Category Archives: tech tips

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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Google Find My Phone (even if Device Unavailable)

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Google has been adding more action oriented features to their engine. One of the most useful is “find my phone”. If you have an Android phone you can try finding it here: https://www.google.com/search?q=find+my+phone Also, even if the map/screen says “Device Unavailable” you may still be able to “Ring” the phone… this will ring the phone for 5 minutes and this is exactly what I did this morning to find my phone (which was hiding in the covers) ;-).

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Disable/enable laptop trackpad [SOLVED]

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If your laptop trackpad is too finicky to use reliably, you may want to disable it! While a trackpad can sometimes be disabled via the BIOS/UEFI or the Windows Device Mananger, there is often another simpler method: A simple Fn key + F7 (or other similar key) combination is often available to disable the trackpad on Acer laptops, Dell laptops and many more. The keyboard pictured above is an Acer AO725 laptop. This can also be handy if you are

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HP 23xi black border when using HDMI [SOLVED]

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If you connect your HP 23xi display to a PC with a ATI or NVIDIA video card you may encounter a black border around the edge of the screen. Thankfully, there is an easy fix! For ATI/AMD, change scaling options: Right Click on Desktop Select “Catalyst Pro Control Center” Advanced -> ATI Catalyst Control Center -> Graphics -> Desktops & Displays Please select a display. (Click the black downaward arrow in the corner of the display graphic) -> Configure Scaling

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