SOLVED! TFTP Server Unreachable When Updating Cisco Switches

When updating the firmware and bootcode of your CISCO switches or routers, TFTP is very useful. Sometimes, even the only option available. But, many have my same problems of upgrade failed with error "Tftp server unreachable." This is how I've just fixed my problem with TFTP server this morning...

I'm using Solarwinds TFTP Server, you may download it for free from the link below:
https://www.solarwinds.com/free-tools/free-tftp-server

The installation is straight forward, and the default settings are good to run. (so, I won't explain much here). The main point is your Windows firewall needs to be configured correctly to make it works, or it will block your FTP access.

Steps:
1) If you have a 3rd party firewall, temporarily disabled it. (Or, if you know how to make a firewall exception to allow the TFTP service app to communicate. If so, follow the principles as below)
2) I assume your only Firewall is Windows Defender. On Windows search box, search for "Firewall" and click on "Allow an App for Windows Firewall".
3) Press Change Settings, then press the Allow another app... button
4) Press Browse, and select the SolarWinds TFTP Server service, named "SolarWinds TFTP Server.exe"
5) Go back to Network Types button and select the network environment that you wants to have the firewall rule applied. It must match your current network. If not sure, you may click Private and Public.
6) Click Add and then OK.
7) Start your Solarwinds TFTP server and start the CISCO firmware and bootcode upgrades.

The principle is to configure your firewall to allow communication of your TFTP server. However, the default settings e.g. for Solarwinds, is just allow access to the Configuration interface app but no firewall rules being created for the actual TFTP server service.

SOLVED! Very Slow Open an Excel File

You may not believe, there's one more causes to Excel taking a long time to open a file, one unlikely reason - audio card driver!! Check if you're using Realtek audio.... if so read this...

Reference:
http://www.dell.com/support/article/uk/en/ukdhs1/sln306701/slow-performance-issues-in-excel-when-opening-saved-files?lang=en

SOLVED! Cannot Open Excel File by Double Click on It

A number of users recently experienced this - when open an Excel attachment from Outlook or double click on an Excel file in Explorer, Excel starts as blank, the file is not opened.

Probably, a setting of Excel checked - "Ignore other applications that use Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE)". You can find the setting from Excel Options - Advanced - scroll down under "General". Un-check it.

Note: DDE is being exploited and there is higher security risk by leaving this setting unchecked. That may also be the reason why recently this setting is being checked by some security updates.

SOLVED! Transferring SMS, photos, videos and other files over Wi-Fi connection

This is my update of method of transferring files from one phone to another - CLONEit!
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lenovo.anyshare.cloneit

This is a powerful tool for cloning your old phone to new in easy steps. So, just ignore my previous post below. You may also like to try another good tool from the same company - SHAREit - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lenovo.anyshare.gps


[my old post below]
Just got a new smartphone, moved my 2 SIM cards and memory card to the new phone. But, my SMS messages are all gone. Also, my pictures and videos on the old phone is not transferred.

The Android Gallery is not quite helpful in transferring my media files.

SOLUTION: ZenLink from ASUS is used to transfer my pictures, videos and other files from my old phone to new phone. It does not matter if your phone is not ASUS. It works for all phones, I believe. Just install ZenLink on both your new and old phones, moving files over your home Wi-Fi is easy!

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asus.zenlink&hl=zh_HK

Then, what about my SMS messages....

SOLUTION: SMS Backup & Restore is another app that makes the work easy. You can make backup of your SMS and call records to your Google Drive. Then, restore on your new phone.

During the transfer process, the app will take over your default messaging app. Don't worry, after the transfer, simply uninstall the app and give your default app back the control.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.riteshsahu.SMSBackupRestore&hl=zh_HK

Happy, happy! Now, my new phone is ready!

SOLVED! Running WhatsApp on My iPad Safari or Chrome

WhatsApp works great on iPhone or an Android smartphone. However, if you have an iPad, you may be frustrated of not able to run WhatsApp on iPad. But, here's a workaround using web version of WhatsApp.

Using Safari: If you go to web.whatsapp.com, you will notice that you are being re-directed to the homepage of WhatsApp and the WhatsApp Web simply will not load.

At the top right corner of Safari, find and tab on the "Share" icon (square with up arrow).

From the "Share" menu, find and tab on the "Request Desktop Site" option.

Now, Safari loads again the web.whatsapp.com webpage but this time will load the WhatsApp Web instead. Follow instructions to add the device linked to your phone with WhatsApp. Remember, you should have WhatsApp installed on your phone first. Well, that's how WhatsApp is working.

Note that the web version of WhatsApp has some limitations compared to the app version. Also, at the left panel, you will have to tab 2 times to select, instead of one time in the normal WhatsApp app.

For Chrome: If you choose to use Chrome on iPad as your web browser, the way to load WhatsApp web is the same. Just the "Request Desktop Site" is under the 3 vertical dots (...).

SOLVED! "Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments" message in Outlook

Just handled a troubleshooting... when sending an email with an email as attachment, the one received the email cannot find the attachment. Instead, Outlooks showed a message...

"Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments"

Google....most people recommend to create a registry key to Outlook to avoid blocking of certain file extensions, which will work in most cases:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/829982/-outlook-blocked-access-to-the-following-potentially-unsafe-attachments-message-in-outlook

Sadly, in my case, it didn't work. 

SOLUTION:

Finally, the fix that works for me... the attached email has a NAME TOO LONG, I need to change the name to a SHORTER name before sending. That's the fix in my case!

By default Outlook uses the "Subject" of the message as the filename of the attached email. So, change the "Subject" to a shorter one.

This simple fix does not even need a registry edit or install a software!

[SOLVED] ASUS Monitor Cannot Show Everything, Or Shifted to One Side

Like monitors of other brands, there's kind of "Auto Adjust" feature on the monitor itself, not on Windows. Find the button on the monitor itself to do this.

For ASUS monitors, there's a button looks like this. Press and hold it for about 4 seconds.

[SOLVED] Outlook When Pressed "OK" ...error message "The end date you entered occurs before the start date"

After I've changed my signature in Outlook and mail fonts in "Options", once I pressed OK, this is the error message:

"The end date you entered occurs before the start date"

Yes, this is very annoying! Here's the fix...

In "Outlook Options", at the left side find "Calendar". Then, at the top, can you see the "Work hours:" with the "Start time" and "End time" right below it? Now check, if the "Start time" is later than the "End time", the error message will show. Change it for example to "Start Time=8:00 AM" and the "End time=5:00 PM".

I just wonder, can Microsoft be more creative and helpful to auto-fix it!

[SOLVED] Windows Live Mail Show Only Progress Window or Like "Freezed" When Startup

This morning a client called, saying her Windows Live Mail is not working... when it starts, only see the progress window of error mail sending, it didn't load Windows Live Mail...

After some checking, I saw multiple instances of "wlmail.exe" in the task manager. "End Task" of these mal-functioning executables bring the Windows Live Mail back to normal. Of course, a reboot will also solve the problem...

Happy that I checked the task manager instead of uninstall and re-install  Windows Live Mail or even editing registries.... ;>

[SOLVED] Lenovo ideapad Boot to BIOS Failed

When I'm trying to boot to BIOS on my ideapad S210, it simply go directly to Windows 10. It's something to do with the "shutdown" mode of Windows 10, which is not really a normal shutdown, but like a sleep mode.

To solve it: 

1) Restart Windows 10. (Again, a shutdown in Windows 10 is hibernation)

2) Press F2 (or, FN+F2 if you have a keyboard with function keys in orange text). Besides, if you just want to change the startup boot device, it's F12.

Source: http://www.infralib.com/2015/03/lenovo-bios-key/

Now your ideapad should be able to boot to BIOS.

[SOLVED] MyTVSuper Cannot Install Silverlight on my Apple Macbook

To run myTVSuper on Safari, I need to install Silverlight. However, macOSX just not allow the install with a message:

"silverlight.pkg" can't be opened because it was not downloaded from the App Store

Your security preferences allow installation of only apps from the App Store...."

When I go to "System Preferences", "Security & Privacy", under "General", there is no option of "Allow apps downloaded from: Anywhere".

To allow apps from anywhere, try the following commands:

1) Search and open Terminal app.

2) Type "sudo spctl --master-disable" (this disable the standard Gatekeeper security mechanisms in Mac OS)

3) Go to "System Preferences", "Security & Privacy", under "General", check the option "Allow apps downloaded from: Anywhere".

4) Now, you can install the Silverlight normally. If the installer didn't work, try to force quit the installer and do it again.

5) Type "sudo spctl --master-enable" (this enable the standard Gatekeeper security mechanisms in Mac OS again)

[SOLVED] Outlook Failed to Sync Reported Error (0x8004102A)

Since yesterday, my Outlook keeps prompting with an error 0x8004102A, as well as 80041004, 0x8DE0005 and Error:3219. Simply said, what I noticed is that my Outlook application's emails are not synced, they're old. But on my mobile device and web mail, they're all new emails.

It's seemingly a known problem of Outlook:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2231628

However, the fix offered by Microsoft is really too much complicated and hard to follow. In my case, since on my mobile device and web mail the emails are good and the latest, the simplest way to fix it is to go to the Account Settings on my Outlook desktop application, remove the account and re-create a new one.

I'm using Outlook 2003, if you're using a different version, principle the same:

Go to "File", press the "Account Settings" button, choose "Account settings...". Under "E-mail" tab, select the email account having problem (in my case the Hotmail account), press "Remove" button.

Now, restart Outlook. Again, go back to the same "Account Settings" page. Press the "New..." button and step by step setup your email account again.*

*if you've started 2-step verification, likely you have to go to your Microsoft account (web page), and under "Security & privacy", "More security settings". Click on the "Create a new app password" and use this password for Outlook application to connect to your email account, instead of using your normal Microsoft login password.

Once account settings completed and good, all your emails will be back.

[SOLVED] "tool dl image fail, uboot is blocked by dl info" Error Message

After re-flashing the ROM of my Lenovo s650, that is the message after rebooting my smartphone. - "tool dl image fail, uboot is blocked by dl info" To fix the issue, you need to re-flash your smartphone using the smart_tool.exe, with the options DA DL Checksum checked.

To do so, follow these steps:

(1) Go to the Smart Phone Flash Tool (SP Flash Tool), click on the Options menu
(2) Click on the Download option, check "USB Checksum" and "EMMC Checksum". Close the window.
(3) On the Download tab, right below the "Download" button, select from the drop down box "Firmware Upgrade"
(4) Repeat the same procedure as your previous flashing. After a successful flash ROM, the smartphone should work again.

[SOLVED] Flashing a New ROM to My Lenovo S650 Smartphone

There are different reasons why a user will want to flash a new ROM (system) to his smartphone. For me, the simple motivation is that my Lenovo S650 is sadly not with Play Store...yes, very bad, which is very common for a phone from China - with the Play Store taken away!

(1) Find a ROM file for the model of your smartphone
The first thing you do is to find a new smartphone Android system (the ROM file). Simply google it, search for your model, like in my case, search "Lenovo S650 ROM download". The search result shows a number of links to download. Be careful of some websites which may like to trap you to advertisement or getting your information instead of generously helping you...

If your smartphone is powered by Mediatek chipset, here is a good source of MTK ROM files for different brands and models:
http://www.mtkfirmware.com/firmware-downloads


(2) Extract all the files of the ROM package your downloaded
Often, the downloaded ZIP file is with everything you need. If not, you can still go to here to download the needed tools: http://spflashtool.com/

(3) Install the smartphone USB driver

Either you install directly from the downloaded ROM package file, or you can follow these links to download the needed drivers.

http://spflashtool.com/download/MediaTek_USB_VCOM_drivers.zip

http://spflashtool.com/download/Driver_Auto_Installer_v1.1236.00.zip

(4) Run the SP Flash Tool program

Either you run the SP Flash Tool program with the ROM package, or you can follow this link or go to the website http://spflashtool.com to download the SP flash tool. 

http://spflashtool.com/download/SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1628_Win.zip

Run the tool, named "flash_tool.exe". It looks like this:

(5) Go to the "Download" tab, press the "Scatter-loading" button. Select the scatter file, which is located inside the folder of the extracted ROM file. It's named like "MTxxxx_Android_scatter.txt".

From the menu, select "Options". In the Options window, select "Download" at the left side, check both options for "DA DL All with Checksum". Close the Options window.

Just below the "Download" button, there's a drop down box. Select "Firmware Upgrade".

(6) Press the "Download" button. The application is now stand-by waiting until a smartphone is detected as plugged into the computer USB port.

(7) Remove the battery from your smartphone. Press and hold the Volume Down or Volume Up key while connecting your smartphone to the computer using a USB cable, until the flash_tool application showed the status change as the smartphone is detected.

(8) The status bar will show the flashing status. When it's completed, a green check message "Download ok" will be shown.

(9) Close the flash tool application. Disconnect the USB cable and power on your smartphone again.


Additional Reference: https://androidmtk.com/ provides useful information on the MTK flash tools.

[SOLVED] iPad with Trackpad or "Mouse"

When working with iPad, I always miss my laptop especially when I need to accurately position the cursor when editing text... until this discovery!...

In fact, iPad's on screen keyboard can be turned to a trackpad! In the "trackpad mode", you can move the cursor with ease, you may even be surprised of its efficient and precision positioning of your cursor.

Turn your keyboard into a trackpad - Touch and hold the keyboard with two fingers until it turns light gray. Now drag around to move the cursor.

[SOLVED] Free 100GB Space for Microsoft OneDrive

If you have your OneDrive free account downgraded to a 5GB plan, you're not alone. But now, there are available a number of ways to add free space to your OneDrive. One way is that if you have a Samsung smartphone or tablet, there's a chance that you are actually entitled to the 100GB free space bonus.

Here's how ...

On your mobile device, make sure your OneDrive is up-to-date, if not, go to Play Store to update it. Then, run OneDrive app and go to Settings. Look for the option "Apply 100GB Samsung offer". If the option is there, congratulations! You are entitled to 2 years' 100GB free OneDrive space! Tab on it and simply follow the on-screen instructions.

After successfully applied, the bonus offer should be reflected on your OneDrive account.

There are a number of other vendors out there offering similar bonus space. Try google them... ;>

[SOLVED] My iPad's Keyboard Does Not Have Arrow Keys

If you have been using a hardware keyboard for your work, you might wonder why there's no arrow keys on the iPad's software keyboard. Although you can tab the cursor at a certain point, all too often it is just not accurate enough.

In fact, iPad's on screen keyboard can be turned to a trackpad! In the "trackpad mode", you can move the cursor with ease, you may even be surprised of its efficient and precision positioning of your cursor.

Turn your keyboard into a trackpad - Touch and hold the keyboard with two fingers until it turns light gray. Now drag around to move the cursor.

[SOLVED] Microsoft OneDrive Downgraded to 5GB Free Space

Starting July 2016, Microsoft will downgrade its OneDrive free plan to 5GB. If you have more than 5GB of files in OneDrive, you will not be able to change or add anything in OneDrive and all your files will be set to READ ONLY. Sorry.... this is now a trend that service providers like Microsoft and Evernote are moving people to paid subscriptions instead of a free plan. If you are happy to pay a modest fee to Microsoft, you do not need to continue your reading here... just subscribe and you're good. Otherwise, check out for more options...

One option, if you need storage space less than 15GB, switch to use Google Drive. Or, you may carefully group your files and put them in different cloud services like Dropbox, Box, or even iCloud, etc... if you do not mind all the troubles. A quick way to reduce your storage size, move all your pictures and videos to an external hard disk instead of putting them in OneDrive.

If you are thinking of buying a new phone, you may consider ASUS, which offers 100GB Google Drive space for about 2 years. I am sure you can find similar offers from other vendors, ...

ASUS - Redeem Google Drive Space 100GB:

https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1011790

If you are very concerned about what would happen to your files in OneDrive starting July, check this out:

https://blog.onedrive.com/onedrive_changes_FAQ/

Honestly, no free lunch. Yet, also time for us to rethink how we are using cloud services. At times, we have to admit that we have entered a kind of "lazy" mode and abusing others' "kindness"...

SOLVED! Windows 10 Blue Screen of Death When Watching TV

I'm using MediaPortal for a few months watching TV, without any problems. After upgraded to Windows 10, MediaPortal continues to work without a problem for many weeks. But just recently, after watching TV for a while, Windows crashed with BSOD... with a message "Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart..."

Interestingly, watching web-based TV (Adobe Flash) also crashed Windows...so it's NOT APP. Hard Disk check reported no error. It does not look like hardware failure. And, weird enough, when running Media Portal or web-based TV on my first monitor, Windows did not crash.

Ah....driver problem! My second monitor is with an updated NVIDIA driver.

Download a copy of the latest GeForce 210 driver from official website - http://www.geforce.com/hardware. Installed it... tested....

No BSOD, no crashing...when watching TV.... ;>

Why....it's not my first time heard of report of NVIDIA driver problem with Windows 10...

 

    

SOLVED! Microsoft Internet Explorer Not Working After Upgrading to Window 10

After upgrading to Windows 10, the default browser is Edge. However, many websites are still not compatible with it. Very frustrating is that my old Internet Explorer 11 is not working, it keeps loading and just a BLANK PAGE...

If you have similar experience, this may help...

First, you need to find Internet Explorer in Windows 10, click on the magnifying glass at the bottom left corner of Windows 10. Type "Internet Explorer".

Wait! .... instead of left click on it, RIGHT CLICK on "Internet Explorer - Desktop app" and select "Run as Administrator". Now, something different happened, the page loads! Also, some websites with special add-on or plugin modules now works fine! One example, TVB's Pearl channel works properly - http://mytv.tvb.com/tc/live/pearl