Dell Monitor Won’t Turn On

Photo by yum9meMy Dell G2210 22″ LED  widescreen monitor refused to turn on this afternoon. This had happened once before, only a month or two after I purchased the refurbished monitor from Dell Outlet. Previously, I thought by simply unplugging the monitor for a few hours then plugging it in again, the monitor would somehow reset and it’d work. Well, that time, I’d gotten lucky. This time, it wasn’t working, so I set out to comb the Interwebs for solutions.

According to this post from Dell’s support forums, if you manually turn off your monitors after putting your system to sleep, your monitor may not wake up with the system. If your monitor isn’t turning on after you put your system to sleep and you manually turned off the monitor, the solution is as follows:

1. Power off the PC
2. Power off the monitor
3. Disconnect the power cable from the monitor
4. Disconnect all video cables from the monitor (USB, DVI, VGA, DisplayPort, HDMI, etc.)
5. While disconnected, press and hold the monitor power button for 5 seconds
6. Reconnect the video cable to the monitor
7. Reconnect the power cable to the monitor
8. Power on the monitor if it didn’t power on after connecting the power cable
9. Power on the PC
10. If no video is displayed, ensure the correct input is selected.

If this procedure doesn’t get your monitor to come back to life, follow the procedure again, but keep the monitor off longer. If that still doesn’t work, I hope your warranty is still valid!

I have two identical, refurbished Dell G2210 monitors and only one has caused the issue I describe here. Because I love using the (newly stable) sleep mode in Windows 7 and I dislike phantom power draw from “sleeping” monitors, I will continue to manually power off my monitors, but I will have to see if it makes a difference if I make sure to power off the the monitors before the computer enters sleep.

Unstoppable Cell Selection in Microsoft Excel

In Excel, moving the mouse anywhere on the screen will result in selecting all cells the mouse passes over. Excel does not respond to the right or left-click and can only be closed forcibly. In other words, the mouse cursor behaves as if the left-click is being pressed while in Excel causing it to do nothing but select cells indefinitely.

I believe this issue to primarily be a conflict with the Novell GroupWise Office integration (ODMA) for Microsoft Office. Secondarily, it may be an issue with the mouse driver.

Resolution:

1. In GroupWise, turn off or uninstall integrations (who likes them anyway?)
2. Search the computer and remove any instances of GWxl97.xla or GWXLUS.XLA.
3. In Excel, reset the Worksheet Menu Bar by going to View > Toolbars > Customize > Toolbars… then select “Worksheet Menu Bar” and hit Reset… This screen also shows a “Standard” toolbar which sometimes must also be reset.
4. Reboot.
5. If the issue persists, remove the mouse driver, reboot, and allow Windows to install a generic driver.
6. If the issue still persists, remove the mouse driver, install the driver specific to the mouse and reboot.
7. If the issue persists, then it’s not an issue with GroupWise integrations or your mouse driver. Good luck!

Verifying Game Files Crash [Steam]

I’m making a note here in the hopes that, perhaps, it will help a frustrated gamer out there, somewhere. The issue at hand occurs when you try to launch Team Fortress 2 (TF2), Half-Life (HL, HL2), or Counter-Strike (CS) (any game connected to Steam that uses the HL2 engine). Steam will launch a small window stating “Verifying Game Files.” Typically, this only takes place after updates to the game, or Steam, if Steam detects any game files have been changed, or if selected to do so manually. The issue occurs, however, on every launch. The process launches, subsequently takes a few seconds to “check” — even though it should take a minute or two — then terminates without launching your desired game. Continue reading »

Error: Headers already sent, /wp-includes/pluggable.php [WordPress]

So, you’re using WordPress and you just spent hours looking for the perfect theme to fit your new hybrid kitten-and-knitting blog. You upload the theme’s files into the appropriate folder, navigate to the themes page in the  administrative interface, and click “activate.” So far, so good, right? Later, you notice that anytime you save a page, post, or option, you’re greeted with an error much like the following:

Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /home/user/public_html/ccc/wp-content/themes/broken-theme/includes/theme-options.php:172) in /home/user/public_html/ccc/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 237

The exact nature of the error and line numbers will vary. The point is, your frilly new theme is broken or there’s a plugin conflict with it. Here’s a funny thing that happened with my situation and I suspect others may benefit from this tip. If you’re receiving these errors, and you’re still logged into your WordPress admin panel, activate a different theme you know works. The real problem begins if you log out.

If you are unable to access any portion of your site, or most importantly, the log in page, you’re going to need to get your hands dirty.

1. FTP into your WordPress themes folder, then to the folder for the offending theme (i.e. wp-content/themes/broken-theme).
2. Copy everything within that theme’s folder to another folder on the server, or to your hard drive (or just delete if you plan on installing fresh).
3. Copy the files from a known-good theme (like the included “classic” or “default”) into the folder you just emptied.
4. You should now be able to access your log in page. (www.yourdomain.com/wp-admin/)

You could just leave it as is and set out to fix or replace your bunk theme, however, I recommend “officially” activating the theme you wish to revert back to, then deleting the duplicate you created in step 3.

Wi-Fi Antennas On the Cheap [802.11 Wireless]

It should be noted right off that I intend to research information regarding unconventional wireless networking use. You probably won’t find much here that’ll help with day-to-day wireless networking. Unless, of course, you’re desperate and don’t care that your setup looks ridiculous.

Probably one of the most popular things I’ve run across when looking into wi-Fi antennas is what’s called “WOKTENNA” or “WIFRY.” Admittedly, these names aren’t used as often as the concepts that are derived from them, but I think the names are funny, and you should too.

The idea is to use any metallic parabolic device (think about what you have in your kitchen right now that fits this bill) and to place a wireless USB adapter at the focal point of the selected parabola. Its been found that Asian cookware, like various types of WOK cookware work very well for this purpose. Here is a site that shows a number of examples when people combine USB WiFi adapoters with DIY antennas to make a “poor man’s wifi,” including several variations of the WOKTENNA idea.

Another cheap option is the parabolic reflector antenna. The one I used is called the Windsurfer; a template is available at freeantennas.com. The site claims that a 1:1 scale of the template will net you about 9dbi of gain, double the size and you’ll see 12dbi of gain.

But, how do the cheapies compare to the “proper” devices available for increasing gain?

Using a stock Fonera (from FON) version 1 wireless access point with DD-WRT firmware I attached various antennas and performed simple signal trials using a laptop and Netstumler. Below, you can see a screencap of Netstumbler’s output. The first section on the left was just some testing before running the trials. The stock Fonera antenna provides a mere 1.5dbi of gain, and at approximately 111 meters, gets a signal to noice ratio of -70 to -60 dBm. A large 5dbi omni-directional antenna attached to the Fonera provides a solid -60dBm rating at 111 meters. The same antenna with a Windsurfer parabolic reflector provides slightly more gain. Using a 10dbi directional panel antenna — the “proper” way to direct wireless signals — performs equally with the 5dbi omni-antenna with the Windsurfer attatched.

WiFi Signal Stregnths of various antenna methods. (Click to view full image)

Approx. range of trials. (Click to view larger) Tests were performed at ground level, folliage was not an issue.

The most surprising result, however, is the result seen with the stock 1.5dbi Fonera antenna and the Windsurfer parabolic reflector. As Netstumbler reports it, this arrangement provides just as much gain, even a pinch more, than all previous antenna combinations, including the 10dbi directional panel and the much larger 5dbi omni-directional antenna!

So, if you’re trying to get a signal outdoors or to the other side of your home, try throwing a parabolic reflector antenna on your current setup before laying down any cash on inferior solutions!

Coming soon… additional tests with the same antennas at a larger distance, new antennas, and a dual-antenna setup (Linksys WRT-style).

Video Not Playing? Check Your Overlay Options!

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator Utility

The problem: This recent discovery–rather, rediscovery– was the final straw, causing me to reformat and reinstall a fresh copy of Windows on my laptop. I had been meaning to do it for a long time (something like 2 years), but I never found myself in the mood. However, something came up, and I needed to play a video on my laptop, which hadn’t worked for a few months (sound worked, no picture). On previous occasions I reinstalled the graphics driver, I reinstalled all the required codecs, and I tried playing the videos on Windows Media Player, VLC, Windows Media Classic, and Quicktime. Flash based videos from Hulu and YouTube worked wonderfully, just nothing else. So, on this particular occasion, I decided that it was far more difficult to troubleshoot the video problem than to just wipe the sucker.

But, the problem returned. $%&#!!

The solution: In a rare moment of serendipity, I recalled the Intel driver for my laptop’s integrated Intel 915GM Express Chipset installs a utility. This utility, the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator, includes a interface for adjusting the color, contrast, and brightness of a hardware accelerated video overlay. Years ago, I had the same problem where I eventually discovered (likely serendipitous as well) that, for reasons unknown to me, the options for the video overlay had been set to zero, so the overlay would appear pure black. So, the picture had been there the whole time, it had just been blacked-out. Returning the values to default will set everything right.

Now, knowing what to search for, I’ve found that it’s a known issue with the latest version of the driver, and can be corrected by downgrading (meaning Intel no longer support the driver, and you’re stuck with it.).

For more information, see the official Intel support page.

WordPress Stats Showing “Dummy” Image

Something went wrong...

Upon viewing your blog stats generated by the WordPress Stats plugin you see an image that looks like a bar graph with data back to 2003 with two colors, one representing “Region A” and the other, “Region B,” you’re looking at a dummy image that WordPress Stats inserts when something goes awry. (Personally, I think it would be better if something more descriptive was there, like an image that says “i is BROKDED!”) I wish I would had the foresight to take a screen shot of the image before I fixed the problem, but at any rate, the problem is resolved.

My solution (thank God, the easy one): Deactive the plugin, delete all related files, upload a fresh copy, and reactivate. You will have to re-enter your WordPress.com API key, and to keep your stats, choose to “Replace” the blog (the plugin will guide you through these steps) with the same URL that you’re reactivating.

If that doesn’t take care of the issue, there are other solutions in this thread.

Good luck!