Amin Sadeghi's Blog

I have seen many claims over the internet about unsuccessful attempts at synchronising data between phone and a personal computer. While some cases were solved by trying it on another computer or another operating system, some never succeeded.

Like the minority, I was never able to find out what’s wrong with the procedure. At first, there were reports that HTC Sync doesn’t work properly on Windows 7, but the newest version released by HTC was Windows 7-compatible. What I found, as being the source of my problem, is going to be very tricky. I’m happy if someone with the same problem reads this blog and syncs happily ever after!

Below, I’m going to explain my issue alongside all other probabilities:

1. Windows 7/HTC Driver problem

While the HTC Sync software and the HTC driver are two different things in their very nature, many people will get confused and think once they have installed HTC Sync, they have all the means of starting the synchronisation process. The truth is, after a successful installation of HTC Sync the software will try to recognise your phone type and based on your operating system e.g. Windows 7, it will download the relevant driver for your phone. Be informed that the software itself cannot establish a connection to your phone on its own, on the contrary, needs the driver as an agent.

Previous releases of the software would download an incompatible driver for Windows 7, as a result you can find many posts over the internet about Windows Vista drivers, where you needed to download the Vista drivers and manually copy them to the designated folder in your Windows 7. Fortunately, HTC fixed this problem in HTC Sync version 2.0.18. So, if you’re using the new HTC Sync 2.0.33 this should probably not be the issue. These new versions work as a charm, so skip to the next solutions.

2. You’re firewall blocks the connection

Though it may sound a little amateur, but most people using a firewall really have no idea which files to grant access and which to block. Therefore, if you’re behind a firewall, which is installed on your PC, not the router, like ZoneAlarm, Comodo Firewall, etc., go to the programs sections, where you can assign security permissions, and make sure the following files are marked as trusted:

• Program Files\HTC\HTC Sync\Mobile Phone Monitor\HTCVBTServer.exe
• Program Files\HTC\HTC Sync\Mobile Phone Monitor\FSynSrvStarter.exe

In case you don’t a firewall installed on your PC, you should take a look at this post on lifehacker. The metaphor is hilarious!

3. The service on your phone was killed by mistake! (my problem)

Most people using Android-enabled phones will notice that programmes and services don’t stop when you return to your home screen on the phone. This means that all programmes will be running in the background while you don’t need them. Soon enough, comes the need for a killing device. People familiar with this have already been using software like Taskiller and TaskPanel. Using these software is, again, very witty if you know how to use them. Similar to a Firewall, you must know which processes to kill and which ones to add to the exemption list.

Unfortunately, I’m using another ROM at the moment which doesn’t show that service name, but I clearly remember that in the factory ROM based on Android 1.5 (Cupcake), it had a service running, visible in TasKiller’s list of services that was responsible for making the synchronisation on the phone. It wasn’t a service specific to HTC but from its name I could deduce this was Android’s service of enabling a third-party synchronisation software to function. To put it simple words, using TasKiller once would disable this service and make you unable to pair it with HTC Sync.

The way of solving this problem would be to uninstall your task killing software on the phone e.g. TasKiller and rebooting the phone.

I hope you could see your own phone name instead of the Disconnected status as well.

About a week ago I did huge modifications to my home PC and a few, but important, upgrades. I’ve stumbled upon many blue screens, caused by an encryption key module error, that are technically called BSODs that stand for Blue Screen of Death which doesn’t sound technical at all! But let’s not talk about that because only a few people might be interested in hearing that story.

The other problem I faced is a more general one that I would like to write about. It happened when I was trying to launch a video game. Sometimes when you’re launching a video game or a software that needs high-end graphical use, a d3dxxxx.dll file missing alert would appear on your screen. My highly recommended advice for you is that you never download and install the missing dll file to your operating system’s sys32 folder for it can probably cause severe damages to your hardware.

Fortunately, this was not my first acquaintance with such a problem and I had read about it before. The solution is very simple! You just need to update and get the latest version of Microsoft DirectX.

First of all, you need to take into account that Microsoft DirectX is a bundle of APIs and DLLs, platform independently, to help graphical software developers and graphic card creators to reach uniformity. In other words, the world has reached a point where there are thousands of graphic cards, and no team of programmers can write exclusive codes for each one of them. Moreover, the same accord applies to sound cards and DirectX disposes groundbreaking audio experience. Whenever your video or audio card lacks the adequate hardware solution for new technologies, several pre-programmed functions would allow a software simulation for user’s blessing.

Now what I’m approvingly recommending is to keep your DirectX always up to date. Firstly, although not necessarily, you can get to know and have more information about the current version of DirectX, video card resources and associated memory on your system by running DirectX Diagnostic Tool. To do so, click the start button and select Run in older versions of windows, or click Run from Start>All Programs>Accesories in Windows Vista and 7, or simply hold the windows key  on your keyboard and hit ‘R.’ Type ‘dxdiag.exe’ and the DirectX Diagnostic Tool will be executed.

Here you check the current DirectX version running on your computer in the main ‘System’ tab. As of today, end of January 2010, the latest version is 11.

How to update your DirectX to the latest version:

Open the following page: DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer. Download the web installer and run it on your computer. Be aware the application will be granted to download up to 90MB of updates if your current version is too old, so please be advised to run it only when you’re sure the connection you’re using is fast enough.

After the installation has finished you may need to restart your computer. You can make sure of the update by running it again, and you will receive the following note if you’re running the latest version:

“DirectX setup has determined that a newer or equivalent version of DirectX has been installed already. No installation is necessary”.

Congratulations. You’re about to experience the latest technology now.

Do you remember the days when you were back in school, thinking about your future? It’s probable that you had a family member whom you’d respect the most, and he/she was an architect. Watching how a house was designed and plotted on a computer brought sparkles to your eyes. Later when the house was actually been built, dreams were becoming true in real-life.

It’s funny how kids pursue the dream of becoming this person, subsequently thinking of the job as their own fancy job. But things can get ugly when in the forthcoming years you realise that you have had much better capabilities in some other field. So, what do you think is the best way to decipher your abilities and proceed with what is best for you?

Hopefully if you’re not living in a communist society (see communist education), I’ve found something that could help you decide what university programme to do. Read the description of the following groups and see which is in your interest the most:

Group A

You are interested in:

• physical activity
• working with machines
• working with your hands
• caring for the environment
• working with plants
• caring for animals
• fixing things

Group B

You are interested in:

• numbers and figures
• running your own business
• leading a group of people
• selling products or services
• planning and organising the activities of others
• taking care of the welfare of people in the workplace

Group C

You are interested in:

• reading
• performing for an audience
• speaking to or in front of a group of people
• developing new or unusual ways of doing things
• interacting with people (in groups or individually)
• taking care of people
• teaching others
• helping people cope with their problems
• learning about different cultures

Group D

You are interested in:

• persuading people
• influencing people
• social justice
• applying rules and regulations
• solving difficult situations involving people
• power
• working with those who have lost direction

Group E

You are interested in:

• mathematics and science
• planning and problem-solving
• working with computers
• designing things
• programming computers to perform tasks
• knowing how things work

Which one did you choose? I’m sure this list doesn’t cover every academic university programme out there, but if you were lucky to fall into one of these categories press ‘read more’ to see the results.

Emile Durkheim