Google Home acknowledges turning on or off lights in one room and sounding a ding dong in another room

We attended a customer’s home where they were using the amazing Google Home to control their in different rooms. In each room they had a Google Home speaker.In one room if the customer asked Google Home to turn off the lights say in the living room, Google would respond with “Turning off Living Room lights”. …

Avast anti-virus changes home network from Private to Public

We were called to a customer’s home that had problems printing from her laptop to her Printer.On closer inspection, I saw that the Wi-Fi network that the laptop was connected to, was set as Public even though she was on her home network.I changed the network to Private and the printer started printing again.However on …

Acronis True Image Cloning tool cannot see new installed SSD

We attended a customer that was having a problem cloning his old HDD (Hard Disk Drive) to a new SSD (Solid State Drive). The programme that he was using to do the Cloning was the excellent Acronis application. The Acronis tools were installed on a USB stick, which the customer used to boot the computer. …

Cannot uninstall McAfee Security Scan Plus

We attended a trouble call where a customer could not uninstall the McAfee Security Scan Plus software from their laptop.Unfortunately this software is bundled with the free Adobe Acrobat Reader programme. Unless you untick the box to not install this McAfee Security Scan Plus programme, then it gets a free ride into your computer. What …

Beware of the SMS phishing scam

Beware of scams trying to scare you into clicking on a link in a SMS. This is called “phishing” and is sadly quite common. The aim of the scammer is to steal your private credentials such as your username and password. This action is to solely steal your hard earned money. Sadly Banks and Governments …

Outlook Send/Receive icon missing from Ribbon

We attended a customer’s home to trouble shoot the Send/Receive button missing from one of her Outlook email addresses. Also she noticed that no new emails were appearing in her inbox for a few weeks, despite seeing them in her cell phone email application. Also there were no emails appearing in the inbox of the …

Printer shows offline

We recently attended a printing problem of a customer using a Windows 10 laptop at home. The laptop was connected by Wi-Fi but had repeated trouble printing to their Wi-Fi connected Printer.Sometimes this can happen if the Printer is far away from the Wi-Fi router and the signal at the Printer’s location was very low …

Lenovo optional update Conexant audio driver

Do not install this optional driver as it clashes with Windows update and causes the Windows update process to freeze at 61%.It also causes a yellow pause icon to appear and there is no “resume update” button.

Lenovo Windows update stuck at 61% and also showing a yellow Pause icon.

We took possession of a customer’s Lenovo laptop, that was stuck doing the latest Windows update. Also there was a yellow “Pause” symbol showing as in the image below. This symbol normally shows if you have delayed the update, however this was not the case in this particular situation.However you should also see a button …

SCAMS

Scammers and fraudsters will try every trick in the book to obtain your private credentials.By “credentials” I mean your account’s USERNAME and PASSWORD.Microsoft will never call you out of the blue or send you warning emails like in the photo below.Cryptocurrency exchanges will never email you out of the blue asking you to verify your …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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!

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.

SMS sky scam alert!

You receive a SMS purportedly from sky.The scammer tries to get you to download a virus to your cell/mobile phone. This virus will then steal your passwords. Beware!

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 …

Happy New Year!

We look forward to helping you with our Computer Skills Development Package.Looking forward to a New Year with exciting opportunities.

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.

How to create a new paragraph or line break within a facebook comment

Many times I see facebook comments containing long lines of text which are very difficult to read because they contain no paragraphs.In order to add a page break to your facebook comments, press shift and enter on your keyboard at the same time to create a new paragraph or line break

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 …

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 …

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 …

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. …

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. …

Desktop shortcut

Quickly go to your desktop, by clicking this thin vertical bar in the bottom right hand corner of your screen.

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 …

Beware of the DHL scam!

This scam aims to make you click on the link which will then install malware on your Android phone which can be used to gather your secret information!

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Problems tagging people in facebook

If you are trying to tag a friend in a facebook comment and when you start typing their name, a pop-up link doesn’t show with their name, then make sure that you are typing their name starting with a Capital letter.

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …