Navarr's Tech Side » Windows 7

How To: Fix Dell Truemobile 355 Bluetooth + EDR on Windows 7

Navarr — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 02:54:55 +0000

One of the few problems that have really been giving a bad rap to Windows 7 users is the loss of proper Bluetooth Connectivity on Dell Laptops, specifically the Truemobile series. The cause is, unsurprisingly, a lack of Dell support – no updated drivers. In fact, if I recall, my Bluetooth wasn’t working properly on Windows Vista either, which the computer came pre-installed with. Since the problem is Dell Drivers, the solution is fairly simple: Screw Dell, set it back to the Windows Drivers.

Open up Device Manager.

Once there, right click “Dell Truemobile 355 Bluetooth + EDR” and click “Update Driver Software…”

You then want to “Browser [your] computer for driver software.”

Then click “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer”

Select the bottommost “Generic Bluetooth Adapter” and then wait forever for it to install. (Yes, this one takes forever for some god awful reason, but it seems to consistently work).

The next step is disabling the “Power Management” feature to turn this device off. (Since Dell has crappy driver support, this only helps to cripple the usage of Bluetooth).

Right click your new “Generic Bluetooth Adapter” once the Device Manager refreshes.

Click the “Power Management” tab in the properties dialog, and make sure to uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” Once you have done that, you should be good to go! No more Bluetooth Problems on your Dell =)

In this demonstration, I used a Dell Inspiron E1705, though this problem plagues many, many other Dell Laptops running Windows 7.

Making Windows 7 Blue Screen [How To]

Navarr — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 02:27:52 +0000

The most difficult problem I’ve encountered with Windows 7 is making it Blue Screen on me. You’d think after so many different versions, Microsoft would’ve made it much easier to crash your computer – but it seems like they’re doing just the contrary! What do these fools think they’re up to?

Either way, I’ve made my Windows 7 (RC) box Blue Screen on me twice – so I’ll share with you how I did it. Make sure to leave your own Blue Screen of Death stories in the comments below.

BSoD #1 – ATI TV Wonder

My first BSoD is brought to you by the ATI TV Wonder HD 600 USB PC TV Tuner, and yes – it is a very long name for a product. Aren’t you thankful I didn’t put “Diamond” in front of it?

Over all, this was an excellent product that I’m VERY happy I purchased from woot.com at a price far below its stock value. It was pretty much plug-and-play (I didn’t run the CD at first because, well, my Sony DVD drive has crapped out on my Laptop and will only read DVDs now. What the hell, Sony?) What was interesting about this device (and ultimately lead to the BSoD) was that Skype recognized it as a video source (read: Webcam) and decided I might want to use it. I thought that was fairly cool, but didn’t dabble any more into it (until later, right before my crash). So, while I had this thing plugged in and made Windows Media Center scan for channels, I decided “Well, I’m bored – I wonder what happens if I open this thing up in Skype too? I got my answer with some weird looking static, and then a Blue Screen. Congrats, Navarr! This was your first ever Blue Screen with Windows 7 (RC even!). And that was the last of that.

BSoD #2 – Lexar 4GB ExpressCard SSD

This is another small device I found for cheap on the internet, and purchased immediately because – well, it could be used with the Windows 7 ReadyBoost and I wasn’t using my Express Card slot on my laptop – I didn’t have any use for it.

It normally works pretty well. I’m not sure if the problem I’ve been encountering is Windows, My Computer, the Card, or it simply becoming loose but every now and then it will unmount and remount – so it may just be loose.

Either way, this happening over and over again while the device was dedicated to ReadyBoost has, of course, damaged the file system. After doing this enough times, eventually my computer Blue Screened on me – once. It hasn’t seemed to happen again. I’ve since repaired the file system and got it working again, but I’m not sure how long it’ll stay.

Final

So those are my BSoD Horror Stories for Windows 7. Do you have any of your own? Has Windows 7 ever crashed for you? Tell me all about it in the comments!

Overlooked: iTunes 9 & Windows 7 Make Sweet Love

Navarr — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:35:05 +0000

I’m not much of an Apple fanboy, in fact I generally don’t care much for the brand at all. But today’s iTunes update has made even me smile in elated happiness just a little bit.

Why is this, you ask? Because Apple is making sweet, sweet love with Windows 7.

As you can see, iTunes has added the ability to pause and skip forward and backward in Windows 7, a feature that (so far as I know) is only supported by Windows Media Player at this moment in time. But that isn’t all. The application now loads up quicker, doesn’t usually give off that annoying black background in place of UI elements, and even includes some Windows 7 Tasks!

As you can see very plainly in this picture, iTunes 9 has added tasks involving the iTunes store.

This is all of the secret love making I’ve found so far. Have you found any? If so, please, post about it in the comments!

Chrome’s Next Steps on Windows 7

Navarr — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:11:00 +0000

Back in August, Google Chrome introduced the Jumplist in the Developer’s Version of Chrome; the Jumplist being a new feature in Windows 7 that allows users to quickly and easily access tasks related to the program, as well as quickly open recently opened, and pinned files with the app. With its new version, Google Chrome had added “Most Visited,” “Recently Opened,” and “Tasks” to its Jumplist. Now, There are just a few more things Google needs to add to its Chrome web browser before it fits right in with Windows 7.

Tab Previews

In order to better compete with Microsoft’s new version of Internet Explorer 8 for Windows 7, Google needs to add previews for all open tabs on the web browser, allowing a user to quickly select the tab they want right from the Windows taskbar.

Status Indication

When Google Chrome is running in the background with that huge demo version of Adobe Premier Pro downloading, you really have no clue how far the download has gone without checking up on your downloads bar. A quick fix for this would be easily adding the status in the Chrome icon like Windows Explorer does.

Other Things

What else do you think Google Chrome needs to add in order to fit in with the Windows 7 Operating System that will better improve its functionality?