Translate

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Intro

Hi! Welcome to the first post of my new blog "Technical Support".

Like everybody, I come across my share of technical problems. Similarly, the instant at which you resolve the problem is truly a GOLDEN moment which is why I like to troubleshoot. Plus, it helps build and/or refreshes your problem solving and troubleshooting skills. 
Though for many of you, you may be too busy working,  have little interest in computer and computer software troubleshooting, or else simply STUMPED!!; We've all been there....which is why I want to add in my own technical support blog covering technical computing issues that I have resolved and to help others out looking for help on something. 

I would say the primary factor into my decision for creating this technical support blog was (and still is) to provide help and guidance on certain issues where there is little help available elsewhere on the web and also to provide crystal clear help on any such issue. Oftentimes, you will find that though the "help" section is relevant to your needs, the support team or author does a poor job in disseminating and articulating the information to the general public by vague details in how to go about resolving the problem as well as lacking a clear, step-by-step guide that is easy to follow. I don't skimp out on the details because I want to help you just like if I was right there next to you showing you how to do resolve the issue. In fact, I have experience in this role through tutoring for a number of years on the middle school, high school and even college-level. Thus, I know the importance of providing clear, detailed, and easy-to-follow information; My professors often preached of the importance of good technical writing and communication so it is truly something that I take to heart and take pride in.

Alright, so I hope you find what you came to find and that it honestly resolves the issue you have been having!! If it is close or simply want help on something....anything....let me know and I may be able to help. 

Additionally, feel free to make a donation below if this really, really helped you out and saved the day.

Repairing / Refilling Nearly Filled to Full Ink Cartridge Not Printing

How to fix an ink cartridge with ink still in it that won't print with printer:

1) Obviously, you should first check to determine if the printer settings and/or computer configuration is correct. You obviously don't want to go through with cleaning the print heads and nozzle if it is simply a software or printer setting issue. You may also need to determine whether the cartridge still has ink in it. If it is one given to you or found and is not working, you should proceed to step 2. However, if you started to notice that the ink has been getting lower and lower and eventually started to all but completely fade out, chances are that the ink is gone. For the fun of it, you may wish to test to see if more ink will come out using the following measures, but you should, at this point, proceed with buying a new cartridge or refill.


2) Try to running hot water over the cartridge printing head and nozzle, with the flow parallel to the printing head so as to avoid excessive water intake into the case.

3) If after several failed attempts at manually and electronically (via printer self-cleaning functions) cleaning the print heads and nozzle, your best bet is to try this little something that worked for me: Use clear hockey tape to reseal the cartridge like when you first bought it and let it sit for a few weeks. Additionally, add back the plastic cap that fits around the side of the cartridge. It should lock onto the side, putting pressure and seal on the print head. This pressure along with the plastic tape I believe eventually lead to the ink flowing again.

As such, going about this procedure got the ink to start flowing again from an ink cartridge I thought was empty and is now printing nicely again. Considering the price for a good/official ink cartridge such as the one I had (an official HP one), I'd say this is quite the dollar saving tip of the day. I've now applied the piece of hockey tape to the another black ink cartridge and hopefully that one will start running too. 




Best of luck everybody!!

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to comment!!!!

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Running the Add New Hardware Wizard feature in Windows 7

If you're like me, you have once plugged in an old electronics device via USB cable to your Windows 7 PC only to find that the hardware was not detected, unidentified/unknown, or simply not fully functioning as intended. You then try to run the CD that came with the product, but Windows indicates that software and drivers are not able to be installed by this method.
Simply put: you just cannot get the darn thing to work and you need to install the software and drivers that came with the CD.

Here's how you get to doing that (in Windows 7):

  1. Click on the Start icon at the bottom left of your screen (it is the Microsoft logo with a blue background circle). 
  2.  In the Search box at the very bottom of the menu, type in 'run' and hit 'Enter' on your keyboard.
  3. Next to where it says 'Open', type in 'hdwwiz' and select 'OK'
That is it! From there, you should know what to do. If this step does not resolve the issue, you may want to change the 'Hardware IDs' on the .inf file of the software that you may have already installed for the product. For more information on what 'Hardware IDs' are and what I'm talking about, please see my other blogpost entitled: "Quick Hit - Audio issue problem with HP Pavilion zd8000 laptop fix". That post explains the process I used to edit software for the audio drivers on my laptop. 

Thanks for looking!

Friday, January 4, 2013

Grammer help!

So it's not my usual software and computer-related technical support, but I recently found a piece online that was very informative and concise. I wanted to share it with some colleagues/friends but it contained explicits that some may find unfavorable/distasteful.
If you are not sensitive to explicit wording, you will, in fact, find it quite amusing. 
Check this out here:
http://cheezburger.com/6888272640

However, as I pointed out, one downside to the piece are the explicits. Another is that they missed out on a few other words which are often misused. 
I want to expand upon their such list with a very similar list but one for use of all-purposes.

  1. THEY'RE = THEY FRIGGIN' ARE!
  2. THEIR = SHOWS FRIGGIN' POSSESSION
  3. THERE = SPECIFIES A FRIGGIN' LOCATION
  4. YOU'RE = YOU FRIGGIN' ARE
  5. YOUR = SHOWS FRIGGIN' POSSESSION
  6. WHO'S = WHO FRIGGIN' IS
  7. WHOSE = SHOWS FRIGGIN' POSSESSION
  8. IT'S = IT FRIGGIN' IS
  9. ITS = SHOWS FRIGGIN' POSSESSION
  10. WE'RE = WE FRIGGIN' ARE
  11. WERE = PAST FRIGGIN' TENSE OF 'ARE'
  12. WHERE = SPECIFIES A FRIGGIN' LOCATION
  13. LOOSE = NOT FRIGGIN' FIXED IN PLACE
  14. LOSE = CEASE TO FRIGGIN' KEEP
  15. AFFECT = A FRIGGIN' ACTION
  16. EFFECT = A FRIGGIN' RESULT
  17. GOOD = FRIGGIN' GOOD (NOUN)
  18. WELL = FRIGGIN' (VERB) WELL
  19. THAN = A FRIGGIN' COMPARISION
  20. THEN = NOT FOR FRIGGIN' COMPARISIONS
  21. TOO = MEANS FRIGGIN'  ALSO OR FRIGGIN' EXCESSIVE
  22. TWO = A FRIGGIN' NUMBER
  23. TO = FRIGGIN' TO (NOUN OR VERB)
  24. LAY = FRIGGIN' LAY SOMETHING
  25. LIE = FRIGGIN' LIE DOWN/ON/IN

I hope you found this to be very informative and entertaining! 
Please comment if you have any suggestions to word better/add something.
Let me know! 

Thanks for looking!