01 November 2009

No sound firefox

If you have no sound in firefox and you have tried to reinstall flash player then another solution could be ..

While running firefox and something such as You Tube or something that should have sound

1. Right Click on speaker icon in systray
2. Click on Open Volume Mixer
3. Turn the volume up for firefox if its turn down

29 October 2009

Windows 7 Snap and Dual Screen

Today I was trying to get 2 programs side by side as shown on the windows 7 advert on TV.

It didn't work, I could only get one program to snap to the outter edge but not the middle ..

There seems to be a bug if you are using dual screen, I guess because it assumes you want to move to a different screen when you drag to the side

A fix to snap windows side by side on dual screen

Click window you want to move to side - hold down the windows key and press either the left or right arrow button.

12 August 2009

AC'97 Realtek Sound Issues Windows 7

Read on if Windows 7 installed but no sound, can only select Realtek Digital Output in playback devices which uses Rear panel Optical Jack.

If you have installed Windows 7 64bit Ultimate on your system and have no option to select your speakers but have installed the latest drivers from Realtek.

Go here http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsview.aspx?langid=1&pnid=14&pfid=24&level=4&conn=3&downtypeid=3&getdown=false - You may need to click accept a couple of times first.

Today I installed windows 7 and had the above problem and had already gone to the Realtek website and followed the download links to the latest AC'97 Codec but for some reason that logical link offers out of date drivers which didn't work dated back in March 09.

I Googled the problem and found a forum here http://www.sevenforums.com/sound-audio/3756-latest-realtek-hd-audio-driver-version.html which links to the hidden page with the correct AC'97 drivers.

The driver I am successfully using is: Vista, Windows7 Driver (32/64 bits) Driver only (ZIP file) R2.30

05 February 2009

What is a THM File

If you have a digital video camera or a digital camera and use that for video and have transfered the files to your computer you may notice you have the actual movie file example.avi and another file called example.thm.

The .thm file is just a thumb nail and if you rename it to .jpg it will show as a small image.

27 January 2009

Sharing drives and folders on Vista

When I first tried to set up my network using Vista it didn't work like I was previously used to in Windows XP. I kept getting access denied messages when I tried to connect to another computers hard drives. So I hunted for a solution and this worked.

How to share folders over a network using Windows Vista

1. Browse to the folder
2. Right click on the folder and click on share
3. From the drop down box choose 'Everyone'
4. Click 'Add'
5. From the permission level choose 'Co-owner'
6. Click 'Share'
7. Click 'Done'

How to share a whole drive over a network using Windows Vista

  1. Browse to the drive you want to share
  2. Right click and choose 'Properties' then the 'Security' tab then click on 'Edit'
  3. Choose 'Add'
  4. Click on 'Advanced'
  5. Click on 'Find Now'
  6. From the search results down the bottom locate 'Everyone' then double click
  7. Click 'Ok'
  8. Then put a tick in 'Full Control' (for Everyone)
  9. Click 'Ok'
  10. Wait for the settings to change
  11. Click 'Ok'

26 January 2009

Uninstall Internet Explorer 8 Vista

I wanted to try 'Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2' but it wouldn't let me install unless I uninstalled 'IE8 Beta 1'

I looked in Programs and Features and couldn't see an option to uninstall IE8 ..

I went to the folder where it was installed and there was no uninstall feature there ..

Microsoft has changed what Windows X users are used to in vista and renamed things.

I found how to do it eventually but a 2 min task had taken me about an hour!

How to uninstall Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) in Vista

Go to Start > Control Panel > Programs and features - Left hand menu choose updates - It's listed there ..

File header checksum

The file header checksum does not match the computed checksum

I had this error after a blue screen. Computer would not boot in to windows after this. It would go through the bios screen then this message would appear. "The file header checksum does not match the computed checksum"

I did a lot of surfing to see if I could find a solution and there wasn't a fixed solution for the error.

I opened up my computer and found that a transmitter on the motherboard had blown. I contacted Over Clockers explained my situation and they sent me a new motherboard.

I fitted the new motherboard and still had errors, so I am not sure if the transmitter blowing contributed to my problem or was coincidence.

After the initial blue screen and system problems I put my C: drive in another computer to see if I could access files - the hard drive failed and would not boot on the other computer.

So I tried to install windows vista 64 bit on another hard drive I had in my computer. It wouldn't install so I swapped out my DVD drive for a new one which I had spare. This still didn't allow me to install windows. So this is when I opened my computer and discovered something had blown.

When I had the new motherboard and rebuilt and still couldn't install windows I tried a new IDE cable for my DVD drive and a new SATA cable for my hard drive with no joy.

So now my computer had a new motherboard, a new hard drive, a new DVD drive, a new SATA cable, a new IDE cable - also I had ram out of another computer.

At this point I was quite stressed out and thought I would go through each bit of hardware from a similar built computer I have.

I replaced the IDE cable again and this time it worked.

So I think I was unlucky in the fact I tried an IDE cable initially and it hadn't worked.

So I am not sure if the transmitter on the motherboard was my initial problem and it took out my hard drive and an IDE cable or it was just the IDE cable and the other hardware failure by some freak chance happened at the same time. I do not know how long the transmitter had been blown on the motherboard.

So if you get an error message "The file header checksum does not match the computed checksum" Try your IDE cable and if it doesn't work - Try another one!!

25 January 2009

Dreamweaver on Vista 64 bit

Dreamweaver 8.0.2 Update on Vista 64 bit

If you are using Vista 64 bit and running Dreamweaver 8 you may of noticed that when you try to connect to a website that you had previously put the FTP details in to Dreamweaver for, you can't because its lost the information.

You need to update your copy of Dreamweaver to the lastest 8 patch 8.0.2. However if you are using 64 bit vista you wont be able to.

The Dreamweaver 8.0.2 update will not install on a computer running Windows Vista 64 bit. You will get an error message saying 'The application was stopped and did not patch.'

If you are lucky enough to have another computer running Vista 32 bit you can get around this problem.

Install Dreamweaver 8 on the Vista 32 bit machine and patch it with the 8.0.2 update, then copy the whole installed directory to your Vista 64 bit computer and it will work !!

Before doing this I suggest you renamed the exisiting folder containing the unpatched Dreamweaver (incase it doesn't work for you) and then copy the patched installation to the same location as the old folder (i.e. same harddrive).