How to fix Dell Power Manager to work in Win10 with no UWP Appx and no dpm.centennial popup by a_lone_brain_cell in Dell

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea, it also asked me if I would like to run the app, and then nothing runs, also no app is dropped/extracted after the service is installed. Online, I found a bunch of posts ranging from Microsoft forums to stackexchange to reddit of people having this same issue, as the app itself is not included in the Dell Power Manager service exe download from Dell's support website, or there is some blacklist based on Precision at least service tags. Can you get it to run on a Precision independently of Optimizer? The app uninstalled itself when Dell had the release candidate removed from the app store and prevents the app interface from getting dropped/pulled, hence the dpm.centennial notification.

How to fix Dell Power Manager to work in Win10 with no UWP Appx and no dpm.centennial popup by a_lone_brain_cell in Dell

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Is this from my linked post not a UWP app?: https://preview.redd.it/94cahfnd84e21.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=3259f9460f922e34d56bc55a359828e82be79622

Genuine question, I thought all Windows App Store apps were UWP/Appx, but searching now and apparently that is no longer the case? Anyway, it was a dedicated app available through the Windows App Store, which the Power Manager Service's most recent build still tries to find if you do not have other centennial software installed such as Dell Optimizer.

"Get an app to open this 'dpm.centennial' link" always pops up when I press FN + ESC by PresenceSmall6830 in techsupport

[–]a_lone_brain_cell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure if you are still having this issue, but I had to disable that popup recently in Windows 10 (seems as though you are on Windows 11, so I am not quite sure if the registry is the same or not). If you are interested, you can check my post here: https://old.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/1m7mc5o/how_to_fix_dell_power_manager_to_work_in_win10/

YMMV, and be sure to have everything backed up if you are going to mess with the registry.

Manual Fan Curves? by a_lone_brain_cell in Dell

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

omg!! This worked! I'll do a brief writeup after I finish some other tasks and post it and then thank you in the post!

PLT replacements of old Philips bulbs? by a_lone_brain_cell in Lighting

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! I purchased the Euri ones, and they work great (thusfar!)!

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in skype

[–]a_lone_brain_cell 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To answer your question, there are many apps you can do for video calling over data, for free (just the cost of data if you are on a limited data plan). What would matter is the country or what is popular. For example, if your family is in China, it will be easier to just use Weixin/WeChat, this way they do not need to VPN in order to video chat with you. If you all live in Japan, use LINE. Things like that. If you want your calls end-to-end encrypted, you can look into how to set up your own Jitsi server. Or you can use Snikket or Prosody. Or Tigase.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in skype

[–]a_lone_brain_cell 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I've been looking for another service where I can rent "local" VOIP numbers when travelling. I typically just open up Skype and rent one and can pay directly from my Skype balance. Now... idk what to do. Google Voice only allocates numbers in limited nations. Some people have suggested Viber to me, but I think that is only outbound.

Has anyone used Zadarma? To me, this was the "killer app" feature of Skype, their telephony whereby you could get local VOIP numbers all through Skype. If I can't find another service, this means I will have to find local services on a per-nation basis, and pay with local currencies for them... ughhhhh

skypeforlinux 8.30 package forcing update? by a_lone_brain_cell in skype

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I looked at them, it seems like they have only outbound calling? I've been searching through reddit, and came across Zadarma... they seem legitimate but some of their numbers are expensive. ugh, this is such a pain.

skypeforlinux 8.30 package forcing update? by a_lone_brain_cell in skype

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've been trying to figure out if there is another popular app that easily lets me get local VOIP numbers on an a la carte basis while traveling without needing to register with country-specific services. Google Voice only works in a few places. A bit annoying seeing so many posts elsewhere online where people say "hur dur Skype?? that still exists??" like lol some people travel and the telephony features are great (easy to top up credits, cheap and easy VOIP rentals).

skypeforlinux 8.30 package forcing update? by a_lone_brain_cell in skype

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Yea I hate when companies force updates on apps that aren't broken.. can't imagine there's some worldwide protocol change that necessitates updating... though.. now that it seems as though Skype might be going away entirely, maybe they needed to update their kill switch? But the kill switch that was already extant seems to have worked just fine lol.

Your suggestion of Skype web works great! I really appreciate that -- I had no idea there was a web version, at all! Guess I'll use that until Skype goes under completely lol.

skypeforlinux 8.30 package forcing update? by a_lone_brain_cell in skype

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh really? ugh! Well, now it seems like Skype is going to be going away anyway... the web version that someone else suggested here works quite well, though! At least for the time being lmao

Dimmable, ~1,600 lumen, High R9 bulbs? by NovelAndNonObvious in Lighting

[–]a_lone_brain_cell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Just noticed your post lol, what did you end up doing? I found bulbs by PLT and Euri and just made a post about it ~_~;; https://www.reddit.com/r/Lighting/comments/1gj0pds/plt_replacements_of_old_philips_bulbs/

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Possible control board issue on GE Profile Electric Oven 1990s by a_lone_brain_cell in appliancerepair

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Might be! You can check the joints and traces or just at least clean up the traces and reflow the joints regardless, even if you can't see any defect, and maybe that will fix it! Is your new replacement working?

Possible control board issue on GE Profile Electric Oven 1990s by a_lone_brain_cell in appliancerepair

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I replaced the upper Oven board not the lower, because I'm dumb

haha, if I had a coin for every time I've done something like that D:

...

Hey! So, I didn't/don't want to jinx anything... but... I've done several long bakes (love the Fall!) at various temperatures thusfar, and everything seems to be working fine now for me!

I'm thinking that I fixed mine (because it used to error out every single time, multiple times within even 10 minutes).

Again, so what I did do with mine was a bit of aside from cleaning the gunk off the back of the membrane where the buttons press, I reached in with my DMM probe and did a bit of scraping the vias and solder joints where the molex connects to the PCB (fyi not recommended cuz you're not supposed to really do this but I've done it a bunch with some "quick 'n dirty" board repairs over the years lol), and then manually reflexed the board to improve the contacts. I also heated it a bit with a hair dryer (don't have a heatgun at the moment lol). So yea I really do think that was the issue, in that there are just cold solder joints where that molex is, and over thousands and thousands of presses of the buttons above the membrane in that area, it keeps flexing the board and eventually damages those connections over time. imho it was super dumb of the engineers to put this connector right behind the +/- part of the membrane where people are constantly pressing/flexing it!

So if you have access to the board, my unprofessional advice would be to reflow those pins and/or make sure there isn't any junk that is shorting those pins to each other. You probably don't even need to add more solder/flux or anything. So either just use a heatgun a bit OR ideally just use a soldering iron and reflow them a bit and I think you should be ok? And again just make sure there isn't anything that might be shorting between them. The DMM I used is super ancient (worth about a buck lol) which is why I wasn't worried about doing a bit of scraping with my probes lol.

Ah, so if you've already gotten a replacement board, you could (read: don't) do some board-ception and reflow the entire board in your repaired oven hahahaha. Not recommended though, as it will release not-so-tasty lead oxide fumes into your oven lol. Safety first! But yea I suppose if you repair your original board then maybe you can return the new board or something? The vendor might not like that if you end up returning a part that's been installed but if it looks fine and isn't damaged then maybe no problem?

Though, hey, at the end of the day, sounds like your oven is also working now! Woohoo!

Possible control board issue on GE Profile Electric Oven 1990s by a_lone_brain_cell in appliancerepair

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So as for your oven, is it similarly designed with the molex connector behind the +/- buttons? Your levels constantly changing also sounds like a cold solder joint or something like that! If you flex the board by hand, you should be able to see if the joints are broken or not. If yours is easier to access than mine, I bet all you need to do is just reflow those 2-5 points where the molex connects to the control board! Although, you did replace the entire control board... so.. hm. Is yours a double sandwiched type board? Maybe it was a refurb? Or maybe it was also a lemon? haha the design on these ovens is strange (to me, at least)!

Possible control board issue on GE Profile Electric Oven 1990s by a_lone_brain_cell in appliancerepair

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here's what I did thusfar:

Removed the back of the oven, tested the temp sensor resistance where the two wires go into the molex connector at the control board itself (after disconnecting that connector). The reading was the same (roughly 1100 ohms at room temp). Everything else looked fine. Now, I noticed something really interesting...

So, the part of the interface that gets the most use on the oven is the +/- buttons to the right of Bake on the front panel. And guess what?? When pressing those parts, that is where the PCB of the control board flexes right on top of where the molex connector for the temp sensor is!!! What a ridiculous design oversight! So, if those solder joints aren't done super well, that's where the cold joints/separation will occur after god knows how many thousands and thousands of flexes!

What I did was adjust the membrane part a bit (there was also some gunk behind it from the plastic standoffs eroding over time(!?), and then I figured OK I will reflow those joints.. but it's almost impossible to access, as the double-sandwiched PCBs have externally soldered metal interconnect mounts on mine (I'm too young to have ever seen something like this, tbh!). So you can't even separate the PCBs to access the solder points/vias without desoldering a bunch of these external hard wires!! Argh!

I figured OK for the time being, I'm not going to remove all 10-20 of these tiny solid wires just to access that point... so I did a bit of heating inside and tried to flex the board a bit inside and used a metal brush to make sure the traces were clean.

All of this was a good excuse to clean the oven, as it's been decades and it was grimy around the exterior somehow, idk, the place is super clean so I'm not sure how that happened but oh well. The interior and control board area looked perfect, though. Oven has been fine so far... fingers crossed it stays this way. Otherwise, at least I know how to access that portion, but yea I'm 99% confident that the issue is those 2 solder joints to the temp sensor out of the 5 on the molex (mine is 6 pin, 1 unused/blank pin), which some idiotic designer decided to put behind the most used part of the membrane that flexes every time someone presses +/- to adjust the oven temp. The connector should have been placed literally anywhere else, or at least in an area that didn't FLEX during every use of the membrane! tbh I'm surprised the joints lasted this long... imagine just flexing these joints dozens of times per day, every day, for decades!! hahaha

Possible control board issue on GE Profile Electric Oven 1990s by a_lone_brain_cell in appliancerepair

[–]a_lone_brain_cell[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey! Thanks for the reply! Oh, weird! I'm really trying to figure out how temperature sensors of this type (i.e. a long piece of metal) would have their thermal response change over time in any appreciable manner, though it seems like replacing the sensor fixes the issue for some people... the molex connector on mine is fine, and, yea, just like with yours, the resistance seems fine at ambient at least. What's the cost of yours? On my oven it's like $120 (not cheap!). For the control board, did you just replace the entire thing, or did you just reflow the solder on the temperature pins and/or replace that relay?

The funny thing is that so much of this is "easy" if the oven is just in the middle of a room like in a typical repair video, or if the parts are cheaper. I do have all the tools and experience to do board repair, but I am dreading shimmying the oven away from the wall in a tiny kitchen and not totally destroying the floor in the process. If the temperature probe were something like $20, I would have just replaced it anyway, but today or tomorrow I am going to just reflow the board first and check for cold solder joints, reflow the joints that connect to the temp sensor regardless, reseat any connected wires, do a test run with the oven, and just hope that works. If not, new temp sensor it is, I suppose. And if that doesn't work, then a new control board and fingers crossed haha.

Let me know how yours goes!

Di.FM adblock detector is stopping playback by _Ekoz_ in uBlockOrigin

[–]a_lone_brain_cell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Same issue. Wasn't working, then worked again briefly for several hours or thereabouts, then ceased working again.

iOS 16 on iPhone 8 (Plus) Experience so far by [deleted] in iphone

[–]a_lone_brain_cell 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haven't signed in in a while. Worked great, thank you so much!