Each month I will be publishing a monthly general tech blog post, where I cover some of my tech usage from the month that just ended.
These monthly blog posts are a good way to share updates, and to cover topics that I might otherwise never blog about or are about tech I’ve recently started to use.
In May the following occurred:
- Fixed an issue where the Windows start menu wouldn’t open in Windows 10.
- Installed a second SSD in a PC.
- Started using an iPhone 6s.
- I’ve been playing Company of Heroes Blitzkrieg Mod.
- Removed more hard disks from old Sky boxes.
- Used the Canon EOS M camera.
Windows 10 start menu wouldn’t open and another issue on a PC
I helped a person with their Windows 10 Pro 64-bit problem. When they clicked on the start menu it wouldn’t open to show applications, and it was running slow, occasionally showing an out of memory message.
I did the following:
- I backed up all documents and photos to a secondary external drive.
- I performed a sfc /scannow which found and fixed some issues. *
- I looked at S.M.A.R.T. for the SSD they use and it was okay.
- Installed Ccleaner, backed up the registry, then scanned and fixed registry issues. **
- Rebooted into safe mode and uninstalled some unwanted software. ***
- Disabled a few applications that are not required at boot up.
* I used a command prompt, run as an adminstrator.
** I think this is what fixed the start menu issue.
*** This is likely what fixed the out of memory issue.
Now their i5 computer is running smoothly again. I think the corruption might have occurred due to the owner hard powering down their PC with a SSD multiple times.
Installing a second SSD in a PC
A person wanted me to install a second SSD in their computer. I had advised that a mechanical drive would be a cheaper option and due to their usage a SSD wasn’t necessary.
They wanted the SSD, so with a bit of cable sorting, I fitted the SanDisk 480GB SSD and moved some files to it.
Apple iPhone 6s
My sister gave me her old iPhone 6s (with 64GB of space) which is ‘rose gold’. She had made sure the sim was unlocked, not associated with her account and the phone was reset. I’m thankful for the kind gift and the time my sister spent preparing the phone.
I purchased a white cover, installed a SMARTY sim (UK phone service) and have already started to use the phone. I’ve recorded 4k video which I’m quite impressed with and regularly use both the front and rear cameras.
Some of the applications I’ve installed are:
- Anchor
- Angry Birds (Star Wars)
- Authenticator
- Chrome
- Gunstar Heroes
- Pinball 7 (Star Wars table)
- OfficeSuite
Even though I’m currently using the iPhone, I’ve not walked away from my Android phones, which I will still carry on using from time to time.
Company of Heroes Blitzkrieg Mod
Company of Heroes is an old RTS computer game and I’ve installed the Blitzkrieg Mod which is amazing! I’ve been using the Mod for a while and in May I enjoyed playing multiplayer and skirmish games.
Sky satellite receiver hard drives
I’ve been removing old SATA hard drives from old Sky satellite receivers again. I buy the boxes at car boot sales, usually for between £3-5 GBP. These are not fast hard disks, but I’ve found it’s a cheap way to get spare hard drives, which recently I’m using for projects and testing.
Canon EOS M camera
Regular readers of the blog might know I like phones, but I also quite like cameras, but I’ve not blogged about them as much. I recently purchased a Canon EOS M, which is old, but I’m impressed by the quality of the photos.
Also I’ve used the Magic Lantern software with the camera, but at the moment I’m not using the firmware.
Via charity shops I’ve been purchasing some lenses and filters, but I’ve not spent much time with them yet. You can expect a blog post about this camera in the future.
What to expect in June
I’ve got a lot of old technology that in 2018/19 I played around with, which I’ve not blogged about yet. I also have a lot of old blog posts in draft, some of which I might revisit and publish.
It is also time to start moving on some of my old technology that I rarely use. So I might spend time looking at those items one last time, and possibly blog about the experience.