External USB Harddisk not detected by Windows 7

Ok I had a 1.5 TB external harddisk, which was working fine. However one day all of a sudden, Windows 7 stopped detecting it. I tried to connect it to another computer which had Windows XP and Windows 7. Both OSes detected it. I spent a week trying to figure out what happened. Here is how I fixed it
unplug the external HDD

At the command prompt, type the following lines, pressing ENTER after each line

set devmgr_show_nonpresent_devices=1
cd %SystemRoot%\System32
start devmgmt.msc

device manager will open...

click 'show hidden devices' under View...

expand all the nods under device manager

there would be many greyed out  entries or entries with exclamation marks in device manager. Usually these nodes are displayed under this node 'Non-plug&play devices'. Uninstall all these  under all the nods and thn restart the computer and plug the HDD to the computer and check if it works.

Cleartype causes blur towards center of the screen in Samsung LCD - How to fix it

Windows cleartype has a lot of issues with several LCD mnitors. I have a Samsung B2030 22'' LCD monitor. I enabled cleartype and had trouble with it. No matter how I configured it, I always get the text towards the center of the screen (horizontally) blurrier than the left or right. This was very annoying.

The solution was simple and I found it acidently. When you are in cleartype dialog, press the 'auto' settings button on your monitor (yes the physical button on your screen). I did this and it fixed all the issues

Another quick method to add new people to Google +

Ok I know the web is filled with posts like this, but my method is quicker than many of them. You don't have to wait for an invitation. Most methods goes like this, - Tell your friend to add you into his circle, wiat for the invitation mail from google+. Well my friend has done that and waited for a long time but nothing happened. So here is how I joined google+.

1. Create a google account. If you already have a gmail account, that will do.
2. Create your google profile (not google+). To do this, while you are logged into gmail/other google sites, look at the top right corner, you can see either your name or your email address. Click on that. This will bring up a drop down menu. Click on View Profile/Create Profile. Follow the instructions and create your profile. Set your visibility as public (searchable)
3. Find a friend who already has a google+ account
4. Ask him to add you into his circle. this is simple and I am not going to give an explanation. Then tell him to create post and share it with you. Also make sure his visibility is public so that he appears in search results. he can turn this off later
5. When he does this, wait for 1-5 hours. (usually 1 is enough). You should ask your friend and find out what his profile image is, this will make the next step easier.
6. Goto your google profile. At the top you can see a search box where you can serach for people. Search and find your friend who shared the post. Knowing his profile image can help you out.
7. Goto friends profile and goto 'Posts' section.
8. You will be able to see the post he shared with you earlier. Look at the begining of the post, and you will be able to see a link titled 'Limited'.
9. Click on the link 'Limited'. This will show the list of people with whom the post is shared. Find you avatar in this list and click it.
10. Now you will be taken to a google+ join page. Enter your basic information and click join.
11. Hurrey!!! you are in google +

Take extra care if you use pirated games

Well, many of us have used cracked games. I usually use them even though I have purchazed the game mostly because I hate when games ask me to insert the Disk to play. Its really annoying. Anyway, it has been confirmed that recent TDL4 botnet uses keygens and cracked exes to spread itself. TDL4 has a lot of partners and each partner has their own medium for spreading the virus. So take extra care while using thses cracks.

PS: To worsen things, TDL4 partners include p2p sites also. So you have to be extra extra cuatious. BTW I dont think piratebay is a partner, because they once got attcked by TDL botnet :)

Dirt 3 Error 0x8004005 - How to fix it.

If you are trying to play dirt 3 on your PC using Games for Windows Live, you may have encountered this error. I had this problem and spent almost a week without a solution. Heres the solution I found.

If you only want to play the career mode, this problem will not bother you, just create an offline GFWL account and you are ready to go.

But if you want to play online as well, then follow these steps:

First of all install GFWL if you dont have it already (you can find the setup file in Dirt 3 DVD, or any other GFWL game. Or you can download it from microsoft).

If you are creating a new account for GFWL(ie never played any other games with this account), then before installing Dirt3, create this new account (use xbox.com for eg) and use this account to download and install Tinker from Windows Live Market Place. You can launch this tool from your start menu. and dont worry Tinker is completely free.

Now you need create your online GFWL account, for this you need a valid Game Key. to get this, goto 'Downloads' section in Live Market Place. Click on Tinker. You will see more details and a link 'View Game Keys'. Click this link and copy the 'Live access code'.

Launch Tinker, and log-into GFWL, when asked for a key, just paste the above code. Press OK. Now GFWL will download your profile and if there are updates available. let it install them too. (You can download these updates seperately and install them).

Now install Dirt 3(you can do this before also).

Luanch the game and in GFWL, log-into the same account used for Tinker and you are ready to go.

Still problems http://forums.xbox.com/gfw/technical_support/connection_networking/f/265/t/15565.aspx

PS: If GFWL gets stuck at 'Downloading Updates', then download the GFWL update seperately from cracked Dirt3 releases, but dont use cracked files. Just use the GFWL update given with the cracked release.

I hope this helped someone.

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