Podnutz Daily #112 - Am I Ranting? Just a Little Bit.

Listen Here: pnd112.mp3

Digitally declared:
The media is to blame for the slowness at the shop?


Toshiba laptop:
Wiggling the AC adapter in the power jack
made the charging light go on & off so I felt the jack must be loose
.. even though I did not feel it
Middle pin on the DC power jack had issues.
And I tell how I fix this issue with soldering.
More of an explanation found in the laptop repair videos.


Another computer with internet connectivity issues
Does it use a static IP address?
View Network Connections to find out
Also Internet Options/Connections/LAN Connections
is it proxy or not? Uncheck proxy.


Update on the Xbox/fios transfer
Tip: Turn OFF "passive mode"
Flash FXP The FTP program used to transfer files between PC & Xbox.
Also see CuteFTPpro


Trend Micro AntiVirus
Protects well but at the expense of resources and ugly GUI
The uninstall is password protected.
If you know the default password for uninstalling TM AV tell me!


Email from unnamed listener:
Said I was completely unprepared for the show.
This is NOT a scripted show.
If you need that.. you know where to find it.

Voice Mail from Citizen X:
Ranting on Steve's spoken data recovery attempt on the hard drive
from show #110 that housed a few laptop videos.
(She learned that the spoken attempt was not the full story, all apologies .. not really)


Voice Mail from Walt:
Looking for tips on soldering
I give him some of the details.


Email from David Anderson:
Comedy Of Errors tech story ... good stuffs!


Email from Bobby:
More on AVG8 install affecting Windows Explorer
(My flash drives were infected)


Email from Ed:
AVG removing a vital system file?


Email from Jason:
Craigs List Aggregator CLa
Define your search terms and get notified once they hit the List


Live call from Mike:
Soldering tips and suggestions including dental picks!
Learn: what's a "sucker-thing"

Podnutz Daily #111 - Fujitsu Tablet

Listen Here: pnd111.mp3


Fujitsu T4000 tablet pc that was dropped
Fans come on during power up
No video, status indicator blinks and the scroll lock light blinks.
Fujitsu T4000 replacement motherboard: $350
I will replace it once he receives it.

Podnutz listener shipped me a laptop to repair.
HP dv9000 hinge replacement due to heat?
Replaced the hinge and powered on the machine
Noticed the video was not quite right. Strange colors.
Blaming the carrier for too much banging around while enroute.
No longer taking anymore shipped laptops. Too risky.

Reinstalling Windows:
A parallel install of Windows keeps
the old operating system still intact on the machine (just in case)
We forgot to remove the previous operating system
before handing it back to the customer.
Customer chose the old OS upon start up and brought the PC back.
How to remove the old installation
Control Panel/System/Advanced/Startup and Recovery
System Startup/Edit
--- delete the line that is the old operating system.

Sony Vaio PCV-v300g given to me to sell in the shop.
I might buy it from him but it takes me back down to XP
It runs really fast and snappy.


Xbox needs fios transferred from a disk to the Xbox
Removed the Xbox hard drive and connected externally
to my computer -- not recognized by Windows or Linux
You have to transfer the files via FTP
using a crossover cable or through a network.


Laptop with Unmountable Boot Volume Blue Screen
Here is how I fix this:
Put in an XP disk
Boot into the disks recovery console
Run chkdsk/r (45 mins)
Run fixboot and rewrite the boot sector.


Connectivity issues once Verizon fios was installed
CompaQ laptop about 7 yrs old
Supports only WEP and not WPA


Voice Mail from Larry:
Great Dell support for a Frozen Dell Latitude 600 Series
Password for bios and the hard drive


Voice Mail from a new listener
Hackintosh: Build Intel computer and run an Apple OS?
OSX86


Voice Mail from Simon
Infected USB flash drives due to XP AntiSpyware 2008/2009
Solution:
Download Autoruns and use the Image Hijacks tab
to see the explorer.exe hjack and remove it.


Voice Mail from a new listener:
Solution for eye strain is to lower the monitor and tilt it upwards.
What printer do you prefer? I use a Samsung laser printer
What is the free remote software you mentioned?
TeamViewer, LogMeIn, UltraVNC, SingleClick and ReMobo.
Laptop videos will be out before Christmas.


Email from Brad
AVG 8 not updating if SuperAntiSpyware is running.


Email from Wendy:
Eye strain may mean you need glasses.


Email from Roger:
Lower the brightness on the monitor to reduce eye strain.
In FireFox Ctrl and plus or minus will change the font of a web page
and FF will remember your last setting and automatically
adjust the font when you come to the web page.
Buy.com has Norton AV 2009 for $16.99


Email from Elgin:
Windows Data Recovery through
Stellar Phoenix and Recover My Files


Email from Jason:
Issues with IE8 and using the Compatibility View to fix.
(It is next to the refresh button)


Live Call from Nebben (Ben)
Advice and suggestions for Andrew asking about a Green PC.
Dell Inspiron 530s uses just 250w, less plastic and less metal
Eco-friendly monitor should also be considered using just 23w
Kill-A-Watt assesses how electrically efficient your appliance (PC) is running.
Also consider replacing your wires with cloth wires
you can find some at sundialwire.com
Adobe released updates for Acrobat and Flash
that protect against click-jacking.
What is Click Jacking?
More on Hackintosh.
All the computer you need, in a keyboardCyberNetMan

Podnutz Daily #110 - Sony Vaio Driving Me Crazy

Listen Here: pnd110.mp3



We forgot to format one of our flash drives
2 more computers got that bad AVG install
that effects Windows explorer from loading.


ThinkPad getting a fan malfunction error at the bios screen.
Customer brought in the computer
and a replacement fan that he installed
.. but he still kept getting the error.

A can of compressed air to the heat sink
fixed the problem with the old fan installed.
Tip:
How to safely clean a heat sink in a laptop
without using the whole can of air.
Tip from the customer:
Ever go into the FREE section on Craig's List?
Too good to be true?


More problems with (Beta) IE8:
Could not get the Dell drivers we needed using IE8
We were able to get them using Fire Fox.


The Great Tech Debate on hiatus until the new site is launched
I need help with Drupal!
I am having problems with the Views Module.
If anyone knows how to Theme Views in Drupal
please send me an email.


That Sony Vaio Laptop / Nightmare:
No power and troubleshot hardware
that lead to a motherboard replacement.
Still no power. Dead.
Processor?
Bought Core 2 Duo on Craig's List for $65
(The guy is down the street. No shipping.)


I give a few Craigs List tips and declare:
"50% of it is bull, 50% is good stuff."
Craigs Helper is mentioned in my book:
"How to Buy and Sell on Craig's List"

Nothing else to try??
My hard drive with 2 weeks worth of laptop videos died!
Attempting to recover the data I used Spinrite
Spinrite killed it and I put it in the freezer.
The freezer trick did not work. Go figure.


Email from Joe:
OpenDNS blog


Email from Jeff:
Eye strain due to undetectable backlight flickering?
DailyGizWiz mentioned Gunner computer glasses
on their November 4th Show.


Email from Ben (Nebben)
In a nice BIG font, Thanks!
More on Remobo for remote computing.
Microsoft PC Advisor will diagnose problems with your pc
Your "Chasing The Carrot" is really:
The Domino Effect/Chain Reaction/Butterfly Effect/Chaos Theory


Email from Ray:
Advice on my visual issues
(Ray is a licensed optician)
Glossy vs Matte may not be the problem
More advicce to get anti-reflective coating on the glasses
And Ray gives more tips on positioning.


Email from Mark:
Getting PCHelpware to work
Lots o' DNS stuff mentioned.
OpenDNS Updater Client Software


Email from Bob:
Do you use autopatcher?
AutoPatcher automates installation of updates


Email from Jeff:
Thor is doing a data recovery in a clean room.
Invite him back to do a Podnutz show on this.



Click Here to See Chat Log.

Click Here to See Chat Log.

Podnutz Daily #109 - IE8 Messed Up Comcast Mail

Listen Here: pnd109.mp3


New shop rule might not have been a good idea:
Install IE8 on all incoming computers.
Computer came back in after the update to (beta) IE8
because the customer was missing some of her
mail icons when looking at an open Comcast email.
An IE7 downgrade solved this problem so we are going to
hold off on updating all IE instances to Version 8.


My hard drive on my computer crashed today at the shop.
Bad news -- a lot of the laptop videos were on this hard drive
and I have not backed it up in a few weeks.
I am trying to recover using Spinrite. We will see how it goes.


Infected computer came in and Malwarebytes did the job
that SuperAntiSpyware could not.
Thank you to everyone who suggested this program to me
in past episodes of this show.
It destroyed all of the spyware on the machine.


Sony Vaio laptop driving me crazy:
No power. Nothing at all. Dead.
Went through my hardware troubleshooting.
Felt it was the motherboard
Core 2 duo/T7700 chip MB replacement $320
Vaio motherboards are rare and expensive.
Installed new motherboard. Still no power.


Voice Mail from Mike in NM:
Difficult to find a jump drive with a write-protect switch.
SD cards all have them and I tested the switch.
I used a SD to USB adapter to do this
You cannot write to them if read only is enabled.
Purposefully infecting an machine using VMWare.
Want to play with virtualization?
Download VMWare Player
About those easy fixes:
Do you tell the customer or do you justify the cost?


Email from Andrew?
Where can I buy an eco-friendly (green) computer?


Thors geek squad-like commercial


Also: thank you for all of the great emails
helping me with my eye strain ---
and I love that most of them were sent using a very large font.


Email from David:
Search revealed that glossy screens can produce eye strain
Advice on power jack solder job failure rate:
Use GOOD solder. I like Kester Solder.
He includes a funny story about a customer
who was having trouble connecting to a wireless network.
(She was lacking more than just the hardware.)


Email from ?
Learning a little about DNS operations goes a long way
in understanding how a computer communicates with the internet.
Open DNS Blog




Click Here to See Chat Log.

Podnutz Daily #108 - Chasing The Carrot

Listen Here: pnd108.mp3

Dell Inspiron Vista with 3G of RAM Dual Core
and customer could not get internet.
Vista has some decent wireless
repair/diagnostic utilities built in.
Trend Micro Anti Virus was running on the machine
Right clicking on the Trend Micro icon
revealed it was set to halt all internet traffic.
Reset IE7 back to factory default as well
(This does not get rid of favorites or anything
it just deactivates add-ons and other possible culprits
that may prevent you from getting online.


Follow-up on the AVG install issue:
Our flash drives were infected.
We formatted all of the drives and reinstalled our tools
We now have the latest version of everything.


Re-install vs Clean-up aka "Chasing the carrot"
At what point do you decide to reinstall?


The Winner of the Leaf Blower Contest is:
Scott Spencer!
His tech tale solved the mystery of the squeeking computer.
(All of the stories were great-it was a tough decision)


Voice Mail from Simon:
AVG issues effecting explorere.exe
could be due to the removal of spyware.
Using sysinternals autoruns/image hijacks tab
You may find spyware loading in front of explorer.exe
Flash drive corrupted with autoruns.inf?
You can run software from internet explorer address bar
or using the menu option File/Open


Voice Mail from William:
New remote access program Remobo
Freakin outstanding software! Cross platform.


Voice Mail from Mark in Reno:
Advice for the wireless customer who can connect to the internet in PA
but gets a BSOD in Washington DC
Problems connecting with PCHelpware?
This could be due to a changing ip address
Try using dyndns and dnsomatic (from open dns) together


Voice Mail from Brent:
Advice for eye strain
Get glasses with anti-reflective coating.


Email from Wendy:
Nvidea graphics cards (series 7 and 8) are overheating
and sometimes taking the motherboard with it.


Email from Andrew in NC:
Your podcast is NOT like watching paint dry!
The A+ class at New Horizons has been told about your show.
EveryZing will transcribe podcasts
SpaceMonger 1.4 and WinderStatvisually show hard drive


Email from Steve:
Testing a SeaGate drive using SeaTools
It says it supports firewire connected drives
but I had to mount it internally to get the software to work.


Email from Ben (Nebben):
Sony recalls battery packs in laptops



Email from Neil:
Where can I get a Windows 2000 Pro install disk?
I have the product key.


Email from Mike:
The ForceField podcast #27 covered
accepting credit cards as a form of payment.


Click Here to See Chat Log.

Podnutz Daily #107 - Lock Your Flash Drives

Listen Here: pnd107.mp3


Phillies Take The World Series!
(Excuse my hat)
Chase Utley's speech
from the parade sums up the spirit of Philadelphia


AVG install was crashing all my computers?
I think it might be compromised flash drives
Will format the flash drives and retry.


Tip:
If you are a tech and are going to be purchasing
flash drives to hold your utilities
PLEASE look for the READ ONLY switch on the drive.
This will PROTECT your drive from becoming infected
by inserting it into a infected machine.
This will "lock" it from infections.


Streak of bad luck at the shop
lots of returns coming in....
It's never been bad like this
Tip:
Never ever cut corners on your repairs
You *know* when it feel like a great repair.
It should always feel that way.
If it doesn't...
Go back in. The job is not complete.


Older 2001-2002 Compaq laptop
BSOD everytime the internet was connected
through ethernet it would blue screen.
"tcpip.sys" error
Ran WinsockXPfix
.. no changes
Moved tcpip.sys file from known-good-machine
to this machine and problem still not solved.
Uninstalled all network adapters
and let windows reload the drivers...
.. still no change.


The solution:
We ended up going straight to the REALTECH
manufacturer's website and getting the updated driver.
All good.


Hallmark e-card warning!
Do NOT open any Hallmark e-cards.
Customers have gotten hit with virus/spyware
..and pass this information on!!


Wifi issues depending upon the city:
In PA she is fine .. in DC she gets BSOD
After my clean up routine and wifi driver updates
.. she is still having this issue.


Story on one of the returns:
Lil Dell Inspiron laptop 12" screen
THREE TIMES I have fixed this power jack


Dilemma with the 24" HP glossy screen monitor:
I am getting headaches and I want to blame this screen
because the time matches up.


Leafblower contest winner on hold.
Forgives? See the beard? I am lazy!

Voice Mail from Gomem:
Gomem was on the Great Tech Debate!
Intermitten AVG issues as well
Windows 7 is looking like Vista & its eye candy

AVG alternative = Avira
Norton 2009 listening to the crowd? Slimmed down?


Voicemail from Bob:
Congratulations on the Phillies World Series WIN!
Hopes Steve does not have to wait another 25 years for a WIN


Steve takes credit for the win
because in Philly, the fans are a part of the team
and this is part of the reason Philly fans are crazy
I hope this helps you to understand.


Door2Door Geek:
The difference between and analog tv and a digital tv
(slightly inebriated driving back from a bachelor party)
STILL has podnutz on the brain & a certified GEEK
In case you needed an example:
He goes on to mention 1clickVNC and HAK5
logmein is pure gold as well


Email from Kins:
Looking for a power supply?
MicroCenter is selling a CoolMax 500W PS for $9.99 after rebate
FYI: A few CoolMax PS have failed on me
Maybe bad luck? But Zion never fails on me and they are cheap.


Email from Bobby:
PCMag Security Suite Tests
They also say that Norton 2009 is mean & lean
and Bobby agrees after loving the spam filter for email
and suggests I download the 15 day trial...


Email from OC:
Another cleaner mention ---
freedrweb.com/livecd
Dr Web live CD


Email from Nebben (Ben):
Acronis True Image 2009 is here


Email from Juan from TX:
Check out comodo for free internet security suite
(Best known for their firewall)


Email from Nick:
Dad says he never surfs in the gutters, yet
every couple of months I need to go over and remove
ugliness like trojans/spyware/malware
His Solution:
Install VMWare with Ubuntu and FireFox
and disable persistance so that nothing is saved.
No More Worries!

Click Here to See Chat Log.