[SOLUTION] Traffic not appearing on Garmin nuvi 1690

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I’m really liking the Garmin nuvi 1690 with nuLink, which I hope to write a review for Amazon soon. One problem that I experienced was that I couldn’t get the traffic icon to show up on the screen and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on in the settings. I finally downloaded the owner’s manual (http://static.garmincdn.com/pumac/nuvi1690_OwnersManual.pdf) and found this:

Go to Tools > Settings > Security and change the Position Reporting to On. This certainly should have been on a sticker on the screen, or at least in the Quick Start Guide, but it’s not. How many people will figure this out??

I also found that after parking the car for a few hours and heading out again, the traffic icon many times does not appear, even after the cell signal is 5 bars for a half hour. I found that I can get the traffic icon back by holding in the power button for over 10 seconds and letting go – if the Garmin logo comes up, the GPS is rebooting. This has worked for me. I just updated the GPS software from the my.garmin.com website, so I’ll see if that fixes the missing traffic icon issue.

[FIX] Start Menu icons are missing or deleted after malware

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There is a new piece of malware making the rounds that hides or deleted your Start Menu icons/shortcuts. The program folders in the All Programs button are still there, but they show up as Empty.

I really didn’t want to manually restore each one, and I couldn’t definitively figure out if those shortcuts are saved with System Restore (very doubtful). So here is how I found them:

[Instructions based on Windows XP]

Start menu > Search > click All Files and Folders > type *.LNK for the file name > click More Advanced Options > check all three boxes starting with “Search” > click Search.

In this case, I found all the shortcuts here: c:\documents and settings\[user]\local settings\temp\smtmp\1\ STRANGE

I then had to manually move them to c:\documents and settings\all users\start menu\programs

Any better methods — please comment!!

[UPDATE 2/15/12 : Here is a support page from ESET that has a utility that might fix this easily. If you try it, please comment.]

[FIX] Can’t open EXE files AND can’t open REG files to fix it

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I don’t know why this happened (although registry corruption is my guess), but a user of mine lost the ability to open EXE files, so when I went to fix that using Doug Knox’s EXE fix, it wouldn’t allow me to open the REG file either. Since I couldn’t open EXE files, I couldn’t open REGEDIT to insert the REG info. Here is a summary of the issues:

“Windows cannot open this file:
File: firefox.lnk

-Use web service to find appropriate service
-select program for list”

I managed to bypass this and access firefox by choosing ‘select program from list’ and then choosing it. I then found the web site with the .lnk fix and found i couldn’t open the download:

“Windows cannot open this file:
File: lnkfile_fix.reg

-Use web service to find appropriate service
-select program for list”

When i went on the start menu an clicked run and typed regedit i got this message:

“Windows cannot open this file:
File: regedit.exe

-Use web service to find appropriate service
-select program for list”

CREDIT: User calumtm http://www.computer-juice.com/forums/f48/lnk-file-association-fix-9352/

 

My workaround came from the same post, which is taken from Doug Knox’s page:

“If your EXE file associations are corrupted, it can be difficult to open REGEDIT, or to even import REG files. To work around this, press CTRL-ALT-DEL and open Task Manager. Once there, click File, then hold down the CTRL key and click New Task (Run). This will open a Command Prompt window. Enter REGEDIT.EXE and press Enter. Thanks to Nigel Andrews for this tip.”

QuickBooks 2011 Automatic Credit Card Billing – LOST!

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I just replaced my computer and installed QuickBooks Pro 2011 on the new computer. I moved my data files and checked to make sure that the automatic/recurring credit card billing information was there — and it was. However, I looked yesterday and found it is all gone!! I went through this before and don’t want to do it again!

I called, waited for 45 minutes and spoke with a lady that said there was a technical problem and they will fix it for me on their end. We’ll see…

[UPDATE 6/6/10] On Sunday afternoon, 6/5, I received a phone call and email from Patrick at Intuit apologizing for the missing recurring credit card data and informing me that they restored everything to how it was a few weeks ago.  The email included a special email address for the issue and the voicemail included a way of calling for expedited service. All my recurring credit card charges happened on the correct day and everything seems to be back to normal.

[SOLUTION] Windows Update Error 80072EFE on Vista

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I was working on a Windows Vista laptop that was infected and all the user files were hidden. This is my third computer with similar symptoms this week… After running MalwareBytes’ Antimalware, some things just didn’t “feel” right and Windows Update wouldn’t work, with this error: Error 80072EFE.

After reading some, I found this post, which had the solution: run Kaspersky’s TDSSKiller. It found a boot sector virus; I chose to Restore the boot sector (which can be risky). It did the trick!