HP p2015 printer jam light

HP printer p2015 doesn't function - get's stuck during boot with the jam LED on.  This status is not listed in the manual.  It indicates the formatter board (Q7804-60001) has failed.  The formatter board is on the left-hand side - remove the side panel by using a flat screw driver to unclip the panel at the rear of printer.  To confirm that the fault is the formatter board there is a button hidden in the frame below the formatter board - pressing this button causes the printer to print a series of straight lines without using the formatter board.

A common method for repairing the formatter board is to bake in the oven to repair dry solder joins:
1) Pre-heat oven to 176degC
2) Place formatter board on some aluminium foil for support, then place onto baking tray with components facing up.
3) Bake for 8 minutes, then remove and allow to cool.
4) Re-connect the formatter board and test printer again.

See: http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/laser/48992

Disable DHCP on VMware Server 2.0.2 HostOnly networks

Various solutions exist on the Internet for solving this issue, but they have some issues:
1) Edit the /etc/vmware/vmnet1/dhcpd.conf file
   - unreliable because it gets over-written if vmware-config.pl is executed.
2) Edit the /etc/vmware/locations file
   - unreliable because it prevents vmware-mgmt starting services.

3) My solution: Edit the file /usr/lib/vmware/net-services.sh
Find the line: 
 if [ "$dhcp" = 'yes' ] && vmware_find_comma "$services" 'dhcp'; then
Change to:
 echo "**DHCP service disabled in /usr/lib/vmware/net-services.sh**"
 if [ "$dhcp" = 'yesX' ] && vmware_find_comma "$services" 'dhcp'; then

This causes vmnet-dhcpd to never be started.

Outlook Express 2GB corruption

Outlook Express corrupts the inbox.dbx if it reaches 2GB.  Your inbox will appear empty. Rename the inbox.dbx to get new emails coming in.

To salvage emails from the corrupt file you can buy DBxpress, or download the older DBxtract app from the same author from:  http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,23383-order,1-c,email/description.html
- however, the old tool will take *~5 days* to recover 2GB of email off a hard disk.  I managed to decrease it to a few hours by loading the entire inbox.dbx into a RAMdisk.

Here is a great RAMdisk program suitable for Windows 2000/XP/Vista/7 (32 & 64-bit):
http://members.fortunecity.com/ramdisk/Download/download_and_001.htm

Obviously you need a machine with 3GB or more RAM.

List of Stupid Software

Kodak EasyShare
Cause of stupidness:

• cannot download a redistributable copy of the software.
• it installs a heap of trialware without warning.
• there is no option to prevent the startup with Windows.

Office 2007 Issues

Word 2007 Slow to Type
Typing in Word 2007 is slow - characters appear on screen a few seconds after being typed:
This appears to have something to do with images in headers/footers in DOCX files.  Compress the images using the Word Picture toolbar, or save the file as Word 97-2003 Document.

Windows Vista & 7 Restore issues

Full System Restore

• Windows 7 boot disk cannot be used to restore a Vista backup, and vice-versa. 
• Windows Vista does not allow a full system restore to be done from a backup on a 2nd partition to the first partition - needs to be on different physical disks (Error: 0x8000...).  The destination disk partitions will be deleted, re-created to match the original and formatted.

Windows 7 Full System Restore screenshots available here: http://www.vistaclues.com/restore-a-complete-pc-backup-when-your-computer-wont-start/

Windows Vista Full System Restore error messages:
"A data disk is currently set as active in BIOS. Set some other disk as active or use the DiskPart utility to clean the data disk, and then retry the restore operation (0x80042406)"
Solution:
Return to the Repair window
  select Command Prompt
 diskpart
  select disk x
   clean
    (all partitions & flags on the selected disk are erased).