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

Server Installation Error message: (NO HDD FOUND)

Dear Reader, 

Having setup and installed Servers for most of our clients all over Liberia such as, Water Aid- Liberia, Populations Services International-Liberia, Tetra-Tech ARD, Equatorial Palm Oil etc. on numerous occasions without any headache, last month January 20, Saturday morning was an experience a System Administrator wouldn’t want to miss or get to the bottom of.

An order arrived in our office by DHL that morning for a customer named Master Trading dealer in auto mechanic and spare parts located on the same street we are located.  An instruction was given to us from our Head of Operations to unpack and set up the server for installation at the client site.

As techies, my colleague and I removed the item out of the box (HP ProLiant 360 dl 360 Server G8, 1x4 TB HDD, 16GB RAM, Intel/Dual Processor and a RAID Array System already installed.

The power cord of the server was plug into the electrical outlet and to the power port of the Server. It booted up smoothly showing no operating system installed. I quickly arranged my Windows Server 2008 R2 software disc and inserted it into the CD ROM of the server, and booted from CD in the boot setting. It started up well where I could select the edition of Windows (Server 2008 64bits Standard Edition). In the process of installing, the software should detect each of the 1TB in total of 4 drives in other to select which one the OS is to be installed on, but in the process, it displayed the error message on the screen shown below:

I tried several times of installing the OS using different CDs and bootable USB drive, but the problem persisted. I did many online research on the error message but couldn’t find a suitable solution. All I could see from other websites was to download and update some device drivers which I did download but that didn’t work as well.

This drew my colleague, Farman Elahi attention after verifying that all the hard drives installed were brand new and reading from our HDD tester. He entered into the BIOS and System setting from one option to another until he found ‘’Enable RAID ARRAY’’ and then he hit enter. The option was enabled, and the system prompted a restart. Because the Server was running a RAID security, all HDD would show invisible until they were enabled.

 During this restart all the 4TB hard drives read and an option to select which drive to install the OS was shown. Many thanks to Mr. Farman my colleague who came in during the middle of my server installation nightmare. As a team, together everyone accomplishes a mission. The software installed successfully enabling me to complete the below necessary configurations.

1.    Connect to mains and network switch – allow for a network cable.

2.    Install Windows Server 2008 R2Standard Edition and Server name Administrator

3.    Configure server with static IP address.

4.    Run DCPromo.exe and install basic domain

5.    Configure DNS on the server – set it up with forwarder details of local ISP’s DNS or Google 8.8.8.8

6.   I set the local DNS of the Server to point to its own IP address and not the ISP or Google’s.

7.   Add all workstations to the domain and create usernames and password for users,

8.   Copy existing profiles into the new domain profile.

9.   Users are set to local administrators for their workstations.

10.   Set up network share for HP and Dell printer and, a folder. (username: admin PW: *****)

11.   Test connectivity of all workstations to share.

12.   Set up router to allow connection to the server via the internet for support purposes – Port  redirection (3389) to the server IP address.

       13.   Installed TeamViewer Host 10 on the server for outside support or remote login

A week later, the customer requested a remote desktop connection configured on the server. In the server manager, I installed the remote desktop feature. Got back to the user’s laptop, entered username and password an error message pop up! “cannot connect remote desktop, you must add the user in the group manually or use terminal service” In resolving this I click on “Start”, right click on Computer and click ‘’Properties”. Click on add users. Like for the client I created a login credential in the Active Directory called ‘Admin’ so when I click on ‘Add’ I selected Admin, click Apply and Ok. Restarted the server and all was okay with the end-user. Thanks to my colleague Farman who helped me cross the first level of all these configurations.

by Daniel Collins