A200 Toshiba Satellite Random Restarts / Freeze When on AC

Symptoms:

• Random restarts
• Boots ok on battery
• Toshiba A200 Satellite laptop
• Over 4 years old
• Works in safe mode
  

Solutions:

• Boot up in Safe Mode
• Start > Control Panel > System > Device Manager > Processors
• Disable both processors
• Restart the laptop
• Boot into normal Windows
• Should work fine, if not you may want to look at the rest of this blog
• This is apparently a temporary fix and your laptop will not last years and years without replacing a chip (see below)
  

Causes (Possible):

• Poor battery life and power switching between AC and battery
• A NEC chip on the motherboard that regulates power is deteriorating and causing the laptop to not power properly

Alternative fixes:

1. Set power settings to Power Saver
2. Set power to High Performance
3. Boot into BIOS and change Dynamic CPU Frequency Mode = Always Low (NOT DYNAMIC)
   
4. Charge up battery and only use laptop on battery

More Info (Google key words such as):

• a200 toshiba random restarts
• Satellite A200 freezes or restarts anytime
• A200 restarts when plugged into AC
• Toshiba laptop freezing when charger is pluggded in
• Toshiba Random Freeze/ Shutdown/ Restart
• a200 toshiba NEC/TOKIN OE128 Proadlizer Capacitor problems
  

Fix stuck deleting print job

Have a job stuck in your print queue that says deleting?

Here is a fix:

"

1) Go to Control Panel

2) Select System and Maintenance

3) Select Administrative Tools

4) Double-click on Services

5) In the list of services, scroll down until you find one called "Print Spooler"

6) Right-click on "Print Spooler" and select "Restart"

7) The "deleted" jobs will disappear and any queued jobs in your print queue will print
"

Quoted from:

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistaprinting/thread/2d7f6282-3f20-43ff-a897-26db99585c1f/

pod51008.outlook.com

Login or password error when setting it up in Thunderbird?

Try using the username as the whole address rather than the first bit. For example use gecblog@uowmail.edu.au as the username instead of just gecblog. The Outlook exchange server is used by many different e-mail groups not just for example uowmail.edu.au so, you need to input that as well.

Common error message you get when this setting is incorrectly set up:

"Login Failed"
"Login to server pod51008@outlook.com failed."
"Retry, Enter New Password, Cancel"

All my Excel cells are greyed out and I can't re-colour them

If everything in Excel is all gray and you can not change any of the colours even after changing the formatting. Then most likely you are viewing the Excel workbook in "Page Break Preview", if all the cells are gray even if you have nothing in it and never used that cell, then my guess is "Page Break Preview!

GO to View > Normal View and well. that should be it.

View > Page Break Preview to make it all gray again.

Solution gathered from:

http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33739

How to set up Internet on TPG mobile

http://optusau.wdsglobal.com/index.html

Seeming as TPG runs on the Optus network, just follow the link above, it will allow you to be sent a sms that auto configures everything for you =) Hope that helps!

External Monitor COnnected to Laptop flickers

Here is a new one. I got a new BenQ monitor and connected it to my laptop, brilliant, best add-on to my laptop ever., except for one thing. flickering or refresh rate lines.

After days of search, I finally found on google that if i run the laptop on DC the flickering goes away, when I run it off AC the flickering is there, even more weird if i put the laptop into Max Performance mode the flickering is even worse, if I place it in Battery Saving mode the flickering is less.

I found this website that gave me the idea of testing for the AC and DC differences to flicker.

http://mrgnome.wordpress.com/2009/06/12/external-monitor-flicker-laptop-ground-loop-problem-solved/

To be honest I DON'T condone the use of this method as modifying any electrical parts are dangerous, I will re-post again if I find a fix that doesn't require such a big risk.


EDIT: Seems like it is the AC power pack from the laptop, putting noise onto the LCD cause they share the same power board, when using a different board, the problem does not exist.

Now my experiment ideas are using a DVI to HDMI converter adaptor, My laptop only has VGA and HDMI but my screen has VGA and DVI so if I use the DVI cable and monitor and change one side of DVI cable back to HDMI I can use HDMI port for digital signal, hopefully this will reduce the noise impact as it;'s digital signals not analogue. WINNER (brought a $18 adaptor from DickSmithElectronics, DVI-I Female to HDMI Male)

Other idea is looking into getting special surge boards that split this noise and interference, don't know what they are called or if they even exist.

Lastly use an adaptor to remove the grounder plug, not physically but if you plug the 3 pins into an adaptor with 2 pins it removes the ground pin from working back into the surge board.


EDIT: My power pack died anyway so I went and got a new one, which had 2 pins, so no grounding pin. Fixed the problem with DVI anyway but hey if you have VGA as only option then you can try getting a global power pack to have 2 pins rather then buying a plug to change 3 to 2 pins. =) cheers hope this helps.

MSN/WLM Batch import Gifs as emoticons / Back up all emoticons

Ever wanted to important many GIFs as emotions but hate the long and annoying process? You can do a batch import and after you do that you can backup all your emotions, so if you need to re-install, you don't even need to batch import, just do a recovery/import of the backup file and tada.

Hopefully MSN/WLM will have a save emotions to server one day, so annoying if you can't use the same emotion when on a different computer, using web messenger or need to re-install MSN?WLM.


http://www.emoticonmadeeasy.com/

MSN/WLM Message window pops up

MSN/WLM Message window pops up
MSN/WLM Conversation window pops up

Isn't it annoying when you joke to a friend about soemthing, another friend sends you a message and then that window pops up and you type into the wrong window, hit Enter by impulse and then have a very awkward situation where the friend 2 is reading a very out of context and maybe even disturbing message that is only disturbing due to being out of context?

Yeah, it's a pain in the butt to explain that every time it happens. It seems to happen more frequently when offline contacts send you a message, whoever sends a message last is at the very top all the time.

To my experience the solution is:

Disable the alert/notification pop up you get above the clock, this seems to also disable the actual Message/Conversation windows from popping up to be the active window.

• Open messenger
• Tools > Options > Alerts
• Uncheck "Display an alert when a message is received"

I thought this would turn off everything but you still get the sound and also flashing icon in the task bar, so it only disables the little pop up above the clock and also the actual Message window from opening up in front of you. This applies to Windows 7 anyway.

GOOD LUCK! Hope this helps

Edit: I think this varies depending on how you set up MSN, for example if you're using Windows XP mode where the MSN icons is in task bar or in system bar etc. also combine icons or don't combine etc.

I have tested it and it still seems to happen if a contact is offline and sends you a message, it pops up affecting where ever you are typing to be typed into their window. I have noticed that if the contact has sent you a message and you minimise it then the next messages from them doesn't pop up but again online contacts seem to be less annoying LOL.

Better Internet reliability, less drop outs on Wi-Fi: Solved

This is a place holder for a solution I am still evaluating.
The Solution, if it be one will be posted in around few months time after evaluation of it's effectiveness or relation to solving the problem.

Refer to:
http://gecsoft.blogspot.com/2010/06/wlm-msn-missing-messages-solved.html

WLM/ MSN Missing Messages: Solved

This is a place holder for a solution I am still evaluating.
The Solution, if it be one will be posted in around few months time after evaluation of it's effectiveness or relation to solving the problem.

I had a Modem that was connected to a Wi-Fi router (Router with wireless) and both were in routing modes. I suspect this could have caused issues with speed, drop outs, accuracy and loss of data (especially MSN/WLM lost messages)


Solution (Hopefully):

Set the Wi-Fi rouyter into "Access Point (AP) Mode so it simply just relays everything from the modem into Wi-Fi or Ethernet ports.

Other way is to set up the modem as a modem ONLY (most modems for ADSL have routers inside) and then set up the Wi-Fi router to do all the login and Internet authoisation processes. This process in my opinion is much harder and if the first soltuion above works then why make more work for yourself?

In my case anyway, it was easier to put the Wi-Fi wouter into AP mode, I have a Belkin by the way. Apparently it is harder to undo! so keep that in mind, if you set the Wi-Fi router into AP mode you need to use the Reset button at the back of the routewr to reset it (which emans you've got to set it up as if it just came out of the box which is a pain if you have all the computers set up to access a particular SSID and password.


Just quickly:

• Go to an Internet browser
• Smack in http://192.168.2.1/
• Enter
• Go down to "Set Up as Access Point" or soemthing similar
• Follow the prompts
• Check to see if all the computers can still connect and see the Modem, the router should now be an invisible device with the exception of the Searching for Wi-Fi connections.

EDIT: I've noticed that when messages aren't delivered it now tells me, usually when I send too many messages at the same time, like I type 1 word per message but I guess it is not a 100% fix but at least it's as simple as copy paste and then re-send rather than you or recipient swear at each other for being rude and not replying =]

Can't Install ATI Catalyst on Laptop (Sony, Toshiba, Panasonic)

Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic laptops have drivers that prevent you from installing any other drivers from the graphics card manufacturer unless it is the version by the laptop manufacturer (obviously a modified version)

Now there is little problems with that, if you don't play games or chase after the latest mm of performance gain. BUT it could be a problem if you install Windows 7 on your laptop because Windows Vista that came with your laptop had Catalyst installed already right? but with Windows 7, you should be running a more generic driver or a Toshiba/Sony/Panasonic driver (which would be likely downloaded from Windows Update)

Anyway, now for my story, I realised without ATI Catalyst that my LCD screen can not be calibrated and made brighter (too dark). External LCD monitors can be calibrated through the buttons but laptops don't have buttons for the laptop.

SOLUTION: (Skip to this section if you don't want story or background info)

Go to: http://www.hardwareheaven.com/modtool.php

That's it really haha, all the info is there! Basically a program that modified the drivers so your laptop won't refuse them and if they not refused then ATI Catalyst will recognise the drivers installed as being the compatible ones and tada!

Remember, follow instructions on the site, I won't make a "in a nut shell" guide this time but basically need the latest ATI Catalyst install file and the Mobility Modder program.

"Windows cannot delete the active system partition"

Windows cannot delete the active system partition

Sounds like you are trying to delete or edit a partition that had/has a Windows installation on it, Trying to install a new window in that partition? (you can just install over it during the install process) Trying to use that partition for something else like as data storage? Well then you will need remove the system before you can re-format the partition for use.

Try this:

• Make sure the account you are logged into Windows with is an Admin one
• Windows + R
• msconfig
• Enter
• Boot > Delete the OS or windows you do not want any more
• Apply > Restart

Now go right-click My computer > Manage > disk Management > Try to re-format the partition, shrink it, delete it etc.

OK, so that doesn't work. This website : http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/itprovistasetup/thread/af3a1e24-214f-4e0e-b917-9530a27534de


Deactivate / Inactive an active partition:

Suggests doing things in command prompt to deactivate the partition you want to reformat. After doing a Google search I found out that only 1 partition can be active, so instead of doing the command prompt stuff, I tried this emthod and it worked:

1. Right-click My computer > Manage > Disk Management
2. Select the partition you are now wanting to use > Right-Click > Mark partition as Active
3. The other partition should now be inactive and ready for you to reformat, etc.

Hope this works for you! =]

Recovering / Migrating Mozilla Firefox / Thunderbird Profiles!

OK, I did a hard drive partition whilst running on battery and I left it running and forgot all about it, so.. logical tells us the battery didn't last as long as the process, hence my whole partition was partially stuffed up, big time!

Meaning windows would not boot. I ran the recovery options from the W7 disc and ta-da, Windows now boots.

OK now my desktop won't load at all, so my Windows install is pretty much stuffed up, ad not even the Admin or Safe-mode accounts can load anything up. I'll try a system restore point, opss I disabled that before for some unexplained reason :\

So now I am evaluating what I will lose if I do a fresh install over it, well Firefox Bookmarks NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and also Thunderbird E-mails and address book, Ahh NOOOOOOOOOO this can't be happening, I don't make a regualr habbit of back up, only like once every 3 months. =.="

So I decided to do a fresh install but on a different partion and keep the sutffed up W7 partition so I can attempt to recover the programs etc. (not really recover but like I can acces the Program files oflder of the stuffed up W7 and at least have a remidner of what programs I had installed etc.

I separate my data and OS for this purpose, so that only Firefox and Thunderbird data is lost (hopefully, I haven't yet thought of anything else I might lose except for windows shortcuts and layouts which some can be copied and pasted and maybe saved games, which can also be pasted, see why I said install in a new partition?? you can continue to recover some stuff)


IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN MY EVENT STORY AND JUST WANT TO KNOW HOW TO RECOVER THE PROFILES OF MOZILLA SOFTWARE DO THIS: (Windows 7)
Read Red Tips below first before beginning to save time =)

• Go to: C:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox
  Where C = Drive letter of stuffed up W7
  Where Gec = name of your Windows profile (e.g. Gec's Pictures, i.e. the name you see at the log in screen)
  
  
• Go to "Profiles" > fn489th3.default
  Where fn489th3 = random, your one will not be called this
  
  
• Copy the whole fn489th3.default folder into:
  
  
• D:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles
  Where D = new drive letter of working W7
  Where Gec = new windows account name
  
  
• Now in: D:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Firefox\profiles.ini
  
  
• Change "Path=Profiles/zvdf31jz.default" to "Path=Profiles/fn489th3.default"
  Where zvdf31jz.default = random name made by the new Firefox install
  
  
• Save the changes and now open up Firefox, most bookmarks etc. should be there with the exception of Themes.
  
  
• !!! The same works for Thunderbird, with the exception that the location is
  C:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
  
  
  
• !!! To avoid this situation again, try using a Mozilla Backup tool called "MozBackup" (recommendation only, i am no way associated with the promotion of the product, BTW it's free anyway ;P)
  
  

TROUBLE SHOOTING / TIPS:

1. You need Firefox and or Thunderbird installed in the new W7 install first.
   
   
2. You also need to run the application once first and when asked, select "do not import
   anything" as this will set up the profile folders.
   
   
3. You need to go to Tools > Folder Options > View > Show hidden files, folders and drives
   before you can see the "AppData folder in D:\Users\Gec\AppData\Roaming\Thunderbird
   
   
4. You may only see profile instead of profile.ini unless you un-check "Hide file extensions of known file types" (Tools > Folder Options > View > Hide file extensions of known file types"

Word table going onto next page with big gaps

The symptom is the table has 1 or 2 rows and then there is a big gap in the page and the table continues on the next page. So in other words the table breaks automatically over pages with gaps in between. Broken up tables across pages? Don't know how to explain it but hopefully I would have typed enough keywords for you to find this blog on Google

CLICK THUMBNAILS FOR LARGE VIEW

Like this I guess:












SOLUTION:

Go to the next page where the table continues, then go to the row where you think the rows before it will fit in the gap and inset a page break at the beginning of that row. This should fit some rows into the gap and then continue the table on the next page to give a constant flow table.

Bit hard to explain in text, maybe I shall make a tutorial?


Measure approximately how many rows can fit in the gap in Page1. Less is better than more else it won't work.

Now place the cursor at the beginning of the first word in the row you want to be the first row on Page 2.

Now, Insert a page break there



You should now have more of the table on Page 1 and less on Page 2 so it has a continuous flow without any gaps.

Hope this helped!! Sure took me forever to figure it out and also the help on forums and Google weren't that helpful, so I hope I have used some keywords for the useless sites I have found, so you can find this blog within 5 clicks on Google and
rest easy and earlier tonight!

DreamScene error: desktop icon text

When you enable a video as the wallpaper with DreamScene you may get black or invisible text for the desktop icons, which renders the text pretty unreadable.

To fix that try this:

1. Right-click the desktop > Personalize
2. Desktop Background
3. Change "Picture position" to "Fill"
   
4. check your desktop, hopefully the text has become white and readable.
   

Upgrading/install new HDD in laptop, not showing up in My Computer

Simple, Your new HDD (upgrade) is a new HDD and so your laptop has no idea who it is. Assign it a drive letter and your computer will acknowledge who it is.

• Right-click My computer > Manage > disk Management
  

• Should have a pop up window, follow the prompts and assign partition method (MBR I would recommend after reading the warning inside the pop up window)
  
  
• Right-click the new HDD in the main window (should be a HDD that is black coloured and says Unallocated)
  
  
• New simple volume > assign space and drive letters as required. Set space to max if you want 1 partition but if want more than 1 then you much around with it, if you know what you are doing.

A really simple solution to a simple problem really but hahah well I kinda forgot and I thought I had a dud HDD but it was hot so it was on and connected, so yeah here you have it~

Fixing Stuck/Persistant Pixels (White pixel not chaning)

http://www.jscreenfix.com/basic.php

To fix a stuck LCD pixel, go to that ^ website and run the Java application. follow the prompts on the website! =)

Tips:

* Use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox if you are trying to fix a pixel located in the top or bottom of the screen as Firefox has a slight slide-in menu sticking out (border) - You'll understand when you see the app running in the browser.

* Click the URL bar and then press F11 to make the browser full-screen, pressing F11 without selecting the URL bar will send a F11 command to the Java app, which does nothing.


Good Luck!

http://gateway.2wire.net/xslt?PAGE=HURL07 ERROR wehn trying to load a website

If your getting this error: http://gateway.2wire.net/xslt?PAGE=HURL07 or more precisely, Server not found, can not contact gatway or soemthing along that line, You have a 2Wire modem. The chances are You have set the firewall on it to Maximum Protection and the other chance is You have a router which also runs a Firewall, and that is why you need to put the modem into DMZplus mode and let the router's firewall do the protecting. Apparently, if you don't, running two firewalls is inefficient as it double NATs or Network Address Translation which has something to do with local IPs and global IPs and translation between them.

So I think if you go into 2Wire control panel page (http://10.0.0.XXX) and Edit the firewall settings to be DMZPlus Mode you should be safe and also get the websites up and running again.
Weird thing was, for me, My SMTP, POP and MSN (WLM) worked fine, only HTTP has issues)

Here was where my research ended and helped make my final decision of turn down the firewall on the modem. I figured that turning it off was a solution but wasn't sure if it was safe, I think the website says it is (according to a forum poster, lol)

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r20462923-Computer-in-DMZplus-mode

Windows Vista skips Windows XP

Windows XP is no longer showing up as an option in the boot menu after you installed Vista?
Vista boots right up without asking to boot into Windows XP?
Vista looks like it has replaced Windows XP?
Can't select to boot into windows XP after installing windows Vista?


Well then, you'll need to install this software in Vista. EDIT: NO LONGER FREE :(

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

What you have to do is:

1. Install the software
2. Make a backup of your boot manager (using the software)
   
3. Now create a new entry for a OS, give it a name and most importantly select the drive letter that you have install Windows XP on (open up My computer in Vista to see the drive letter)
   
4. Save or apply the entry and re-boot and try

Should be pretty simple, if not post a comment and I guess I'll make a proper tutorial lol.

Pretty much what has happened is Windows Vista runs a newer boot manager than Windows XP and if the drive letters are screwed up, you might not have windows XP in the boot menu and hence vista will boot by default.

So by making a new entry you are creating a option in the boot manager to check the drive letter X for example, and then boot from there when selected.

Sending messages to people I didn't add to the To list in Facebook

I've done that twice already -.-"

Sending messages to a few people so I though, but ended up being many more people.

The reason as i found afterward was that I've been sending to friends lists because I was giving them names that are mistakable as a person's name.

I fixed this problem by renaming all my friends lists to have "***# (name of list)" that way I can't accidentally send something to a list of friends when I only wanted a send to a specific person who happened to have the same starting letter as the list name.

e.g. sending a message to Friends instead of Francine.

the other advantage of renaming lists to have ***# is that if you ever want to find a list but can't remember what names you gave them just press * and it will show up all the people starting with * which should only be lists unless you have befriended people who names who start with * (rare cases)