Category Archives: tech tips

HDCP stripper – HOWTO remove HDCP from HDMI signal

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I recently encountered an issue where my DirecTV HDMI output was unusable on my new LCD. Thankfully, the following HDMI HDCP stripper allowed me to watch on my monitor 🙂 NOTE: The best price I could find was $19.95 on Amazon with free shipping and if you need the extra HDMI cable, they have them for ~$5.49. The process is very simple: Connect power to the HDCP stripper Connect first HDMI cable from DirecTV receiver to “HDMI INPUT” on the stripper Connect second HDMI

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JPS300V 5V DC power supplies for LED signs

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The JPS300V DC power is a robust option for powering LED signs and other products that require relatively high amperage 5V output. 60A at 5V = 300 watts which is pretty hefty for a DC power supply. Out of approximately 80 PSUs, we have had around 2-3 fail. This is a roughly 3.8% failure rate in some fairly difficult situations (withstanding fairly intense heat, cold and moisture). Overall I would rate them as a good low-cost option especially if you can

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New Exede Speedboost plans + wifi [review & prices]

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Here are some new updates on Exede’s latest plans: Personally, I would only pick a plan that has their new Speedboost + WiFi modem and the Liberty Pass. Initially I enjoyed the “late night free zone” (or LNFZ) but as of late it just became too much of a hassle to manage data usage during the daytime (and saving all the heavy stuff for late night) so now I much prefer the ease and simplicity of the Liberty Pass. Plus I absolutely

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Recover files from lost GPT disk NTFS partition [SOLVED] {FREE}

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Recently my Dell work laptop failed to resume after sleeping. It still recognized the internal 2.5″ SSD boot drive but it said it was not bootable. I believe the problem was caused by Windows 10. After removing the drive and connecting to another computer for diagnostics, I was able to determine that no partitions/GPT disk structure was being picked up by Windows. 🙁 Thankfully after trying a ton of recovery options, I was finally able to recover all my files

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Disable Skype Voicemail

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I do not care for Skype’s voicemail feature. I much prefer Google Voice or other similar services. Oddly, I have been unable to find a way to disable the voicemail via the Skype app for Android. However, if you login to the Skype.com site you can disable voicemail at the following page: https://secure.skype.com/account?page=voicemail Woot! 🙂 PS here are a couple screenshots showing voicemail enabled and then DISABLED:

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Slow AutoCAD on Dell M6700 with AMD FirePro [SOLVED]

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Step 1. Uninstall all Catalyst Drivers Step 2. Install Dell Catalyst Pro drivers from the AMD site: Drive download Step 3. Make sure hardware acceleration is enabled: AutoCAD knowledge base article   Other links: http://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebook-Display-and-Video/Graphic-card-problems-AMD-Fire-Pro-M5100-in-AutoCAD-and/td-p/4867242 http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/autocad-2004-2005-2006/no-hardware-acceleration/td-p/2877122

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Dell dock: monitors non-responsive after sleep

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I am setting up a new office with two HP 27xw monitors connected to a Dell e-dock. Everything is working quite nicely, except after going to sleep, the monitors are no longer visible to Windows. So far, the workaround is to press the physical undock button (releasing the laptop) and then re-dock the system. All while keeping the laptop’s lid/display closed. Also, to prevent this from happening I have set Windows 10 to never put displays to sleep when the

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