Posts by Jack Cook7

Check this out—it explains how to fix that annoying "blurry text" issue using Norton Utilities


Seriously, so many resolutions just have these super fuzzy fonts right out of the box, so you've gotta tweak things to get them looking sharp.

Sam Peterson6 said:I'm logged into Google with my account, but whenever I open Chrome, the top bar shows "Sign-In ERROR for xxxxx@gmail.com" ERROR- no connection
If I click on Gmail, my email opens up just fine, but when I go to Google Drive, there's absolutely nothing there—even though I uploaded a bunch of videos from my laptop
The tablet is "K00F" and the laptop is running Windows 10

What version of Chrome are you rocking? It sounds like Chrome on the tablet is tripping over some HTTPS connections—like those digital certificates that auto-download—or maybe it’s just failing to run the client-side script for Google Drive.

I deal with this stuff all the time on ancient IE6 (yeah, I have to use it for some legacy programs, don't judge me!).

Try patching Chrome to a slightly newer version. Just don't go *too* recent, or you might end up freezing that tablet solid.

Jerry Robinson56 said:You shouldn't drink your first glass of bourbon too fast; the side effects can be unpleasant. It is an objective truth that most complaints are rejected, yet there remains a segment where moderators refuse to admit their errors and flagrantly abuse the "guidelines." However, one must concede that they are persistent.

So, Jerry Robinson56, I guess you're all too familiar with the whole "black box" concept, huh? How exactly do you plan on figuring out what that "black box" is actually for?

Alright folks, listen up. If this whole system were actually built to handle complaints and fix things, you wouldn't be whining in the first place—and don't even get me started on the "fixing" part.

So, here's the deal, you bunch of complainers: you’ve got nothing to gripe about because you’ve basically trapped yourselves. It's simple logic. Since there's nothing to complain about, there's nothing to fix. Look, if the number of complaints is dropping, that means the system is getting better and better. Once you all finally stop complaining and quit messing around with an honest world that shouldn't have to waste its time reading your baseless nonsense, the system will be perfect.

Sam Peterson6 said:I've got an HP notebook 15 and an Asus K00F tablet (Android 4.2.2), and I'm trying to get them talking wirelessly so I can swap some files. I tried a bunch of different apps, but nothing seems to actually work on the tablet (tried TeamViewer, MyFileExplorer, stuff like that)
I just can't find a single app that'll run on this tablet
Does anyone have any clue how to get them connected wirelessly?

We're talking about a close-range connection (maybe 10-15 feet) and just doing it every once in a while.

First off, you gotta establish a physical link—Bluetooth is your best bet here.
Do you know how to set that up?

bluerider63 said:Yeah, real smooth calling out "human rights" here. I wasn't even whining about rights being violated, just pointing out the shady rules and the blatant double standards they pull. Honestly, there's a good chance if I tried to start my own thing, I'd get shut down too under the excuse of fighting "misinformation," because apparently, whoever holds the power gets to decide what's true.

Thanks!

analogbear5 said:Using Reddit—or anyone else's private property for that matter—isn't exactly a fundamental human right.

Look, you're free to start your own forum if you want—nobody’s gonna stop you from saying whatever you feel like, how you feel like. It's your right.

Cute. 👍

So, you're staring at a Blue Screen of Death? Yeah, that 0x000000f4 error is a total pain.

Here’s the lowdown on how to deal with it:
https://recoverit.wondershare.com/co...een-error.html

Ways to Tackle the Blue Screen of Death [2021]
If you're stuck dealing with a Blue Screen of Death, you really need to check out this article. It's basically a full walkthrough to get that error sorted out.

Just so we’re all on the same page here, let me give you at least one solid reason why someone would cling to a Legacy motherboard (or whatever old tech you're tinkering with) that uses a PCI bus, just so they can mess around with PCIe cards and adapters via some makeshift setup.

In my experience, I’ve run into plenty of Legacy systems that act as the brain for a massive pile of hardware. The absolute worst headache was an IBM PC XT motherboard running that original 4.77 MHz clock with an 8-bit ISA bus, loaded up with a few communication cards. You can try to slap anything else in there—an XT clocked at 8MHz with a downconverter, an AT, even a 386—but honestly? It’s a total wash. The thing physically just won't work.

Now, I know what you're thinking. It sounds totally ridiculous to keep an ancient board and a couple of random cards running. But here's the kicker: if I wanted to replace those few pieces of gear, I’d have to overhaul the entire system. We're talking about replacing everything else, which costs way more than the parts themselves. Those little cards might cost $2,000, but the whole rig? You're looking at upwards of $20,000 or more.

So, at the end of the day, it’s actually cheaper to go scavenging through some digital archaeology to find an old XT motherboard and its matching cards.

Dealing with Legacy stuff is a nightmare, and don't even get me started on the software side. And man, the databases? Forget about it.

electricdriver33 said:If I've got... PCI Express So, I’ve got this video card—not a modern one, obviously—and I'm dying to slap it onto a motherboard that only has those old-school PCI slots. Is there some kind of adapter out there that can bridge the gap, or am I just totally out of luck here? Any alternatives, or is this a dead end? 🤷

So, I was thinking—is there actually an adapter out there that lets you plug a PCI Express card into an old-school PCI slot? You know, the whole deal with the voltage differences (like that 5V versus the 5/3.3V split), the power supply requirements, and all the signaling nonsense. Does anyone actually make something that works without blowing everything up?

It all comes down to speed, man. Seriously. With old-school PCI, you’re looking at a ceiling of maybe 1Gbps tops. But once you jump over to PCI Express? You're playing in a whole different league. An x1 slot starts you off at 2.5Gbps with Gen 1, then jumps to 5Gbps with Gen 2, and honestly, it just keeps climbing from there depending on which revision you're running. It's a massive leap.

So, I'm telling you, even a basic USB 3.0 card—you know, the one hitting 4.8Gbps—can totally wreck your performance if it's sitting on a PCI Express slot. It gets even sketchier when you start plugging in multiple USB 3.0 devices at once. It’s a whole different beast compared to those old-school USB 2.0 setups that only push 480Mbps. Total bottleneck city!

Check this out—here’s an example of one of those cards.
I was just browsing Amazon and stumbled onto this StarTech PCI Express card. Honestly, looking at these specs makes me wonder if we’re all just living in the past sometimes! It’s one of those pieces that really makes you think about how much hardware has shifted since the days of the old IBM PC XT. I saw electricdriver33 mentioning something similar the other day, and man, they weren't kidding about how much of a headache these setups can be. You think you've got everything lined up, then—boom—compatibility issues. It’s like trying to plug a modern Tesla charger into an old roadside outlet. Just doesn't work! Anyway, I'm just rambling now. Has anyone actually picked one of these up lately? Is it worth the hassle or should I just keep digging through my junk drawer for a spare?

Look, you've gotta know exactly what you're working with here. You need to figure out which version of the PCI Express slot is on that motherboard, then check the card itself—what PCIe version are we talking about? How many lanes does it actually have? And don't forget the revision number! It’s all about those tiny details, man.

Strictly speaking, that isn't a NAS because a NAS is just a network file server.

Think of it more like a Linux-in-a-box setup. You’ve got everything living inside there—file storage, mail, FTP, web hosting, even a firewall... honestly, it's just a matter of deciding which features you actually want to turn on. It's built for small offices, basically doing all that heavy lifting that Small Business Servers used to handle back in the day. Total all-in-one deal.

Kenneth Cruz67 said:A simple partition backup doesn't actually save the MBR/GPT header.🤔

Man, some backup software actually can handle that, you just gotta make sure you check the right box in the settings.

Sam Peterson6 said:HTML Code:

Look, if you’re trying to recover after a total Windows meltdown—like, you don't want to deal with the nightmare of reinstalling everything from scratch, all your apps and stuff—that's when you go with a system clone or an image.

The "system clone" thing you mentioned? Honestly, that works just as well for me as a "partition backup."
Since restoring a backup brings my Windows back exactly how it was, along with every single program and driver I had installed,
I'm just totally lost on why people make such a big deal about the difference.

Nah, man.

A partition backup, like backing up C:\, does exactly what it says on the tin. (Though it usually trips up on locked files, but I won't bore you with the details).

You can't just slap that onto a totally bare drive. You need a working OS already installed on C:\, you need the backup software running on it, and then you can finally restore whatever was on that broken partition.

Now, some fancy backup software lets you restore to a blank, naked drive on the fly because they basically wipe the drive, toss in the OS system files, the MBR, and all that before restoring. But that's a special case—it's just a convenience so you don't have to do the heavy lifting manually.

Here’s the real kicker: a clone (or an image) of a disk or partition does exactly that—it grabs everything directly from the drive, including the MBR/GPT records, EFI, etc. Basically, cloning works *below* the level of the file system (like NTFS). Some tools talk straight to the hardware, while others use an NTFS intermediate layer designed specifically for this kind of syncing.

A backup operates at the file system level (sitting right on top of NTFS).

There is a massive difference between a backup and imaging/cloning. You'll really feel it once you've been through a dozen different disaster scenarios; then the purpose, usability, pros, and cons become crystal clear.

Plus, imaging/cloning is "dumb" in a way—it copies the entire disk or partition. A backup just grabs the files and folders (and let's be real, folders are just files). If you've got a 10GB partition but only 1GB of actual data, a clone is gonna be 10GB, whereas a backup will be 1GB. (And that's without even talking about compression). That "dumbness" is actually its superpower.

If you’re looking to recover after a Windows crash—like, you don't want to deal with the nightmare of reinstalling everything from scratch along with all your apps—then you definitely want to go with a system clone or a system image.

Now, if you just care about your raw data and files? Then a partition backup does the trick.

But look, the whole point of a backup is staying consistent with it. In my book, the best move is to grab one massive full backup, and then just run a differential backup every week to catch whatever changed since that last big one.

And obviously, whether it's a clone, a full backup, or those differentials, you gotta save them to a separate drive. Don't be that person saving it onto the same disk you're trying to protect!

That way, if you accidentally trash a few specific files, you can just pull them back. But if Windows totally dies on you or your entire HD gives up the ghost, you just restore the clone, hit it with the full backup, and finish off with the differential. Boom. Done.

Grace Phillips25 said:Grow some balls.

They come in handy in life.

Man, what a genius idea. You don't even need a pet when you've always got something to scratch!

bluerider63 said:That 'D' in NED stands for Democracy, right? Haha, nice joke.😵

Let them act on their convictions if they want; at least they have some. Let someone fund them too, as long as they actually do an honest, fair job. Instead, they’ve managed to drive away plenty of long-time, high-quality users.
Personally, I'm not going to start protesting any bans if I happen to insult someone or make a threat—even though I don't do that—but targeting people just for having a different opinion is, frankly, pathetic.

Yeah, sounds pretty hilarious to me.

Let them work based on their convictions—hey, at least they have some. Let someone fund them too, whatever, as long as they actually do an honest and fair job. Instead, they've chased away tons of long-time, high-quality forum regulars.
Personally, I won't cry about any sanctions if I happen to insult someone or make a threat—which I don't do, by the way—but targeting people just for having a different opinion? That's just, well, pathetic.

Like I said before, just forget it. Turn your back and stop wasting your breath. Whether they're driven by belief, cash, or some other mysterious third reason doesn't even matter.

There are much smarter things to talk about than topics dictated by rigid dogmas. Let those zealots take their ten "untouchable" subjects and go debate them with their ten little clones. Life moves on its own path. And when a river surges, it carves its own way through the banks.

I've been saying this since I was a kid, but you can probably guess how it turned out.

I even suggested they put those "sacred cows" in their own special sub-forum with a set of rules for what can't be touched, just so the rest of us wouldn't have to deal with the headache. It's not hard to guess the outcome there.

PS: When I was a kid, I used to accidentally call dogmatic people "button-heads." You know, because you press a button and *poof*, it does exactly one thing.
Unless you press it too often—then the button breaks. And once a button snaps, it's useless to everyone, and you're just left dealing with unpredictable glitches.

bluerider63 said:Hey,

The bias in this PDF regarding Ukraine is honestly unreal. I've been around here long enough to know how the mods work, and usually, if I drift off-topic, they just toss me a few days of silence, but now they’re basically gagging me entirely so there isn't any actual debate on the subject.

Seriously, have some shame.

Just quit.

There are certain dogmas on this forum that are basically untouchable. Honestly, I could list them all right now just by looking at my own ban history.

Is it because of who funds the site, or maybe just the owner's personal gripes or whatever? Doesn't matter. You aren't going to win anything by filing an appeal.

Just walk away. But take note of who the favorites are and who the enforcers are (looking at you, moderators). Life has taught me that these types act pretty much the same way in every situation.

PS: And don't even start criticizing the site's performance. Like, you guys haven't really upgraded things in twenty years, so what are you gonna complain about? You get what you pay for.
If we were actually paying top dollar, we'd probably be stuck with some hideous 3D CGI nightmare from the Metaverse. 😲

Kenneth Cruz67 said:I suppose Judy is only considered such a big shot because he was one of those rare souls back in the early days of the Forum (around '98 or '99) who would go onto Les's page and just tear things apart, and at first glance, you might not even realize he wasn't being serious.

Oh wow, so he’s still pulling it off 23 years later? Impressive.

Pure intellect.

That’s just what they’re calling it these days. 🕺

Man, you guys are so naive. Judy already laid it all out for us on this topic—she knows exactly who’s actually worth something and who’s just a total loser basically shooting themselves in the foot. 🤣