The Joys of Computing
I just installed Lego: Harry Potter, Years 1-4 on my PC and it crashed immediately when starting, before displaying any screen…
Root cause: Advanced Speaker Properties’s default format set to Studio Quality.
Solution: set maximum DVD Quality (16bit, 48000 Hz).
Since a few weeks, when kids watch Netflix on our Samsung TV, the sound is continuously interrupting for an half second (I would say about every 60 seconds although something more frequently). I did fix it by switching from Audio Format “Dolby Digital” to “DTS Neo 2:5”.
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I noticed that the issue was not occurring when using TV’s built-in speakers. It was only occurring when using my Sound Bar Yamaha YSP3300 as audio output, and with some movies. The sound-bar had short term pauses (< 1 sec) in sound every once in a while.
Googling for similar issues, I found that Dolby Digital was not well supported by the combination Samsung/SmartHub/Netflix/Soundbar/5.1 movies…
So, I did change the audio format via TV’s Menu > Sound > Additional Parameters > Audio
Et voilà 😉
NB: it works both with DTS Neo and PCM…
Yesterday, I discovered that Plex, DS Video and a few other Apps didn’t run anymore on my Samsung Smart TV. I was also unable to install new Apps. After looking for solutions, I finally decided to reset the TV. It solved the problem.
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Most of the Apps installed (except Youtube and Netflix) refused to start. Trying to start an App only resulted in a spinning wheel… spinning for minutes… the TV finally exiting the Smart Hub without having opened the App.
I tried to uninstall some of the Apps and reinstall them next. But it appeared that it was impossible to install any new or previously installed Apps.
I was also unable to update installed Apps although an update was available.
However, network connection was fine (I did use the diagnostic menu of the TV to check it).
Finally, I decided to reinitialize the TV, also using the diagnostic menu. During the reconfiguration, the TV got an update of its system. After the reconfiguration, all preinstalled Apps appeared to work fine. And I was also able to install new Apps and run them.
NB.: Maybe updating the TV system without doing a full reset would have been enough to solve the problem…
When I watch a movie, I like to be in the complete dark… But if my PC is running, the screens are sources of light… Here is how to create a keyboard shortcut turning the screens off immediately, using “Wizmo”.
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As I am lazy and don’t want to turn off the monitors manually using their power button, I looked for a solution to put the screens to sleep immediately – without waiting for the screen saver to turn off the display as configured in the Control Panel > Power Options > Plan Settings… – using a keyboard shortcut.
I found a a first solution based on “NirCmd“: Download it and create a desktop shortcut (assigned with a keyboard shortcut) to: nircmd.exe cmdwait 1000 monitor off
That solution didn’t work fine for me. Indeed, after a few minutes, the screens were always turning back on magically… I didn’t find for sure the reason why, but it could be that my wireless mouse (Logitech) is not 100% quite although untouched…
So, I looked for an alternative and found “Wizmo“. Download it and use it in a desktop shortcut (also assigned with a keyboard shortcut) to: wizmo.exe monoff shake=99
This will eliminate the minor mouse “shake” that a wireless mouse seems to have and which is turning the monitor back on, while allowing you to still wiggle the mouse a bit to turn your monitor back on. (Notice: Wizmo won’t run if you copy it into %WinDir%\System32 !)
When going to travel for hours by car with my kids, I usually copy some cartoons on their tablets before leaving. A question which arose recently was: how to play a movie from one tablet on the others, while there is no network in the car. Answer: using BubbleUPnP and Wifi-Direct.
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The question arose as I forgot once to copy cartoons on one of the tablets. Being in the car, I had no Wi-Fi network to connect the devices (no wireless router). And I didn’t want to use a mobile data connection as, being in a foreign country, the cost would have been excessive. So I had to find another solution.
Looking on internet how to share media or files between two devices without Wi-Fi access point, I found that the modern way to go was: wifi-direct.
Connecting devices via wifi-direct was easy as natively supported by Android, as well as iOS (one can find many how-to on internet). But next, how to access the media on other devices was more tricky.
Usually, on mobile devices, I am using:
I also used to play media via UPnP with MediaHouse as, just like Plex and Archos Video, it is managing libraries of movies with metadata automatically fetched from internet. But that was before getting support for UPnP within Archos Video.
As Archos Video and Plex are IMO, the very best apps to manage libraries of movies, my hope was to use them. Unfortunately, none of them was able to access media on the other devices using Wi-Fi direct… Plex didn’t see the Plex servers running on the other devices, and Archos Video didn’t even display any menu to access media via network. I think that none of them was aware there was actually a network (WLAN Direct).
As I read that UPnP over Wi-Fi direct was very well supported (it’s now a standard), I thought that a solution could be to use an upnp server/client. My favorite being BubbleUPnP, I gave it a try. And good news, it works like a charm. I was able to play the same cartoon simultaneously on three devices without any hiccup (with MX Video as a player).
That being said, I wrote to the developer of Archos Video and on the Plex forum to ask if playing video with their app via wifi Direct was actually supported (with a trick) or would be soon or later…
After updating my Synology with the latest version of the DNS Server, this one was not resolving my domain names anymore. I had to reset to “resolution service” to solve that issue.
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To access my blog, hosted on my NAS, from my intranet but using its public domain name, I had to define the same domain name on my DNS Server, with A records pointing to the NAS’ IP… (see details here).
When my DNS Server does not run anymore, trying to access my blog from my intranet, using its domain name, I get the web page of my ADSL Modem. Is IP address is indeed the one obtained when resolving my domain name using a public DNS Server.
To check if my DNS Server runs fine, I simply had to run a dos cmd prompt and type ping www.beatificabytes.be. If I get the local IP of my NAS, it works fine. If I get the public IP of my ADSL modem, there is something wrong…
It’s not the first time that I have this issue after updating my DSM or the DNS Server. But each time, the solution is the same: I have to uncheck and recheck the options “Enable resolution services” in my Synology’s “Control Panel > DNS Server > Resolution” settings.
NB.: I have next to reboot my mobile devices. on PC, possibly execute “ipconfig /release” and then “ipconfig /renew” in a command prompt.
I wanted to play with the Recovery and the Rom of my Nabi 2 and I ended with a bricked tablet. Trying to boot the OS, I was stuck for ever on the screen with a freezed Nabi logo. Trying to boot the Recovery, I was stuck on a screen with a dead android and an exclamation mark. Here is how to solve that situation.
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Prerequisites
First, be sure that the “Universal ADB Drivers” are installed. To be found here or here. the ADB command is available here. ADB documentation exists here. ADB won’t work if “USB debugging” was not enabled on the device. But it was, for sure, if as me your bricked it…
Then, get a TWRP Recovery image from here that can be installed without the need for a previous version. I took the TWRP 2.2.2.1 which is the only one that works fine with my Nabi 2 due to a Calibration issue with the other versions. As not available anymore from the page mentioned above (with all versions for Nabi 2), I had to take it from the Auto-Installer mentioned here (from the subfolder twrp/old).
Restore a Recovery
Now, connect the Nabi 2 on the PC and reboot the Nabi 2 in “Fastboot” mode:
Next, open a command prompt as admin on the PC and type:
fastboot flash recovery.img
Wait for the image to be loaded and reboot the device by pressing Volume + (to Select Bootloader) and next twice Volume – and once Volume + (to Select “Recovery Kernel”). The “Recovery” should now load (not be blocked anymore with a dead android) !
Upgrade to the most recent Recovery
One can now upgrade TWRP to a version which may only be installed on top of an existing one, such as the TWRP 2.8.5.0. I took the TWRP 2.8.5.0 v2 for KitKat here.
I went again into the “FastBoot” mode and uploaded the new Recovery image (TWRP 2.8.5.0) before restarting to enter the new Recovery Kernel.
Flash a stock Rom
And once in TWRP, I did “Backup” it on the SD card!
I moved next the SD card into my PC, I went to the folder \TWRP\BACKUPS\<id of my table>\<current date> and delete all the files in there.
Then, I downloaded the stock Rom 3.0.13 for KitKat (3013stock.zip) here and did unzip it in the backup folder before moving the SD back into the tablet.
I did reboot again the tablet in the Recovery and once there I did a “Restore” (keeping all items selected).
Once flashed, I did reboot the System (without installing SuperSU). After ~1 minute, the Logo started to spin and after ~2 other minutes the system started to initialize. After ~5 minutes, it was asking me to pick a language and configure the Wifi.
Et voilà FIXED !!!
Android is now 4.4.2, Build Bumber KOT49H, Product Version 3.0-release-keys.
The only version of TWRP that was previously compatible with my tablet Fuhu Nabi 2 was TWRP 2.2.2.1 due to a calibration bug (See Here). But I just found that TWRP 2.8.5.0 works fine!
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My tablet was running:
As I still have Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) on my Nabi 2, I did get the Jelly Bean version of TWRP 2.8.5.0 mentioned here as I still have Android 4.1.1 on my Nabi 2.
Next, I took the Auto-Installer to be found here.
Then, I did unzip the “Twrp-recovery-JBNV7AUS-285.zip” into the Auto-Installer’s subfolder “twrp\new” and renamed it from “twrp-recovery.img” into “recovery.img” (replacing the existing img file).
Finally, I run RecoveryUpdater.bat and pick the option 1: “1. Install TWRP 2.3.3.0 for Nabi versions 1.9.37 (recommended)“.
It pushed the image I just copied into the subfolder “twrp/new” on my Nabi 2 and Bingo 😉
“KingoRoot” also worked fine too root my Fuhu Nabi 2!
See here how I previously used it to root my two Lenovo A5500-F.
I tried several tools to root my two tablets Lenovo A5500-F. I only succeeded “easily” with the free “KingoRoot“. Highly recommended 😉
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My tablets are both:
Here is the procedure (described with images and further details everywhere on the web)
First, configure the tablet to be able to connect onto it from the PC:
Now Plug the tablet into the PC and Run “Kingo Root” on the PC:
You are ready to start rooting the tablet!
If you see a prompt from Google on the tablet, to check that the device has no security issue, just refuse it.
After the first reboot, “Kingo Root” saw that my device was not yet rooted and it continued with installing more stuff… Soon later, the tablet rebooted again automatically and “Kingo Root” restarted the same process. Concretely, it did the same routine 5 times (I.e. it rebooted five times) before announcing that the device was successfully rooted.
Something weird however… Although Kingo Root” pretended that the device was rooted, “Root Checker” told me it’s not the case ?!
I did restart “Kingo Root” and pressed “Root Again”. It did some updates but didn’t reboot automatic and Bingo ! “Root Checker” now confirmed that it was rooted.
NB.: you should be prompted to confirm that “Root Checker” may be granted Root Access by KingoUser.
It took me a bit more than 30 minutes.
NB.: Later, I did update the device with Build Number A5500F_A442_000_027_141207_ROW to Build Number A5500F_A442_000_029_150408_ROW and I had to re-root the device! It went fast and without any reboot. (NB.: I had to accept again to grant Root Access to Root Checker for KingoUser).
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