Tricks & Tweaks: Useful Ideas We Learned (mostly) Online

There is no doubt that we got various useful ideas online. Here are just some of them which we would like to recyle.

• Car leaf cover: Keep leaves out of car cabin air intake area / engine bay, using ADFORS 48" x 84" Pet Resistant screen from Home Depot just sitting . Thanks to a DIY Car Guy
• Mailbox delivery alert: We bought this product (in our case, from Home Depot, where it does not seem to be available any longer) and like its size but more than that, its yellow delivery alert flag (we later attached a larger yellow plastic piece so it can be seen more clearly). Extremely simple idea that works! Actually, we learned there are other products and DIY projects based on the same idea (search results).
• Self-setting clock ideas: (1) Desktop apps (e.g., Analog Chronometer); (2) UltrAtomic clock [works when others don't]; (3) Retired notebook computer and mobile phones (via WiFi)
• Afterglow game controller: Not starting on button press: press and hold (30sec) the reset button hidden under the back flap. Thanks to valbaca
• Panasonic cordless phones: The "First Ring Off" feature (which depends on the caller ID info) is useful for not hearing unwanted calls and to use caller-dependent ring tones. To get this feature to work, we need to make at least one entry (even a dummy one) into the "Call Block" list. Thanks to BobbyC777
• Chevy Bolt EV: Sudden drop in energy efficiency & shaking/vibration on the steering wheel was due to a bad caliper. Thanks to Evon Housen and JMcBrew among others;
• Slow tire air pressure loss: Due to a leak from the valve stem. Thanks to unitedtires
• Unihertz Jelly Star (smallest practical phone) USB port problem/issue: USB stops working once in a while (both sync and charge; developer options enabled) => "Setting" / "System" / "Developer options" / "Default USB configuration" (farther down the menu) => temporarily change the setting to whatever different from the current selection and revert to the desired selection
• Lenovo all-in-one PC noisy fan: To reduce the sound level, change advanced power options ("cooling plan" to "passive" and "max processor state" to "99%"). Thanks to Techvert
• Windows 10 remedies: (1) To turn off automatic updates, change the permissions (in our case, filenames as well) of "wuauclt.exe" and "wuaueng.dll" (in "system32"). Thanks to "danwat1234" (comment section) [may no longer work for later versions of Win10]; (2) To prevent "AMD Northbridge" fatal errors, disable "Fast startup". Thanks to donrob

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