Fixing My Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver for Windows
I have been using two Xbox 360 controllers going through an Xbox 360 Wireless Receiver from Microsoft for several years without issue. Today, I unplugged it to plug it into my girlfriend's laptop, and it would not turn on (Windows didn't even detect that anything was plugged in).
A quick search helped me to discover that the F1 Fuse on the circuit board is prone to failure, and the symptoms matched perfectly. It had been ages since I fired up a soldering iron, but I decided to give it a go.
First, I pried apart the halves of the receiver. If you can get something really thin, you can simply shove it between the two halves and gently pry them apart. I had to be a bit forceful with mine, and it no longer looks new, but I don't really mind. I unplugged the single plug connecting the USB wire to the circuit board, and unscrewed the board from the plastic shell to access the bottom of it.
On the upper right-hand corner, there is a very small fuse labeled F1. Yes, it's practically the smallest thing attached to the board. The fix involved simply bypassing the fuse altogether by applying a small amount of solder to connect the two posts on both sides of the fuse. This will make a connection between the posts, and should allow power to flow normally.
Since I can be a bit ham-fisted, and the work area where the fuse is located is tiny, I was somewhat worried I had damaged the board or something else around it, but I put everything back together and alas, it worked like a charm.
I just avoided having to purchase a replacement Microsoft component--today was a good day!
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Google Docs: Can’t I access my own documents?
- Image via CrunchBase
It's been a while since I've created a new document in Google Docs. I usually just need to access old documents or shared documents from others. But today, when I tried to create a document, I received an error to the effect of, "We're sorry, you do not have access to this document."
I was logged in with the same account that I just used to create the document, so the error was baffling. There was a link to request access for myself, specifically displaying the same address as the one I created the document with. So what the hell, I figured--I requested access. Immediately I received an email, at the same account I was already logged in to, requesting access for myself. I approved the request and the document opened without issue.
So I closed the document, and searched for it in Google Docs, and then opened it again, and lo and behold I received the same Access Denied error.
I then remembered that last month Google indicated they were disabling offline access for Google Docs while they worked on a new version to re-release later. So on a hunch I disabled offline access and everything is now working as expected.
Perhaps I was not supposed to have been able to use Google Docs offline, but then why was it still enabled for me? Either way, it looks like I'm stuck using the Online version of Google Docs until the problem is resolved.
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