All posts by at-admin

Amazon Instant Video network issues on Vizio Smart TV’s

Scenario:

Your Amazon Instant Video app does not find an internet connection and sometimes shuts down all together (and never recovers).  Once the app shuts down it stays shut down for the duration of the time you have the television on.

Workaround:

The Amazon apps seems to never recover once it fails to retrieve a network connection.  Sometimes after turning the TV on it takes a moment for the TV to access the local WIFI network.  The workaround is to give the TV time to access the network before accessing the Amazon app.  You can monitor whether a connection has been made by hitting the Vizio button on your remote and watching for the network connected/signal strength icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen.  Once you have a WIFI signal you will be able to open the Amazon app and connect.

Windows–The source file name(s) are larger than is supported by the file system.

Scenario:

You are trying to delete a file, possibly maliciously created and you run into this error:

The source file name(s) are larger than is supported by the file system.  Try moving to a location which has a shorter path name, or try renaming to shorter name(s) before attempting this operation.

Solution 1:

Use an auto-generated 8.3 name to access the file and delete it from the command prompt.  This means, every long file in windows still can be referenced by it’s 8 character name with a 3 dot extension.  E.g. this file “mm_backup.cfg” could be referenced by using “mm_bac~1.cfg”.  Take the first 6 characters, then put a tilde and a 1 (if it’s the first in order) then the dot extension.  A command might look like “del mm_bac~1.cfg”.

Solution 2:

Create a new user account, try to move the file into that account and then delete the account (this hinges on whether the operating system will let you move the file).  Alternatively, you can create a new user account, migrate all of your files and settings there and then delete your account (taking that file with it).  You want to be certain to backup all of your files before you do this.

Solution 3:

Map a drive to a folder inside the structure of the path of the target file or folder. This method shortens the virtual path.

For example, suppose you have a path that is structured as follows:

\\ServerName\SubfolderName1\SubfolderName2\SubfolderName3\SubfolderName4\...

In this path, the total character count is over 255 characters. To shorten the length of this path, to 73 characters, map a drive to SubfolderName4.

Microsoft also recommends other alternatives that may or may not work for your scenario.  Reference this support article:

How to make a JavaScript POST to a page

Scenario:

You want to post data from one page to another with JavaScript.

Solution:

First, create a JavaScript function in your page.  This will need to be surrounded by script tags and should probably live in the head tags (or have a js file included there):

JavaScript

function postwith (to,p) {
  var myForm = document.createElement("form");
  myForm.method="post" ;
  myForm.action = to ;
  for (var k in p) {
    var myInput = document.createElement("input") ;
    myInput.setAttribute("name", k) ;
    myInput.setAttribute("value", p[k]);
    myForm.appendChild(myInput) ;
  }
  document.body.appendChild(myForm) ;
  myForm.submit() ;
  document.body.removeChild(myForm) ;
}

Now, you can post via click (or other events) on elements. This example I’ll just use a hyperlink:

<a href="javascript:postwith('post.php',{firstname:'john',lastname:'smith'})">click</a>

How to clear/flush the DNS cache in Google Chrome

Scenario:

You want to clear/flush the DNS cache in Google Chrome.  This maybe necessary if you are a web developer and are working on updating the DNS pointers for your site (Note, you may need to flush the DNS cache in the OS also).

Solution:

Enter “chrome://net-internals/#dns” in the Chrome address bar, navigate there and then click the “Clear host cache” button.

Windows 8 – Workaround for Printer Appears Offline

Scenario:

The printer stops working after a set period of time.  Rebooting usually fixes the printing issue but after a period of time it starts again.  When you navigate to the active print jobs you will see what you wanted to print but the printer will list as “Offline”.

Solution 1:

Note that is a work around to the real issue.  The first thing you will want to do is see if your printer has updated drivers.  If that doesn’t work often times restarting the print spooler service will alleviate the issue.

  1. Press the windows key to pull up your local search.
  2. Type services and then choose “Services” from the results to open that control panel option.
  3. Navigate to “Print Spooler” in the main window.  Right click on that item and choose “Restart”.

Solution 2:

  1. Press the windows key+R to bring up a run dialog.
  2. Type “cmd” and click Ok to start a command prompt.
  3. Enter “net stop spooler” then press enter, wait for this command to complete.
  4. Enter “net start spooler” then press enter, wait for this command to complete.