Android security: 9 apps stealing your data!

So you just have turned your computer ON only to find out that your device which was working perfectly yesterday is not working anymore. This situation can be very stressful and disappointing but do not despair, before you toss your device through the window know that this kind of behavior can be traced back to a software issue. In this article, we will give you hints on what to do and where to pay attention when something like this happens so you get the device back in working order.

1. Check if it not a hardware malfunction

   To save yourself time and unnecessary frustration with juggling through Windows first inspect the device to be sure that indeed it is working properly, check all led lamps which could indicate that the device is working and receiving power, and if it is an internal device try opening the case and visually check if there are signs of working like rotating fans or led lamps on it.

2. Check Cables

   If it is an external device that has stopped working try checking power cables and cables which go to your computer, see if they are tightly connected. If it is an internal device also check cables, nudge them and if possible disconnect and clean them.

3. Disconnect and reconnect the device

   Try this solution to see will Windows register the device again and start it.

4. Update Windows

   If there is a Windows update not installed, install it and see if the device will start working.

5. Update device drivers

   Go to device manager and update the device driver to its latest version or go to the manufacturer's site and download the latest driver version.

6. Reinstall the device

   In the device manager, uninstall the device driver and reboot Windows. When Windows boots it will recognize the device and install the necessary drivers for it.

7. Disable antivirus and firewall

   Sometimes antivirus can prevent certain devices from working properly, especially if they rely on some system files to which antivirus or firewall has cut access. Try disabling your PC protection to see if this will resolve the issue.

8. Use dedicated error software

   Use DRIVERFIX to automatically search and fix driver issues.

What Is Sndvol32.exe Error?

Sndvol32.exe is actually an important part of the Windows operating system. Responsible for managing the sound-card volume and running programs properly, the problem occurs when error messages appear. The user will be unable to listen to music on the system. Usually, Windows XP users encounter the Sndvol32.exe error.

Solution

Error Causes

Sndvol32.exe error can be caused by any one or several of the reasons listed below.

• Accidental deletion of the DLL file from the system
• Damage to the DLL file due to spyware or virus infection
• Improper removal of software
• Unintentional overwriting on the DLL file by a mismatched version
• Obsolete hardware drivers
• Several obsolete/invalid registry entries
• Corrupt registry entries

Regardless of what triggers the Sndvol32.exe error, it is of utmost importance to take immediate measures to fix the problem and to keep it from occurring again.

Further Information and Manual Repair

If you are looking for ways to fix this error manually, the Windows functionality of System Restore will come into play in this particular scenario. In case the error is caused by a damaged or corrupt file, performing System Restore is an ideal choice as it will allow you to not only get a fresh copy of the operating system, it will be possible for you to remove the error at the same time as well. The procedure for performing System Restore is outlined below as follows.

• Click on the Start menu and type ‘System Restore’ in the search box.
• When the icon for ‘System Restore’ appears, click on it.
• Now type ‘Restore’ in the search box that appears on the start menu.
• The window for the System Restore center will now appear.
• Now you have two options. You can either opt for “Recommend Restore” which is the case where the system itself will choose a restore point for you or you can select “Choose a different restore point”. Users are advised to choose the latter option as it is more customizable.
• Users can now select from a list of restore points that have been created before. If you observe closely, you will realize that one of the restore points is prior to the occurrence of the Sndvol32.exe error.
• Click on the restore point. Once you have confirmed your selection, your system will restart and it will roll back to its previously selected restore point.

One recommendation is to perform the system restore in Windows Safe Mode. This is just to ensure that the System Restore is performed smoothly and any potential problems are kept at bay.

If you like to travel but you do not have a navigation device and a place where you are traveling does not have internet coverage do not worry, Windows offline maps are here to help. Traveling in today's world often requires that we have some sort of navigation system, wherever that be a dedicated navigation device, maps on your mobile phone, or something similar. Maps on mobile-phone are nice but they drain the battery of the phone fast and being on a road might require that we have access to our phone, just in case of an emergency call, and dedicated navigation devices often cost a lot of money. Lucky for us Windows comes with a maps feature where you can check local maps and orientate with their help and even if you are in an area where you do not have internet coverage you can still use maps via offline mas mode in Windows. This feature will require that you sacrifice little HDD space because you will need to download maps that you will need and some time preparing in order to find and download maps that you will need but in the end, it is worth it, you have a full map system completely offline and independent of the internet. So in order to prepare all maps that you will need, follow this guide step by step and enjoy your trip.

1. Select Settings from the Start menu.
2. Click System.
3. Select Offline maps.
4. Click the + button next to "Download maps".
5. Select the continent where your desired country is located.
6. Select the region you want to download. Depending on the area, you can download a whole country or you'll have to drill down to a smaller region (for example, with Canada and the USA).
7. Repeat for any additional regions you want to have as offline maps. You can download more maps while other maps are currently downloading.
8. Pack your bags
9. GO!

System restore is usually the go-to tool when something goes bad in Windows, we fire it up and roll back Windows in the state when everything was working fine. But what if Windows does not want to boot? Can we use system restore in that case? The answer to that question would be yes, yes we can.

1. Boot interrupt Windows 10 by starting your PC and as soon as you see the Windows logo; press and hold the power button to force a shutdown.
2. Repeat this 2-4 times and Windows will open up the Advanced Startup Options menu for you.
3. At the Advanced Startup Options screen, select Advanced Options.
4. Select Troubleshoot.
5. Under the Advanced options screen, select System Restore.

or if you prefer, use Windows USB installation.

1. Boot the faulty PC using the Windows 10 installation media.
2. The Windows Setup dialog box will appear.
3. Set the Time and currency format, Keyboard or input method, and the language to install.
4. Click Next.
5. Click on Repair your computer from the lower-left corner.
6. From the Choose an option screen, click on Troubleshoot.
7. Click Advanced Options in the Troubleshoot screen.
8. In the Advanced Options screen, click System Restore.
9. Windows will take some time to prepare System Restore. It may even restart your computer or device.
10. When System Restore is ready, you will be prompted to choose a user account to continue.
11. Select an account that is set as administrator on your Windows 10 computer or device.
12. At the next screen, change the keyboard layout if you want and then input the password for that account.
13. Click the Continue button.

Steam Deck release is almost upon us and more news comes to light. The Latest officially confirmed technical detail is that the user will have access to device's BIOS and that dual booting will be officially supported. This, of course, means that you will be able to have both Proton and Windows on your device letting you play anything that you wish if the hardware is strong enough. Valve also said that you can launch OS from an SD card! This of course will save space available for games themselves, especially for entry models with less than one available. All of this information really pushes Deck into the territory of a handheld PC and not just another console and I must admit that this announcement left a smile on my face.

Graphic cards are essential to our computers but from time to time in the race to make better GPU and to grab a large portion of the market bad drivers get released and can create really unwanted and unpleasant experiences, from Windows freezes to the black screen of death, to AMD driver Windows crashing down and many more. This article will cover basic troubleshooting with AMD drivers and offer you solutions on how to fix them.

1. Rollback the previous version of the driver.

   Installing the new driver version is the reason for this particular error, so naturally rolling back the previous version which was stable and did not cause issues will solve the problem. To roll back the previous version of drivers follow the next steps: Open Start menu and click on settings, go to system and choose Apps and features Find: AMD Catalyst Install Manager, right-click on it, and choose to uninstall Go to AMD official website and download the previous driver version, install it on your computer Turn off automatic driver updates and reboot your system

2. Reinstall the driver

   Sometimes it is not a bug in the released driver, it is a corruption of files because of file transfer or any other specific reason. The reinstalling driver will fix an issue if this is the case. To reinstall the driver Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X and choose Device Manager Expand Display adapters, right-click on AMD device and choose to uninstall Go to the official AMD website, download the latest driver and install it Reboot your system

3. Disable browser extensions

   Some users have reported that error occurs only when they are watching videos online, if this is your case, go to your browser options and disable extensions to see if this will remove the problem.

4. Remove Lucid Virty MVP

   If by any chance have this relic installed on your system, go to Applications and remove it. It is an old program shipped with old drivers and it is usually present in your Windows that was upgraded from 8.1 to 10. Uninstall it and see if this fixes your issue.

5. Clean your graphic card

   Sometimes this error can happen due to excessive dust on your GPU, if you have the expertise, clean it or take it somewhere to be cleaned.

So, you just made some popcorns, dimmed light, relaxed in from of the TV, pressed play on your application and Blu-ray drive can not read your movie. Your movie night failed sadly, but there is hope and in this article, we are going to explore and offer you solutions on what to do when something like this happens so you do not miss another movie night and some hard-earned relaxation. Please note that in this article we are assuming that you are using a Blu-ray player on your PC, so some of the solutions presented are meant only for this case. So the first thing that you are supposed to do is to check the disc itself. You can turn the disc around and visually check the disc for fingerprints and scratches which can be fatal for disc playing, alternatively, you can try to play the same disc on another device and if it fails there also it is not the disc, it is your drive. So if it is no issue with the disc let's see that seems to be a problem with the drive. The common thing that could stop disc reading are cables, check all connections and cables in the back of your device to be sure that everything is plugged in correctly and nicely. After checking cables if the issue persists lens cleaning is the next step. Over time lens from the Blu-ray, the device becomes dirty and dust accumulates on it, there are special cleaning discs on market made especially for this purpose, to clean the dirty lens of optical devices. If you have one put it in and clean your lens. After lens cleaning with a specialty disc, a good idea would be to use compressed air in a can to reduce the dust inside so no excess dust will accumulate quickly again on the lens itself.

So the device is cleaned and checked and still no disc playing?

Update firmware first. In order to accomplish this visit your device manufacturer's website and follow instructions there on how to upgrade firmware. If this did not helped also update or reinstall device drivers. Go to device manager and update drivers for your device by right-clicking on it and choosing update driver. If none of the things helped, go to command prompt as administrator and type in SFC /scannow, leave the process to finish, and reboot.

If you are a gamer, you might have encountered either the CID HANDLE CREATION or VIDEO TDR ERROR errors with an error code of 0x00000016 as you play a game. These kinds of Stop errors have something to do with the Graphics card driver. It could be that your Graphics card driver needs to be updated or it may be corrupted. Whichever the case is, you can try fixing this error using the given solutions below but before you proceed, make sure to create a System Restore Point first so that you can easily roll back to the previous state of your computer in case something does not go as expected.

Option 1 – Try checking if your graphics card is enabled and update it as well

Although the problem is quite massive, the fix could be as simple as enabling the graphics card if it turns out to be disabled. There might be some strange reason why your graphics card disables itself. Thus, the best and first option you can try is to check if the graphics card is enabled or not. To do so, follow these steps:

• Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
• Then type “devmgmt.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Device Manager.
• After opening the Device Manager, look for your graphics card option among the list of device drivers. Once you found it, check if it is enabled or not. If it’s not enabled, you should see a gray arrow pointing downwards. Right-click on the card and select Enabled.
• Next, right-click on the graphics card once more and click on the Update Driver Software option and then click on the “Search automatically for updated driver software” option.

Option 2 – Reinstall the Graphics card drivers

• Tap Win + R to open Run then type “devmgmt.msc” in the field and hit Enter to open the Device Manager.
• From there, look for the Display adapters and uninstall each one of the graphics card drivers by right-clicking on them and selecting the Uninstall device option.
• After uninstalling the graphics card drivers, close the Device Manager and tap Win + R to open Run once again.
• After that, type “appwiz.cpl” in the field and hit Enter to open Programs & Features in the Control Panel.
• Next, look for any program that’s related to your GPU manufacturers like Nvidia, AMD, or Intel. Right-click on any GPU-related entry and click on Uninstall to uninstall them and then follow the next on-screen instructions that appear afterward.
• Now restart your computer.
• Once your computer has restarted, go to the GPU manufacturer’s website and download the latest driver version for your graphics card model and then install it.
• Restart your computer once again. That should fix the problem.

Option 3 – Try reinstalling the game

If updating and reinstalling your Graphics card driver didn’t help, then you can try to reinstall the game where you’re getting the CID HANDLE CREATION or VIDEO TDR ERRORS.

Option 4 – Uninstall the programs you installed recently

Chances are, some programs that you just installed might be the one that’s causing the BSOD error. Thus, you need to uninstall the program to resolve the problem.

• In the search box, type in “control” and then click on Control Panel (desktop app) among the search results.
• After that, select Programs and Features from the list which will give you a list of all the programs installed on your computer.
• From there, look for the concerned program and select it and then uninstall it.

Note: If you have downloaded the app from the Windows Store, you can simply right-click on it from the application list and then uninstall it. In addition, you might also want to check the hardware components of your computer that might not support the operating system itself. You can disconnect all the external devices like USB drives, scanners, printers, etc., and then reboot your PC. After that, add the devices again one after the other and check if the BSOD error is now fixed or not.

Option 5 – Try disabling your monitor’s Sleep functionality

There are times when the Sleep functionality of your monitor can also cause BSOD errors like CID HANDLE CREATION or VIDEO TDR errors. There are also times when the graphics card is running in the background and the display goes to sleep and then it’s turned back on but you encounter this kind of Blue Screen error. This is why you can try to disable your computer monitor’s Sleep mode.

Option 6 – Run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter

The Blue Screen troubleshooter is a built-in tool in Windows 10 that helps users in fixing BSOD errors like CID HANDLE CREATION or VIDEO TDR errors. It can be found on the Settings Troubleshooters page. To use it, refer to these steps:

• Tap the Win + I keys to open the Settings panel.
• Then go to Update & Security > Troubleshoot.
• From there, look for the option called “Blue Screen” on your right-hand side and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button to run the Blue Screen Troubleshooter and then follow the next on-screen options. Note that you might have to boot your PC into Safe Mode.

Option 7 – Try to run the Chkdsk utility

Running the CHKDSK utility might also help you resolve the CID HANDLE CREATION or VIDEO TDR errors. If your hard drive has issues with integrity, the update will really fail as the system will think that it’s not healthy and that’s where the CHKDSK utility comes in. The CHKDSK utility repairs hard drive errors that might be causing the problem.

• Open Command Prompt with admin privileges.
• After opening Command Prompt, execute the following command and hit Enter:

chkdsk /f /r

• Wait for the process to be completed and then restart your computer.

Microsoft has released Windows 11 as a public beta release for all the people that are not willing to be in the insider program. Beta release as of this moment is identical to Insider Preview build 22000.100. and updates will not roll so fast as in insider preview and it is marked as unstable release, same as insider build. I would not install Windows 11 beta on the main PC since some drivers still have issues and may lead to some blue screens. Be aware that the beta build will have all Windows 11 system requirements including TPM 2.0. This is a big difference from insider build which can be installed on systems lacking official requirements. So basically if you have a spare PC that could run Windows 11 install it so you can see what it brings and feel it so you can make a decision will upgrade once it is released later this year.

On April 7th Microsoft has released Windows build 21354 for their flagship OS and updates are rolling. Alongside the new update builds Microsoft has decided to create and release Windows 21354 build as an installable ISO image for anyone who wishes to do a clean installation of Windows without the need to update it after the installation. We have not seen this move by Microsoft in a long time and honestly, we are welcoming it, it is always great to have updated ISO Windows build than to install the old version and sit through an hour or more of updates. If you are interested in getting this ISO image and you are part of the insider program you can download it from here. If you would like to read more helpful articles and tips about various software and hardware visit errortools.com daily.