Outlook Messages stuck in Outbox then Disappear - Recover Email Items

A very frustrating error which goes something like this.

You type up a bunch of emails and then hit send, they will then sit in the outbox forever not sending. You close down and reopen outlook and the email items have magically disappeared no sign of them in drafts or deleted items.

This issue currently occurs in Outlook 2010 & 2013

Cause: The cause of this issue according to microsoft is the use of Network Archive .PST files , so if you have those attached remove them if you can or move away from them slowly.

The other reason is 3rd party addins, the most common culprit is the itunes/icloud addin.

Solution

not so much a solution but a way to recover your emails that were not send.

1. Download MFCMAPI -> http://mfcmapi.codeplex.com/

2. Load the mail profile on your computer if possible , otherwise run mfcmapi on the clients machine

3. Right click the mail profile and click Open Store

4. Navigate to the Recoverable Items folder , Right click and select Open Contents Table

5. Sort by Received or Submitted Date 

6. Find your email, right click and export message to .msg

there you have it,  its not a total loss you can retrieve the emails. It would be nice if Microsoft fixed the issue though

best of luck , hope it helped

Buy Kindle Books from Amazon Japan outside of Japan - Guide

A guide on how to buy books from Amazon.co.jp when you are not actually in Japan ( Working as of 03/09/2014)

So Basically if you have been lucky enough to buy an Amazon kindle Paperwhite from Japan you would have realized your luck just ran out and you can no longer buy books when you aren't physically located in Japan. Amazon support's response was please wait until you get back to Japan before buying anymore books.

For some people there will be a short window in which you can buy books while outside of Japan but Amazon usually pick up on this after 2-3 Months and your stuck with the books you have for now.

Here's how to get around it

1. Signup to Amazon.co.jp

I assume you have already signed up at Amazon.co.jp but just in case you haven't head over there and signup for an account. If you cannot read the Japanese text you can view the page in English by clicking the button on the top of the page.

 2. Setup your Credit Card

Go to your amazon account settings and enter your credit card details . Feel free to add a fake Japanese address and zip code as these details are not used by Amazon when processing credit card payments

for example
Last Name: Smith
First Name: John
Post Code/Zip Code: 535-0005
Prefecture/Area: 大阪府 (Osaka-fu)
Phone number: 090 22224444

3. Find a Free Japanese Proxy

The next step is to find a free japanese proxy that you will use to connect through thus making your ip address appear as though you are physically located in japan. I use gatherproxy.com to find a suitable proxy but there are many others sites out there.

Look for one with an anonymity level of elite this will hide your ip address as well as protect the security of your data going in and out of the proxy server.

4. Configure your browser to use the proxy server

the next step is to configure your browser to use the proxy , in this case I am going to use internet explorer as an example. Open Internet explorer and goto

Tools -> Internet Options -> Under the Connections Tab goto LAN settings

now enter the IP address and Port of the proxy you have chosen and hit OK

5. Head back to Amazon.co.jp and buy books

Now navigate back to amazon.co.jp (note: it may be slower now as you are connecting through the proxy) but with a bit of patience you should be able to log back into your account and start purchasing your books and sending them straight to your kindle device.

I did notice every now and then I would get an error saying my payment method was not available but with the amazon 1 click buy feature it seemed to let my transaction through anyway and my CC was charged correctly.

Currently this is the easiest way to buy books from amazon.co.jp , some people have explored other methods such as using vpn's and specialized routers to run their connection through a proxy so that purchases can be made directly from the device itself.

This is not really a big deal when purchases can be made from the amazon site just as easily and can still be received by a kindle device that is connected to a home wifi.

as always things may change in the future but enjoy it while it lasts. Otherwise if you run into CC issues the other alternative is to buy amazon gift cards from ebay and make your purchases that way.

Symantec Backup Exec - Snapshot Technology Initialization failure FIX

Error Description:

Backup Success with Exceptions

Backup
- Snapshot Technology: Initialization failure on "" Snapshot technology used: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

V-79-10000-11226 - VSS Snapshot error. The Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshot technology selected returned: "Unexpected provider error". Ensure that all provider services are enabled and can be started. Check the Windows Viewer for Details

Window Event Viewer

Volume Shadow Copy Service error: Error calling a routine on a Shadow Copy Provider {b5946137-7b9f-4925-af80-51abd60b20d5}. Routine details EndPrepareSnapshots({740e902c-ec91-446e-9c98-4fbc083864a5}) [hr = 0x80042302, A Volume Shadow Copy Service component encountered an unexpected error.
Check the Application event log for more information.
].


The Fix

All steps may not be needed.

1. Ensure that VSS Volume Shadow Copy Service is set to Manual startup type so that Backup Exec can initiate it when needed.

start - run - services.msc

2. Set Backup Exec to use the Volume Shadow Copy Service instead of letting it decide automatically

- Right click your Backup job and goto Edit
- Click Edit under the Backup Subheading
-  Under Advanced Open File , select snapshot provider as System - Use Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider.

3. Unplug any USB hard drives currently plugged into the Backup Server

This will most likely be the solution for 90% of ppl having this issue. If you have any usb harddrives currently plugged into the server that are not being used or are being used for other jobs for some reason these are interferring with the volume shadow copy service initializing.

Unplug the drive and give it a try it will most likely give you backup success without exceptions.

Office 2013 Crashing everytime you Print - HP Office & PDF Printing Not Responding

here is a real doozey of an issue, just a real pain and it only seems to happen with Office 2013 and some HP and Canon printers.

Solution

1. Turn off Smart Install

First of all do yourself a favour and turn off the HP Smart Install Feature under

Menu -> Services -> HP Smart Install

this feature is meant to make it easier to install the printer but more often than not it messes it up , take this off and next time you add the printer either via usb or network , choose have a disk and specify the drivers you would like to use. Download drivers from hp website.

2. Disable Printer Status Notification

1. If you are unable to right click your printer and goto Printer Properties. Log off and back on.
2. Right click printer and select Printer Properties
3. Under the Device Settings tab , change Printer Status Notification to DISABLED

that should hopefully fix your issues

Excel 2010 Missing Data and Rows - No Row Numbers

annoying issue made more frustrating by excel 2010 fancy menu's

Problem: 

Row numbers are missing including all data and columns usually until the very end of the worksheet. People often search around the view tab in vain trying to hide and split the workbook but this effects the workbook as a whole and not individual rows and columns. Always check your page layout for an easy fix first though.

Resolution

3 options to go about fixing this issue

1. Unhide Rows

Select the area that contains the missing row numbers and data or select all the data (CTRL + A )

Under the Home Tab - Format -> Hide and Unhide - Unhide Rows

your data and row numbers should reappear.

2. Check the Filter

Make sure you are not accidently applying a filter to your data which may be hiding everything from your very worried eyes

under the Home Tab again , click Sort & Filter and Clear any filters you may have

3. Last Resort - Safe Mode

If all else fails run excel in safemode to rule out third party addins or other setting messing with your data. Goto Run and type in excel /safe

also check your frozen panes if your still having trouble, that is all hope it helps as usual

4. Excel Save as with Macro's Enabled

Some rows may appear blank when opened with macro's disabled or in compatibility mode, go to excel file -> save as and choose Macro Enabled Excel Workbook .

Then close and retry the workbook again

Myob Accountright 2014.2 Error exporting Report to Excel - error TRIBAL.xlt

Here is a common error people are running into when trying to export reports in Myob Accountright 2014.2 to Excel , PDF seems to be fine.

Error -
C:\users\username\documents\MYOB\accountright\2014.2\reports\spreadsheet\TRIBAL.xlt


The issue arises when the 2014.2 installation for whatever reason fails to install the report excel templates into the directory

c:\Users\Public\Documents\MYOB\AccountRight\2014.2\Reports\Spreadsheet

Most likely this folder will be empty, it should not be

Solution

Copy the template files (.xlt) from another version of myob on your computer or install 2014.1 and copy from there e.g 2013.5 will also work

c:\Users\Public\Documents\MYOB\AccountRight\2013.5\AU\Reports\Spreadsheet

copy everything in the above directory into the 2014.2 path

That should be it, if you are super unlucky you may see the error below

Error - Exception from HRESULT: 0x800AC472

I got past this error by reinstalling myob, it seems to be some sort of error between Microsoft excel and myob communicating. hope that helped

Inserting .m4v movie file into Powerpoint - No Need to convert

This is going to be an ultra short post, basically people are having issues when trying to insert a .m4v apple video format video into a Microsoft powerpoint presentation.

It is also a huge pain to convert the video into an mp4 or other easily playable format.

Solution

1. Visit http://www.apple.com/au/quicktime/download/ and download quicktime , this will give powerpoint the ability to play .m4v files directly

I have noticed you can actually uninstall quicktime afterwards and it will still work, there must be some codecs installed during the installation that allow this to work.

fin

PayDay 2 Steam Minimized Game FIX - Working FIX Payday 2 Crash

Here is a quick fix for the steam game Payday 2 , For a lot of people the game is opening minimized and is unable to be maximized.

Here are the steps to fix the issue

 1. Visit the directory

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\PAYDAY 2

 or wherever you have installed the game.

2. Right click Payday2_win32_release.exe and goto Properties

3. Under the compatibility tab under the settings list, Check all the options and Click Apply

Check -> Run in 256 Colors, Run in 640 X 480 screen resolution , disable visual themes, disable desktop composition, disable display scaling

The game will now run , and you can manually change the resolution settings to match your monitor under the video settings within the game. This issue appears to be caused by faulty resolution settings within the renderer_settings.xml

I did also run the game validation but not sure if it is needed for the game to work. You can also take a look in the renderer_settings.xml if the above fix does not work and change the resolution to 800 x 600 or something your monitor can handle. C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\PAYDAY 2

its likely that you don't need to tick every option , but what the heck it worked me so hopefully it works for you.

Microsoft Office 2010 - Thesaurus and Synonyms missing or no suggestions

Microsoft Office 2010 - Thesaurus and Synonyms missing or no suggestions

what an annoying error just when you can't think of how to word something more elegantly , your
synonyms go walk about on you. Here's how to fix it (hopefully)

1. Delete Normal Templates

backup the normal template then delete or cut out of the directory

C:\Users\*USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates

this fix may not always work , but can work if you have custom macro's causing the issue

2. Different versions of Office

If you have different versions of office installed it may mess with the office proofing features
for example some new laptops come with a demo of office 2010/13 which should be uninstalled
as it has been known to disable the proofing tools for some people.

3. Reinstall the Office Proofing Tools

goto Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Select Microsoft Office -> Change -> Add or Remove Features

Go down to Office Shared Features and select "Run from My Computer"

sometimes it doesn't register the option for whatever reason , select "not available" then reselect Run from my computer

select Continue, let office install the proofing features (thesaurus, synonyms, research)

4. Same Steps as 3 but select Repair

thats all hope it was helpful :)

Lenovo Thinkpad Helix - Errors and Fixes - Hdd Error, Fan & Keyboard not working

Issues, Errors and Fixes for Lenovo Helix Laptops

Before trying the fixes make sure you have all the latest drivers
, by using System update -> http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=TVSU-UPDATE

Issue 1 : Detection error on HDD0 (Main HDD), No Harddrive detected

Common issue occurs when starting the laptop it is often fixed by simply powering
the machine off then powering back on. If not try the following steps

- Wait for the HDD detection Error to disappear
- Press Tab and Enter Setup (bios) on Blue Screen
- Navigate to the Boot Options
- Make sure that ATA HDD1 is the first priority (if that doesn't work try the Windows Boot Manager)
(Shift & + ) to move hdd up

Issue 2 : Keyboard dock not working or frozen when plugged into power

issue occurs where the keyboard dock will not be detected or whenever
ac power is plugged in it will become unresponsive

- attach the screen to the keyboard dock with power plugged in
and then use a paperclip to reset the keyboard dock
- Remember to reset the keyboard while powered for this fix to work

all should be good after this but for good measure update the keyboard dock firmware

- Download the Enhanced Keyboard dock update utility from
http://support.lenovo.com/en_AU/downloads/detail.page?DocID=DS035554

Issue 3: Fan Error

Fan error's are a pain with lenovo machines it most likely means a hardware repair

before you call tech support makes sure you reset both the screen and keyboard dock
using a paperclip (with and without ac power plugged in)

Issue 4: Screen's not displaying , or only one screen is showing when using Lenovo USB dock

I see this issue occur when people are using two screens which are both connected using dvi cables, for some reason only one screen will show. The only proven solution to this issue is to use the vga to dvi adapter that comes with the docking station.

The Dock has 2 dvi , one dual link and one single link. Use the dvi to vga adapter on the dual link and connect a vga cable from the adapter to the monitor that will fix this issue for most people.

Also note a firmware update for the keyboard/dock has been released. Fixes a few issues

Issue 5: Dual Screens not working

very similar to the one above the basic steps will involve

 - Turning off and on docking station
- Updating Display link drivers for docking station
- Unplug replug usb cable for docking station
- Disconnect tablet from keyboard dock and re-attach 

that is all

Blinking Flickering Mouse Cursor Fix - Word Applications and Other

Funny one I ran into recently, where your mouse cursor will just go crazy when using a office application , constantly flashing or blinking as if its trying to load a program. Here are the Fixes

1. Check your Default Printer

have you installed a new printer recently or updated drivers, This is known to cause the blinking mouse cursor issue in Microsoft Word. Change your default printer to see if you see any changes. Or uninstall recently installed printers and reinstall using most recent drivers.

2. Antivirus Software

Disable your anti virus software to see if that fixes the issue. Especially a piece of software that performs in the background virus scanning.

3. Disable your Word Addins and Macro's

4. Check your task manager for processes with High memory and or CPU usage

5. Try different usb port, having a dodgy usb port thats not supplying enough power can cause this issue in some cases.

6. New Mouse Time

Outlook 2010 PST archive permission Denied FIX - File Access Denied

Frustrating issue especially when you originally created the archives, It should be pretty straight forward to fix the issue. (note: always open the archive don't import it )

1. Run Outlook as Administrator

Right click on your outlook shortcut, under the compatibility tab , check " Run this program as an administrator" (if you start to get popup's every time you go to open a program you can turn UAC off if your environment allows)

2. Check permissions on .PST archive file

Right click on the pst archive and goto the security tab, add the user "everyone" and give them full permissions and retry opening the archive.

3. Untick Read Only Attribute

Right click on your archive file go to properties and make sure that Read Only is unticked.

thats all folks, if your still having issues. You may be trying to access your pst from a network location which is not recommended by Microsoft but theoretically should still work if not , copy it across to a local directory and try again.

Iphone 5 - Charger Adapter FIX Accessory not supported

You may find you start getting this message with your ebay bought cheap iphone 4 to iphone 5 adapter cables , Converter Adapter

Once you receive this message there are two ways to get it to keep working.

1. Plug cable into a usb hub or usb powering device before plugging into phone.

2.
-Plug in Lightning cable to iPhone.
-Dismiss any warnings.Unlock your iPhone.
-Dismiss any remaining warnings.
-Now with the screen turned on, unplug the Lightning cable and Plug cable back in
-Dismiss warning again. It should now be working

3. Turn Phone off and plug cable in, turn off the phone if it turns back on by itself ( will continue to charge even though you cannot see the progress) Only fix that I found to work

Windows 7 - Cannot delete or Rename Folder or File in use

A painful bug in Windows 7 when you are unable to delete, move or rename a folder or file and received the message " The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program, Close the folder or file and try again".

Steps to Resolve

1. Folder Options

Goto Tools - Folder Options -> View Tab

Uncheck - Always show icons, never thumbnails and also  show preview handlers in preview pane

2. 3rd Party Applications

The other option is to disable a third party application that may be causing the issue

Top Offenders include

Acrobat Reader Tray
Windows Media Player service for av files
Picture Viewer

hope it may help

Enable Aero Peek in Windows - Greyed Out Aero Peek

Common issue that I keep running into were windows will magically disable Aero Peek all on its own. Aero peek basically lets you hover over an icon in your taskbar and view a little sneak peak of whats going on in that applications

Here's how we turn it back

1. Right Click on My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced System Settings -> Visual Effects

tick " Enable Peek"

2. In Windows 8 , right click the very right hand bottom corner of your screen and click on "Peek at Desktop"

3. Aero Peek will only work with Windows Aero Theme's not Windows Basic Theme's. These theme's allow transparent taskbars which is required by aero peek.

4. Right click Taskbar and goto properties. Tick Peek Preview

5. If all else fails you may possibly have a Mirror Driver installed , often used with screen sharing software which can disable aero peek and windows aero themes. Disable the mirror driver or uninstall and try again. Good luck hope it helps

One last one , if all else fails change the value of DesktopLivePreviewHoverTime from 0 to 500 through regedit -> HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced.