HP Pavilion DV7-4167CA – Review

I was looking to retire and replace my old Acer Laptop and was guided to look and eventually purchase the HP Pavilion DV7-4167CA.

This was a beautiful laptop!

1.70GHz AMD Phenom II Quad-Core Mobile Processor P940
6GB DDR3 RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 Video Adapter
500GB (7200RPM) Hard Drive
LightScribe Blu-ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD±R/RW Double Layer
17.3” LED Display
10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN
802.11b/g/n WLAN
4 USB ports
HDMI port
5-in-1 media card reader
and more… (DV7-4167CA Specifications)

It was easy to get setup and ran beautifully! Truly a delight to work with.

BUT! I did encounter 1 MAJOR issue. The biometric finger printer reader conflicted with MS Access’ security?! Since, MS Access is a major part of my business, and nor HP, nor Microsoft have yet to come out with a fix for this problem which seems to be well known and I could not perform my work. I ended up having to reluctantly return the laptop.

I would grade this laptop as an 8.5 out of 10 even with this issue, since it will not impact most potential buyer’s. That being said, I am very disappointed with HP for not having a fix for this issue, considering I can find posts going back quite sometime reporting this problem with their biometric security feature. At the end of the day they lost a customer out of it!

Telemax Multi Port Dock (TXDOCK) – Review

I was looking for a Docking Station for my laptop and was wanting one that could connect a secondary monitor. The Telemax Multi Port Dock (TXDOCK) appeared to fit the bill perfectly.

Inputs

4 USB Ports (2 Front / 2 Rear)
Ear Phone and Mic Ins
Ethernet Connection
DVI/VGA Connection
Anchor point to attach a security lock

Outputs

1 USB Connection to your computer

It was easy to install.

That said, sadly it did not live up to its claims. Once install, Windows 7 slowed down. Furthermore, it crashed my computer 3 times in a row when trying to activate the video connection. I was very disappointed, uninstalled everything and returned it since.

Looked good, but just didn’t do the job!

MS Excel – VBA – Find Cells with Linked Data

Have you ever had the pleasure of being given a workbook and when you open it it spits out the error:

Workbook contains one or more links that connot be updated.

To change the source of links, or attempt to update values again, click Edit Links.
To leave the links as is, click Continue

What really is annoying is that MS give the user no way to determine which cells are using the linked data, so no way for you to determine if and what to do! (Another poorly implemented aspect of an MS program). Below is a simple procedure that will create a worksheet where it will list each cell in each worksheet that used Linked Data as well as the source of the linked data.

Sub ShowAllLinksInfo()
'Original Author:        JLLatham
'Purpose:       Identify which cells in which worksheets are using Linked Data
'Requirements:  requires a worksheet to be added to the workbook and named LinksList
'Modified From: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2007-excel/workbook-links-cannot-be-updated/b8242469-ec57-e011-8dfc-68b599b31bf5?page=1&tm=1301177444768
    Dim aLinks           As Variant
    Dim i                As Integer
    Dim Ws               As Worksheet
    Dim anyWS            As Worksheet
    Dim anyCell          As Range
    Dim reportWS         As Worksheet
    Dim nextReportRow    As Long
    Dim shtName          As String
    Dim bWsExists        As Boolean 

    shtName = "LinksList"

    'Create the result sheet if one does not already exist
    For Each Ws In Application.Worksheets
        If Ws.Name = shtName Then bWsExists = True
    Next Ws
    If bWsExists = False Then
        Application.DisplayAlerts = False
        Set Ws = ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Add(Type:=xlWorksheet)
        Ws.Name = shtName
        Ws.Select
        Ws.Move After:=ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Count)
        Application.DisplayAlerts = True
    End If

    'Now start looking of linked data cells
    Set reportWS = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(shtName)
    reportWS.Cells.Clear
    reportWS.Range("A1") = "Worksheet"
    reportWS.Range("B1") = "Cell"
    reportWS.Range("C1") = "Formula"

    aLinks = ActiveWorkbook.LinkSources(xlExcelLinks)
    If Not IsEmpty(aLinks) Then
        'there are links somewhere in the workbook
        For Each anyWS In ThisWorkbook.Worksheets
            If anyWS.Name <> reportWS.Name Then
                For Each anyCell In anyWS.UsedRange
                    If anyCell.HasFormula Then
                        If InStr(anyCell.Formula, "[") > 0 Then
                            nextReportRow = reportWS.Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row + 1
                            reportWS.Range("A" & nextReportRow) = anyWS.Name
                            reportWS.Range("B" & nextReportRow) = anyCell.Address
                            reportWS.Range("C" & nextReportRow) = "'" & anyCell.Formula
                        End If
                    End If
                Next    ' end anyCell loop
            End If
        Next    ' end anyWS loop
    Else
        MsgBox "No links to Excel worksheets detected."
    End If
    'housekeeping
    Set reportWS = Nothing
    Set Ws = Nothing
End Sub

I can’t take credit for this procedure, but thought it was the type of thing that could help a lot of people. The original source/post is provided should you wish to check it out further.

Montreal Cell Phone – Public Mobile – Review

I’d been holding off getting a cell phone for quite some time now, mainly because I thought most companies were simply ripping off their clients and I was not interested in a 2-3yr contract…

I looked into Public Mobile in 2010, but sadly they still were not in my area (West Island of Montreal).

Well, they are now (2011)! I took the plunge and have no regret so far. What was advertised has been the reality in my experience. No hassel. I pay 24.95 a month for unlimited 24/7 phone and text within Canada and the USA + voicemail… Show me another provider that offers this at that price! You won’t be able to, I looked. My calls have been clear and I have never yet had a call drop on me.

So far, so good!

Samsung SyncMaster BX2440 LED Monitor Review

I was looking for a monitor which could rotate Landscape/Portrait for my programming needs and a secondary monitor for my laptop. So i went looking and hit all the normal stores: Best Buy, Future Shop, Bureau En Gros, MicroBytes. I was very surprised that I only managed to find 2 monitors which had this capability. A few years back, most offered this option…

From a technical standpoint, the SyncMaster BX2440 had everything I was looking for:

Decent resolution: 1920×1080; Full 1080p resolution
LED technology with power saving features
And it could rotate

In a general sense this is a nice monitor:

It is large. Actually, at 24″ it is huge, but that means no more squinting!
It has a beautiful quality of image, nice and bright display
It was easy to setup and configure. Actually there was no real need to do anything since it is a plug & play monitor. Although I did choose to install the specific drivers that came with it rather than relying on the generic plug and play, but that was merely my personal choice.

However, the main reason I made this purchase was to have the flexibility to rotate my screen at a whim to easy my programing process. Sadly, I have been greatly disappointed by this. Yes, you can set up your monitor in either Portrait or Landscape orientation. However, you cannot change the orientation on a whim, as you have to unplug the monitor, rotate it and then replug it?! Now which brilliant engineer (and I say this with the upmost respect as I myself am an Engineering graduate) was unable to foresee this problem! No really, they go to the point of allowing a user to rotate the screen but then don’t position the connection to avoid clearance issues? And no one caught this during the design or testing phases!!! In my humble opinion, if you are considering this monitor because it rotates, don’t. No seriously, don’t! I know there aren’t many options, but put your money into a monitor which will enable you to work properly, rather than frustrate you endlessly as this one does (me). Heck find one online and order it. I know at my old company, we had beautiful HP monitors that rotated easily, it may be worth looking to see if HP still has such monitors. And one can always hope the store will start to carry a few more such monitors.

Also, hopefully Samsung will resolve this MAJOR design booboo in their next monitors.

Update: 2011-09-02

Well I’ve had the monitor for several months now and I am sad to report that it has recently started to have issues. The monitor flickers different ‘hues’ on the screen. I will be working when all of a sudden the screen will go yellowish. I can still work, but all the colors are yellowed. Then a short period will go by and everything will return to normal. And back and forth we go all day long!

~~Sadly this is turning out to be another bad purchase recently.~~

UPDATE 2011-11-29

I have to take back my previous Update comment and appologize as I was mistaken. Further testing has revealled that the monitor is not at fault, but rather my KVM switch has failed me. That said, this experience still enabled me to test out Samsung’s warantee/service and I was very impressed at how easy it was to request service. Everything can al be done online in a matter of a couple of minutes and they gave me a UPS waybill so I could send it back to them for servicing free of charge… In the end, I didn’t need to because I was able to determine the true culprit, but never the less, it showed Samsungs dedication to customer satisfaction. A lot of companies could learn from them (BELL perhaps!)!

FMS Total Visual SourceBook Review

FMS Total Visual SourceBook

What I wouldn’t have given to be aware of this add-in when I was starting out as a developer! Seriously, this add-in would have saved me hundreds, if not thousands, of hours searching online, posting to forums, to find out how to code what I needed to do. Beyond which, it provides the user with a standardized set of procedures, instead of trying to piece together countless routines found here and there as you search online.

Just yesterday, I needed a particular routine and instead of searching online, as I always have done until now, I opened the TVSB, performed a quick search, exported the appropriate code into my module and was back at work in a matter of 1-2 minutes, if that!

So what did I think of the TVSB?

Continue reading →

ACER Aspire 7745G Review

My first, and only other laptop, was an Acer. It was a great machine and carried my business for 4+ years without any issues! So, I decided, again, to trust the company which had provide such a valuable machine to me my first time out and bought an ACER Aspire 7745G.

From a technical standpoint this machine should suit the average user without any problems, plenty of RAM, Hard drive spave, Video Ram, … Here are the basic specs:

i5-430M processor, 2.26Ghz
8Gb RAM
1000Gb Hard Drive
1Gb Radeon Video Card
17.3″ Monitor
Blue-Ray DVD
…

Sadly, however, I have not been enjoying this laptop as I did my original one! Here are the Pros and Cons:

Pros

It run very quite
It has a beautiful, large screen
Pleanty of USB ports
HDMI port
Blue-Ray Drive (for the entertainment buffs out there)
BlueTooth

Cons

I have continuous Wireless network issues, where it will drop a connection and then not allow the laptop to reconnect. The only solution being to reboot the computer completly. UPDATE 2013-03-28 -> See a possible solution in my post entitled Acer 7745G Wireless Network Dropping or Not Finding Any Wireless Network Connections
I have an issue with extending my display to a secondary monitor and it not always recognizing the secondary monitor. Sometimes it does, and other times it doesn’t
Sadly Window 7 does not have drivers for my printer. Microsoft blames the Printer manufacturer, but it is Microsoft that developed a new OS and didn’t ensure existing driver could/would work. Anyways,…, one way or another, I have to go dish out more money to buy a new printer if I plan on ever printing from the machine.
I also haven’t been overly impressed with the i5’s turbo boost technology. It seems to create lag time between choosing to execute something and the computer responding…
The hard drive response seems slow. I double-click on a folder and you can actually wait for the listing to appear. Heck, my 4-5+ yr old laptop is more responsive than this brand new one?!
I find the power cord plug difficult to insert into the receptacle on the laptop. My old laptop was a breeze, this one is actually difficult. If your angle isn’t just right, well…
Because the finish is a nice glossy finish, it show every single finger mark!
Whereas you used to (my previous Aspire) press Fn+F3 to activate/deactivate the wireless connection, it now simply brings up a pop-up menu to allow you to activate/deactivate the wireless and the bluetooth. So in fact, where Acer had added an extra step requiring you to use the mouse and click everytime you want to activate or deactivate either of your wireless features. What is worse is that they have no excuse, there are plenty of empty Fx keys, that they could have easily assign a seperate button for both the Wireless network and the bluetooth. It may not seem like much, but trust me the more you use it, the more frustrating it becomes!
Screen brightness fast keys do not work. You can use the fast keys to lower the brightness, but the fast key to increase the brightness does not work? Have fun finding the windows menu to allow you to restore your brightness (Control Panel -> Display -> Adjust Brightness [Top right-hand] -> Screen Brightness [bottom]).
It comes with Windows7. Nothing else need be said!
Technical Support -> I finally broke down and called technical support in the hopes of resolving my wireless problem, what a mistake! I spent more time repeating myself than actually fixing anything. Then the support agent sent me to a gateway help page, which by the way did not resolve the problem and he proceeded to terminate the conversation as fast as he could never actually ensuring the problem was fixed in any manner. He was more interested in his call metrics (no call should exceed 2 mins. -> this is factual knowing people having worked as support agents) than actually solving the problem.
- Why can’t we get proper technical support anymore?
- Why can’t we get North American Support anymore, rather than dealing with someone half way around the world that obviously does not fully grasp the English language?
- Most importantly, why is Acer shipping out laptops that have glaring problems!?
Another oddity is the fact that if you turn off the wireless adapter or the bluetooth, and reboot, the laptop seems to always reset the connection and turn it back on. So everytime you reboot, you need to reset the parameters again, and again, and again, ….?

It just seems to be off a bit and not what I’d come to expect from ACER. I can’t quite put my hand on it exactly. All I know is next time round, I will be broadening my search outside the ACER realm when shopping for a new laptop.

Very Disappointed!

If I were grading this laptop it would get a 3.5 out of 10, because of the various problems. If it actually worked as advertised it would be more like a 8 out of 10. But the reality of the situation make it a dud and a bad purchase!

IOGEAR 2-Port USB KVM Switch Review

I finally decided to clean up my desk and part of that included organizing my desk. What better thing then to get rid of a second keyboard and mouse. I ran out to Best Buy, FutureShop and Bureau en Gros and none had any KVM switches?! I ended up at Acces Electronique and purchased a IOGEAR 2-Port USB KVM Switch (for those interested Model: GCS42UW6).

Pros:

Plug and Play – Nothing to install, nothing to configure
No power adapter
Easy to setup – Connect you Keyboard and mouse and connect it to your computers, that’s it!

Cons:

None.

Conclusion:

~~This product works as advertised! Well worth the price (which wasn’t much in the first place) in my experience.~~

UPDATE (2011-11-28)

Sadly I have been experiencing issue with my LED monitor. I at first thought it was the monitor, but after further testing I determined the KVM switch is at fault. So the KVM switch didn’t even last 1 year (actually it didn’t even last 6 months) before I could no longer use the switcheable monitor component of the KVM switch! I don’t know if I got a dudd or if this is typical, but I will be thinking twice about future purchases with IOGEAR products.

MS Access – Report – Change a Report’s RecordSource

The following procedure can be used to change the RecordSource of a Report.

'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
' Procedure : RedefRptSQL
' Author    : Daniel Pineault, CARDA Consultants Inc.
' Website   : http://www.cardaconsultants.com
' Purpose   : Redefine an existing report's recordsource
'             Requires opening the Report in design mode to make the changes
' Copyright : The following may be altered and reused as you wish so long as the
'             copyright notice is left unchanged (including Author, Website and
'             Copyright).  It may not be sold/resold or reposted on other sites (links
'             back to this site are allowed).
'
' Input Variables:
' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
' sRptName    ~ Name of the Report to redefine the Record Source
' sSQL        ~ Table name, Query name or SQL Statement to be used to refine the 
'               Record Source with
'
' Usage:
' ~~~~~~
' RedefRptSQL "Report1", "SELECT * FROM tbl_Contacts ORDER BY LastName;"
'
' Revision History:
' Rev       Date(yyyy/mm/dd)        Description
' **************************************************************************************
' 1         2009-07-13              Initial Release
' 2         2017-10-11              Cleanup of the Procedure header
'---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Function RedefRptSQL(sRptName As String, sSQL As String)
On Error GoTo Error_Handler
    Dim Rpt     As Report

    DoCmd.OpenReport sRptName, acViewDesign, , , acHidden 'Open in design view so we can
                                                          'make our changes
    Set Rpt = Application.Reports(sRptName)
    Rpt.RecordSource = sSQL                               'Change the RecordSource
    DoCmd.Close acReport, sRptName, acSaveYes             'Save our changes

Error_Handler_Exit:
    On Error Resume Next
    Set Rpt = Nothing
    Exit Function

Error_Handler:
    MsgBox "The following error has occurred." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & _
            "     Error Number: " & Err.Number & vbCrLf & _
            "     Error Source: RedefRptSQL" & vbCrLf & _
            "     Error Description: " & Err.Description, _
            vbCritical, "An Error has Occurred!"
    Resume Error_Handler_Exit
End Function

MS Access – VBA – Minimize/Maximize Access Application

Here is another common question, how can I control the Application window itself? Well that depends on what exactly you wish to do. So things are easy to do and other require APIs, etc.

Minimize/Maximize and Restore the MS Access Application Window

One can very easily control the Application Window state with one simple command, the often overlooked DoCmd.RunCommand!

DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdAppMinimize 'Minimize the MS Access Application
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdAppMaximize 'Maximize the MS Access Application
DoCmd.RunCommand acCmdAppRestore 'Restore the MS Access Application

Completely Hide the MS Access Application Window

Once again, a not so uncommon question. Now implementing it requires a little more programming than merely minimizing or maximizing the application window, but it can be done! Now if you Google the subject you will find any number of code samples. That said, before I ‘waste‘ my time searching for anything relating to MS Access I always go and check The Access Web where you will find a ready to use API entitled Manipulate Access Window to do exactly this.