment