Tech Tip: How to fix Windows Updates for Windows 8

Description: This guide will walk you through the steps necessary to troubleshoot and resolve errors when Windows 8 is failing on installing an update from Windows Update.

First try this Microsoft Fix-It:

http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9830262
 

 If that doesn't solve the issue try the following:

1. Right click on the task bar and go to Task Manager. (Alternatively press Ctrl+Alt+Del and select Task Manager.)
   
   
   
   
2. Click on More Details at the bottom left and then click on the Services tab on the right.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Scroll down to wuauserv or Windows Update.
   
   
   
   
4. Right-click and go to Stop.
   
   
   
   
5. Now open up Computer by clicking Start and Computer.
   
   
   
   
6. Navigate to C:\Windows by double clicking on Local Disc C:\ and then Windows.
   
7. Scroll down until you see the folder SoftwareDistribution.
   
   
   
   
8. Rename the folder to something else: IE: SoftwareDistribution-OLD.
   
9. Now restart your computer and try Windows Update again.

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: How to emulate a different version of Internet Explorer in Internet Explorer 11

Description: If you head to a website that requires a lower version of Internet Explorer you can emulate that version so the website works correctly.

1. When in Internet Explorer, press the F12 key on your keyboard. This will bring up the developer screen.
   
   
   
2. Click the Maximize button in the upper right hand corner of the window, this will put the developer screen into a window.
   
   
   
   
3. Once in windowed mode, click on the icon with the Computer and Phone.
   
   
   
   
4. Now you click the arrow on the User Agent String to change the Internet Explorer version.
   
   
   
   
5. Now select the Internet Explorer version that you want and then refresh the webpage.
   
   

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: How to connect a smartphone to an HDTV

Description: Most smartphones made within the past few years have the capability to connect to external monitors and/or HDTVs. This is extremely useful if you travel a lot and want to watch movies on something bigger than your smartphone's screen. So how do you know if this feature applies to you?

Some smartphones have the HDMI port on the device itself.

The example below is from a Droid RAZR. It includes your typical microUSB port (left), in addition to a dedicated HDMI port (right). In this case, the HDMI port is a special type known as microHDMI, which needs an adapter to bring it to a full-size HDMI. In general, if a smartphone has a HDMI port built on, it will be in the form of microHDMI.


Droid RAZR has micro USB and HDMI ports



The iPhone needs a proprietary adapter to get to HDMI. For the iPhone 4/4s, you need an adapter to take the 30pin connector out to HDMI (left). The iPhone 5 introduced the lightning connector and also needs a similar adapter (right) to get to HDMI. For video output on the 3G/3Gs, you only have the option of using an analog video output (yellow RCA or red/green/blue RCA connections).

So what if your phone looks like this?

 
A Samsung Galaxy S2

The Galaxy S2 only has a microUSB port and nothing else. So how does this connect to a HDTV? Many new smartphones use a technology referred to as MHL (Mobile High-Definition Link).
 
A Mobile High-Definition Link adapter

In a nutshell, this means you can repurpose the microUSB port to send video to a TV with a compatible MHL adapter. It's as easy as plugging in the adapter to your phone and plugging in a HDMI cable to the other side. These adapters also offer a charging port on the side so you can watch video continuously without the need to recharge. Please note that some of these adapters require your phone charger to operate properly.

I bought a MHL adapter and it didn't work!

If the standard MHL adapter doesn't work for you, then you fall into one of three categories:

1. Your phone is too old and doesn't support MHL.
2. You are the proud owner of a Samsung Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2.
3. You are the proud owner of Google's Nexus 4.

If number 1 refers to you, you can double check your phone's specifications on a website like http://www.phonearena.com to see if your phone truly supports MHL.

If you fall under point number 2, fear not! The standard MHL adapter doesn't work for you, because Samsung customized these phones. Standard MHL uses a 5 pin adapter, whereas Samsung's version is 11 pins. The simple solution is that you need a MHL adapter supplied by Samsung.

If point number 3 applies to you, then your phone doesn't use MHL at all. Google has opted to use a technology called Slimport. The Nexus 4 is the very first smartphone to use Slimport, so the adapters are not too common yet. The adapter looks identical to a MHL adapter, but the difference lies in the technology used to drive the signal. As of this writing (05/2013), the only place to find this adapter for purchase is online.


Once you have the correct adapter, you can use your phone as a powerful media center. Whether it is to play games, watch Netflix, or to write emails on a bigger screen, the possibilities are endless!

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: How to fix a Monitor with a Yellow tint

Description: This article will show you how to remove a yellow tint from a monitor.

1. Open the Control Panel.
   
   
   
   
2. In the top left corner of Control Panel, type Color Management. In the list of results click
   Color Management.
   
   
   
   
3. In the device drop down menu, choose the monitor that has the yellow tint.
   
   
   
   
4. Check Use my settings for this device box. Click Add.
   
5. Choose sRGB Virtual Device Model Profile, then click OK.
   
   
   
   
6. Left click on the new profile you just added then click Set as Default Profile.
   
   

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: Benefits of Using Static IP Addresses

Description: Normally, when you hook up devices to your home router (wireless or wired), the router will automatically assign IP addresses to those devices by default (using a DHCP server) using a range that you specify. If you don't specify a range of numbers, the router will have a default range from which it will assign.

A few examples of IP addresses:


• Your Router - 192.168.1.1
  
• John's Computer - 192.168.1.2
  
• Jane's Computer - 192.168.1.3
  
• Susie's iPad - 192.168.1.10
  
  

One thing to remember is that your network may have a slight variation on these addresses. In general, the first two numbers, 192 & 168, will be the same as you see here. Your third and fourth numbers may be different. Don't panic! This is just the way the manufacturer of your router decided to set it up.


Take a look above at the highlighted portion of the IP addresses. On your home network, the first three numbers will always be the same for every device, just as they are in the list of examples above. If you were to decide to change your network to 192.168.2, then all devices on the network must be changed to that format in order for the network to be able to communicate. This is an important point to remember whenever you decide to use static IP addresses.


So what is a static IP address? Simply put, it is a network address that you assign to the device - an address that never changes. When addresses are automatically assigned, they are put on a lease which usually lasts a few weeks. Every time your device connects, it is given the same IP address in that time period, but, after the lease is up, the address can change. A power Loss may also cause the router to assign new addresses to devices on the network.

 Why does it matter if the address changes? In most cases, it actually doesn't matter. You never notice the change. However, there are a few situations where it does matter.

• Security Systems - You won't be able to monitor from a remote location if your DVR suddenly has a different address. IP Cameras may not be found by the software, or be available for remote browsing.
  
• Media Server - Depending on the software, you may not be able to access the server until you update the address.
  
• Network Attached Storage - There's a possibility you won't see the drive anymore until you update the address.
  
• Print Server - You won't be able to print until the address has been updated on any PC or device trying to print to it.

It is important to note that the last three situations may have extra software running to compensate for the address change. For example, some Security Camera software may use the camera network name or MAC assignment to detect and identify compatible hardware on a network.
 

If you are convinced that a static IP address is right for your situation, your choices need to be configured in two places - the router and the device.

1. Open up your router's configuration page and look for your LAN settings. Within these settings, you should see an IP address range for the DHCP server. The address range will look something like this:
   
   • 192.168.x.___ to 192.168.x.___
     Take note of these ranges. Remember, the only number we're concerned about is the last number. Don't panic if your third number is different from the example shown here.
     If we assign an address that is within the range you see on the router, there may be a conflict down the road. For example, if your range is 192.168.1.2 - 192.168.1.10, we cannot assign any IPs that have the same last number in this range, 2-10.
     *Our postal service is set up the same way... Every house is automatically given an address. If we decide to build a house and give it a random street address, it may conflict with an existing house somewhere nearby, and the mail would be a mess.*
     
     
2. Open up your device's network settings (i.e. security DVR or IP Camera). Look for a network setting that mentions the IP address. By default, it is probably set for automatically receive IP or DHCP assigned.Look for the option that lets you use a static IP. Enter an address that is not in the range we saw on the router and apply the new settings. It is sometimes helpful to write this address on a sticky note and attach it to the device so we can easily remember it later.
   
3. If you were accessing this device from outside the house, you will also need to update the port forwarding address in the router settings. Find your port forwarding settings and update the address to the one we just made. If you haven't set up the port forwarding at all, please refer to your device's instruction manual as to which port(s) it needs.
   

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: What to do if you get a Blue Screen error in Windows

Description: Here is a how to guide on what to do with a blue screen error on a Windows computer.

A blue screen error is a critical failure on a Windows computer. They will appear suddenly, provide a little information, and restart the computer. And they can be quite scary for people.

Here's some brief tips for what to do when a blue screen shows up:

1. Write down any Stop error codes that it shows. There are only a few seconds for this before the computer restarts.
   
   • These will typically come in the format 0x… (e.g. 0x00000050)
     
     
     
     
2. On a computer (likely another) do a search for that error code.
   
   
   
   
3. Follow any instructions found in the search. Typically these fall into a few categories:
   
   • Reinstall Device Drivers - For how to do this, click here.
   • There is a virus - For how to start a virus removal, click here.
   • There is a hardware problem - If the malfunctioning hardware is known, replace it or please take it into your nearest Micro Center for service.
     
   • There is a corruption in the Operating System - This requires either running a repair on the operating system or reinstalling it completely.
     
     • To run a System File Check please follow this guide: How to Run System File Checker in Windows 7.
       
     • To reinstall the Operating System follow this guide: How to install Windows 7.
   • The Micro Center Tech Support Chat line is an excellent resource: chat.microcentertech.com.
     

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

What's in a name?

Description: Before you have that recurring nightmare about sophomore English class, let's clarify which "name" we're talking about and how you can create a problem for yourself that almost defies troubleshooting.

One of our customers had a network in their business. The main PC needed to be brought into the shop and, long story short, reloaded with Windows. When the customer took the main PC back to his place of business, it could see all of the shared files on the other PCs but the other PCs could not connect to the main PC.

Check the settings, check the firewall, confirm the password, etc., etc., etc. Everything looked perfect.

On our in-store test network, our PC could not connect and our iMac "shook" its login screen as if the credentials were wrong.





As it turns out, they were both correct and wrong at the same time.

When the system was reloaded, we created the default user of Owner. The customer loaded his files into the Owner account and then renamed the account to match what it had been before the PC was serviced.

So while we could log in locally, we were unable to log in across the network UNLESS we used "Owner" as the username.

The iMac provided the best hint that led to this discovery as it was "shaking" to indicate incorrect username/password - and yes, our PC said the same, but for two different operating systems to "fail" in the same way was a substantial clue.

So what's in a name? File access permissions.

Easy problem that took 2 hours to solve, but without a solution would have shut the customer's business down for the next week (his words, not mine).

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: Troubleshooting Audio

Description: Troubleshooting Your Audio.



Ever since Diamond Multimedia introduced the consumer to one of the first MP3 players about 15 years ago, the digital music scene has become a necessity to the common consumer. Starting at that point, you could take tracks from your favorite CDs and transfer them to a portable media player to enjoy the music on the go. Granted, you could only fit about 8-10 songs on the first mp3 players, but the concept was amazing! So what can you do to get the most out of your digital music - whether it be coming from your smartphone, Mac, PC, or digital audio player? What other formats are out there? How do you make sure the quality is as good as it can get?

A Few Things You Should Know
When we say that a format is lossy, it tells us that it will destroy information to achieve a small file size. When we say lossless, a smaller file size is achieved WITHOUT destroying any information from the original file (similar to how a zip file operates). 

Example: A three minute song takes roughly 30MB on your hard drive when it is ripped from the CD. When your conversion software (i.e. iTunes) makes a MP3, the file size goes down to around 5MB. Considering that the new file is about 1/6^th the size of the original, this is amazing!

Chart of Common Audio Formats

Audio Format	Lossy or Lossless?	Where Have I Seen This?
MP3 (MPEG 1/2 , Layer 3)	Lossy	DRM-Free Music Stores, Internet Radio, Converted CD’s from iTunes/Windows Media Player
AAC (Advanced Audio Coding)	Lossy	Pandora, iTunes
WMA (Windows Media Audio)	Lossy	Xbox Music, Rhapsody
Vorbis	Lossy	Spotify, Many PC and Console Games
FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec)	Lossless	(archival purposes)
APE (Monkey's Audio)	Lossless	(archival purposes)
SHN (Shorten)	Lossless	(archival purposes)
WAV/AIFF	No Compression	Retail Audio CDs

Put On Your Thinking Ears

So you've hooked up your Smartphone/Tablet/Portable Device/Computer to some speakers, and the sound that is coming out is awful. What do you do? First off, let's analyze the sound and make some mental notes to help you out later.

1. Is it too soft?
2. Does the sound come in and out at random points?
3. Does the audio sound scratchy during louder sections?
4. Does the band sound like they're playing underwater?
5. Is there any aspect of the music or characteristic that is missing? (assuming you are familiar with the music already)
6. Do cymbal crashes (or other high frequencies) sound artificial, muddy, or loose?

Did your observations match up with points 1, 2, or 3? If they did, then you should start troubleshooting the speakers themselves. If it's too soft (or not heard at all), your volume is probably set too low. Make sure the volume is set to a reasonable level in Windows. To avoid this issue, always keep your computer at maximum volume and only use your speakers to adjust the volume to your liking. This also avoids hiss in the speakers, because they're not trying to amplify a weak signal. If you experience sound fading in and out or you still do not hear anything, double check your speaker connections to make sure there's nothing loose. The connections are usually color-coded (see right). For a set of stereo speakers, you would use the green connection only. If you have surround sound, you would be using the black and orange connections as well. If the connections are good, then you may have a problem with the amplifier in the speakers. If the audio sounds scratchy during loud sections, you probably have the volume set too high on your speakers. This is called distortion. One thing to watch out for is sometimes individual applications may have a separate volume control that is independent of the system (i.e. VLC). This can get complicated, because now you have three separate volumes to keep track of, and three possible chances for distortion. If turning the volume down all around doesn't fix it, then the original recording may be distorted, and there's nothing that can be done to help that.

Did your observations match up with points 4, 5, or 6? If they did, then your troubleshooting should start with the source and not the speakers.

4. Where did your music come from? Was it downloaded from the internet? Did you make the file yourself from a CD? Did it come from an online music store? Not all music is of the same quality that comes from the Internet. The real question is what is the quality of the file you are listening to? Sometimes, the media player will report the quality of the file (in kbps) as shown below.
   
   
   (Windows Media Player example)

If you don't have this feature, an easy way to guess the quality is to find the length of the song (in minutes). Now find the actual file (on the hard drive) and determine how big the file is. In windows, you can right-click the file and click properties to see the file size. On a Mac, you would right-click the file and click Get Info.



In this example, the song, Kalimba, has a length of 5:48, and its file size is 8.02MB. In this case, size (8) is greater than length (5). You can assume that the quality of the audio is good or excellent if the file size is larger than the length. If you find that your file is about 5 minutes long but is only 4-5MB, you can conclude that the quality of the file is probably not very good, which is why you might think it sounds bad.

Why Does Bitrate Matter So Much?

Bitrate is extremely important. The higher the bitrate is the more information can be retained from the original file. Since seeing is believing, what follows on the next page are a few spectrograms. Don't be afraid! These psychedelic pictures represent all of the sound frequencies used in a particular audio file over a specified amount of time. Each graph has two separate pictures to show you the left and right channels (since it is a stereo audio file).


Left: Original CD and Right: Compressed MP3 (128kbps)

The biggest difference between the original and compressed files is the rather abrupt cut-off of frequencies we see in the MP3 version. Everything past 16,000 Hz is gone. The simple logic behind this is that the encoder needs to get rid of things in order to reduce file size. Another way that the encoder can reduce file size is by eliminating sounds that we may not have noticed in the first place. A classic example is when a loud and soft sound are heard at the same time, the encoder will eliminate the softer sound (if possible). Sometimes the encoder may choose to eliminate certain frequencies that we may not be able to hear that well. These decisions are modeled around human hearing and the encoder is aware of what most people can and cannot detect. The lower the bitrate, the sloppier these decisions are, which is why we think it sounds bad. The higher the bitrate, the more sophisticated these decisions are, making them harder to detect, which is why we may think it sounds good. Some of these decisions are hard to see on the graph and are better left for the ear to decide.

As a closing thought, please remember that your speakers are there to play back what you give them. If you feed them a bad source, they'll play the bad source-simple as that. Also please remember that a truly decent set of speakers will cost you some money. You can't expect a $20 pair of speakers to knock your socks off. The speakers are not always at fault! Please consider the source!

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

New features in the Windows 8.1 Start button

Description: This blog post gives a description of new functions in the Windows 8 start button.

Microsoft has an update of Windows 8 called 8.1. One of the most popular features on it is the re-addition of a Start button.
 
Some of the new features it comes with are:

1. It's a visible button that takes the user to the Start Screen with a left click.
   
   
   
   
2. Right clicking on it will provide a number of features such as:
   
   
   • Shut down options.
     
     
     
     
   • Quick and easy access to various Management features (e.g. Control Panel, Run window, etc.)
     
     

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: How to back up your Outlook local content and archives (.pst)

This article shows how to locate your Outlook.PST* file so that you can backup or transfer your outlook content to removable media, a network location or to another location. Illustrated below is the process for Outlook 2010 with Windows 7 as operating system. There are many ways to locate and backup your outlook.pst archive, but this procedure should be similar for most versions of Outlook or Windows you are using.

Note: you may need to change folder settings to view hidden and system folders.

1. Left click on Start.
   
   

2. Left click on Control Panel.
   
   

3. Make sure your Control Panel View by is set to Large or Small Icons.
   
   

4. Click on Mail (32-bit).
   
   

5. Click on Data Files.
   
   

6. Click on Open Folder to locate the directory containing your Outlook.pst and any other Outlook archive files.
   
   

7. If outlook is running, and you have messages, tasks, or other Outlook content open, you must close all open dialog or editing windows belonging to outlook, and then exit from outlook to ensure a clean copy of the files.
8. Copy your outlook pst files to a USB flash Drive or any other media.
   
   *An Outlook Personal Storage Table (PST) file contains your local copies of email messages, calendar events, contacts, and other user created folders.
   

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

Tech Tip: How to fix DNS errors

Description: Sometimes a computer will inform the user that it is having a DNS error and can't connect to the internet. Flushing the DNS can often fix this:

1. Hold down the Windows key and select the R key once to open the Run window.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Type cmd into the space there and select OK. This will open the Command Prompt window.
   
   
   
   
3. In that window, type ipconfig /flushdns and select the Enter key.
   
   
   
   
4. Once that's done, type ipconfig /release and select the Enter key.
   
   
   
   
5. Then type ipconfig /renew and select the Enter key.
   
   
   
   
6. Then type exit and tap Enter. You have now reset the DNS.
   

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.

When 2 Terabytes just isn't enough...

Sooner or later, you'll find yourself saying "Ya' know, 2,199,023,255,552 bytes (also known as 2TB) of data on one hard drive is just not enough for me - I need more, lots more." Well, first the good news --- hard disk drive prices are running below $100 per Terabyte, and if you REALLY have a lot of data even the 16TB network attached storage (NAS) drives with "data center class" drives are coming in about that price per Terabyte. Network Attached Storage (NAS) drives and enclosures use RAID to provide data redundancy and error checking, and to provide a very large storage capacity. Now the not so good news --- you need to move on from Windows XP (Microsoft will be dropping support for Windows XP SP3 and Office 2003 in April, 2014 so you have a year to prepare). Windows XP didn't expect to "last" as long as it did, and expected to be replaced before the time that hardware manufactures hit the 2TB limit of the MBR (Master Boot Record) format drives. Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, and OS X are all capable of using the "Advanced Format" disks that trade in the 512 byte blocks for 4,096 byte (4KB) blocks as well as the GPT (GUID Partition Table) format that breaks through the 2.1TB limit. This change allows for much greater storage on a single hard drive.

One other gotcha that you may not be aware of, and which we found out the hard way - some of the external adapters for hard disk drives ALSO have a limit. So here at the store we wasted several hours troubleshooting a 3TB drive when it was really the SATA/USB adapter that was the issue. "Never assume." USB drive adapters (or their drivers) could have drive size limitations. If you are having problems detecting a large capacity drive attached to an adapter or drive enclosure, don't assume it's defective hardware. Double check supported hardware on the manufacturer's site or look to see if a new device driver is available. Don't forget, your operating system must be able to support the drive capacity as well! Can't part with XP until next year? Most of the disk manufactures supply software that help XP over the 2.1TB limit but if you're putting all of those "eggs" into one large hard disk drive "basket" you'd be wise to look at newer operating systems that come on newer, faster hardware, running in 64-bit more which allows you to also break past the 3GB of main memory (RAM) for increased speed. In summary, the hardware and software have to be in synch with each other to support the larger capacity drives. Most recently we saw with the 137GB limit, before that it was the 32GB limit, and if you go further back there was not only a 2GB limit but --- brace yourself --- a 32KB limit to what a hard disk drive could hold. Got questions? Our Sales Associates in the Build Your Own PC in each Micro Center can make sure you get the hardware, software, and information you need to do the things you want to do.

For more assistance contact Technical Support here.