troubleshooting

Charles has upgraded to macOS Catalina 15.1, and now he's getting crashing due to an error with an iOS device. Leo suspects it may be a wifi sync issue between Charles' iPad and the Mac. So into the music settings and turn off sync library and see if that solves the issue. It sounds like a bug that Apple has to fix. Also, try opening the Activity Monitor. It'll show what processes are running and when you shut down, kill the sync process. That's not a great solution long term, but it could work until the fix comes in a future update.  A complete clean install may also fix it.

Gina is getting a blue screen on her Mac. Eventually the computer comes back, but she wants to know Why? Leo says that it could be a problem with an external peripheral. Unplug everything except your keyboard and mouse, and see if it repeats. It sounds like a communication issue between your peripherals. A bad driver or a failing USB port. Then plug each extra device in, and see which one causes it. Then you'll know which device is causing the problem, and then you can go to the website and get an updated driver. 

Chris has a Samsung Galaxy S10 and he can't get the Google Play store to open. It crashes. Verizon says he needs to do a "function reset." Leo says Chris has to be sure his phone is completely updated. that's important. Go into the settings and see if the latest Samsung software is there. But it's probably best to reset the phone is in order. Press and hold the on/off button and select restart. If that doesn't work, then he can reset the phone to factory default settings. But restarting the phone should work. From the Chatroom - Clear the cache and data from the Play Store app.

Kurt replaced the hard drive in his Lenovo laptop and now it won't boot up. It stops at the boot screen. 24 hours later, it booted up no problem. What gives? Leo says that's common and usually results in a hiccup in the BIOS or UEFI. Leo suspects that the battery on the motherboard has failed. Also, underneath the splash screen could show if the computer tried to boot into Windows and failed. That could indicate a faulty hard drive. Leo suspects a failing power supply could also be the issue. 

Mario recently replaced his hard drive with a Samsung Solid State Drive. Then he upgraded to Windows 10. The computer went to sleep. And now it won't come back on. He managed to get a boot menu by pressing F12. But nothing else. Leo says that means the screen is still good. But it could also mean that the hard drive died. Even though it's new, they can die out quickly. If your computer is old enough, it could be the CMOS battery has died and needs replacing. Check the date/time in the setup. If it thinks it's 1969, then that's what happened.

Jack is having a "fluttering" issue with his AppleTV, where it goes to black. Spectrum says it's a box problem, and it should be rebooted. Apple says it shouldn't. Leo says that Apple is wrong; he has to reboot his AppleTV all the time. It's easy by pressing the menu and home button at the same time for five seconds. Stuttering can also indicate a bandwidth issue. Samsung also says his TV is out of date as well. But Leo says that it's probably not the TV. He suspects that his carrier Spectrum and a bad app. Uninstall the app and reinstall it. Also, try using a wired ethernet connection.

Tony has a Synology NAS, but the public folder disappeared from his Windows PC. And Windows won't let him browse to it. Leo says SMB has to be enabled for the folder to be discovered. It's the networking protocol that Windows uses. It will also give you a password challenge. But once you input the password, Windows should remember it. 

Angela has a 2015 Mac and when she shuts it down, it turns back on. Leo says it's an incomplete shutdown, with some app hanging it up. A wipe and reinstall of the OS should make it go away. Make sure you backup your data first.

You can launch the activity monitor and it'll show you all the processes that are running.

John has a Sony A7R and he's having some focusing issues with his lens. Leo says that you can sometimes accidentally switch off autofocus on the lens. So make sure your switch is enabled to AF. Another thing to do is update the lens' firmware. Yes, your lens has firmware. It may be old or even corrupted. So update it. Also, clean the contacts with a QTip and some alcohol. 

Joey is having issues with his Plex media server (Plex is a sponsor of TWiT). He can see his media files on the Synology NAS, but he can't access the files at all. Leo says you may have to turn on a sharing file system like SMB. Stop and restart your file server software to be sure it's properly running. Ports may also need to be opened in your router. Check your firewall log to see if those ports are being blocked.