Fix It

How To Easily Remove, Install & Replace an Apple iPhone 4S Battery (Video)

by Michael Sheehan on May 7, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Consumer Electronics, Fix It, Gadgets, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iPhone, Mobile, Video

Post image for How To Easily Remove, Install & Replace an Apple iPhone 4S Battery (Video)

I’m such a heavy user of my Apple iPhones that it really seems like about a year after I get one, I’m doing a how-to article on replacing the iPhone’s battery. I now have an iPhone 4S and this past weekend, I replaced the battery. Other smartphone users may scoff at the fact that Apple has made their hardware quite proprietary (e.g., a closed design). Actually, it seems to me that Apple has actually now made it much easier to replace the iPhone 4S battery, especially in comparison to the iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS process. This article (and video) shows you how to replace an Apple iPhone 4S Battery.

iPhone 4S Back Case Off

iPhone 4S Back Case Off

WARNING: Before I go into this How-to, I do need to emphasize that this processes is risky. For starters, it WILL void your warranty, especially if you mess something up in the process. Also, there are lots and lots of tiny screws and pieces that are incredibly easy to lose, break or knock loose. If you don’t take time reviewing the installation process, you could seriously damage to your iPhone 4S. You should only undertake this process if you feel like you know what you are doing and promise to not hold me responsible for anything bad that may happen to your device. Anything good that does happen, I’m happy to be responsible for that! And don’t drink any coffee before trying any repairs!

With all the disclaimers aside now, let’s take a look at the process. It is, actually, quite easy but be sure to watch the video below as I did actually almost screw something up. But as of this writing, my iPhone 4S is quite happy with its replacement battery.

The Tools

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

How to Stop CHKDSK from Running on Every Boot Up

by Michael Sheehan on April 25, 2013

in Application, Fix It, General, How To, HTD Tech Tip, Microsoft, Software

Post image for How to Stop CHKDSK from Running on Every Boot Up

Recently, my Windows 7 computer started running a CHKDSK each and every time that it booted up. For those that don’t know, the CHKDSK utility is a way that Windows validates the system file structure and integrity of your computer’s hard drive. You can scan your hard drive with it or run it with a fix (/f) flag to correct issues on your local hard drive. But, when time is critical, many of us don’t want to wait around while the system is scanned, especially if for some reason, it is happening each and every time you start up. When that happens, you either have a serious problem with your computer, or somehow your system has been automatically set to do this scan.

CHKDSK starting

CHKDSK starting

While I don’t condone stopping these scans, especially if your system does indeed have problems, having this run every single time you start up borders on maddening! So after some digging, research and testing, I have found the way to prevent this from happening.

Just a little disclaimer, while I did test this on my machine and it, thus far, did work, if something goes horribly wrong while you do the steps below, I’m not responsible for any data loss or corruption or any issues in general…you are assuming all the risks associated with these steps.

Steps to Prevent CHKDSK from Running on Every Computer Restart

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

How to Remove Little Black Square Paragraph Formatting & Page Break in Microsoft Word

by Michael Sheehan on March 18, 2013

in Fix It, General, How To, HTD Tech Tip, Microsoft, Software

Post image for How to Remove Little Black Square Paragraph Formatting & Page Break in Microsoft Word

Recently, I received a panicked email from my step-mom wondering why a page break could not be removed from Microsoft Word. Normally, if you click on the “show paragraphs” button (¶), you can see a page break or section break. However, in this case, there was no line signifying a section break or page break when the formatting was revealed. However, there was a little black square right near paragraph that I believed to be causing the issue. But removing that formatting is not the most intuitive. Eventually I figured it out though.

Mysterious page break

Mysterious page break

Above you can see the page having the issue. There was a page break occurring but when revealing the formatting, all that you could see what a little black square on the paragraph after. But to correct the issue, the steps are relatively easy. Here’s what you do.

How to Remove Little Black Square Paragraph Formatting

Microsoft Word allows you to set up all sorts of formatting of your text, paragraphs, sections and document. But sometimes it’s not as intuitive as you might think to do things. Here’s how you can remove those pesky section or page breaks that aren’t immediately obvious. [click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button – A Free & Easy Software Fix

by Michael Sheehan on March 13, 2013

in Apple, Cellular, Fix It, General, Hardware, How To, HTD Tech Tip, iOS, iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mobile

Post image for How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button – A Free & Easy Software Fix

Yesterday I received a panicked call from one of my daughters – “Daddy, my iPhone’s home button is broken!” Tears and wailing ensued. But, as with any broken gadget, I was up for the challenge, knowing that I could either replace the iPhone home button myself or figure out some other way to breath a few extra days or weeks of life into her iPhone 4 so that she could still use it. As it turned out, the “temporary” fix (which could be permanent), it quite easy to do and actually a pretty neat function that not too many people know about. And, it’s built into all iOS devices.

Broken iPhone Home button

Broken iPhone Home button

Normally, when hardware components fail on my iOS devices, I turn to the super-handy iFixIt.com guides. I have done anything from replacing batteries on iPhone 3GS & iPhone 4′s to replacing the power button on an iPhone 4 (let me tell you, THAT one is really hard!). So, I quickly scanned through the steps in the iFixIt guide and realized that even though the part itself was about $15 only, the level of effort to physically replace the button was HUGE. (Here’s the daunting fix-it guide.) So, I needed to find another solution.

Luckily, I remembered in the past reading about how you can reassign a button or create a gesture on a jailbroken phone so I knew there was a software solution out there. However, I didn’t want to jailbreak my daughter’s iPhone. There had to be another solution. And then I found it. What follows are the quick and easy steps on how to fix a broken iPhone home button.

How To Fix a Broken iPhone Home Button

[click to continue…]

{ 0 comments }

How To Change Your iOS Device’s Root & Mobile User Password After Jailbreak and OpenSSH Install

February 5, 2013
Thumbnail image for How To Change Your iOS Device’s Root & Mobile User Password After Jailbreak and OpenSSH Install

As many of you may know, the latest untethered jailbreak tool for iOS called Envisi0n was released to the general public yesterday (2/4/13). As a consequence, the Cydia installer which manages all of the repositories for 3rd party app that you can install on your jailbroken iOS device was pretty much hammered. Things are coming [...]

Read the full article →

How To Disable Java in Chrome, Firefox, Safari & Internet Explorer on Mac OS or Windows to Prevent 0-Day Exploit

January 11, 2013
Thumbnail image for How To Disable Java in Chrome, Firefox, Safari & Internet Explorer on Mac OS or Windows to Prevent 0-Day Exploit

If you have been reading any of the Technical publications online, you will probably know that there is currently an exploit in Java that affects most internet browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer on systems that have Java installed. This is being called a zero-day or 0-day exploit which essentially means that there [...]

Read the full article →

A New Respect for Plumbers, Learning from Trade Professionals and The Zen of Snaking Out a Sewage Line

January 10, 2013
Thumbnail image for A New Respect for Plumbers, Learning from Trade Professionals and The Zen of Snaking Out a Sewage Line

I have a bit of a “crappy” story to tell. Literally. And it doesn’t have to do with technology, it involves sewage. I believe that the house that I own has plumbing possessed by Mother Nature. Ever since we have owned our home, there is an annual tradition (sometimes more than once a year) where [...]

Read the full article →

iOS Apps & Backups are Hogging Up Your Hard Drive – How To Easily Free Up Disk Space

January 9, 2013
Thumbnail image for iOS Apps & Backups are Hogging Up Your Hard Drive – How To Easily Free Up Disk Space

I don’t know about you but I am always looking for ways to clear up my laptop’s precious free hard drive space. I have tools that clean caches, temporary files, language files, logs and files in my trash. But I never seem to get ahead of the game. I probably never will but a periodic [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries