Windows 10


DJI Flight Simulator – Network Error 008_008 {000/0263}

It can be frustrating and confusing if you encounter the error 008_008 {000/0263} when using the DJI Flight Simulator. Fortunately, we have found a solution that may help resolve this issue. In this blog post, we will explain step-by-step how to resolve the error by installing Unreal Engine 4 requirements from the DJI installation folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\DJI Flight Simulator\UE4PrereqSetup_x64.exe) and then restarting your computer.

Before we begin, it’s important to note that this solution has been tested on Windows 10 Pro 64bit, so the steps may be slightly different if you use a different operating system.

Step 1: Open the DJI Installation Folder

To start, you will need to locate the DJI installation folder on your computer. This is usually located at C:\Program Files (x86)\DJI Flight Simulator. Open this folder to continue.

Step 2: Locate the Unreal Engine 4 Installer

In the DJI installation folder, you should see a file named UE4PrereqSetup_x64.exe. This is Unreal Engine 4 Requirements installer, which is required to run the DJI Flight Simulator. Double-click on this file to start the installation process.

Step 3: Install Unreal Engine 4

The Unreal Engine 4 installer will now launch. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the software. The installation process may take several minutes, so be patient. Once the installation is complete, you will be prompted to restart your computer.

Step 4: Restart Your Computer

To complete the installation of Unreal Engine 4, you will need to restart your computer. Save any open files, close any running programs, and then click the “Restart” button to restart your computer.

Step 5: Launch the DJI Flight Simulator

After your computer has restarted, relaunch the DJI Flight Simulator. If you have followed these steps correctly, you should no longer encounter the error 008_008 {000/0263}. Congratulations, you have successfully resolved this issue!

In conclusion, the error 008_008 {000/0263} can be frustrating and prevent you from using the DJI Flight Simulator. However, by installing Unreal Engine 4 requirements from the DJI installation folder and restarting your computer, you can resolve this issue and continue using the simulator. We hope that this guide has helped resolve this issue, and we wish you happy flying!


BitLocker needs your recovery key to unlock your drive because Secure Boot policy has unexpectedly changed

Oh, the joy of wrong configurations!

Recently, a person brought us this laptop to “fix.”
The previous day, the owner performed some Windows updates, and after restarting, the machine got this error.
After inquiring with him, we got the following information:

  • He did not possess a BitLocker recovery key with a length of 48 digits.
  • He had never even attempted to put one up, save it anywhere, or copy it to a USB drive, nor had he ever printed it off.
  • He logged into his Microsoft and Azure account, receiving the message “You don’t have any BitLocker recovery keys uploaded to your Microsoft account.” even though his device was listed there.
  • He could not locate the recovery key after attempting to follow the published instructions published by Microsoft.

If the information we got from that person is correct, then it means that the last Windows update cost that person inadvertently to lose all data that he did not back up in an external media or service. (Cracking the recovery key for BitLocker is, of course, out of the question for non-magical or extremely rich people with unlimited resources.)

Our only pieces of advice are the following:

  • Wait a few days before updating your PCs. Although this is not a safe practice, it might give the people responsible for this issue some time to fix it with a hotfix patch or similar.
  • In the meantime, perform timely backups of your data to external media or services.
  • If you are familiar with the Windows OS ecosystem, check your BitDefender settings. If that service is active and you do not have the recovery key, disable it and then reactivate it. It will produce a new pair of passwords and recovery keys that you can save for future use.

Starting XAMPP with port 80 on Windows 10 Professional 1

Recently we were asked to have a look at a XAMPP installation on a Windows 10 Professional machine which would not start while giving the following error:

Problem detected!
Port 80 in use by "Unable to open process" with PID 4!
Apache WILL NOT start without the configured ports free!
You need to uninstall/disable/reconfigure the blocking application
or reconfigure Apache and the Control Panel to listen on a different port

The culprit of this problem was a module of the IIS (Internet Information Services for Windows Server) that is named World Wide Web Publishing Service (WWW service or W3SVC service). Apparently, the W3SVC was hoarding port 80 even though IIS was not executing. To provide a quick solution, we decided to stop the W3SVC and get over this difficulty in a jiffy.

As you can see in the following video, to stop the World Wide Web Publishing Service (WWW service or W3SVC service) we performed the next steps:

  1. Clicked on the Start button
  2. Typed in the word services, which showed the Services link which we clicked to start the windows services  manager
  3. Then, we scrolled down in the Services window until we found the World Wide Web Publishing Service
  4. Finally, we right clicked on it and selected Stop.

After that, XAMPP was able to start Apache on port 80 with no issues.

 


ATEN – USB-to-Serial Converter (35cm) UC232A – Windows 10 (64bit) Drivers

Background

Recently we started using the UC232A USB-to-Serial Converter to connect to a board.
The software we used was TeraTerm on a 64bit Windows 10 without installing custom drivers.

Our serial port configuration was the following:

  • Baud rate: 115200
  • Data: 8 bit
  • Parity: none
  • Stop: 1 bit
  • Flow control: none
  • Transmit delay:
    5 msec/char
    5 msec/line

The problem

We noticed that something was wrong with the process as the terminal would not operate consistently.
Some times keystrokes did not appear on screen, in other times results would not appear correctly (they could be truncated or mixed with other data) and in general, the system acted like it was possessed by a ghost.

Troubleshooting

We played around with the configuration parameters, hoping that it was an issue like having the need to add large transmit delay but it did not change anything, the communication with the board was unstable.
Afterwards, we switched to another cable, of a different company, and everything worked as expected. The data on the screen was consistent and the ghost was banished. The UC232A was brand new so we tested that it works on a GNU/Linux machine, which turned out to be OK. Doing so, these two tests led us to the conclusion that since both the cable operates properly on GNU/Linux and the board operates properly using the other cable, that the issue we had was the automatically installed Windows 10 drivers.

Solution

While the cable was unplugged, we installed the official drivers we found here.
To find the drivers on that page, click on Support and Download tab at the bottom and then click on the Software & Drivers panel.
From the new table that will appear, under the category Windows Legacy Software & Driver we used the latest version that was available at the time that this post was written, which was v1.0.082 dated 2016-01-27 uc232a_windows_setup_v1.0.082.zip ( uc232a_windows_setup_v1.0.082.zip (10282 downloads) retrieved on the 23rd of November 2016).
After the download was finished, we restarted the machine, plugged in the cable and gave it another go.
The system was working as expected.

Following, you will find the screenshots from the device manager, after we got the cable working right.

uc232a-device-manager

uc232a-device-properties

uc232a-drive-file-details