Tag Archives: 2011

Acer, ASUS, DELL, Fujitsu, High Definition Audio Codecs, HP, Microsoft, Realtek, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Windows, Windows 2000, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP

Microsoft Windows based Computers and Laptops – Slow System Startup with Realtek HD Audio Chipset

You may find that Windows based computers and laptops are very slow to startup and in some instances slow to shutdown.  This has been witnessed when out dated drivers are installed for the integrted Realtek HD Audio Chipset.

The Realtek HD Audio drivers offered on Microsoft Update are often dated 2005 and are many years behind those available directly from the Audio Chipset manufacturer.

You can verify your current Audio Chipset and Driver version from “Device Manager”

Please visit http://www.realtek.com/downloads/ to find and download the latest applicable drivers for your Windows system.  They will usually reference the drivers as “High Definition Audio Codecs (Software)” and then under Windows the list Operating System Compatability for each system and provide several download links based upon locations around the world.  Downloads from the Realtek site can be slow at busy times of the day so you may need to be patient and/or download outside peak hours.

As you can see from the table the current drivers from Realtek Support are dated 21st October 2011 and are usually updated every 1-2 months, it would be worth updating to the latest release to resolve your slow startup times and then add updating your audio drivers into your usual computer maintenance schedule.  Once you have updated remember to check Device Manager to ensure that the latest drivers are actually installed and that the device is operating correctly.

Exchange, Exchange 2007, Exchange 2010, Internet Explorer, Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft, SBS 2011, Small Business Server 2011, Windows, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

[RESOLVED] You must close all dialog boxes before you can close Exchange Management Console

After installing Internet Explorer 9 on your Microsoft Exchange 2007 or Exchange 2010 mail servers you may have been noticing that the Exchange Management Console will refuse to close and simply state “You must close all dialog boxes before you can close Exchange Management Console”.

This has been a long running issue but has finally been resolved by the Microsoft Internet Explorer Developer Team.

Please note that this issue is now resolved by installing the latest cumulative security update for Internet Explorer, The fix was first included in security update 2618444 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2618444

Information on the scope of this issue can still be found here KB 2624899 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2624899

You can request the hotfix by visiting Microsofts website and searching for the following Knowledge Base article KB 2624899

Note: The hotfix is actually for Internet Explorer 9 rather than Microsoft Exchange but does actually resolve the issues with the Exchange Management Console not closing correctly.