BeatificaBytes

The Joys of Computing

How to connect a bluetooth headset with a samsung tv UE48H6500

19 July 2016

Yes, this is possible. But you have to enable the support for «Bluetooth headphones» via a hidden menu.

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To access the samsung hidden menu:
– Switch off the tv with your remote
– Press the key «Info»
– Press the key «Menu»
– Press the key «Mute»
– Switch on the tv and wait for a few seconds

The hidden menu is now appearing on the screen. With the keys «up» and «down» you navigate between entries (submenus or settings). With the key «ok» (Enter) you enter a selected submenu or edit a setting. With the key «Return» you exit the submenu or the edit mode. With the keys «Left» and «Right» you change the value of a setting in edit mode.

To enable the support for «Bluetooth headphones»:
– select the entry «Option»
– select the entry «MRT option»
– select the setting «BT support»
– change the value of that setting to set: ON
– exit that setting
– exit the submenu
– select now the entry «Engineer Option»
– select the setting «BT_AUDIO_ON_OFF»
– change the value of that setting to set: ON

And now switch off the tv. Voilà. The feature should be enabled. To access it, switch on the tv and press the key Menu. Then go to > Sound > Speaker Settings > Bluetooth headphones. From there you can search for Bluetooth devices and pair them.

Later, to reconnect a Bluetooth which is already paired, use the key «tools» and in «Speaker Select», pick «Bluetooth headset». If it does not connect immediately, switch off and on your headphone and retry changing the “Speaker Select”. Notice that you must do this before starting any application like Plex or Netflix in the SmartHub.

Tips
Boot from USB Key on a Toshiba Satellite to reinstall Windows

9 July 2016
It can be tricky… And here is the trick: disable the Secure Boot and use CSM Boot mode instead of UEFI. Once you don’t need to boot from the key anymore, reset those settings.

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Ccomplete details are available here: https://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/TSB2B03F30002R01.htmNotice also: while the “TOSHIBA” logo appears once the laptop powerd on,

Press [F2] key to enter the BIOS Setup Menu.

Press [F12] key to access the boot menu.

I did need that to reinstall Windows 7 x64 SP1 on a old Toshiba as the CD/DVD reader is broken.

I did create the bootable USB Key using Rufus 2.9: https://rufus.akeo.ie/

Within Rufus, I did use a “MBR Partition Scheme for Bios or UEFI”.

Finally, I had issue to install Windows with the key connected on the USB 3.0 port (the one which is blue) : “A required CD/DVD driver is missing”. I did solve that issue plugging the key on a USB 2.0 port and restarting the PC.
Tips
Upgrade to Windows 10 before 29/07/2016

19 June 2016

Not yet done ? Go to here https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

Tips
Proximus BBOX: Open port 80, 443 and 23

31 May 2016
I recently installed a new BBOX 3 to access Internet via Proximus and wanted to open the port 80. Once configured via “My Proximus” (via your Services), don’t forget to reboot your modem!

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Connect your modem and wait until all the Leds turn blue and stop blinking (see the installation guide)

Open the webpage ww.proximus.be and log in
Proximus Login

Go to the My Products > Internet … > Services >Teclnica Profile

Select Basic (to open the ports 80, 443 and 23), tick the option to agree with the disclaimer and confirm
Proximus Profile

REBOOT next your modem otherwise the changes done via Proximus’ website won’t apply !!!

Et voilà.
Tips
Cannot access port 80 on my NAS from Internet

25 May 2016
From time to time, I can’t access any web page anymore on my NAS’ port 80 from the web. The solution is to reboot the my modem (BBOX2) or reset its internal firewall. It’s never an issue with my NAS (Synology DS1815+)

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When this issue occurs, I can still access web pages on specific port like Plex (e.g.: on port 32000) or my NAS’ admin console on his own port (e.g.: on port 8080). Also the “Cloud Sync” service of my NAS is still able to sync files with Google, DropBox and Hubic. Finally, JDownloader which is installed also installed on my NAS, is still able to download.

To reboot my modem takes time but solve the problem. Another option is to reset the firewall:

open a telnet sessin on the modem,

log as ‘admin’ with your password (I did change mine. The default is possibly BGCVDSL2 or your MAC Address)

execute: fw_restart

fw_restart BBOX2

The problem comes from a NAT table full, most probably due to JDownloader or Cloud Sync. But I don’t know how to check which one is the culprit.

Info about B-BOX-2 of Belgacom/Proximus: http://setuprouter.com/router/belgacom/b-box-2/
Tips
Synolody DSM update: Insufficient free disk space to upgrade

7 May 2016
Since I have migrated from my DS713+ to a DS1815+, I can’t update seamlessly my DSM. Most of the time, my NAS pretends that I have “Not enough storage space”. This problem is due to large log files filling my system partition.

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After the migration top my new NAS, I have reinstalled JDownloader. This one is using a script to run a java application via “nohup”. Nohup’s log is growing fast and takes a lot of storage, preventing my NAS to download the DSM updates.

I found it was the culprit via an ‘iterative’ procedure suggested by maxxfi on the forum of Synology:

Open a SSH console using “Putty” and connect on the NAS as administrator

enter the root mode with command: sudo -i

Use your admin password. Once authenticated as root, type:

cd /

du -ks [a-u]*

That command will give you for each subdirectory whose name begins with a letter from a to u (so to avoid the volumeX) the total amount of disk space in use. Wait that it finishes and search for which directory shows the biggest numbers, and type:

cd <directory>

du -ks *

Repeat the analysis going deeper into the directory tree until you are able to pinpoint the culprit. Finally, use the appropriate “rm <filenames>” command to delete the largest folder/files.

In my case, the largest file was /root/nohup.out

But in the past , I also had to deleted /var/log or /var/log/messages and reboot prior updating the DSM.

In a Putty session, to know the free space in the system partition, type: df -k
Synology
Awful Bluetooth Audio Quality on Galaxy S7

2 May 2016

Since I have my Galaxy S7, I only connected it twice with my Philips Bluetooth headphones CB8100. Once to play with an Oculus Game and once to listen music. Twice, I was surprised how bad was the reception. Sound was crackly and skipping continuously. It was due to the WiFi !!

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When I used my headphones to play an Oculus gamen I thought that the mobile was not powerful enough to stream the sound via Bluetooth while playing the video. Weird, but ok… it was also not powerful enough to mirror the video on my Samsung TV, so….

But when it failed also to stream fluently music, either from YouTube or from by DS Audio Stations (Synology), I thought there should be a reason behind this.

As it’s known that Bluetooth and WiFi are both using the frequency 2.4GHz, I tried to disable the WiFi… and it solved immediately the problem.

I never never had such a problem with my previous mobiles 🙁 Also, I am quite sure I would not have that issue if I could connect on a WiFi 5Ghz.

Support page for GS7 in Belgium is: http://www.samsung.com/be_fr/support/model/SM-G935FZDALUX

Awful support from Samsung!

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I did post a request for support to Samsung on the 2nd May and only got an answer on 20th May. I said that the noise was awful when the Wifi was on and great if it was off. I also said that I had not such issue when streaming from my 300€ OnePlus One mobile (the S7 was 799€) or from my Sony Laptop or from my Lenovo Tablets.

They answered that “Samsung does not guarantee the proper functioning of Samsung products. with other branded”

WTF Samsung! Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are standard wireless protocols. My headset works perfect with 3 other brands.

Numéro de dossier client : 2812699319

Merci pour votre courriel concernant votre Galaxy S7. Vous indiquez que vous avez un fonctionnement anormal avec votre casque Philips tout en ayant le Wifi activé.

Nous vous informons que Samsung n’assure pas le bon fonctionnement des produits de marque différente que Samsung avec des produits Samsung.

Si vous avez des questions vous pouvez toujours contacter notre centre de contact. Cela peut se faire par téléphone, par courriel, Facebook ou Twitter.

Cordialement,

EL HARIM Med

Customer Care Representative

Tips
Expand Galaxy S7’s Internal Storage with a SD card

1 May 2016
Samsung does not support officially the “Adoptable Storage” feature available with Android 6.0. But there are many posts on the web explaining how to do it via “ADB” (Android Debug Bridge).

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Android Marshmallow has the ability to take a SD card and partition it as semi-permanent device storage. But it’s not accessible on the Samsung Galaxy S7.

I applied this recipes with success: http://www.modaco.com/news/android/heres-how-to-configure-adoptable-storage-on-your-s7-s7-edge-r1632/

Download and Install “Samsung Usb Drivers” from http://adbdriver.com/downloads/

Download and copy in a folder the “ADB kits” from http://adbshell.com/downloads

Enable the “Developer Options” menu via Settings > About Device > Software Info > Type 5 times the “Build number”.

Enable “USB debugging” via Settings > Developer Options.

Plug your mobile into your PC via an USB cable.

Open a command prompt as administrator and type adb shell

Type next sm list-disks to see the Disk ID. It looked like this on my phone “disk:179,0”

To use 100% of the SD card as internal storage, type sm partition <Disk ID> private

Ex.: sm partition disk:179,0 private

After formatting the microSD card

Reboot

Go next into Settings > Storage. Select the “SD card” and hit the menu “More” to “Migrate data”. This moves everything to the SD card. Everything in the future should install to the SD card until it is full and then moves to internal.

Before this, due to Oculus VR stuff, my internal storage was full although I already moved manually most Apps to the SD card. Now, after the “Migration of the Data” only 18GB are still used out of the 32GB (~13GB have been moved to the SD Card).

NB.: Since I did this, I notice that moving Apps to the SD often results in an error message : “Not enough storage space”. I usually just retry and then the move succeeds.
Tips
PatchCleaner: a Must Have to remove unused “Windows Installer”

10 April 2016

Patch Cleaner

PatchCleaner identifies redundant/orphaned installer files that can be deleted.

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When applications are installed and updated on the Windows Operating System a hidden directory “c:\Windows\Installer” is used to store the installer (.msi) files and the patch (.msp) files.

Generally these files are important as during updating, patching or uninstalling software it will use the .msi/.msp files. If you blanketly delete all the files in this folder, you will find yourself needing to rebuild windows.

Over time as your computer is patched and patched again, these installer files become outdated and orphaned. They are no longer required, but they can take up many gigabytes of data.

On my Windows 8, it reduced the content of C:\Windows\Installer from 24Gb to 8.2Gb !

It’s IMO enough to illustrate its interest 😉

NB.: DO NOT USE Windows UnUsed Files Cleanup Tool… It does not detect correctly unused installer as illustrated on the screenshot here bellow

False Unused

Download: http://www.homedev.com.au/free/patchcleaner

PS.: to clean WinSxS, also look at http://www.thewindowsclub.com/winsxs-folder-cleanup-windows-8-1

Freewares
Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder

10 April 2016
Duplicate Photos Finder

This is a free simple but very efficient tool to find similar images or exact duplicates.

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My favorite paid tool to do this is “Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder”. But although “Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder”‘s interface is less complete, it’s really excellent too.

Pro’s:

It has an extremely simple user interface,clean and nice, as I like them.

It finds similar images or only exact duplicate photos if you tick the option “Search Only 100% Identical Pictures” in the menu Settings.

It searches through the various image types: JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF

It is able to compare pictures that was resized or with corrected colours (black and white photos for example).

You can search inside multiple folders or drives.

Better than “Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder”, you can simply drag and drop the folders into the interface.

It works with network drives and removable devices (USB etc.).

I prefer the folder browser of this tool as it’s faster than “Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder”, especially for network folders. Anyway, the easiest way to add network folders is also by drag and dropping them into the interface.

You can move or delete duplicate photos (or the originals) as well as open a File Explorer to browse the location of those duplicate photos (or the originals).

Deleted photos can b e moved into the recycle bin (this is an option).

Another option is to not be prompted to confirm the deletion.

You can sort the duplicate photos based on their location or on the location of the originals as well as on the rate of Similarity.

There is a standalone version.

Con’s:

One cannot specify the minimal rate of Silimarity as one can do with “Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder”.

It’s not slow, but not IMO pushing the limits of the machine. On a Quad Core i7-3820 HyperThread 3.6GHz scanning 37.500 photos on a local drive, it took 85 minutes using less than 15% CPU and not saturating at all the IO (NB.: more pictures there are, slower it is!).

The setup version is reported by Avast as being infected by OpenCandy-D. This is just an adware but still, who wants that :/

Download: http://www.duplicate-finder.com/photo.html
Freewares

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