What to do with a “CD Stuck In Drive” Situation

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I have a TS-H492A internal DVD drive in my computer. The problem I have is that I have a disk jammed in the drive and I can’t eject it. I have tried going into my computer and going to eject on the pull down menu. We are running windows XP. Is there a way of freeing the disk without dismantling the drive?

This sometimes happens, especially with older computers, when the drive mechanisms wear down and just don’t want to respond anymore. The disc may also not have been inserted correctly. Fortunately there is an easy way to open the tray and take the disc out.

Nearly all CD/DVD drives have a little pin hole. Simply take a paper clip, twist it open and insert one end into the pinhole. Push in the paper clip through the pin hole and the disc should pop out. Make sure that your computer is turned off to reduce the chance of damage to the drive or to yourself.

Having other problems with your computer? Simply scan your computer for free to identify problem areas. Click here to start a free scan.

 

How to Unlock an “OSD Lockout” Problem

This has most likely annoyed many of you at some point. You turn on your monitor one day and see a jeering message telling you something about an “OSD Lockout”. It doesn’t allow you to change any of your monitors settings, including the setting intended to turn off this message. While I’ve only seen this error on HP monitors I know that others have encountered it on other brands as well. The fixes I provide should work on those monitors too. (Note: OSD stands for On Screen Display.)

Fix One:

Plug in the monitor and power it up. Hold down the Power button until you get a message saying “OSD Unlocked”. If the problem persists after OSD is unlocked then unplug the monitor from the wall, wait 20 seconds and try again.

Fix Two:

Turn on the monitor and hold down the Menu button for 10-20 seconds. This should unlock the OSD.

Fix Three:

Turn off the monitor, press down the Menu button and then turn on the monitor. Wait 10-20 seconds. This should unlock the OSD.

Fix Four:

The Menu button may be stuck in a pressed in position. To get it “unstuck” you’ll usually need to open up the monitor. This could be tricky unless you know what you’re doing. Unfortunately there are too many models of monitor for me to provide detailed instructions. If you have warranty this is where you want to contact the manufacturer.

If you know of any other fixes feel free to contact me. Good luck!

 

How the Consumerist Overreacted. Again.

If there is one site on the Internet that I both respect and hate at the same time it’s Consumerist.com. On one hand they give customers some pull in fighting consumer issues and on the other they post stories that damage reputations without actually researching the complaint!

From Consumerist:

“Randy tried to get new O and P keys for his HP laptop. The outsourced, English-is-not-his-first-language, customer service rep won’t sell or send him the keys and instead insists that Randy sit in for a $298 repair. Blithely indifferent to Randy’s increasing incredulity and rage, the customer service rep suggests that for that amount of money, Randy should just buy a new laptop for $400. That’s right, a new laptop because two of the keys are bad. The ridiculous chat transcript, inside…”

They then posted the transcript of the online chat that “Randy” (the Tipper) had with HP support.

So what’s wrong with this scenario? Well here’s the thing: the Consumerist doesn’t research their stories! They get their stories from these anonymous tippers and post the stories on their site without contacting the company being accused for their side of the story. I’m sorry but that’s just bad reporting.

But then again, no one can claim that the Consumerist has ever been about upholding journalistic integrity. It’s just a site where you can rage against “the corporations” that apparently do nothing but screw everyone around us (even though, you know, they employ thousand and give use the products that we consume and love). And don’t you dare disagree with a Consumerist story, as soon as you post a comment even slightly critical of the Tipper or of the site you get banned. Permanently.

So what should the Consumerist have done with this story? Well for starters they should have researched the nature of the replacement keyboard that the Tipper requires. They would have soon realized that the “English-is-not-his-first-language” tech support guy was right: you can’t just mail replacement keys for this specific keyboard, the entire thing needs to be replaced. That’s just the DESIGN!

Secondly, I agree that $298 is ridiculous for a keyboard repair when you can buy the keyboard itself for $25 (here) and then go down to your local Best Buy and have them install it for you for about $40. Or just do it yourself, it’s not hard. But what gets me about the Tippers attitude is this: He claims that he’s got warranty but he never offers to fax over his receipt! That’s all he has to do, fax over his proof of purchase. HP would take a look, apologize, correct their records, and replace the keyboard for no charge.

Consumerist should have called HP, got the full story and then worked with the Tipper to resolve the issue. Instead they hurriedly post another one-sided story (from a Tipper who sounds like a douche) that’s guaranteed to gain traffic and agreeable comments from the tech-illiterates that populate their comment section.

Sorry for the rant but websites like Consumerist just piss me off.

 

Microsoft announces Downgrade plan for Windows 7

Windows 7 is less then a year away from final release (the current date everyone’s talking about is January 2010) and Microsoft has delivered an unexpected gift for users. Says the BBC:

“Anyone buying a PC with Windows 7 pre-installed will be able to swap it for XP or Vista.

Microsoft has confirmed that the licence conditions under which the software will be sold will allow people to downgrade.

The conditions will apply to both businesses that buy licences for Windows in bulk and consumers that get the operating system on a PC or laptop.”

This is certainly due to the blow back of bad press and word of mouth that Vista has received. It’s obvious that Microsoft is trying to improve its image and letting people downgrade to the OS of their choice is an excellent step.

The only potential headache deals with tech support. The BBC article states that anyone who purchases a new computer will be able to do a downgrade. This just increases the workload when it comes to supporting these customers, three versions of Windows to support instead of one.

 

Webcam does not work in Windows Live Messenger

From a user on a forum I frequent:

“I have recently installed the latest version of windows live messenger, But i am having trouble with the webcam features, for some reason wenever i try too turn on webcam, it tells me the webcam wont work because it is being used by another program (which it isnt)

I have been told too go to show menu/tools/audio and video setup, but wenever i click that, i get a message saying “we are unable too run audio/video setup”

This is actually a frequent problem with people who have McAffee AntiVirus running on their computer. I have no idea why an AntiVirus would be interfering with a webcam but there you go. In any case McAffee has a fix for you:

“As a workaround, McAfee recommends configuring SiteAdvisor to stop monitoring Live Messenger.

  1. Navigate to the following folder:Windows XP/2000/Vista (32-bit): C:\Program Files\McAfee\SiteAdvisorWindows Vista (64-bit): C:\Program Files (x86)\McAfee\SiteAdvisor
  2. Right-click on the file sasets.ini and choose Open With, then select Notepad.
  3. Locate the section titled [msnmsgr.exe].
  4. Change Enabled=1 to Enabled=0.
  5. Click File and select Save.
  6. Close sasets.ini and restart your computer for changes to take effect.”

My own little note: You might get a “access is denied” error. To get around this copy the sasets.ini file to your desktop, open and modify it from there, and then copy that file back to the original folder overwriting the original file.

Hope that helps.

 

Yes, Apple will fix those cracks on your MacBook

Anybody out there encounter MacBook cracks? I’ve seen a few myself but apparently there is a large amount of people who have complained to Apple about these cracks forming seemingly spontaneously. Apple’s response: Too bad, we’re not gonna fix it.

Until now.

Apple Insider reports:

“The Cupertino-based Mac maker is said to have issued a bulletin to its authorized service providers in March that essentially reverses its stance on replacing the bottom casing of notebooks that may be experiencing these symptoms.

In the event that providers are unable to identify signs that the user is at fault for the cracks, they’re advise to escalate the notebook for coverage by Apple, regardless of whether its 1-year limited warranty has expired.”

So if you find  someone with this issue send them to Apple. The only caveat to keep in mind here is the nature of the announcement: it’s internal. That means the owner of the MacBook will have to rely on the support person they’re dealing with to interpret the crack correctly and authorize a repair. But if one denies you just move on to the next guy!

Here is a pic (from Apple Insider):

Cheers.

 

DMA Reverts to PIO. Reset it with a handy VBScript.

The Scoop:

So you get a computer and for seemingly no reason at all it’s running slow, or a CD/DVD Drive is stuttering when it plays music or video. What could be causing this? One reason may involve your drives DMA mode and it’s dastardly attempts to revert to PIO mode.

The What?

CD/DVD and Hard Drives in your computer operate in “modes”. There is a large amount of boring background information that both you and I really don’t want to go into about these modes. It’s safe to say that you want to know this: seeing your drive in “PIO” mode is BAD and seeing it in “DMA” mode is GOOD. Got it?

So go to the Device Manager (you can find it in the Control Panel) and expand check the controllers sections. Are any of the controllers (Primary and Secondary) listed there operating in PIO mode? Good! Now I’ll tell you how to fix it!

The Fix:

Alright here is the fix, ready for it? Download and run the following file:

resetdma.vbs

That’s it! (People using Vista: make sure you run the file as an administrator).

The Bad News:

Alright. One little bit of bad news. Now you should be wondering: “Oh Mr.Geek, how in the world did the operating mode on my CD/DVD drive change by themselves” Well Jimmy, that could be caused by a few things. Most likely it’s safe to ignore this troubling thought UNLESS the operating mode changes again. Then you should check out this page:

http://winhlp.com/node/10

 

Wine 1.1.14 Released!

The new version of Wine has been released!

What’s new in the new version?

  • Various bug fixes for Internet Explorer 7.
  • Many crypt32 improvements, including new export wizard.
  • Better support for windowless Richedit.
  • Improvements to the print dialog.
  • Many fixes to the regression tests on Windows.
  • Various bug fixes.

Don’t know what WINE is? From Wikipedia:

“Wine is a free software application that aims to allow Unix-like computer operating systems on the x86 or x86-64 architecture to execute programs written for Microsoft Windows.”

It basically allows you to run many Windows programs on the Linux operating system.

 

Windows 7: Windows could not collect information for [OSImage] since the specified image file [install.wim] does not exist

Sorry about the huge title. :)

I was recently installing the Windows 7 beta on my laptop using VMWare and ran into the following error:

Windows could not collect information for [OSImage] since the specified image file [install.wim] does not exist.

I was watching Fringe (great show) and tried a few reboots of the Virtual environment during the commercial breaks. When I realized that this method would not work I decided to burn the Windows 7 image file onto a disc (I was trying to install directly from the .iso). To be on the safe side I burnt the .iso at 4X speed and made sure that the disc was verified.

And it worked! So if you get this error one possible solution is to burn the .iso onto a disc at a slow speed.

Hope that helps.