I got this question in my inbox a few days ago:
Hey IT Nerd! You seem to know a lot about cars, so let me ask you this. My check engine light is on, but I know my car is perfectly fine. So I’d like to get rid of it. Do I need to use a scan code tool to do this or do I have to take it to the stealership?
Thanks!
Thanks for your question.
A scan code tool is what a mechanic uses to read a “trouble code” (which in turn may or may not throw a check engine light or some other indicator on your dashboard) that is stored in the OBD (on board diagnostic) system inside your car. To illustrate this, I borrowed one from a local mechanic who’s computer systems I fix from time to time and plugged it into my Toyota Matrix:
If you click to enlarge the picture, you’ll see that it says “No Powertrain DTCs or Freeze Frame Data is presently stored in vehicle’s computer.” In English it means that there are no “trouble codes” stored in the car’s computer which implies that the engine is fine. If there were codes, the codes in question will either point a mechanic to a specific part that is causing an issue, or to a particular part of the engine where he or she can start looking for a problem. Now besides looking for “trouble codes,” you can also use a scan code tool to check performance data in real time. And yes, you can use one to clear a code. But here’s why you don’t want to do that. If you have a check engine light, there is something wrong with your car. You need to have it looked at to see if you did something simple such as not tighten your gas cap when you last filled up your car (which will generate a “trouble code”) or if you have a more serious (read: expensive) problem. So do yourself a favor and have it checked out. It may cost you $60 at a mechanic or “stealership” as automotive dealerships are sometimes known as. But if you have a problem with your car, you better find out about it now before it either costs you a pile of money or leaves you stranded at the side of the road.
Microsoft Seems To Be Forcing You To Update To Windows 10…. WTF?? [UPDATED]
Posted in Commentary with tags Microsoft on September 11, 2015 by itnerdFrom the “why the hell would they think this is a good idea” department comes the news that our friends at Microsoft are downloading Windows 10 to PCs whether or not users have reserved a copy of it to download. What’s wrong with this? Say you have a cap in terms of the amount of data you can transfer across your Internet connection. This force download will basically eat about 4GB to 6GB of your cap. On top of that, that amount of disk space will simply “disappear” as well. All without your permission. According to a Microsoft statement given to The Inquirer, this will happen if you have automatic updates via Windows Update turned on. Thus that implies that if you have automatic updates turned off, this should be a non issue. That’s how I have my Windows 7 virtual machine set up and I don’t see any evidence that Microsoft has tried to force download Windows 10 onto my computer. But I will watch this and update this post if it does happen.
Here’s why this is an incredibly stupid idea on the part of Microsoft. I get that Microsoft would prefer that we all run their latest and greatest OS. It would make their lives easier as they would only have to write patches for one OS as opposed to having to write code for Windows 10, Windows 8.x, Windows 7.x and who know what else that they still support. It would also make us more secure in theory as Windows 10 has better security than previous efforts from Redmond. But it is my choice what OS I want to run and not Microsoft’s choice. Force feeding Windows 10 down users throats on top of not giving users the choice to install system updates or not is the sort of stupidity that makes people ditch PCs and run to Apple Stores to buy Macs because even Apple isn’t that dumb. Though there was that U2 album thing from last year. But at least that was a bunch of music files and not a 6GB operating system.
Microsoft is going to live to regret this. Mark my words.
UPDATE: Addictive Tips has a solution for this issue which involves uninstalling the KB3035583 update among other things.
Leave a comment »