Category: Not Fixed

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My attempt to fix a Synology 1817+ that encountered the blinking blue power light of death after a power outage

The Synology was in use in an office environment for many years. After a power outage that lead to an abrupt shut down, the Synology 1817+ no longer turns on… well, I should say it intermittently no longer turns on.

Supposedly this model is immune or already has a fix from the factory for the C2000 Intel Atom bug.

I have not tried installing a 100 ohm resistor (I will be later today when it comes in from the mail).

Here’s what I have done.

  1. Replacing the CMOS battery with a brand new 2032 coin battery.
  2. I recreated the BIOS file using AI, as well as manually.
  3. I dumped a Synology 1815+ BIOS to compare what it looked like vs. the 1817+.
  4. Reflashed the BIOS chip using a chip reader/programmer
  5. Tried using a USB DOM from a Synology 415+ with the contents of the Synology 1817+ USB DOM cloned to the 415+ USB DOM.
  6. I’ve soldered a USB A connector to the Synology 1817+ USB DOM and read its contents and created an image of the contents to my computer.

I randomly got terminal access after almost giving up and putting everything back together. I plugged in the Synology 1817+ USB DOM and saw my USB to serial TTL cable receive light start flashing, I looked up at the console in Putty and saw it booting. This gave me hope. When this happened, I put it aside for a day thinking I’d won!

I went back to try and get it onto the network to see if I could reinstall DSM. I noticed that it would not come up on the network. I saw no tx/rx lights on the NIC or the switch.

I then tried to see if I could reflash the BIOS using a thumb drive plugged into the back of the Synology 1817+ – I could not input into the console. I finally, after reseating the cables that were going from the console cable to the Synology 1817+ motherboard, could type into the console.

I tried some instructions that I found on the forum Doozan, but kept getting an error when I tried to use the ./updater -b . command. First it would not finish, and then after a reboot, it would say that the file size was wrong.

I eventually stopped being able to type into the console, and it froze up completely. After doing a hard reboot, it stopped giving me console and fully booting.

I removed the USB DOM to inspect it under a microscope and when I went back to plug it in, I got it to boot again. However, I could not type into the console again.

Eventually the Synology 1817+ stopped booting completely again.

I’m a hard headed fool who is determined to get this unit to work. I know it can, but it has some kind of intermittent issue as shown through my troubleshooting steps I’ve done so far.

I have a 100 ohm resistor coming in the mail today. It would be glorious if, after soldering this onto the motherboard, that it works – but I have my doubts.

Some other testing I did – I removed the USB DOM from the Synology 1815+ and attached my console cable to the UART port. The Synology did not boot. This leads me to believe it has something to do with the BIOS and or the USB DOM.

The thing is, I’ve already tried transferring the USB DOM contents from the Synology 1817+ to the DS415+ USB DOM and still can’t get it to boot.

I did order replacement BIOS chips which won’t be here for a few weeks since it’s coming from China.

The saga continues:

Update 3/30/25:

I found a blown mosfet near the BIOS chip. I noticed a very small dent that looked out of place while looking at the motherboard for the tenth time under my microscope. I zoomed all the way in and I could see some organic matter in a small recessed hole. I poked around with my tweezer and it’s definitely blown. I saw the same matter when I inspected my Fortinet FS-148F-FPOE FortiSwitch that had gone up in smoke.

I’ve ordered a new mosfet from Digikey and will be receiving it later this week. I will continue to update my post – here’s hoping that this will be the fix!

Update: 4/6/25:

I’ve made no further progress. I did replace the switching diode that I thought was a mosfet. I ordered the mosfet from digikey.com, received it, and realized it didn’t fit. I went back, researched some more and found that the KA2 marking indicated it was a switching diode. I ordered the replacement, received it, but it still doesn’t turn on completely. I’ve since ordered a used Synology DS1817+ that was being sold for parts on eBay.com. Once I receive that, I’ll measure the components on the good working board and go from there.

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Dell wireless keyboards deleting text on its own

For several years, I’ve encountered an issue with Dell OptiPlex workstations related to the Dell wireless keyboard, often overlooked during quoting. Occasionally, clients report unexpected email deletions in Outlook, with messages moved to the Archive folder. This happens when the backspace key is triggered, which can be disastrous.

After searching online, I found a Dell forum thread confirming multiple reports of this issue with the wireless keyboard. One plausible explanation is debris getting stuck under the backspace key, causing it to activate unintentionally.

While some speculate wireless interference, it seems more likely that the design, specifically the spacing between keys, may allow debris to lodge under the backspace key, causing it to remain stuck.

Unfortunately, there are no concrete fixes yet. You can read more in the thread here: ‎Random deletion of text | DELL Technologies

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Outlook 365 with Office 365 E3 account Online Archive magically disappears after roughly 10-15 seconds upon loading Outlook

I am back with another crazy problem that only happens to me. I contacted support and of course they don’t know how to fix it. I’m almost certain I am cursed with these extremely unique problems that only happen to maybe .0000000000001% of users using Office 365.

I have tried Googling until my fingers were bleeding to no avail.

Absolutely NO one else seems to have had this problem.

I have an end user with an Office 365 E3 license. They were upgraded from Bus Premium to E3 prior to this since they ran out of space. The E3 license comes with Online Archive and it should work in Outlook as my own Office 365 license is an E3 license and my Online Archive works fine.

I can create a new profile and this fixes it for maybe a few days then it will disappear again.

I have tried /safe /resetnav but nothing helps.

Nothing in the Event Viewer.

The Online Archive shows up in OWA.

My theory is that upon changing the license somewhere along the lines it got screwed up. I even tried removing the E3 license from this end user and then leaving no license and finally putting it back, no luck.

Here’s hoping someone out there has experienced this and might have a fix or point me in the right direction.

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Edge Chromium protocol handler always open these types of links in the associated app

I’ve moved my daily browsing habits to the new Edge that is based on Chromium. I have been using it since the very first release. I am now using the stable beta version.

I noticed about a month or so ago that whenever I tried connecting to a Screenconnect session, the protocol handler would always ask me: This site is trying to open ScreenConnect Client, but it would not have the checkbox to allow me to always open these types of links in the associated app.

Edge Chromium protocol handler with no Always open these types of links in the associated app option

I finally decided to try and figure out if there was an option within Edge to enable this again. After checking the site permissions area, I could not find a setting that would allow this check-box to return.

I started searching the web, and through all the BS Google search results, don’t even get me started with that, I found a few other threads where people were reporting the same thing.

It appears that as of Chrome 77 which Edge Chromium is based on, they removed the option to always open these types of links in the associated app.

Their reasoning is because there was no way to undo the always remember option, they decided it was insecure and a security risk, therefore, they removed it completely.

Here is the thread I found: https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/14194567?hl=en

In the thread, there is a workaround. It entails modifying the preferences file in your default profile.

Hi All, there is a way around this, you can insert a record into the preferences file
found in C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default
The file “Preferences”  contains JSON serttings, our example is for a Web Client Print handler, so just added the below:
“protocol_handler”:{“excluded_schemes”:{“webclientprintiv”:false}}

You must close all instances of chrome including any running processes before you do this or chrome will overwrite the file and get rid of your changes.

And it works.
NB: you’ll have to check your own scheme names to add.
Hope this helps.
Jonesi

https://support.google.com/chrome/thread/14194567?msgid=15347344

I tried modifying the preferences file for the dev version of Edge that I am running alongside the beta and Canary. I went to: %HOMEPATH%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Edge Dev\User Data\Default and tried editing the preferences file found there. When I run Edge, I get an error message saying: Profile error – Your preferences file isn’t valid, or was corrupted. We couldn’t recover your settings. It changes the preferences file to preferences.bad and then creates a new Preferences file.

According to this ConnectWise technical bulletin: https://docs.connectwise.com/ConnectWise_Control_Documentation/Technical_support_bulletins/Constant_prompt_to_open_ScreenConnect_Client_in_Chrome, you should be able to add the following: “protocol_handler”: {“excluded_schemes”: {“sc-xxxxxxxxxxxxx”: false}}, to the Preferences file, and it should always remember your choice that you would like to allow this app to run without having click on Open.

I tried it multiple times, placing the code in different areas, making sure the formatting was right. It never worked. I am going to assume that Microsoft block this change. I really don’t know much about how you can modify open-source browsers, but I’d imagine, most if not all that are based on the same source, follow the same guidelines or standards.

If you figure out how to force the new Edge browser to always allow specific protocol handlers to run instead of having to click on Open all the time, please leave me a comment.

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Outlook is retrieving data from the Microsoft Exchange Server outlook.office365.com

I have a client who has been having this problem for several months now. It started out of the blue. No one else in that site has the same problem. Although the computers are not exactly the same, they all share a commonality in that they are all Dell OptiPlex workstations running Windows 10 Pro and Office 365 Business Premium Office suite.

What happens is while using Outlook, whether it’s changing from one folder to another, Outlook will randomly freeze and up at the title bar it will say (Not Responding) and then down below in the system tray where the Outlook icon is, it will pop up a black notification box that says “Microsoft Outlook Outlook is trying to retrieve data from the Microsoft Exchange server outlook.office365.com.

I cannot re-create the problem at will. It sometimes takes an hour or two for it to randomly appear again.

I have tried the following:

  • Clean Boot
  • Disabling or having the computer prefer IPV4 over IPV6 via Microsoft’s registry fix
  • Disabling hardware acceleration in Outlook
  • Clean install
  • Online repair of Office
  • Multiple new Outlook profiles
  • Outlook safe mode
  • Changing out the network card
  • Tried only via wireless
  • I will come back to this list when I remember what else I’ve tried
  • 11/19 – Replaced the entire network stack, router and switch
  • 11/19 – Replaced the entire workstation with a brand new Dell 7070 with the following specs:
  • Intel Core i9 9900K
  • 32 GB Memory
  • 512 GB PCIe NVME SSD
  • Intel Gigabit PCIe NIC
  • Fresh install of Windows 10 Pro with it being joined to a domain as well as a fresh install of 64-Bit Office 365. The problem has happened on both 32-bit and 64-bit

I have tried using Process Monitor by monitoring Outlook.exe, but nothing of significance is ever shown.

Everything I’ve found online says it might be due to too many items in the calendar. There is a total of 151 items in the calendar.

The other thing I’ve found is that there are too many e-mails. I find that hard to believe since my own Office 365 account has much more than this end-user and I do not see the same problem.

A few people mentioned updating their router’s firmware fixed it for them. I installed all firmware that was available for their router and the problem remains.

I have the end-user’s Exchange account set up in a Windows 10 virtual machine and the same version of Outlook the end-user uses on the Dell OptiPlex.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to recreate the problem. However, I have not used it as a normal end-user would meaning, for eight hours a day, sending e-mails, receiving, etc. so it’s hard to say if it truly does not happen on this virtual machine.

The Dell OptiPlex in question has the following specs:

Intel i5
256 GB Samsung Solid State Drive
8 GB Memory
Windows 10 Pro
Office 365 which is the equivalent to Office 2019

There is a caveat. This entire problem is closely related to something with Quick Books 2019 Pro.

Sending e-mails from Quick Books often times will cause Outlook to freeze up and or it takes a very long time. Sending e-mails via Outlook also tends to cause the error message to occur; however, it does also happen when not using Outlook.

I’ve confirmed the portion that affects QuickBooks and Outlook sending e-mails is a bug on Intuit’s end. That is an ongoing bug with absolutely no fix, other than a workaround, which is to use the send forms feature after queuing several e-mails to be sent.

I am still trying to find a fix for the main problem which is when using Outlook 365 or Outlook 2016 with two Exchange accounts and two shared mailboxes, when just clicking on an e-mail in the inbox, Outlook freezes completely, it says NOT RESPONDING at the top, the bars are greyed out as though it’s about to crash and is not responding to any mouse clicks. On top of that, a small window pops up at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen which says: Outlook is retrieving data from the Microsoft Exchange Server outlook.office365.com.

At this point, the only thing we have not changed out is the cable run that the computer plugs into up to the patch panel. I am having that tested tomorrow with a cable certifier. If it comes back as certified and good, I don’t know what else to try. I am at my wit’s end. I cannot believe that even after a brand new, maxed out computer, it still happens. It shouldn’t be, but it is.

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Windows 10 Photos app printing problem: Your printer has experienced an unexpected configuration problem. 0x800706b5

I ran into this problem with a client’s computer.  A brand new Dell OptiPlex 7050 with a NVMe solid state drive.  Trying to print a simple .jpg picture would allow the default printer to come up in the settings box but trying to select a secondary printer would cause this error to come up.  I tried uninstalling the printer and reinstalling it.  The only time I had success was by utilizing the PS driver for the printer.  The printer in question is a Ricoh C3003 MFP.  After uninstalling and reinstalling it a third time it resulted in ALL printers just saying Connecting…  Restarting the print spooler service and changing the driver did not help.  I finally found something on Google that said it’s easier to just right click the .jpg and click on print as it will bring up an entirely different program to print the picture.  Windows 10 and its what I call “tablet” apps aren’t the greatest.  I find them to be extremely buggy and more often than not, I never find an actual fix for the problem.  I always have to find a workaround, which, unfortunately, is quite sad.

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Windows 10 random computer and mouse stuttering

System specs:

ASUS Rampage V Extreme 3.1
Corsair Dominator Platinum 2400MHz 64GB kit
Intel Core i7-5820K CPU not overclocked
EVGA nVidia 1070
Seasonic PSU (don’t know the exact model off hand)
Samsung EVO 870 NVME PCIe 500GB SSD
Samsung 850 500GB x2 in RAID0 using Intel RAID Controller
SanDisk 960GB SSD plugged into Intel Controller
Corsair K95 RGB keyboard with Cherry-MX Red switches
Logitech G700s using Logitech Gaming Software version 9.2

I have been fighting with trying to find the root cause of this issue where my mouse cursor will suddenly start stuttering and lagging as you move it around the screen.  The entire computer starts to lag as well including watching video and audio.  I thought I had it narrowed down to either some kind of USB issue with my motherboard (ASUS Rampage V Extreme.  I’m not so sure now.  When it starts is completely random.  I can get task manager to open, but there isn’t any process that can be seen using up system resources to the point that it would make my system lag.

It just happened about five minutes ago while I was browsing Outlook and also Google Chrome.  I had a ton of stuff open, but I have 64 GB of memory and an NVME Samsung EVO PCIe SSD.  I opened task manager and could not see anything out of the ordinary except for Google Chrome 64-Bit using around 4 GB of memory.  But again, I have 64 GB, and 4 GB shouldn’t even make a dent on that amount of available memory plus the added PCIe NVME SSD.

I started to ALT+F4 all the windows that were open and surprisingly after I got through all the windows the mouse lag/stutter stopped.  I can’t say for sure which program that was closed caused it to stop the stuttering.  The next time it happens, I will try to go slower and kill each window one by one until the mouse stutter stops.

I also have a Logitech mouse and have seen this weird issue when you use Windows faster user switching and have two people logged, and the lcore.exe process is running within two user’s accounts.  But I don’t think it’s related to the lcore.exe process because I’ve had a hotkey to kill the process while it was happening and it did not cause the stuttering to stop.

Feel free to comment below if you have the same problem.

11/06/2018 Update:

I seem to have narrowed it down to possibly being VMWare Workstation’s USB driver that is causing this to occur.  I can’t say 100% certainty, but I’m very close.  I’ll keep working on this and will update the post as time goes on.

11/07/2018 Update:

Doesn’t appear to be related to VMWare Workstation.  Tonight I found that my workstation at my office is doing the same thing.  It seems like it happens after the computer has been on for a few days with no reboot.  I could easily reproduce the issue by opening task manager while Chrome was open.  I did this at home and left it while I went out for a bit and came back, and the mouse was still lagging/stuttering/freezing/jumping around the screen.

I’m not any closer to fixing this, but I did go ahead and disable pretty much everything that isn’t necessary and am trying to reproduce the issue again.  I might have to wait a few days before it shows itself again which is infuriating.

11/8/2018 Update:

I disable the vast majority of the software that starts on my computer and started opening up hundreds of tabs within Chrome.  I’ve got Chrome using up around 5GB of memory right now.  Another thing I did uninstall completely was Grammarly.  Grammarly latches on to everything as it tries to check your grammar so it makes sense that it might cause a lot of problems like this, but I can’t find anyone else online or through my Google-Fu that had a similar problem, so it’s likely not that.

I won’t know until I probably leave the computer on for a few days as it appears to clear up after a reboot.

4/8/2019 Update:

Unfortunately, I am still fighting with this issue. I have tried so many things to no avail. Just today, things started to freeze up completely, and it would unfreeze every few minutes. I tried opening up Task Manager and tried killing processes, but that did not help either. I thought for a while that it was related to my SSD setup and I might be getting closer to figuring this thing out. I have a new Samsung 970 EVO NVMe 500 GB drive that I installed and disconnected all other SATA SSD hard drives. For a time, things were OK. Not completely fixed, but not as bad. I attributed that to my SATA SSD hard drives failing or at least one of them that were connected. I cannot do a diagnostic on them as they’re both NFR OEM/enterprise SSD drives and Samsung Magic does not recognize them.

In any case, I am a bit bothered by how crappy my system performed. It was top of the line for when it was purchased, and I have never gone above all programs using more than fifty percent of my available memory, which is 64 GB worth.

At this point, I am thinking about buying a new motherboard, PSU and CPU and re-using my memory and video card. If that doesn’t fix it, then I guess I may be pushing my system to its limits, which I highly doubt.

This problem typically rears its head when I have had a ton of programs open along with the uptime being anywhere from one to five days without a reboot.

Within the past two weeks, I have started to experience weird freezing that occurs for a minute or two and then releases the computer, and I can do whatever it is I was doing. I have opened up the Task Manager and could see my network process using up 200+Mbps. I updated my NIC’s driver and sure enough, it sort of fixed the issue.

As of 4/8, I have once again, disabled any unnecessary startup items and disabled all non-Microsoft services to try and see how long it will take before the problem returns.

I will keep you posted.