How to tell if your LG G4 will bootloop / Possible ways to prevent or repair.

This post will help inform you of whether or not your LG G4 is prone to the boot loop issue and how you can take some preventative steps to stop it from happening. As well as some methods to recover data if you have already boot looped.

Firstly, in order to tell if you have a potential bootloop LG G4 device, go to your keypad and type: *#546368#*815#. If you have another variant of the G4, just repalce 815 with your version number. (I have the H815 variant.)

This will bring up the following menu, click on the SVC Menu option.

Then click on the version information menu.

Here you will see your hardware version number. Mine is 1.0. The updated motherboards without the boot loop issue is version 1.1. If you have 1.0, you are most likely to have the boot loop issue coming at you sooner or later.

However, this is not the only determinant, if you look up your IMEI number found behind your phone's battery, you can type it into this website: http://www.imeipro.info/check_lg.html and you will be able to see the manufactured date of the device. Typically, devices manufactured before October 2015, will have this issue, however it was reported that some devices manufactured later on still had the issues. 

(Some people are lucky enough to never have the boot loop issue to date, even with the details mentioned above.)

The issue is due to a faulty chip on the motherboard, which contains the A57 CPU. It has been known to overheat and cause connection issues to the motherboard and hence cause the boot loop issue. 

Potential Fixes

There is a YouTuber called 'Youber.cz' who posted this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbJXwPmbXFc informing users that they can root their devices on lollipop, and disable certain cores of their device if they have been in a boot loop. This will give the user time to recover some of their data. 

He also shows us how you can re-enable some other CPU cores on the device and disable the BAD A57 Cores so you can still use your device, just at a lower speed. This has known to work for a lot of users, however some still have not gotten success with this. 

Another temporary fix may be to take the motherboard out of the phone and bake it in the oven for about 3 minutes on 400 degrees Fahrenheit to help re-solder the joints of the CPU and allow you more time to get the device to power on and recover important data. 

If all else fails, you may just have to purchase another motherboard from online, that's if you want to spend the money to do so, or if you're lucky enough, LG will fix it for you under warranty. 

Prevention

Referring to the same YouTuber as mentioned above, if you are worried you may have this issue sooner or later based on your findings of your hardware version and/or your manufacture date, and you have no warranty from LG, I believe that following his tutorials on rooting your device and disabling some of the cores, may save you the time of waiting for the problem to occur. (This will void your warranty.)

You can simply root your device and download 'any' application that can disable certain cores on your device, and simply disable the two big cores and you should be in the clear from having the boot loop problem happening to you. 

You will need to be extra careful not to brick or damage your device inoperable by following any rooting instructions incorrectly, or by trying any of the techniques mentioned above in this tutorial, as I would take no responsibility if anything happens to your device, but I've tried all options already with some success. 

_

If you are lucky enough to still own the device and no boot loop problems have happened to you yet, you may be one of the lucky ones that have gotten away with no such issues. The LG G4 device is an amazing phone however, and I hope that no other devices would have these issues in the future. 

How to hang a poster or picture perfectly centered on a wall

Today I'm going to teach you how to easily center your poster or picture on a wall so it would look awesome in half the time it would take to average it with someone else's help.

Follow these 5 easy steps to continue:-

Step 1

Measure the full length of the wall. As seen below, we have an example wall with the length 80cm.

Step 2

Measure the full length of the painting/picture. The example painting we have is about 60cm long.

Step 3

Subtract the length of the wall from the length of the painting. From the example above, if we subtract 80cm - 60cm, we get 20cm remaining.

Step 4

The remaining value you get, divide it by 2. From the above example, if we divide 20cm by 2, (20 / 2), we will get 10cm.

Step 5

This value is how much you need on either side of the painting in order for it to be perfectly centered on the wall. 

We will use the value we got from the above example, which is 10cm, and measure it off on each side.

Measure it off, put 2 little marks on either side, then the painting would sit comfortably in between the marks and be perfectly centered on the wall without anyone's help! 

Good job, the measurements may vary on different walls, and may need more precise calculations in the decimal formats to be exactly centered, but its not rocket science, so go forth and hang your paintings!

Top 10 - Windows 10 Shortcuts that you should know about!

These 10 extremely useful shortcuts are a must have when doing many tasks on your Windows 10 computer on a daily basis. Let's take a look!

1. Windows Key + G

This one is for the gamers out there who like to to record and take screenshots of their everyday gaming on Windows. This may not work for all apps, but is still very useful!

2. Windows Key + X

This command brings on the context menu for the start button. It shows many system utilities that are super easy to get to, such as command prompt, event viewer, device manager, and more.

3. Windows Key + (Left, Right, Up, Down) Arrow Key

This is another cool option as this can easily snap your current windows to the left or right of the screen or where ever you want!

4. Windows Key + I

This easily and quickly brings up the Windows 10 settings menu with easy access to all your settings on your machine.

5. Windows Key + Tab

This shortcut allows you to quickly switch between all open windows and even virtual desktops! You may even use this to create a new virtual desktop to keep your work space clean!

6. Windows Key + P

This will quickly allow you to switch to a projector if necessary during your presentations at work or if you simply want to connect to multiple displays for gaming!

7. Windows Key + L

Many of you may know this already, this shortcut simply locks your Windows 10 device if you quickly need to step out for some coffee and need to protect your computer from those lurking around!

8. Alt Key + Space bar

This shortcut brings up the context menu on any open window, which will allow you to quickly minimize any open window or perform other tasks such as open the task manager.

9. Windows Key + A

This shortcut can bring up the notifications that are present in your Windows action center. These notifications are sometimes really important, such as to alert you if any anti-viruses need updating, or if any threats are detected in your system, or about any things that need addressing in your computer. It also allows certain shortcuts to the bottom to get to settings, bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and more!

10. Windows + CTRL + D

This quick and simple shortcut quickly and instantly creates a new virtual desktop which is completely empty of any open programs. It may be useful when someone is passing by and you don't want them to know what you are doing, so you can quickly switch to a new virtual desktop and look as if you aren't doing anything at all. 

These shortcuts are available on all Windows 10 machines and some may even work on earlier versions of Windows. Enjoy and have fun using these tricks!

Fixing dead/stuck pixels on your monitor

How to fix dead/stuck pixels on your monitor 

                   

Are you dealing with sudden dead pixels on your monitor? That is, one or 2 dots on your screen randomly stays one color and doesn't change?

Try this handy website to potentially solve all your issues! Click on the following link to open J Screen Fix

What usually happens is that sometimes certain pixels get stuck while updating their color, however the pixels next to them still change. This is most visible in darker backgrounds, so you may not notice it at first, or even believe that it isn't there. Most of the times this handy little tool can fix it and does an amazing job! 

What are you waiting for? Try J Screen Fix for yourself!

Reviving a slow, or even old/dead computer motherboard

Cheap DIY tricks to revive an old motherboard

You'll be surprised at how many people throw away motherboards because they've stopped working or because their computers were crashing and they couldn't figure out why, so the only solution was to trash the old mobo and replace it. 

If you're experiencing random crashes, extremely slow performance, or simply want to revive an old or dead mobo to see if you can get any life out of it, try fixing it yourself, and save some money doing so! 

Some basic soldering and electronic experience needed!

1. Firstly, you will need your culprit, the motherboard. That is, once you're sure that all other components in your computer is fine. Disconnect it completely from your computer, and set it aside.

2. Notice the cylindrical components on the board? Those are capacitors! They can be of many colors and sizes, sometimes, purple, black, red, and more, however, this tutorial focuses on the cylindrical shaped ones alone. They simply store and release energy really quickly. 

Now what can happen, is that some of these can look swollen on the top or even burst. This is most often caused by overheating of the computer, or power surges or simply old age. As we can see in the picture above, all of the capacitors are flat. (The silver spots). In the following picture, here is an example of a bad capacitor. 

Photo from: http://www.123rf.com/search.php?word=capacitor+bad&imgtype=0&t_word=&t_lang=en&oriSearch=capacitor+swollen&sti=nhsoore08qpjc4xjgn|&mediapopup=17445427

Although in the pic it shows how the capacitor exploded, sometimes they aren't always that noticeable, sometimes the top is just swollen a bit and not flat. This means that the capacitor is no longer good and cannot serve its purpose in your motherboard anymore. 

This would cause your computer to crash sometimes or just run slowly, it may even cause it to completely not boot anymore. Replacing these caps are very inexpensive, as some of them are a few cents each to purchase! That's right, and with a soldering iron and a little experience watching YouTube videos, you can be a pro at soldering!

3. You simply have to look on the side of the capacitors and get the 'rating', which is usually a voltage rate followed by a capacitance rating, for example, 250V 600uf. (uf = micro farads). Go to your local electronics store, tell them the rating you need and buy all the capacitors you want.

4. Be careful and de-solder all the capacitors, paying attention to the negative sign on the capacitor as they can only be installed one way! Re-solder your new capacitors and then power on your computer and hope for the best!

I have tried this multiple times on my own computers and for multiple others with success, and they are all grateful for the cheap fix to their old/broken motherboards. However, there may be times where there are further problems with the motherboards that aren't so easily fixable, which then, you may happily throw away your motherboard!

So next time, before spending the extra money for a new motherboard, inspect it and fix it yourself!

I do not claim responsibility if you harm yourself or others attempting this fix, so be careful!

DELL XPS 13 Static Noise/Audio Problem | FIX

How to fix the annoying XPS 13 Static Noise/Audio

Lately, the audio driver on some of the new XPS 13's have been giving some weird problems, as most of us are aware of. The sound plays very static-y and noisy whenever an audio is played. Some may start thinking something is wrong with their speakers. However, on these models, it's probably a software issue. As far as I know, there isn't an official fix for it yet, however, until we await this, here is a simple workaround that I've found to work and you can try it too.

1. First, hit start and search for 'Dell Audio'. 

2. In the application, go to the Speaker/Headphone section and then into the Default Format sub-section. 

3. From the screenshot above, change the format you currently have, to a higher one. If it is already set to the highest one, then change it to a lower one. That's All!

This should temporarily fix the problem, until an official fix is available. However, sometimes this fix doesn't always stay, and you may  have to come back and do it again from time to time, but it's the best we have for now. Good luck!

Other possible fixes

Some persons have gotten lucky by simple uninstalling and reinstalling their audio drivers or simply updating them. Some have also been lucky with a simple restart, so please try what you could, and if nothing else works, it could possibly be a hardware problem, and you can warranty the item if you're lucky!