Thursday, March 29, 2012

Dell Latitude Unknown Data Interface Driver

Installing a system from scratch can be a bear when it comes to finding device drivers, especially when the device in question doesn't have a manufacturer, model or even name associated with it. The latest install in which I had to deal with this was a Dell Latitude D430, but this device seems common to other D-Series Latitudes like the D620.

It's listed in the Device Manager simply as Data Interface with the typical unknown icon, and there were two of them. Digging further into the details of the device yielded the Hardware ID values below.

USB\VID_413C&PID_8114&MI_00\7&24B185B&0&0000
USB\VID_413C&PID_8114&MI_01\7&24B185B&0&0001


Turns out these are for the Verizon cellular modem card and drivers are readily available from Dell, under Technical Support, with your trusty Service Tag. I found the Verizon WWAN Card driver under the Communications heading (as VZW Mobile Broadband).

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

E-mail to Text Message

This has already been posted many places, but I'm tired of looking it up and dealing with glaring ads and pop-ups.

As you can guess, to send an e-mail to someone's phone as a text message, just replace the phonenumber with whomever you're trying to message, i.e. 4085551212@vtext.com.

  • Alltel - phonenumber@message.alltel.com

  • AT&T - phonenumber@txt.att.net

  • Boost Mobile - phonenumber@myboostmobile.com

  • Sprint Nextel - phonenumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com

  • T-Mobile - phonenumber@tmomail.net

  • US Cellular - phonenumber@email.uscc.net

  • Verizon - phonenumber@vtext.com

  • Virgin Mobile USA - phonenumber@vmobl.com


Etiquette is 140 characters or less and just be aware some may not have unlimited texting, so be careful on the quantity and size of messages.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Removing Remote Desktop Login Wallpaper

This annoyance has popped up off and on for years. You initiate a Remote Desktop connection to a system over VPN and the login screen has a large bitmap image causing it to draw and redraw while you wait.

This is typical for Windows Storage Server 2003 on Dell hardware. Unfortunately there isn't a GUI setting for this, so it 's just better to search for the file and delete or rename it. In this case it's: C:\Windows\System32\dellwall.bmp which is 3MB, no wonder it takes time to draw over a slower connection.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Locked Out of Track-It! Admin Console

Great! The only one in with admin privileges on Track-It! is no longer with the company. If you have access to the server and the Track-It! MS SQL database you're in luck.


  • Log into the Track-It! server and fire up the MS SQL Management Studio

  • Drill down under "Server" > Databases > TRACKITX > Tables

  • Find dbo.STAF, right-click and choose Open Table

  • Choose a username you wish to give administrative access to, scroll to the right to the SECPOLICYID column and change the entry to the number 2.

  • Close the table and Management Studio.

  • Log out of Track-It! and back in, now you have access to the Administration Console.