AT&T Vistual Voicemail suddenly not working on iPhone 5S w/ iOS 7

Yesterday I received a few client calls, but I noticed that the phone wasn't showing voicemails for these calls.  I assumed that the clients had decided not to leave messages, but I called them anyway.

Of course, the clients had left messages.  My phone simply didn't tell me.  So, after dealing with those calls, I called the voicemail service manually and sure enough, there were three client voicemails.

Over the past 24 hours, I've spent about 2 1/2 hours so far on the phone with AT&T's tech support to try to resolve this issue.  They've reset it several times on their side, I've had to re-establish voicemail service on my side (including a BOATLOAD of re-recorded outgoing messages) and now it simply ISN'T working - at all.  Callers don't hear a message, and when I call in I get an error.

One of the tech support reps suggested I should erase my phone.  I told her that would NOT resolve the issue, particularly since I'm getting errors when I call the service.

UPDATE: It's now working, and they gave me a $25 credit for the inconvenience. :)
 

After six months, the Xbox One is freezing constantly, and often not starting at all.

So I've had my "day one" Xbox One for about six months, and it's freezing all the time, and often not starting at all. :(

- Freezes in the middle of games
- Freezes in the middle of Blu-Ray movies
- Controller stops responding
- Xbox Media Remote stops responding
- Even the main menu freezes

I resolve computer problems for a living, and one way to fix ANY software problem is to format the hard drive and reinstall.  That's not usually the best method, or the first to try.  Of course, on a computer there are tools that I can use to try to resolve the problem less destructively.  Also, on a computer there's the concern of data loss.

On the Xbox One, there's no real concern for data loss, since all the game saves are in the cloud, and any purchased games can be re-downloaded for free.  And on an Xbox One there's very little access to the "under the hood" software by the user (me).

So this is the fix I'm attempting this morning - I booted the Xbox One in "Safe Mode" by holding the pair & eject buttons and then hitting the power button, then I went to Settings > System and told it to restore factory defaults.  I'm now watching a green bar progress slowly across the screen.  If the system is more stable after this, then it was a software issue and all is right with the world.  However, if the Xbox One remains unstable (or really, more like "unusable") then it's a hardware problem and I'll have to ship it off to Microsoft's service center.

UPDATE: The restore process FROZE at 60% and now I'm shipping it to them.:(

iOS 7.0.2 Complaint

I used to be able to rely on location-based reminders.  I would ask Siri to remind me of something when I got home, and when I would pull into my driveway, it would.  It no longer does.  Apparently I don't actually get the reminders until I actually open the reminders app. 

AVG Update causes Reboot Loop

I had a client call me and describe a situation in which AVG said it needed to reboot in order to install an update. He allowed it, and it continued to request a reboot. Endlessly. I walked him through system restore, and it seemed to work - then happened again about 20 minutes later. I told him I'd have to come out and look at it.

So I was about to go to sleep, and I hopped to my main computer to synchronize my Outlook with MobileMe one last time for the day. I wiggle the mouse and login, and the first thing I saw was an AVG prompt requesting a restart. I allowed it, and sat there waiting for the system to start up again.

Instead of my desktop, I was greeted with a "Startup Repair" window. :( I tried to use System Restore, and for whatever reason, IT CRASHED. This was not good.

I went over to one of my other machines, and discovered that other people have experienced the same issue. After some digging, I found this method to repair the problem:

1. Using Startup Repair, invoke a Command Prompt.
2. Navigate to "C:\Program Files (X86)\AVG\AVG10"
3. Type "rename *.exe *.bak" and hit ENTER
4. Type exit
5. Exit Startup Repair
6. Windows will begin rebooting, and eventually present a screen offering two choices - "Startup Repair" or "Start Normally". Choose START NORMALLY.
7. Windows *should* boot normally, with one important difference. AVG isn't running.
8. Go to the control panel and uninstall AVG.
9. Once AVG is uninstalled, the system will need to reboot again.
10. As Windows starts up, AVG will launch a browser window requesting a short survey as to why you uninstalled it. Let them know what happened.
11. You can either reinstall AVG Free (it looks like the offending update has been pulled) or use another program, such as Microsoft Security Essentials.
12. I'm going to reinstall AVG free, as it's been a fine program for years. Every Anti-Virus program has had occasional problems with false positives, etc. I'll give them another chance. I ended up going with Microsoft Security Essentials, which to date has been great.

NO RESPONSIBILITY CAN BE ASSUMED IF THE ABOVE METHOD DOES NOT WORK FOR YOU, IF IT BORKS YOUR COMPUTER, OR IF YOU SUDDENLY HAVE OTHER PROBLEMS. GOOD LUCK

Dead iPhone 4.

I dropped my iPhone 4 from a height of less than 1 meter onto a "soft" linoleum floor.  It (the phone) was wearing a bumper case.  When I picked it up, it was OFF.  And it stayed off.  There was zero visible damage of any kind.  It just refused to light up.  I know the battery was well over 50%, so that wasn't it.  Could it really be that a short drop like that killed my iPhone 4?  Apparently so.

Needless to say, I was upset.  I went to the nearest Apple Store (Pasadena) and got on the "standby" list at the Genius Bar.  After about 40 minutes, someone called my name.  About 10 minutes after that, I had a new iPhone 4 at no cost to me.  I last synchronized this morning and am in the process of restoring from that backup as I type.  Of course, I'll still lose any pictures/videos I made since this morning, and have to re-enter a bunch of stuff on the phone (at least 30 usernames & passwords, several wireless keys, merchant id's, etc.)

While Apple's support and service is world-class, I'm beginning to worry that the iPhone 4 is not.  Is it wrong to expect a phone to survive a drop of less than 1 meter?

iTunes 9.1 remaining issue

I got iTunes 9.1 to work, and connected my iPhone to sync it.

Guess what appeared:

Of course, I usually synchronize "Notes" with my computer, but it's the first time I did so in German... ;)

iTunes 9.1 on Windows 7 (64-bit) is BROKEN

Just updated my iTunes to 9.1, and now it won't start.

Apparently I'm not alone:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=150&start=45#threads

No error messages, no apparent problems during installation. :(


UPDATE: TURNS OUT IT'S A PROBLEM WITH BONJOUR - WHICH IS USED FOR APPLE TV. I REMOVED IT AND ALL IS WELL WITH THE WORLD.

Fun with X-Rays, Part 2

I had to do some more troubleshooting at the veterinary clinic today, and that meant I needed another x-ray image…

Yep, that’s my iPhone. ;)

Disney/Pixar's UP Blu-Ray - second disc won't play

I just got "UP" on Blu-Ray, and put the "Special Features" disc in my PlayStation 3. No dice.

It loops at the dog with the wagging tail - endlessly. I sent an email to Disney's Blu-Ray support team, and I'm waiting for a response.




UPDATE: They're sending me a pre-paid label so I can mail them the disc. If they determine it's "defective", they'll send me a replacement.

ASUS CG5290-BP009

Around a month ago, my primary business computer died.  It was a top-tier consumer HP Pavilion Elite.  It was the second to “die” within 1 year of purchase.  The prior HP desktop was also an “Elite” HP.  Both started having weird problems that weren’t windows-related, but brought the machines to a halt within moments, with virtually no advance warning.  I think it’s because HP is putting Samsung hard disks in their desktops.

As a result, I knew I needed to get a new one quickly but didn’t want to give HP more money.  I could’ve ordered from Dell, but needed a working machine within 24 hours, so ordering it wouldn’t do.  I was able to use one of the notebooks to do invoices and such, but needed to get my Outlook and iTunes (more for iPhone than music) back up on a “permanent” machine.  I can’t load up all that stuff on a notebook.

So, I went and spent about $1,400 on an ASUS desktop:

I got it up and running within about a day, and transferred all my files to it within about 3 days.  Over the last month, I’ve gotten almost everything I need on it and configured the way I like it.

This thing is a beast.  I couldn’t be happier with it.  Now let’s see how I feel about it a year from now…

Fantastic GPS mount

Since getting the "new" car, I've been using a "bean bag" type mount for the GPS. I didn't like it, but like the suction-cup-on-the-windshield mount even less. Also, the bean bag mount put the GPS in such a position that it would reflect off the windshield at night, which made for a constant annoyance if I needed to use it after dark.

I found an alternative that worked wonderfully. In this new position, the GPS screen doesn't reflect off the windshield, but it's at a perfect viewing position, and easily within my reach. I bought a custom-made mounting bracket (basically a small, bent and drilled piece of sheet metal with a ball on the end) from the geniuses at Pro.Fit International. They even sell a simple plastic tool to allow me to pop the console off without scratching it. It required minor drilling (but the two small holes are hidden under the console if the mount is removed) but the results are outstanding. Witness the new mount below:Now I just have to find a way to secure/conceal the cord a little better...

Toshiba Notebooks

When clients ask me what brands they should consider, I often specifically say that I've had problems with the quality of Toshiba notebooks in recent years.

I'm currently restoring a client's Toshiba notebook, and got a great working example of such a problem. I put the factory-supplied Recovery Disc into the machine, and began the process, only to be greeted with a message that this was the "Wrong Machine!" O RLY?

It turns out that many Toshiba notebooks suffer from this specific issue, so much that Toshiba's support site has a "fix" for the issue, but it apparently took them several years to put it up. And to make matters worse:
- There's different fixes depending on the model
- It involves making either a bootable floppy (?) or CD - not very user-friendly.
- It involves booting the machine from that bootable floppy/cd

I'm just wondering how they screwed this up across so many different models.

To wit: http://www.google.com/search?q=toshiba+%22wrong+machine%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

WinAntivirus - Mac users falling for it?

I received two calls today from clients who "fell for" a "winantivirus" popup, AKA smitfraud. For those who don't know, that's a scam popup that often results in a "drive-by download" - a virus that installs itself on your machine without you clicking anything.

It varies all the time but may look something like this:



It alerts you to several viruses that it says are currently on your machine, then directs you to download their antivirus software that will fix everything. Of course, it doesn't fix anything, and in many cases it is the thing that is infecting your computer. It is sometimes very hard to remove.

I get calls about such scams almost every day, but what makes today interesting is that these aren't Windows users. It's two clients who switched to Mac over two years ago.

Thankfully, these types of scam software doesn't even work on Macs. But the website that the popup directs you to asks for credit card and other personal information as they process your "order" for this crap. That, of course means they're stealing your money and likely worse.

Ford's SYNC website doesn't support IE8??

Although the Ford SYNC system is made by Microsoft, apparently the syncmyride.com website doesn't like IE8...

Despite the warning, the site appeared to work fine.

Clown Shoes

I've always wanted a chance to use the term "Clown Shoes" properly. I finally got it.

A friend/client of mine called about three weeks ago, apparently he got a new phone system.

The guy who installed it said that I needed to make some changes to their router to allow them to service the phone system remotely.

I told the client to have the phone guy email me what he needs. I heard nothing. Or so I thought. For three weeks or so, I told the client I heard nothing. Because I truly believed that I hadn't.

Anyway, the client finally forwards the phone guy's email to me.

Turns out, the phone guy sent me an email with no subject line, and when he entered his name in his email settings, he used some goofy capitalization - "Shmuly GOldsmith". Between the goofy spelling, lack of subject line, and the fact that I don't know anyone with that name, I figured it was spam and marked it as such. Mystery solved. Of course, this would also block him from sending me mail in the future as well.

Here's what I wrote to the client once I figured it out:

"I think I figured out why it got marked as spam.

His name is shown with goofy capitalization, and he put NO subject line.

Fucking clown shoes."

Anyway, "Shmuly GOldsmith" -- thanks for the outstanding opportunity to use "Clown Shoes". Next time take less than a friggin' minute to type your own name correctly and enter a subject line.

MobileMe & Outlook - Birthdays

When I setup MobileMe, it took all of my birthdays and moved them to a separate calendar called "Birthdays". I didn't sweat it too much at the time, but knew that because they were not included on my primary Outlook calendar, I wouldn't get alerts before they occurred.

Later, I also discovered that the birthdays in the "Birthday calendar" were not actually sychronizing with Outlook anymore. In fact, although there were birthdays showing up on me.com/calendar, they did not appear in Outlook anymore.

Rather than going crazy worrying about the sync of Birthdays, I simply re-created them manually in Outlook, and rather than using the word "Birthday", which I worried would cause them to go to the "Birthday calendar", I used "BDay". I also made them recurring for 9 years only.

So far so good.

iomega's customer support is CRAP

A client of mine has an iomega NAS 150d RAID box. He bought it to use as a network storage device, and since it was advertised as a redundant RAID, he felt that it was a sort of "built-in" backup. I questioned the strategy, and suggested that a different approach might be better, as well as provide faster access to his files. He rebuffed my suggestion, probably because he paid nearly $1,000 for the device, and truly believed that it was adequate for his needs. I didn't push the issue further, and figured I'd address it again at a later time.

A few months later, he moved his office, which necessitated a change the IP addressing of his network. Since it's configured using a built-in webserver, the directions clearly say the device must be reset to factory settings. Okay...

The device was configured by the client to have four named folders, each with their own permissions. Again, according to iomega, when you reset such a device to the factory settings, all you have to do is "re-create" the folders and you'll be able to access them.

Unfortunately, the firmware on the device was 4x.xx, and the current firmware is somewhere around 8X.XX. This is significant. With the older firmware, when you try to "re-create" the folders, you have to click "browse" to get to them. When you click browse, the subsequent window never populates. So normally, the answer would be to update the firmware so that it functions properly. However, to go from 4X.XX to 8X.XX would erase all data on the device. In order to keep your data when doing a fimware update, iomega recommends using the device's built-in backup function. You hook up an external USB hard disk to the box, and use another "browse" button to tell the box what folders you wish to back up. That function doesn't work either.

Iomega's telephone support took days before even getting a return phone call to me, and by that point they told me there was nothing that their tech support could do. However, they also were quick to inform me that they have their own in-house DATA RECOVERY SERVICE. Hmmm... Let's build a device that's horribly flawed and overpriced considering those flaws. We can then charge THOUSANDS of dollars to recover data from a device we built - data that is only inaccessible due to OUR OWN DESIGN FLAWS.

During the whole process of contacting iomega for the client, I gave one of the phone reps my email address. I got various boilerplate/automated messages from the support department, but none of them were helpful. The client also mentioned that he dutifully registered the device, but never heard anything from iomega about updating the firmware. He and I both, however, have been receiving plenty of advertising emails from iomega.

In the end, rather than sending the box via fedex to iomega and spending at least $3,000 to have the data retrieved, I personally took the device to a local data recovery service that I had used in the past. The owner of the lab (with over 30 years experience in the field) described NAS devices in general as a "bad idea". He and his staff spent several days hacking into the Linux-based device, and eventually were able to recover the client's data. The final cost for that service was $1,000. It's a significant discount over iomega's data recovery service, but it's still a bitter pill to swallow.

What's worse from my perspective is that because it happened on "my watch", I felt partially responsible, despite the fact that I followed iomega's instructions and did nothing wrong. I "ate" a significant portion of my fees, and did a lot for the client without charging him. I also believe the client feels that it's my fault that he had to spend $1,000 to recover his data.

In short, I will never buy or recommend another iomega device. Their device (and apparently all similar iomega NAS devices in the product line) shipped with such serious flaws, and rather than HELPING me, they added my email to their marketing list.

Can you tell I'm upset by this??? ;)

So pissed...

This is an old problem, but I'm writing about it because I just ran into more gliches... :(

A few months back, I replaced my old XP "work" machine with a very well-equipped Quad-Core machine, with 5GB memory... And Vista 64-Bit.

I have two primary printers in my office. One is a LaserJet 3015, the other is a DeskJet 9650.

HP had Vista-compatible drivers for the LaserJet 3015. Great, right? Well, not so much. The drivers that HP released for Vista treat it like a standard one-function laser printer. Faxing from the computer is gone, and scanning through the document feeder just doesn't work. I told myself I could live without these features, and when I've wanted to use them over the last few months, I argued that the lack of these features wasn't worth replacing the device.

On to the Deskjet 9650. When I bought this printer, I thought I was in heaven. Fast everyday prints, slow-but-amazing LARGE prints (up to 13" x 19", 11" x 17" borderless). When I set up the new computer, I discovered that HP has no Vista-compatible drivers for this printer. That being said, a few points of light on the internetz suggested that using a different driver for a different model would work. To a large extent, this has worked. Of course, the driver doesn't support the borderless printing, and I haven't even tried to print BIG POSTERS. This is the printer I print my business invoices on. I have my logo in color, I put "make payable to" with a highlighted yellow background, etc.

Anyway, this morning it just decided to not work. It did this the other day, and turning it off and on seemed to "fix" the problem then, but not now. I don't have time to connect it to an XP machine this morning.

Looks like today's appointments will be getting black & white invoices...

I think I'm going to have to suck it up and replace both after the holidays...

Outlook 2003 was showing TWO instances of my PST...

I use Outlook 2003 very extensively, and was unaware that it suddenly started showing two instances of my "Personal Folders" file.

The two data sources didn't show in the "Mail" control panel item, so I couldn't remove the second one. Within Outlook, I couldn't close the second one.

Normally this wouldn't cause a problem, and it didn't - EXCEPT for the auto-backup add-in. It saw two identical PST's, and chose to ignore BOTH of them.

Here's what I did to fix it.

I created a new profile, and redirected that profile to use the original PST file.

I then re-entered all 11 email accounts, and everything's okay now.

WOW!

Went to the Apple Store today to get the iPhone fixed. They didn't even send it in.
THEY GAVE ME A NEW ONE!!! WHOO HOO!!