Number Lock (numlock) at login screen in Windows XP

After re-imaging a MacBook Pro with Windows XP, I noticed (annoyingly) that the num lock was always switched on upon boot up at the login screen! After googling it I found this post, which describes how to change it on startup in the registry. Simply change:


HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators=3
to
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators=1


This turns num lock off. Unfortunately, I think this just applies to whoever's logged in at the time, and doesn't apply to the login screen. Simple enough though, and is described at the bottom of the post in a reply (although for some reason he used some weird code - "2147483650" (string value)). I did this:


HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\Keyboard\InitialKeyboardIndicators=1


and it worked.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 - keeps asking for serial number

I recently installed Adobe CS 5 on a Windows Vista laptop. During the initial stage of the installation it did ask for a serial for which I put in the correct numbers. It told me everything was fine and installed.

I then tried opening Adobe Photoshop and it came up with the a dialogue box asking for the serial. I put it in, it gave me the green tick and told me everything was fine. The dialogue box disappeared and then reappeared wanting me to put in the serial, in a continual loop.

I tried serveral logins' including the administrators but none worked. I also tried a reboot.

I must mention that this laptop had Adobe CS3 installed previously which had stopped working due to a licensing error.

After trawling through the internet I initially found this post, and he posts again to say he has found a forum and found the only fix was to delete a database file. He failed to say which file, or even which post he had found!!

After some more looking, specifically for Adobe CS databases, I found this post. It mentions deleting:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Adobe\Adobe PCD\cache\cache.db



I found the file, renamed it and tried Adobe again. Put in the serial and it works beautifully.


My conclusion was that this file had either gotten corrupt or had the wrong permissions.

Toshiba Satellite U400 lights always on

A member of staff brought in their laptop which I'd fixed just the other day (they'd accidentally switched the wireless off). She was saying how the lights for the "soft keys" at the top of the keyboard were always on.

I thought this wasn't so much of a problem, but actually it probably wouldn't be too good wasting the battery so much. I looked into it. At first I thought it was set up through the BIOS. I found an "Illumition" setting mentioned in this post so I had a look. I switched it off. This had no effect though.

My next guess was to look into windows and the many Toshiba apps that they put on. These were all rubbish but found one which let you change the same setting in the BIOS.

I found it mentioned that it might be due to a Microsoft Update so I took it through System Restore to undo all the updates. This didn't have any effect either.

Finally I thought of taking the battery out and putting it back in (just to see what it looked like with the buttons not light up). Once I'd put the battery back in, the lights didn't light up. In fact they'd stopped lighting up altogether!

I rebooted a few times and it looks like it worked. I even turned on "Illumination" and the lights came back on. And on switching it off they turned off, beautiful.

So in conclusion. Just take the battery out and put it back in again. Also disconnect from power source.

Fixed.

Cheers.