Posts by darkcyclist92

electricdriver33 said:I update my GPU manually through NVIDIA's own site. Which specific card was giving you grief, what did you swap it out for, and is there actually a meaningful performance gap between 4GB of GDDR6 VRAM and 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM?

If you're handling the manual update yourself, everything should be fine. I’m no RAM expert, but I tend to trust proven specs, so I’d personally opt for the DDR5 route.

Most of the rigs I mess around with run on NVIDIA cards with 2GB of GDDR5; I have three total, though two are just sitting in my closet right now. They are all sequential models, and frankly, I can't recall the exact specs off the top of my head. Regardless, one of my setups is nearly identical to yours—just using an MSI motherboard—where one NVIDIA model works perfectly while another refuses to boot. I tried swapping the problematic card into a different rig thinking it might be dead, but damn if it doesn't work flawlessly there. Why does that happen? Who knows.

There is also some truth to what people are saying about cracks causing black screens. It happens, though it used to be much more common than it is now.

I don't claim to have all the answers for your specific situation, but if a different card manages to launch the games, at least you'll have a baseline for comparison. It's entirely possible your current card is partially failing, or perhaps it's just a bad connection, a driver conflict, a dodgy crack, or a DirectX issue. Components simply weren't built to the same high standards they used to be.

electricdriver33 said:Do you have a link for that? How exactly did you determine that swapping out the graphics card was the definitive fix here? Is there some sort of definitive list of problematic GPUs known to cause this specific issue, and regarding drivers, should I be looking for a specific version, or is the very first driver released for my particular card the only one worth considering? 🤔

I had a completely different graphics card in this rig previously, and everything was running flawlessly. Then, I decided to swap it out for a high-end NVIDIA card. At first, things seemed fine, but then Windows 10 decided to run an automatic driver update that absolutely trashed the stability. It became a chaotic cycle where some parts worked while others failed miserably; I would revert to my old drivers to fix the mess, only for Windows to break everything all over again. This entire ordeal drove me to the brink of insanity until I finally swapped in an AMD card, which instantly resolved every single issue.

You even run into those bizarre scenarios with newer cards where an NVIDIA GPU will just kill the entire system the second you pass the boot screen and Windows starts loading. Is it the power supply? Don't make me laugh; it's the graphics card, plain and simple. But honestly, in my experience, these kinds of hardware anomalies in the PC industry have become nothing short of standard procedure. If I’m forced to deal with it, I’m swapping out the hardware—specifically the GPU—99% of the time. It’s the path of least resistance.

Whether the driver issue actually lies on your end is nothing more than a hypothesis, though I suppose it is an avenue you could pursue if you must. The fact that you poured a small fortune into this setup doesn't change the reality of the situation. So, there you have it: your hardware is perfectly functional, yet it refuses to play nice with Windows, and why exactly that is happening remains anyone's guess.

You should be able to find that link directly on the manufacturer's official website, though honestly, it's even better to just grab it from the disc included in the box with the card.

:

Are the gentlemen over at Microsoft and NVIDIA actually planning on fixing this anytime soon? I find it hard to believe they aren't already fully aware of what a complete disaster this situation is. 🤷
Let me be perfectly clear: every single bit of advice floating around the internet regarding the issue I’ve been tracking is absolute garbage. 👎

I honestly don't even know where to begin. It is an open secret in this industry that swapping out hardware is often the most logical move when a game releases a broken update, and frankly, that is a reality I have learned through sheer, hands-on experience dealing with these kinds of systemic issues on Windows. Replacing components is simply easier, faster, and far more effective than chasing ghosts in the software.

It goes without saying that the culprit here is the graphics card—since that fan is physically attached to it anyway—though, quite frankly, I can't say for certain why. I dealt with a nearly identical situation once, and simply swapping in a different GPU model fixed everything instantly.

It isn’t exactly a definitive solution, but it might be easier than wasting your time trying to troubleshoot an unsolvable puzzle.

PS: Regarding NVIDIA chipsets, experience has shown that driver updates pushed through Windows 10 frequently trigger these exact types of issues. It would be far more practical to manually install the initial driver version for that specific card; if everything runs smoothly, you can then monitor whether future Windows 10 updates end up compromising the stability.

It is honestly exhausting having to revisit this topic again, but here I am dealing with my iPhone 11 and the constant, infuriating inability to connect to public Wi-Fi networks that require those annoying captive portal authorizations. I’m talking about places like Shell stations, local bars, and various other spots where you just expect things to work effortlessly.

I have been led to believe the culprit is a static MAC address causing the handshake to fail?

redcyclist99 said:Alright, that's the first vote, thanks. The app is built directly into the TV, so I'm not using an external receiver.

Fine, here is exactly how you need to proceed:
1. Turn on the TV and let it sit there running for a bit.
2. While the TV is still powered on, pull the plug straight out of the wall outlet.
3. With the unit completely disconnected from the power source, press the power button several times for no particular reason other than to drain any remaining charge.
4. After waiting a few minutes, plug the TV back in and power it up.
5. Once the system is fully booted, verify the internet connection through the TV settings—for instance, try playing a YouTube video to ensure everything is actually working properly.
6. Only after you have confirmed the connection should you open the IPTV application to see if the list has finally appeared.

redcyclist99 said:Hey, thanks for getting back to me. He’s insisting everything is fine on his end and that the issue lies entirely with the app. It hasn't even been six months since I paid for a full year of IPTV service.

Look, if you want my honest opinion, paying for an entire year of IPTV upfront is a massive mistake because customers inevitably start sharing credentials, which overloads the servers, and then the provider just flips the switch on the IP address to cut them off. Just some food for thought.

Is this application running on a dedicated set-top box or is it built directly into an iOS smart TV? A decent app can sometimes get stuck in a locked state, so try this:
1. Unplug the device from the wall outlet while it is still powered on—meaning, don't bother turning the TV or the receiver off first, just yank the cord straight out of the socket.
2. Hold down the physical power button on the unit itself—not the remote—continuously for about 20 seconds.
3. Wait for 30 minutes; go grab a coffee or something.
4. Plug the device back in and boot everything up normally.
5. Post back here and let us know if that worked.

A locked state is a common occurrence even on high-end iOS TVs, and more often than not, a hard cold restart like this will resolve a dozen different glitches at once.

We should probably start by considering the possibility that the IPTV provider simply rotated their IP address or decided to shut down the service at that specific location altogether.

Has anyone else heard anything regarding this?

Brenda Alvarez24 said:Does anyone have a recommendation for a dentist at the Siget Health Center? (Using Social Security Administration coverage)
(My current one moved away, so I need someone new. I’m quite difficult to deal with, so I really need someone with an endless well of patience 😁 )

Danijel Fiket, right across from the dental X-ray unit at the Siget Health Center.

Regarding medical services; I'm looking for recommendations for an abdominal ultrasound at a private practice where the rates are actually reasonable.
Thanks

David Collins6 said:Sadly, dropping the power limit didn't do much for me...

You shouldn't even be wasting your time on that. To me, the situation is quite elementary:

1. Either you are dealing with a blatant driver bug (which, frankly, isn't news to me regarding Nvidia chipsets—in fact, I haven't owned an Nvidia card in my entire life that didn't cause issues in 3D environments, which is precisely why I stopped buying them for my gaming rigs ages ago), or

2. There is a fundamental issue with the contact points or connections within your chassis. I cannot emphasize enough how critical those physical connections are when you are attempting to build a rock-solid, high-performance machine capable of handling extreme loads; and what is truly absurd is that these connectivity failures most often occur with brand-new components straight out of the box. I have relied on WD-40 for years, and I couldn't care less about anyone's theories regarding its specific purpose. For me, it is nothing short of liquid magic when it comes to boosting PC performance. Alcohol is simply too "dry" and far too weak to properly clean gold-plated contacts and power junctions, including all the Fe-molexe connectors that distribute pure current.

The fact that this card costs roughly $1,100 doesn't change anything; it doesn't make it any more special than any other piece of hardware. A PCB is just a PCB, a chip is just a chip, and solder is just solder.

Given that the shutdown typically occurs only once during the initial warm-up phase, we can hardly point the finger at the PSU for your predicament. One would assume the wattage of your PSU is sufficient, otherwise, these shutdowns would be happening constantly under any significant load. However, we can certainly conclude that somewhere during the thermal ramp-up of the case, there is a momentary loss or drop in power—assuming, again, that it isn't a driver issue. We already know that processing complex 3D meshes in certain multi-layered games can crash cards regardless of how much GDDR they possess.

If your circumstances allow for it and if you are willing to tinker, try sourcing a new, higher-tier brand of power supply (like a Corsair), not because I am suggesting your current one is garbage, but because a fresh unit will likely provide superior contact and thus stabilize the current delivery to your components. That would be the simplest and most straightforward first step toward resolving this mess.

quietfalcon3 said:Thanks for getting back to me!

I spotted one thread here, but it didn't look quite right to me, so I’ll go hunting for others.

Go ahead, but frankly, I think you're wasting your breath. As I’ve already pointed out elsewhere, Microsoft is effectively killing off Internet Explorer "for good," and in my view, IE was far more than just some outdated browser; it served as the primary distribution mechanism for libraries that all browsers on the Windows platform rely upon. Even if you didn't have it explicitly installed, its components were embedded deep within the very core of Windows.

It’s blindingly obvious... they botched something during that migration from IE to Safari, and instead of conducting proper beta testing, they just shoved it onto Windows 11 users via a standard update.

The distinction here is that your issue involves browsers working fine for ten minutes before crashing, whereas in my estimation, this kind of failure can only be caused by a firewall, a rogue .js file, or perhaps a graphical .dll stuck in a locked state. It is highly improbable that every single browser would suddenly fail simultaneously on a Windows system.

This doesn't necessarily plague every Windows 11 user, but I would wager it's isolated to a specific series of graphics cards. I am merely making a logical deduction, given that browsers are incredibly graphically intensive applications.

By the way, could you clarify what you meant regarding Xiaomi? I didn't quite follow that...

What I meant to say is that until the next Windows update rolls out, the only browser that will actually be functional or accessible is whatever you have running on your phone, sorry. 😁

quietfalcon3 said:Sir,

About three or four days ago, I started encountering a highly unusual issue. After roughly ten minutes of having my laptop powered on, every single one of my browsers—Safari, Chrome, and Firefox—simply ceases to function. I will be working normally, and then suddenly, when I attempt to type a URL into Chrome, which is my primary browser, absolutely nothing happens. Even if I open a new tab and try to click on one of my favorites, there is zero response. This exact same failure occurs across all other browsers as well.

If I restart the laptop, everything works perfectly again for those initial ten minutes before the problem repeats itself.

Is anyone else experiencing a similar issue, or does anyone have a definitive solution for this situation?

There are already several threads discussing this specific issue, but to summarize: it is highly probable that some network process (.dll/.exe) or perhaps the Windows firewall is malfunctioning due to a buggy update. Without being able to diagnose it blindly, my immediate recommendation is that once you boot up your laptop, you should use Firefox as your sole browser and ignore all others until further notice. Do not even attempt to launch the others.

If things don't improve... well, I suppose you'll just have to find another way to get online, perhaps using an iPhone 12, while we wait for Microsoft to resolve this mess in a future update.

darkcobra66 said:So, I went ahead and toggled the setting to show hidden files. Now all I'm seeing is $RECYCLE.BIN and System Volume Information. Both of them are basically sitting at zero bytes. I've seen some people online suggesting that I should just delete the $RECYCLE.BIN folder and then reboot, but I'm honestly not sure if that's a good idea or if it would even make a difference. No matter how I slice it, I'm still missing about 75GB compared to what my hard drive says is available when I just click on the drive icon. It’s kind of weird, though, because after running chkdsk, it claims there's more free space available—basically exactly what I was expecting to see in the first place.

Look, we all know that Windows 10 is prone to its own particular brand of mental instability—I’m convinced the OS is capable of reporting a half-full battery as being at 150%—so if I were in your shoes, I simply wouldn't waste my breath worrying about this specific issue right now.

Once you start loading more files onto the drive, Windows will likely correct its math and provide a more accurate count, and besides, from what I can see, your hard drive isn't exactly small anyway.

darkcobra66 said:So, I've got this hard drive divided into four different partitions. Most of them seem to be behaving just fine, but there's one particular partition that's giving me some trouble. Just to be clear, it isn't my C: drive or anything like that.

So, I’m looking at my drive, and things seem a bit... off, I guess. According to the system, I have 54.4 GB free out of a total 292 GB. But then, when I actually open up that partition and highlight everything to check the properties, it tells me the size on disk is 163 GB. It feels like the math just isn't adding up, or maybe I'm missing something obvious here.

So, I was doing some math earlier—292 minus 163 should equal 129. Based on that, I'm expecting to see about 129 GB of free space available, but instead, it’s only showing 54.4 GB. It feels like there's roughly 74.6 GB of free space just... missing? I guess I might be overlooking something, but the numbers definitely aren't adding up for me right now.

Does anyone have any idea what might be going on here? I'm feeling a bit stuck.

So, I've got "show hidden files" turned on, but I'm still scratching my head. How can I actually figure out what exactly is eating up 74.6 GB of space, and what's the best way to go about clearing it out?

You can't—not easily. It’s a massive headache. Which version of Windows are you running? Have you even bothered trying to run Disk Cleanup yet?

Right-click the partition -> Properties -> Disk Cleanup

Running that process on a 300GB drive may take a while..

Speaking from my own direct experience, I will reiterate this once more: this phenomenon occurs when the system simply fails to execute a specific graphical process, regardless of which individual component is actually at fault. Typically, the culprit is either the GPU, the RAM, or the motherboard.

In most instances, you are looking at a faulty driver for the graphics card or the board, perhaps some actual memory failure on the GPU itself (or again, just a driver issue, who knows), or even a total electrical or signal blackout involving the RAM or the video card. A chip failure is also on the table.

Given that this is happening to you specifically when the chassis heats up, one can reasonably expect that a contact point is failing during thermal expansion. While pinpointing exactly which connection is failing is virtually impossible, cleaning the contacts and pins before reseating the components might help; if that doesn't work, then you're looking at a full component replacement.

As for the PSU, it is a difficult variable to isolate on its own, though the interface between the power supply and the components is certainly a possibility.

Paul Rogers94 said:I lost that sticker somewhere, so I tucked it away, but now I have absolutely no clue where it ended up.

I just picked up a new laptop, and frankly, I’m at a total loss on how to get this thing connected to the network without having the password handy.

Your best bet is to simply call the support line for your ISP. They can handle all the configuration on their end while you stay on the line with them.

Paul Rogers94 said:...the modem key for connecting to the Wi-Fi. How do I find it?

It’s printed right on the back of the modem, on that tiny little sticker... 🙄 and if it isn't there, then we certainly aren't going to be able to tell you where else it could possibly be.🤣

Morgan Ortiz6 said:I have a massive collection of images on my computer in all sorts of different dimensions, and I need to downsize them all to exactly 12x8 cm. I've experimented with several programs that claim to offer resizing capabilities, but the fundamental issue is that they all seem limited to resizing by pixels or percentages; none of them allow me to specify dimensions in centimeters.
Does anyone know which program actually offers this specific feature?

If you are attempting to execute this task via a batch process—essentially a one-click solution for the entire folder—it simply isn't going to work the way you expect for reasons that aren't even particularly relevant right now, except in one very specific scenario. If I recall correctly, no standard resizing tool will ever provide a "canvas" option (like setting a fixed 12x8 frame) because of the inescapable reality of aspect ratio. You are strictly limited to either a percentage change or resizing based on height or width in pixels. Furthermore, converting centimeters to pixels is entirely dependent on the required DPI of those photographs; for instance, 12cm at 72 DPI translates to roughly 340px, whereas 12cm at 300 DPI results in 1416px.

Essentially, most resizers are designed to handle bulk reductions of high-resolution files from an iPhone or a DSLR where the aspect ratio and DPI remain constant—for example, a standard 16:9 ratio at 72 DPI—where the primary objective is merely managing excessive pixel density.

To put it bluntly: if you have a mountain of photos taken with a digital camera and you want them all to be 12cm wide at 72 DPI, you simply input a width of 340px. The height will then be calculated automatically according to the existing aspect ratio of those individual images.

By the way, what is the end goal here? Are you sending these to a local print shop? If so, did they bother to tell you what DPI requirements they have for the final prints?

Megan Thomas5 said:I mean, just pull the drive out and toss it in a sewer

A classic Worf-like assertion: just chuck it in the sewer and call it a day. 🙂

Just so you know, us folks here on the Enterprise never truly feel relaxed when we have Klingons stomping around the decks. 🤣 Damn, I couldn't help myself. 😁

Umm, the superior approach would be to crack open the drive, reach the nickel plating, and bash it with a hammer, or perhaps scratch at it with a nail, cut it up, and ship it off with some aluminum as scrap metal. Though, frankly, I can't imagine what kind of data someone would possess in a home setting that warrants such extreme measures... probably some celebrity amateur porn or something along those lines. 🙂

Alternatively, you could simply fill the drive to capacity with absolute garbage, like movies, once you have performed a full initial format, and that will suffice.

Are we talking about a private server here? Or are you using a standard provider like Gmail or Outlook?

If it’s a private setup, have you actually configured the username and password credentials directly on the server itself?