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Author: Jackie & Andy

Jackie Thomas is a Microsoft Certified Trainer and has been in the computer industry since 2003.
Change Google Home Wi-Fi network

Change Google Home Wi-Fi network

We recently attended a customer that had changed their Internet Service Provider. They received a new Wi-Fi router and after setting it up, they found out that their Google Home speakers could not connect to the Internet.This was because the new router had a new name and the Google Home devices listed on her cell/mobile phone were still connected to her old Wi-Fi network which didn’t exist anymore.Unfortunately, there isn’t an easy way to change the Wi-Fi network that the…

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FNB phishing SMS

FNB phishing SMS

Yesterday, my wife received a SMS on her cell phone from our bank. The SMS is designed to alarm the reader into taking immediate action and you can see how it looks legitimate. When I clicked the link, you can see that the next page which shows where to enter your private credentials (username and password). This page also looks authentic.Please understand that your bank or Microsoft or other service provider, will NEVER contact you either telephonically or via SMS…

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Google App password option not showing in “sign in” list

Google App password option not showing in “sign in” list

We have had a few customers that needed a new Google app password created for their Microsoft Outlook programme, because they had changed their Google account password.I have found the option to create a new app password, is not visible in the list of sign in options. However, if you search for “app passwords” in the search bar at the top of the Google account, you will see the option for “App passwords” showing in the results. You can therefore…

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“Outlook .PST cannot be Opened”

“Outlook .PST cannot be Opened”

I recently allowed OneDrive to back up my documents to the Cloud.After the uploading had finished, I got an error when I tried to download my emails.The error was “Outlook .PST cannot be opened”The .PST file is the email file that contains all of the information of your Outlook emails including the emails and attachments.For some strange reason, MS chooses to create the “Outlook Files” folder in the Documents folder, instead of the C:/ root of the drive. OneDrive does…

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USB stick asks to be formatted

USB stick asks to be formatted

We recently helped a customer fix a problem with their USB stick.When they plugged the stick into the computer’s USB socket, they were presented with a question box on the screen whether to format the stick or not.This happens if the File Allocation Table on the stick is corrupt and cannot be read by Windows.Do not under any circumstances answer “YES” to the formatting as the contents of the stick will be deleted and you will make things worse.Instead, note…

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Company name not visible when trying to tag in Facebook comment

Company name not visible when trying to tag in Facebook comment

We had a customer that wanted to tag a company on Facebook, that she had used, but when she started typing the name, the company name would not appear.Another friend was able to tag the company with no problem.We suggested to try adding the @ sign in front of the name. The customer tried this and low and behold the company name appeared in the list of results.When you add the @ sign, it Facebook treats the name as a…

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DP to HDMI connection problems for audio signal

DP to HDMI connection problems for audio signal

We got a new computer to connect to our TV monitor.Our computer serves our home as a HTPC (Home Theater PC) Media Server. We leave it on 24/7.The new computer only had a DP (Display Port) socket to connect to the HDMI socket on the TV.Consequently, I ordered a cable with a DP plug on one end and a HDMI plug on the other.There is a built-in adapter on the cable to change the protocols required to convert a DP…

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Microsoft Edge cannot print .pdf documents

Microsoft Edge cannot print .pdf documents

We recently attended to a customer that could not print anything using the Microsoft Edge browser. The “print” button can be used to print webpages that you are looking at as well as .pdf ((Portable Document Format)) documents that you are reading. Microsoft Edge has no problem handling .pdf documents.This situation alarmed him, because he urgently needed to print up some documents that he had received and didn’t want to install a third-party application to print the documents. The symptom…

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Scam computer message

Scam computer message

If you ever get this message or a similar type, immediately press and hold in the power button on your computer for up to ten seconds. Do not under any circumstances call the telephone number shown

Bank Of America scam!

Bank Of America scam!

Your Bank will NEVER contact you like this. If you suspect any nefarious activity on your account, call your Bank. Do NOT click on any link in a SMS or email purporting to be from your Bank.

How to add the day of the week to the date/time Windows 10 notification bar

How to add the day of the week to the date/time Windows 10 notification bar

If you want to add the day of the week, to the date/time on the bottom right of your display in the notification area, add ddd to the short date field as shown in the below screen shots. You can add dddd but if you find the day of the weeks is not showing because of insufficient room in the notification area, then change the dddd to ddd Start by typing Control Panel in the search field in the bottom…

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Use your Inkjet printer regularly

Use your Inkjet printer regularly

If you have an inkjet printer, make sure that you use it at least once a week. This stops the print head ink from drying out. I suggest that you print something which uses all the colours of your printer. Below you will find a photo that you can use to exercise your printer.

Office 365 keeps disappearing

Office 365 keeps disappearing

We attended a customer’s home who told us that she had to keep reinstalling her Office 365 because it would disappear from her computer when she booted up in the morning.Upon arrival she showed me that she downloads the Office 365 installation file using her Husband’s computer and put it on a USB stick and then installs from there.The problem is that the 365 installation file is custom created for the computer that is downloading it. You can’t transfer the…

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Why is the favourite star in Edge a solid colour?

Why is the favourite star in Edge a solid colour?

You may have noticed that when you visit websites using Microsoft Edge, there is an option to add that website to your favourites. This option is via an icon at the right hand side of the Internet address bar or URL bar.You may also have noticed that some stars for websites are a solid colour.The reason for the two types is that if the star is filled in then it means you have already added that webpage to your favourites.Clicking…

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Google Drive storage size warning when uploading files to shared folder

Google Drive storage size warning when uploading files to shared folder

We had a customer that was given access to a shared folder of another friend’s Google Drive in which to deposit files.Her friend had a Google Drive storage size of many Gigabytes available while our customer only had a free Google account, that only had a couple of Gigabytes left. The free Google account gives you 15GB of storage space which is shared between all of your Google services. She had tried to upload some large files from her computer…

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3-DAY SPRING WORKSHOP!

3-DAY SPRING WORKSHOP!

The Power It Up team would like to invite you to this amazing interactive webinar that gives us a holistic view on Presenting our ideas using PowerPoint in the online world that we find ourselves in. Please follow this link and take the first step in becoming a dynamic connector and creating engaging PowerPoint presentations. CLICK HERE TO MAKE A BOOKING TO ATTEND THIS FANTASTIC ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME EVENT!

Make a favourite File or Folder always appear first on the list

Make a favourite File or Folder always appear first on the list

Do you have a file of folder on your computer that you need to keep sending people, but don’t want to waste time scrolling through File Explorer to find it?Just add an exclamation mark ! at the beginning of the name and the file or folder will always appear at the top of your list. So if the folder name is Comp-U-Train then change it to !Comp-U-Train.

Acronis Clone problems

Acronis Clone problems

I have used the Acronis USB “rescue media tool”, many times to clone a customer’s old Hard Disk Drive to a new Solid State Drive (SSD).Even if the old drive size was larger than the size on the new SSD, Acronis would take care of this mismatch automatically. So long as the used space on the old hard drive was less than the size of the SSD, it would happen seamlessly.I have had no problems doing this up to now.This…

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Beware of the “Refund Scam”!

Beware of the “Refund Scam”!

There are many ways that scammers try to steal your hard earned money. A modern method, is to tell you either by scam email or phone call, that you have a refund coming to you; or that they have received a large sum of money from you and to contact them, if it is in error. Online scams are bane of the 21st century. No longer do crooks need to physically enter your home to steal from you. Sadly now…

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Windows “Recycle Bin” is not for storage!

Windows “Recycle Bin” is not for storage!

We came across a customer that uses the recycle bin on their computer to store items.The “recycle bin” is a misnomer. It should be called “Rubbish Bin”.If you ever need to get your computer refreshed or upgraded, then the items in the recycle bin will be DELETED!Do NOT put anything in the recycle bin that you cannot afford to lose permanently.

Protect your cryptocurrency wallet

Protect your cryptocurrency wallet

When you set up an account to receive your cryptocurrency, you are given a “wallet” to receive your Bitcoin. This wallet has its own unique ID code which you give out to anyone that wants to send you cryptocurrency.Before you can receive or send cryptocurrency to or from your wallet, you will be asked to set up “two factor authentication”(2FA) which helps you protect access to your valuable cryptocurrency. Before you can conduct a cryptocurrency transaction you will need to…

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Camera Failed Error in Samsung S5

Camera Failed Error in Samsung S5

One of our Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphones started giving us an error whenever we tried to open the built in camera application. Other than this, the phone has worked flawlessly for many years!We tried all of the online suggestions such as making sure that the phone’s firmware was up to date; clearing the camera app cache; doing a soft reboot of the phone; doing a hard reboot of the phone (which meant installing the phone from scratch) but still nothing…

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Simultaneously share your screen and your webcam during a facebook live video webinar

Simultaneously share your screen and your webcam during a facebook live video webinar

An irritation with facebook live video broadcasting, is that you cannot share your screen and use your webcamera simultaneously, without using a third party plugin or application. As soon as you press the “Stop Sharing” button, your webinar transmission ends and you will have to start things all over again from scratch!This is a huge inconvenience to your viewers during a webinar, when keeping them engaged is so important. This is because you want to greet your viewers first off…

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Intel i3 vs i5 vs i7 CPU

Intel i3 vs i5 vs i7 CPU

I get asked a lot by our customers about what type of CPU (Central Processing Unit) that I recommend for their new computers.The CPU is the “brain” of the computer and conducts all of the processing activities. An i3 CPU is for the entry level CPU for the basic user. It is an economic choice and is the lowest of the i3 processor family that I recommend. Below the i3 is the “Celeron” processor but I advise my customers to…

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USB shared printer not visible on another networked Windows 10 computer

USB shared printer not visible on another networked Windows 10 computer

We attended a trouble call where the customer had two computers running Windows10.One had an old printer connected to it using a USB cable. She could print with no problem to this older printer.However, she wanted to share this printer to a new computer over her Wi-Fi network and was not able to accomplish it.When we arrived at her SOHO, we checked to make sure that she had shared the printer correctly on the old computer and that “file and…

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How to upgrade Windows 10 with only small available hard disk drive space available

How to upgrade Windows 10 with only small available hard disk drive space available

We received a Notebook from a customer, that was stuck on Windows 10 version 1909. The customer wanted to update it to the latest version of Windows 10 which is 20H2.Unfortunately this Notebook only came with 32GB of hard disk capacity. Just putting Windows 10 and Microsoft Office on the Notebook will quickly use this up.Consequently, the Notebook only had about 3GB of empty space available.The customer didn’t understand the messages from Microsoft about having to free up hard disk…

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Windows 10 installation keeps restarting to language & keyboard choice

Windows 10 installation keeps restarting to language & keyboard choice

We had a customer that was trying to install Windows 10 on their HP laptop.After the installation had copied the files to the hard disk drive from the USB key, the laptop restarted; only to return to the same point of the installation where you choose the language and keyboard choices.The installation would not advance past this point.Normally the Windows 10 installation will restart and carry on with the installation even if installation USB key is plugged in.The laptop was…

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Samsung Phone System Sounds

Samsung Phone System Sounds

You may have noticed the four volume sliders in your Samsung/Android phone settings.The first volume control is the “Ringing” volume control. This controls the sound of the phone when someone calls you.The second volume control is the “Media” volume control. This controls the volume when you play media on your phone such as music or watching an online video.The third volume control is the “System” volume control. This controls the volume of any sounds made by the system itself. This…

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Keep your devices software updated!

Keep your devices software updated!

We recently received a trouble call that a customer’s Samsung Galaxy note was not working properly. She couldn’t download emails and the Tablet was making unusual sounds when the customer wasn’t doing anything. It was also exhibiting abnormal behaviour.I brought the device back to our office and looked to see if the Tablet needed any Android software updates to be performed. Sure enough the Tablet needed to do a 286MB update. After finishing that I checked for updates again. There…

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IRS Scam

IRS Scam

Here is another Scam purportedly from the IRS. Companies will never contact you like this. Scammers want to get a hold of your banking information. Never ever respond to these people. Unless you have initiated the contact personally, then must not trust this type of Phishing scam.

RESTART not REBOOT your computer

RESTART not REBOOT your computer

If something is amiss on your computer, make sure that you RESTART it and not do a SHUTDOWN and start up. The reason is when you restart, it shuts down your computer first. If you shutdown it puts your recent opened programmes in memory so that it boots up faster. You will notice that if you Restart you computer, you clock log in Task Manager shows that it has been reset to 0.This is due to a Windows 10 feature…

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Scam Alert!

Scam Alert!

Don’t fall for scams like these!Either do the three finger salute (ctrl+alt+del) to get to the shut down icon, or hold in power button for up to 10 seconds to shut down your computer.The scammers disable the back and close buttons in your browser and will you tell that they have locked your computer.

USB storage drive currently in use error

USB storage drive currently in use error

If you want to copy something to a USB flash drive and then delete said file/folder from your computer, first safely eject the USB drive from your computer BEFORE deleting the file on your computer.Otherwise, Windows Explorer will show a “still in use” error when you try to eject the USB drive. You will then have to wait for hell to freeze over; refresh Windows Explorer; or shut down or restart the computer in order to safely unplug the USB…

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Dell laptop not seeing Huawei LTE router

Dell laptop not seeing Huawei LTE router

We recently attended a customer call whose Dell W10 laptop can’t see their Huawei Wi-Fi router listed under the Wi-Fi networks Other devices can see and join the router. Tried disabling and re-enabling the Wi-Fi adapter but there was no change Looked at the Wi-Fi network app on my Smartphone and I could see the router but noticed it’s transmitting on Ch 13 on the 2.4GHz bandCh13 is used in Europe but not in the US or SA normall. Logged…

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Have to press ” key twice to appear

Have to press ” key twice to appear

If you find that you have to press the ” quotation key on your keyboard twice for the ” to appear, it means that you have accidentally set your keyboard for US International rather than US. You need to go into your language settings and firstly add the US keyboard and then you can delete the US International keyboard.

No Internet using tethering and Wi-Fi dongle

No Internet using tethering and Wi-Fi dongle

This morning we lost the Internet connection on our Windows 10 v1909 computers using a LAN cable connection. So I bust out my handy dandy USB Wi-Fi dongles in order to connect to my phone’s tethering. Previously once I had joined the tethering’s Wi-Fi signal, I got Internet service straight away. However despite it showing that I was connected to the Wi-Fi, I couldn’t get any Internet connection. I tried rebooting my confuser and also the dongle but still no…

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Contacts not syncing to my Android Tablet

Contacts not syncing to my Android Tablet

I recently added some contacts on my Android phone and was surprised to see that they didn’t automatically appear in the contacts on my Android Tablet. I went into the “Accounts” settings on my phone under the “User and backup” option and sure enough under the Google option, the box to sync the contacts was unticked.After ticking the box, my phone starting syncing my contacts with my Google account in the Cloud and the new contacts quickly appeared in my…

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Groove Music shows each song of compilation as separate song

Groove Music shows each song of compilation as separate song

I recently downloaded a music compilation CD containing 100 lovely songs.When imported into my Windows 10 Groove Music application, instead of a single album with all of the songs contained, I was presented with one hundred songs separately!A quick look at one of the song’s Metadata information, showed that each song had the singer listed as the Album Artist, instead of Various Artists.By going into the CD’s folder and selecting all of 100 songs at once, I could change the…

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SSL (Accept all certificates)

SSL (Accept all certificates)

We recently attended a trouble call where a customer could not send or receive her Google Gmail on her Tablet.She stated that this situation had existed for over a year!Her laptop needed to go in for repair and desperately needed to be able to use her Tablet to work with her email. First step was to confirm the Google email configuration settings on her Tablet. It had been set for IMAP email service and all of the settings looked correct….

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Acronis USB RMB apps crashing

Acronis USB RMB apps crashing

I recently attempted to clone a customer’s HDD to a new SSD. For many years, I have used the excellent Acronis set of apps to do the cloning. I also use the Back up and Recovery tools. These tools are on the RMB “Rescue Media Builder” that you must manually create using your Acronis True Image programme which I highly recommend purchasing.I have created a USB key with the apps installed as it is much easier to clone a drive…

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Microsoft Office 365 SMTP incompatibilty

Microsoft Office 365 SMTP incompatibilty

I recently installed Office 365 and could not get the email account setup properly in the Outlook app. I kept getting a SMTP error. I verified that the email password was correct by successfully logging into the webmail portal. I discovered that I could get the account set up successfully by typing “Control Panel” in the search box at the bottom left of your screen and then click on the Mail icon. Select User accounts in Control panel and you’ll…

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Easy way to replace Wi-Fi router

Easy way to replace Wi-Fi router

We recently attended a tech call to replace the customer’s Wi-Fi router as the existing one had gotten damaged by a power surge. The customer was not happy about the prospect that lay ahead with rejoining her dozen or so devices to the new router. This new router had a new password and Wi-Fi network name also known as the SSID. I was able to gather some information about her existing router which would help me install the new router…

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Transferring SMS messages between Android smartphones

Transferring SMS messages between Android smartphones

We recently attended a service call, where a customer had bought a new Android phone and after inserting the old SIM card, discovered that the SMS messages had not transferred over from her old phone. SMS messages are not retained on the SIM card for security reasons. If you use the excellent Samsung “Smart Switch” app (application or programme) to transfer your information from your old to your new phone, then the SMS messages are transferred across. However what happens…

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Wi-Fi Printing Problem

Wi-Fi Printing Problem

We recently attended a trouble call where a customer was having intermittent problems printing to her Canon Wifi network printer.She had been using it successfully to print from her Windows 10 laptop; her Apple iPhone and Apple iPad.Suddenly one day, the printer stopped printing from any device.Upon arrival at the customer, I rebooted the printer and rejoined the printer to her Wi-fi network, which was delivered by a Nokia ONT (Optical Network Terminal) provided by her fibre company.Suddenly the printer…

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Always use different passwords

Always use different passwords

If you use the same password for more than one website, please change it immediately. Add an additional symbol such as !@#$ etc. In this day and age where websites get hacked and people’s usernames and passwords getting stolen, you are giving the hackers the key to your city, if you share a username and password across multiple platforms. I notice that new websites ask you if your want to create a new account using your Google or Facebook details…

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Your email mailbox is full scam

Your email mailbox is full scam

We recently attended a customer whose domain is hosted by company X. They had received an email purporting to be from company X saying that their email box was full and that they needed to pay some money to increase the size of their mailbox. I logged onto her webhosting company dashboard to see that her mailbox was hardly used, so immediately contacted company X to find out that in did the email was a scam! If she hadn’t have…

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Cloning vs. imaging a hard drive

Cloning vs. imaging a hard drive

I often get asked what is the difference between cloning a hard drive versus imaging a hard drive. Cloning is the process of creating another drive which is an exact identical copy of your original drive. You would clone a drive if you wanted to convert your old mechanical hard drive to a modern solid state drive. It is a one for one copy. Think of cloning as making an identical twin. You would want to make an exact copy…

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ADATA SSD migration woes

ADATA SSD migration woes

I recently bought three ADATA 2.5″ SSD drives to install into customers laptops. The reason for this, is that these modern SSD (Solid State Drive) drives are much faster than the older HDD (Hard Disk Drive) mechanical drives. The three laptops were different brands. Each SSD was placed in turn, in a “USB caddy” which allows me to easily transfer the data from the HDD to the SSD. The process is called “cloning” and involves making an exact copy of…

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