My iPad Mini runs very slowly

My iPad Mini was running very slowly in the last few months. It took 2-3 times longer to start an app. Text showed up 1-2 seconds after I typed on a on-screen keyboard. I had only a few simple apps installed on the device. iOS and apps were all up-to-date.

I was about to throw in the towel… but I decided to give it a final try… I backed up the device and then reset it. To my surprise, it ran quite a bit faster. I repeated the process on another iPad and it also ran faster after reset.

It looks like some software configurations are causing iOS performance problem. The steps to fix them are:

1. Backup your device
2. Open Settings app
3. Select General page
4. Select Reset (at the bottom of the page)
5. Select Reset All Settings
6. Done

Hope this helps!

This article is also posted here.

Windows 10: Where did my configuration dialogs go?

Windows 10 made significant changes to Windows’ system interface. It is time consuming and frustrating to constantly search for settings using the new interface. I find it best to mix the old and new interfaces so that I can get things done quickly while I learn the new interface. With that in mind, I like to be able to bring up old control panel and other dialogs with a familiar interface when I want to.

Here is a collection of methods to bring back the old interfaces:

Show/hide desktop icons

To create a shortcut of My Computer and old Control Panel on the desktop, we use to be able to right click on a desktop and bring up a personalize dialog in Windows 8 and earlier. In Windows 10, we need to do a bit digging or run a command.

To bring up the dialog using a command, you can do the following:

Press <Window>+R to run a command
Enter desk.cpl ,,5

See Also: desktop icon dialog

An alternative way to bring up the dialog is:

Select <Window Button> | Setting | Personalization | Theme
On content page, select "Desktop Icon Settings"

Show/hide icons on system tray

In Windows 8 and earlier, we were able to customize icons shown on the system tray by clicking on the Configure link on a popup. In Windows 10, the Configuration link is missing. Configuration is move to setting page. You can access it by following the links listed below.

Select <Window Button> | Setting | System | Notification and Action
On content page, select "Choose icons to show on system tray"

Disable <Shift> input language switching

Windows choice of <Shift> for input language switching is confusing for a lot of users. Input language keep getting switched accidentally. To turn off the keyboard shortcut in Windows 10, you need to following the links below.

Select <Window Button> | Setting | Time & Language | Region & Language
On content page, under Language:
  Click on the language installed to show additional options
  Select Options
On a language page of the selected language, under Keyboard:
  Click on the language installed to show additional options
  Select Options
On a language option page, under Mode Change Key:
  Select None

Changing default language on Windows lock screen (login screen)

 

Sharing a printer connected to a USB port of my computer

 

Hope this helps!

Poon

 

Unable to connect MacBook to NAS server after OS/X upgrade

I have files on Western Digital NAS devices (MyBook Du0 and MyCloud acting as Windows file servers) that I share with Windows computers. My MacBook used to be able to access files on these devices without a hitch.

On May 17, 2016, I updated one of my MacBook to OS/X 10.11.5 El Capitan. Immediately after the update, I was not able to connect to  the NAS devices. I tried connecting with another MacBook that ran OS/X 10.11.4 El Capitan. Connection was flawless.

THE PROBLEM. When I accessed a NAS device, I was prompted for password.

After I entered a password, it either returned an error message or showed a list shares on the NAS device.

SOLUTION #1. To solve this problem, all you need to do is changing connecting protocol from SMB to CIFS. Just open Finder. Select Go | Connect to Server…. In the server address box, enter cifs://<server name> (e.g., cifs://leece).

NOTE: If you try to access a file server on a LAN, solution #2 is better.

I think OS/X 10.11.5 El Capitan changed the default SMB protocol to SMB2. Since my NAS devices are still using SMB1, so the connection failed.

SOLUTION #2. I came across another solution recently. It requires disabling SMB signing. It is a better solution if you are on a private network because SMB protocol is a lot faster than CIFS.

Apple updated SMB to require signing during connection establishment stage. That causes problem with servers that does not support such feature. SMB signing is a security feature to prevent man-in-the-middle attach. If you are accessing a server on a LAN at home or at work, you do not need to worry about such attach.

The solution is quite simple. You need to add a configuration file /etc/nsmb.conf and add two lines in the file. Then reboot you Mac.

[default]
signing_required=no

To create the configuration file, you need to open a terminal. Then, substitute current user as root.

$ sudo -s

Use vi to create the file and add the two lines.

$ vi /etc/nsmb.conf

Alternatively, you can create the file from command line.

$ echo >> "[default]" > /etc/nsmb.conf
$ echo >> "signing_required=no" >> /etc/nsmb.conf

Since you are root user, you can reboot from command line. You can also click the Apple icon and select Restart….

$ reboot

After you Mac reboots, login and connect to a server using smb://<server>. you should be able to do it now.

See Also: https://discussions.apple.com/message/30260816#30260816

Hope this help! Good luck.

Poon

 

Mac Mail Keeps Asking for Comcast Password

I have setup my Mac Mail to get emails from my Comcast account and it has been working for some time. Recently, it keeps asking for my password. After some debugging, I found out the problem came from a Mac Mail update. Here are the steps to fix the problem.

On Mac Mail, select

Mail | Preferences... | <mail account> | Advanced

Then uncheck option

[] Automatically detect and maintain account settings

Let me know if this is helpful.

Poon

4/17/2016

Norton Internet Security Causes Rapid Battery Drain After OS/X Update

One of my MacBook had not been updated for a long time. It was working fine, but I decided it should catch up on OS/X updates. I updated the MacBook to OS/X 10.10 Yosemite. Immediately after I finished the update, I noticed the battery was draining rapidly. A fully charged battery lasted less than an hour. I updated the MacBook again to OS/X 10.11 El Capitan. The problem remained. This MacBook had Norton Internet Security installed.

To debug the problem, I checked battery condition – it was normal. To get battery condition, hold down Option key and click on the battery icon on menu bar.

Next, I ran Activity Monitor to look for processes that used up excessive amount of resources. To start Activity Monitor, hold down Option key and press Spacebar. Enter “Activity Monitor” into SpotLight Search box.

In Activity Monitor, I looked for processes that used up a large % CPU. The process SymDaemon stood out immediately. It used up 53%+ CPU and ran for a long time (i.e., a large CPU Time value). The above is a sample Activity Monitor output of a healthy system (not from the MacBook with problem).

I tried to update Norton Internet Security, there were no update. I uninstalled Norton Internet Security instead. Within a few minutes after reboot, I noticed the battery drain problem had stopped. To uninstall Norton Internet Security, open Finder and select Application | Symantec Solutions. Run application Symantec Uninstaller.app to uninstall.

Hope you find this useful. Good luck!

Poon

3/14/2016

 

Mac Mail or iPhone 6 failed to get mail from UDomain

I have setup my Mac to get mail from a UDomain account quite a while back. Since early 2015, Mac Mail started to fail getting mail from the account. I was not sure if the problem was caused by a change from Apple or UDomain. I called UDomain support and they just pointed me to an error message from my Mac saying authentication failed. That was no help. I did not record the Mac Mail version when I start having problem, the current version on my iBook is 9.2.

Recently, I found some time to debug this problem. I found an option in Mac Mail preference dialog that fixed the problem. Here are the steps to apply the fix.

On Mac Mail, select

Mail | Preferences... | <mail account> | Advanced

Then uncheck option

[] Automatically detect and maintain account settings

Let me know if this is helpful.

Poon

2/24/2016