QuickBooks Enterprise 17 installation error due to lack of important Windows Updates.

While a on a maintenance visit to one of our clients in Buchanan, 3 laptops were delivered to us from another client, Population Services International (PSI) for installation of:

1. Microsoft office
2. QuickBooks Enterprise Solution 17.0 
3. and other software

My colleague managed to install the MS Office and other software on the laptops except for QuickBooks. According to him, he tried several times, but the installation keeps giving an error message. He quickly messaged me about what was unfolding on our WhatsApp channel. I requested him to give me full access to the laptop via TeamViewer connection. Disabling the anti-virus and other security features still didn’t help us out.

Due to insufficient time and bad internet connection from my end, we had to inform the customer and escalated the job until my return. I got back Monrovia on a weekend with a lot of research on resolving this issue.  I powered on both laptops to run a system check and know if the system meets the requirement to have QuickBooks installed. The result showed that the RAMs, Hard Drive, Operation System, BIOS, Video card and others were okay for installation.

I copied the QuickBooks software from one of the client’s laptops to a USB drive to run a test on my computer and it ran very smoothly on my PC. But there was one thing I noticed during the installation process which was the Microsoft NET Framework 4.6 and 4.7. 

This important update was lacking from the many Microsoft Updates downloaded on the client’s PCs as NET Framework is a software development platform developed by Microsoft to create applications and support web services. I became more concerned as to why Windows wouldn’t download such an important update. Than I discovered that the Operation System installed on these PCs were counterfeit and not a genuine copy of windows instead. 

My mind ran back to one of the days where we had an issue with a counterfeit Windows installed on a customer PC when they brought it in to do a hardware repair. The moment the customer received the PC in a few days he said the PC was giving pop up notification of counterfeit Windows and blamed it on the repairs we did. 

But in this case, there’s no notification or pop up message to display. Even if you check the System properties it shows ‘Windows Activated’. 

There are lots of software tool available on the internet to crack Windows OS, Office suites and other applications. But the good thing I have learned and like about Microsoft is that you may use your crack software on any of their products but once it gets on the internet, Microsoft automatically recognizes or detects the counterfeit or pirated copy you are using and blocks all important updates to it. 

This leads you to future problems until the right thing is done and this is what our client's problem was.

I backed up all the data from the Client’s PC and an external HDD and pulled out a CD from one of our many Windows Operating Systems. To be specific, Windows 10 Pro. A fresh installation of Windows 10 Pro was installed including MS 2016 office suites, and a transfer of all data from the external HDD back to the PCs with all important updates downloaded and installed; giving these laptops a new life once again.

Early Monday morning I took the 2 laptops to the customer site. I ran the QuickBooks Enterprise version 17 on the laptops with a successful installation. I mapped the QuickBooks server data drive on each PC to locate the data files for backup. The end-user could work in their respective departments using his/her username and password to have access since it was configured on a multiple user mood

So, Windows 10 Pro Activated did the trick. It could be any edition of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems - reach out to New Africa Technology Company for genuine licensed copy of software to safe yourself the stress of future problems.

Prepared by:

Daniel Collins

New Africa Technology Company

External Hard Drive

Hey Colleagues,

Compliments of the season;

Have you ever had an issue with Western Digital External HDD being recognized on your PC, but not opening?

One of our clients reported that when she inserted her HDD into the USB port of her computer, it shows the drive letter e.g. (f) but when she clicks the tab, it never opens. She assumed that as an I.T. technician; I would be able to resolve this issue in no time.

I said to her “no problem,” I can help you out. Initially, I thought the device needed Anti-Virus scan or format. I connected the drive to my pc and scanned it for viruses. When I tried to open it again, the same problem occurred.

Next, I “right” clicked on the drive and selected ‘format’. This too did not work. Instead, I received an error message stating that windows, was unable to complete the formatting.

My last option was to format using Microsoft command prompt or dos command and by doing this, you need to follow a few steps:

• Click on "Start" menu
• Type "CMD" and run as administrator
• Dos command opens
• Type "disk part" and press enter
• Type "list volume" to select the drive letter you want to format and press "enter"
• Select volume number that matches the drive letter and press "enter"
• Type “clean” and press "enter"

After doing all of this it says ‘’diskpart succeeded in cleaning the disk’’. I was assured that the HDD was okay and didn’t bother to open it again and started working on other things.

The next morning I inserted it into my PC and transferred some docs on it for testing it worked well. The External HDD was safely ejected, but when it came time to begin the transfer process, the drive fell right back into its previous status.

I was discouraged, after spending days trying to resolve the issue only to find that my solution had failed. I had all most given up and I shrunk at the thought of informing the owner that the drive was faulty and could not be repaired.

That night, I decided to read the back of it of the external drive, just out of curiosity. There was nothing extra shown on how to go about fixing the problem, however, I did find the company website: www.westerndigital.com and the amount of space on the drive. It was 1TB.

So I explored the website when I got back to my office the next morning. While doing so I discovered that the WD HDD has a firmware which needed to be updated.

I downloaded the firmware software ( http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/HDD-SSD-NAS-USB-Flash/Western-Digital/WD-My-Cloud-DL4100-NAS-Firmware-210310.shtml) and installed it on my PC. When I launched the software I immediately received a message stating that the drive was missing.

Finally, I was getting somewhere. Next, I inserted the WD HDD into the USB port of my PC, it was quickly detected and started to perform its task. Within 15 minutes, the firmware software update was complete.

I closed the launcher, reopened the HDD, and everything started to perform normally. If only I had had this idea sooner, I wouldn’t have formatted the drive, losing all of its stored data in the process. In the end it all worked out and it was a great learning experience. A wise man once said: “you never try, you never know”. When it comes to I.T., I know that nothing is impossible. The answer is always out there, it just needs to be found.

I felt relieved and now I am confident in my abilities. The most important lesson I learned from this experience is that the process of learning is based on everyday basics.