Posts by Michael Harris93

I don't personally believe that if someone can't stand animals, they lack empathy for people too,

but you always run into those certain types of whiners who get all worked up if the house isn't kept as pristine as a Smithsonian museum wing,

or those total pushovers who obsess over every single stray hair, or maybe they're just too lazy and checked out to actually bother looking after a pet,

for me, though, it's impossible to stay in a bad mood when there's an animal nearby; hanging out with my dog just makes everything feel lighter, and you can really sense that genuine affection—especially with dogs. I swear, I feel more sincerity from a dog than I ever have from any person; when I look at my dog, he’s the only creature on this planet I know for a fact isn't judging me or harboring some negative thought, he just wants to play and hang out,

I mean, I can certainly be friends with people who aren't into animals, but living under the same roof with someone like that? Yeah, that's just never going to happen. ☕

I actually posted a question about this here a little while ago, but I’ve finally managed to clear up some things regarding my component specs and how my BIOS is currently laid out, so here we are.
So, my current setup consists of an AMD Phenom II X4 945 3.0 GHz, a Gigabyte GA-785G-UD3H dual BIOS motherboard, 4GB of DDR3 RAM (two sticks of 2GB at 1600 MHz), a 550W power supply, and a GeForce GTX 280.

Right now, my BIOS is configured with a 15x multiplier on a 200 MHz Front Side Bus, which puts me right at 3000 MHz.
The HT link frequency is sitting at 2000 MHz (set to auto) and the Northbridge frequency is also at 2000 MHz (also on auto).
My memory is running at 1600 MHz, which is its rated speed—though I had to bump it up one notch on the board since the motherboard's default "auto" setting for memory is actually 1333 MHz.

Basically, almost everything is set to auto. When I try to overclock by messing with the Front Side Bus, the most I’ve been able to squeeze out of it is 3.4 GHz, but even then, I had to dial back the multipliers for the memory, the Northbridge, and the HT link just to keep things stable. At 3450 MHz, I had to drop the HT and NB frequencies slightly to around 1950 MHz, and I had to downshift the memory one step too—I think I went from 8.00 down to 6.66, if I recall correctly—so the memory clock ended up around 1500 MHz. Also, I've realized that the auto voltage settings are pretty much useless when you're actually trying to overclock, so I have to switch over to manual and nudge the CPU voltage from 1.3V up to somewhere between 1.375V and 1.400V max to maintain that clock.

Anyway, what I'm really aiming for is to push from 3.0 GHz up to 3.8 GHz, and get that memory up to 1800 MHz. I'm not entirely sure how much the Northbridge and HT link frequencies actually matter in this equation, but I assume keeping them higher is probably better.

So, if anyone out there has a moment, could you maybe help me figure out how to properly calibrate all these settings?

Benjamin King2 said:What kind of "blockage" are you even talking about? If you're running a DirectX 9 card, obviously you aren't going to be able to play games that require DirectX 10 or 11. Especially if you're still stuck on Windows XP.

So, I'm running Windows 7 64-bit with a Phenom X4 945, and I recently picked up a cheap, used NVIDIA GTX 285 (DirectX 10) from a buddy of mine just four months ago for $250. Honestly, the card is an absolute beast; it handles Battlefield 3 at around 38-55 fps on max settings with 4x AA, which isn't bad at all.

But now, whenever I try to fire up Crysis 2 with that DirectX 11 patch, or play Metro 2033 or Batman: Arkham City, I keep getting hit with this error—it’s a Windows error, not something coming from the game itself—telling me that my hardware doesn't have the necessary DirectX support.

I actually ran into this exact same headache with my old card, a 7900 GT (DirectX 9), when I was playing the original Crysis back on Windows XP SP2. But I managed to find this little tweak, sort of like a virtual workaround that tricks the DirectX commands and the game into thinking I actually have a DirectX 10 card, and I finally managed to unlock those Very High settings. It works for Battlefield 3 and anything else using the Frostbite engine too, which is great since this is just my old machine that my little cousin uses to play games whenever she comes over to visit.

Honestly, just disable those automatic Windows updates the second you finish installing the OS.

I haven't touched an update since back in the Windows XP SP2 days, because let’s be real, there’s almost never anything actually useful in them.
Plus, I’ve noticed that people who constantly update tend to run into all sorts of weird glitches, errors, and general system instability.
If you actually know what you're doing with it, Windows 7 runs smooth as silk—just totally flawless.

Oh, and by the way, is there any way to bypass that DirectX 11 lock in game settings? Is there some kind of tweak to trick Windows into thinking I'm running a DirectX 11 card?

It’s driving me crazy because I’ll be getting maybe 50 FPS on certain games, but I can't even crank up the settings because that DirectX 11 restriction from Windows won't even let me launch the game properly.

I mean, yeah, fair enough. If you can actually see that the person you're talking to is right, you’ve got to be man enough to just admit it.

But there's no need to get all heated or let your mood dictate the flow; just talk, so people realize you actually have a backbone and a set of convictions that aren't just shifting with the wind. It's a solid way to hold your ground. You see how our politicians operate—it's like the entire government is trying to tear them apart, yet they just sit there with this cold, professional detachment, denying everything, making excuses, and spinning every disaster into a justification.

And honestly, when you run into someone with a really interesting mindset, even if they're worlds apart from you, I think it's better to approach them with a bit of ambition and genuine curiosity. Getting defensive just isn't a great look. I’ve had some incredibly deep, rewarding conversations in my time, but usually, they start with this sort of philosophical, psychological dance—sort of an intellectual sparring match before things really settle down.

Look, just try not to raise your voice or let that visible irritation and anger take over when you're getting into an argument

Whenever I find myself in a disagreement and I notice the other person starting to lose their cool—getting aggressive or just totally fraying at the edges, which happens quite a bit when I'm clashing with my parents—I just stay calm, composed, and strictly professional. I channel my inner Bill Clinton, keeping this carefree smile on my face while I calmly lay out my points. Once they see how fluently I can just drop my arguments on them, I usually know I've won the day. Honestly, I think anyone who can manage to steer their opponent toward total madness and uncontrolled rage while staying perfectly level-headed is the true intellectual winner here

AND PEOPLE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLEASE KEEP THE COMMENTS ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S LITERACY TO THE APPROPRIATE THREADS. It’s not that people are uneducated; it’s more likely that, much like me, they're just exhausted by having to obsess over every single misplaced capital letter or punctuation mark. Seriously, what do I know about perfect grammar? I'm not some high school English teacher, so I don't claim to have every rule memorized just to satisfy everyone's nitpicking

Man, you guys are such loners—and hey, I’m totally including myself in that group. Though, if I'm being honest, I wouldn't just call it being antisocial; it feels more like a mix of social anxiety and a genuine phobia at this point. It's not even that I don't want people around, because I actually do, but life just sort of conspired to land me right here in this solitary bubble.

Honestly, I'd much rather stay in, get lost in my favorite RPG, grind some League or Dota, or maybe pick up my guitar or catch a game. It beats doing what 80% of the mindless crowd does every single Friday or Saturday night. They head out to those obnoxious techno clubs, standing there shaking their heads and waving their hands around like drugged-out cattle to some mediocre DJ. Trust me, once you step out and see how utterly brain-dead modern youth culture has become, you’ll start falling in love with your own hermit lifestyle.

I'd take playing horseshoes with a bunch of retirees any day. At least once in a while on the weekend, those guys will throw some lamb on the grill, and you can actually eat a real meal like a human being.😉

Does anyone happen to know how to fix an issue where installers just won't launch on Windows 7 x64

Basically, I'm stuck because I can't get the main setup.exe to actually do anything for these specific titles:

Battlefield 2 update v1.7
Crysis warhead
FS 2004
IL 2 1946
Hearts of Iron 3

The weird thing is... when I click on setup.exe, I get that standard prompt asking "do you want to allow this program to make changes on this computer," which I naturally click yes to, but then absolutely nothing happens—no installer window, no progress bar, just total silence after the confirmation.

It’s a bit frustrating since all these games used to run perfectly fine back when I was using Windows XP 32.