Wednesday, October 10, 2012

90 precious experiences that entrepreneur Jason Goldberg learnt from founding 4 tech companies

Jason Goldberg, the founder and CEO of Fab.com, has shared a list of 90 things he has learnt from founding 4 tech companies, which is a revision and extension from the 57 things he learnt from founding 3 tech companies that he shared 2 years ago.

If you are running a start-up or working as employee in a start-up, this long list of sharing will probably be inspiring to you.

Click here to read about the 90 things that Jason has learnt from founding 4 tech companies.

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Fixed Windows 7 Stop: 0x0000007B blue screen error during boot time

I have a HP Probook laptop running on Windows 7 Pro, which recently accepted an automated update to its BIOS.

After the BIOS update successfully, and system rebooted, I got a disaster! Now Windows will not reboot into login screen, it will reboot again halfway during the booting process, giving me 2 options: to enter recovery mode, or to boot normally.

I entered into the recovery mode, tried using Startup Repair, the problem was not fixed. Went into the same screen again, tried System Restore to previous checkpoint, still unable to fix.

Tried running Windows Memory Diagnostic, the RAM is fine. Tried entering Command Prompt and check the disk, fixed the MBR, all not working.

Then, I booted with the "Disable automatic restart on system failure" option, I found this Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) showing the infamous Stop: 0x0000007B error.


Here are other methods I tried to fix the problem, but all not working:
  • Download the latest BIOS from HP website, make the bootable USB drive and reflash the laptop BIOS with the USB drive
  • Download the previous BIOS from HP website, make the bootable USB drive and reflash the laptop BIOS with the USB drive
  • Boot with "Enable low resolution video (640x480)"
  • Boot with "Last Known Good Configuration (advanced)"
  • Boot with "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement"
  • Go into the BIOS, set the SATA mode from AHCI to IDE
  • Go into the BIOS, set back the SATA mode from IDE to AHCI
I was about to give up, boot using System Rescue CD, mounted the Windows 7 partition using ntfs-3g command copied my files in the /mnt/Windows directory to another PC using the SFTP method.

Then, I downloaded the ISO file of Windows 7 SP1 from this website, burn it into DVD, and boot the laptop with it.

Last try, run the Startup Repair from the Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD, reboot the laptop with its harddisk. It booted up using a longer time than normal, and Whoala! I got the login screen. Logged into the Windows, everything is still there, try rebooting it, and the Stop: 0x0000007B error has gone.

So, I finally managed to fixed this problem by running Startup Repair from the Windows 7 SP1 installation DVD, instead of the Startup Repair from the installed Windows 7 system in the harddisk.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Fixed Android phone unable to send out SMS problem after updated to ICS

About 2 months ago when I just updated my HTC Incredible S to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS), I noticed an SMS sending out problem as described below:

When a new SMS arrived to the phone and shown as pop-up message, I replied the SMS immediately. That replying SMS will not be sent and stuck at the sending out state. The SMS will eventually be sent out after the phone is rebooted.

This problem is not observed when the SMS is not directly sent from the pop-up box. Meaning, if the SMS is sent from within the SMS app, this problem will not occur.

I managed to find a workaround to fix this problem, and after observing for about 1 month now, I never encounter the same problem again after applying this fix.

If you are also having the same problem in sending out SMS reply, probably can try this fix.

Go to Settings > Call > Phone settings and disable "Home dialing". Restart the phone.

I think this problem is related to a bug in the Home dialing function in Android ICS, and disabling it is the workaround.


Hint: Click on the "Older Posts" link to continue reading, or click here for a listing of all my past 3 months articles.