enrii.blog

A passionate programmer’s findings in the world of internet.

Archive for the 'Troubleshooting' Category

My Gmail Inbox is Full

Saturday, April 28th, 2007

You are currently using 2814 MB (98%) of your 2845 MB.

Will Google give me an exception? I really need more space. If you are not aware, Google disallows you to send emails when your Gmail space is almost full. I always need to delete messages before sending messages.

I hate it when I have finished a long urgent message and Google is giving me a "Your message could not be sent because you have exceeded your mail quota" message.

If Google really can't provide extra space, I really think they should provide the functionality for us to sort our message by attachment size. That's what I do when my Microsoft Outlook inbox is getting full.

Anyhow, Digital Inspiration has put up a very good article on this issue. These few tips had helped me a lot:

  • Search "has:attachment from:me" - With this, I can easily identify messages with attachments that I have forwarded to my friends. These messages are certainly duplicate information that shouldn't be kept.
  • Search "filename:jpg" - This returns a list of all emails with JPG attachments. You can use it for other file types.
  • Search "before:2006/01/01" - Combine this search with the previous 2 will help to identify older messages.

It takes slightly longer to fill up my Gmail now.

Skype Video (Webcam) Not Working

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007

Not long ago, a friend asked me to assist on installing webcam on his new laptop and make it work with Skype.

In a few minutes, I had the hardware and driver installed properly, made the webcam working in software that came with the webcam, but failed to see the webcam listed in Skype options > Video > Select webcam. I thought getting the latest version would help. It didn't.

Finally, the solution was to install DirectX. Get DirectX from Microsoft DirectX website (or alternative DirectX download site). Install it and you will see the webcam listed in Skype.

I found quite a number of people having the same problem when I was searching for solution. Hope this post would work for the people out there.

MSI BToes Bluetooth Dongle Problems

Thursday, November 2nd, 2006

Few months ago, I bought my Sony Ericsson z520i. Since it's not too expensive to get a bluetooth dongle, I bought myself a MSI Btoes bluetooth dongle, to try on some synchronizing from my phone to my PC.

Everything was OK until one day, the few-month-old dongle stopped working and I sent it to MSI for warranty. After a few weeks, when I got it back, I notice that the dongle is not the same one I sent to them. They said it is normal for them to replace with a different one. I accept it although the replacement unit looks dirty and fully scratched.

I believe the new one should be working and it stayed at my desk for weeks until few days ago, I formatted my PC and I plan to reinstall the bluetooth software.

I tried to install from CD and download the latest drivers from MSI website but with no sucess. I keep getting responses such as "Bluetooth devices not found" or probably "Bluetooth license check fail".

After spending a lot of time looking at this, I found that this is an issue with WIDCOMM drivers (MSI is using WIDCOMM's driver) that lots of people are facing. I think I don't have the correct license file for the replacement unit I've gotten. And, the link that MSI gave me to obtain license file is not working anymore!

I thought I'll have to throw the stupid dongle away until I found a forum thread that solves the problem. Here's how I solve it:

  1. Download WIDCOMM driver with license patcher. (Hopefully this link lasts)
  2. Run the license patcher and save the license file to replace the license.dat in the installation folder.
  3. Install the driver like how you would normally install a driver.
  4. Press 'Cancel' the skip device detection during the installation process, if the installer failed to detect it.

My bluetooth is working after that. For details, please refer to GSM-FORUM. Some of the users had other problems such as windows driver issues. I'm sure you can solve your problem if you read the whole thread.

Although it might illegal to use license patcher, but I guess that's the only option that I have. Hope it works for you too.

Slow Windows XP Shutdown

Thursday, July 20th, 2006

Windows If your Windows XP takes a very long time to shut down, you can try User Profile Hive Cleanup Service provided by Microsoft (yes, Microsoft). The users at digg claimed that it really helps to shorten shut down time. I remember it took a very long time to shut down before I formatted and reinstall my PC not too long ago.

What will it do to your windows?

The User Profile Hive Cleanup service helps to ensure user sessions are completely terminated when a user logs off. System processes and applications occasionally maintain connections to registry keys in the user profile after a user logs off. In those cases the user session is prevented from completely ending. This can result in problems when using Roaming User Profiles in a server environment or when using locked profiles as implemented through the Shared Computer Toolkit for Windows XP.

On Windows 2000 you can benefit from this service if the application event log shows event id 1000 where the message text indicates that the profile is not unloading and that the error is "Access is denied". On Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 either event ids 1517 and 1524 indicate the same profile unload problem.

To accomplish this the service monitors for logged off users that still have registry hives loaded. When that happens the service determines which application have handles opened to the hives and releases them. It logs the application name and what registry keys were left open. After this the system finishes unloading the profile.

Note that you are required to have a genuine windows to download it. Besides Windows XP, you can use it on Windows 2000, Windows NT and Windows Server 2003 as well.

Accessing Gmail When Your Internet Connection Is Slow

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

.. is really frustrating. I keep getting this message while loading and my gmail still don't load up after hours. The help provided is practically useless!

Loading...

This seems to be taking longer than usual. Your session may have been interrupted. If your account doesn't appear in the next few seconds, please refresh this page in your browser.

If you continue to have trouble loading your account, please visit the help center for troubleshooting information.

After spending hours looking waiting and refreshing it, I still can't access it. Along the way, I also learned that it is not possible to load HTML version directly. You will be redirected automatically if they think you need it.

So, how am I suppose to check my gmail now?!

I go for Gmail Mobile. Though it's working, it's not nice to see all the unformatted text in browser. And, I found the HTML version link at the bottom!

Looking at the link, it's just as easy as adding a 'h' at the back of the typical gmail link.

Go here: HTML version of Gmail

Finally, I can check my gmail. Hope that helps if you had the problem like mine. By the way, if you have alternative ways (besides setting up Outlook), do suggest.