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Posted by: mirocu Jun 29 2013, 04:46 PM

Due to my recent experience where I got a trojan that effectively blocked me from using my computer and threatening me with heavy fines or jailtime (unless I paid a smaller fine, of course ), I thought I'd start a thread where we could discuss the various computer problems we've had. Perhaps we could give each other some hints and tips on how to solve them

I solved my problem thanks to the wonderful feature built into Windows where you reset your computer to an earlier save point. To get to that program even though my computer was locked I had to fire up my computer in failsafe mode (pressing F8 during startup), choose Failsafe Mode with Command prompt, exit from that and do the Ctrl-Alt-Delete thing to bring up the activity menu from where I could search for the C:/ directory and from there find the program where you make a save point/reset to a save point.

(Apologies if my explanation is a bit clunky )

Posted by: ThatSkyrimGuy Jun 29 2013, 05:14 PM

I cannot stress the obvious enough. A good, reliable anti-virus program is a must to prevent these virus and trojan attacks. There are several good ones out there that are 100% free. I am currently using Avast Anti-Virus. They have two versions...one is free and one costs $$$. I am using the free one and have had no issues with trojans.

Also, be wary of what websites you visit.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 29 2013, 05:18 PM

I use Windows Defender and two free programs to scan for nasty stuff with. Theyīre called Advanced SystemCare and I believe 10BIT Malware Protection. After this attack I also upped my defense in internet options.

Being careful what sites you visit is important as you said, TSG. But sometimes it just isnīt enough This attack was Java based, so that can be something to think about.

Posted by: King Coin Jun 29 2013, 05:35 PM

Heh, Java's getting its butt kicked recently. We just had a bulletin at work about a critical update at work.

Posted by: Kiln Jun 29 2013, 05:40 PM

I got the same virus the other day. It says that the FBI has locked your computer because you illegally downloaded a file of some sort but says that you can pay a small fine to unlock it. Close examination of the page reveals that the message itself is laden with spelling errors and even the FBI logo has a spelling error.

It locks up your PC completely and won't let you close the window. I had to restart my PC manually and open up another profile, then use system restore to revert my infected profile to an earlier version. This is why it is good to back up your files on a regular basis.

Posted by: SubRosa Jun 29 2013, 06:49 PM

One of the big things to look out for to prevent getting viruses and spyware is to avoid any site that claims to let you view any movie for free. Or download such movies. I do not mean using torrents, but downloading directly from a site. Usually this is in the form of a .exe file. Sites like this are worse than Porn sites when it comes to malware.

Posted by: ImperialSnob Jun 29 2013, 08:16 PM

USE AVG!

Posted by: treydog Jun 29 2013, 08:42 PM

I am most definitely a "belt and suspenders and also a bit of twine for just in case those fail" sort when it comes to computer security.

I am now using Avast- only because AVG developed an annoying "cannot download new definitions" problem a few months ago

Also run a scan with Malwarebytes every couple of weeks

And keep CCleaner around for general emptying of temp Internet files, leftover installer pieces, and etc.

On a different note- having suffered through trying to defrag an XP machine with the "native" defrag utility- I can highly recommend AUSLogics Defrag

All of the above are freeware versions and have given good service

Posted by: McBadgere Jun 30 2013, 03:50 AM

Having fallen prey to a virus that even the techie Brother-In-Law and his other techie chums had no clue about despite having the anti-virus, I can honestly say that regularly backing up your files is an absolute must...

This last time, I was gutted to have lost so much...Fortunately, the bro-in-law's chum managed to get a lot of them back for me eventually, but had I backed-up in the first place...

Always have a back-up plan people!...

Posted by: mirocu Jun 30 2013, 03:35 PM

So youīre saying I could just create Another profile on my computer and use that should this happen again? It doesnīt lock both profiles?


First sensible words from McB since I joined up!

Posted by: Kiln Jun 30 2013, 03:46 PM

That's what I did and it solved the problem. It only locked the profile I was on so I went into our administrative profile and used it to fix the other profile. There are also directions on how to find and manually delete the files but I figured it'd be easier just to restore it to a previous backup.

Posted by: Acadian Jun 30 2013, 04:42 PM

I sprinkle protective fairy dust on Puter once a week to keep her blue lights calm and her fans happily whirling. Puter also has a pretty strong natural resistance to disease as a racial bonus. If she does get sick however, I take her to the chapel to see the healers. They have spells to clone or even resurrect her if necessary.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 30 2013, 04:44 PM

@Acadian -

Posted by: Kiln Jun 30 2013, 07:57 PM

Yes but you must pay in actual gold to get those services.

Posted by: ImperialSnob Jun 30 2013, 09:00 PM

Here's a tip.

Don't click anything you shouldn't click.

There,no viruses.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 1 2013, 08:41 AM

Apparently itīs not that easy. They find new ways to get to you all the time

Posted by: ImperialSnob Jul 1 2013, 02:33 PM

Skyrim nexus

Posted by: Kiln Jul 1 2013, 08:42 PM

If only it were that easy.

Here's a tip to never be hit by a car.

Never go where cars exist.

There, no vehicle related injuries.

Posted by: ImperialSnob Jul 1 2013, 09:04 PM

It is that easy though!

Posted by: mALX Jul 1 2013, 09:48 PM

*

@ Mirocu - this thread is an excellent idea! Thank you for the tips, I have written them down outside of my PC just in case.

@ Kiln - that is a great tip too. I have my secondary profile turned off, but after reading your comment I am thinking about setting it back up just in case - thank you for the tips!

@ Acadian - SPEW! ROFL!

Posted by: mirocu Jul 1 2013, 10:17 PM

Hope you understood me, computer linguistics in English is not my strong suit!

I added a part. To get to failsafe in the first place, hit F8 during startup

Posted by: mALX Jul 1 2013, 10:21 PM

I'll write it down too, thank you so much!

Posted by: mirocu Jul 1 2013, 11:45 PM

Have a problem at Bethsoft, something to do with Java. When making a post I canīt do anything besides writing anymore; I canīt get the smiley list up, I canīt bring up the color menu, link to pixies, change font etc etc.

I have the latest Java and all, could someone please help me with this?

Edit: Somehow it seems to work when I edit my post but not when I make it

Posted by: Acadian Jul 2 2013, 12:26 AM

mirocu - You can normal post and there is a button (lower right) for 'more post options' that allows you to preview and such and better access some features. I bet you already know that though and it hasn't solved your problem since things like the emoticon menu are normally available in either mode.

I just checked over there and I don't share the problem you seem to have.

I don't know about java's except the ones I drink in the morning. So. . . my suggestion would be to PM a mod over there and see if they have any ideas or can help.

Good luck.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 2 2013, 09:16 AM

Already did the things you suggested, Acadian I PMd CCNA and he put me forward to the official troubleshooting thread. Hopefully I can get an answer there.
I donīt have a problem at the computer Iīm currently sitting at, itīs just my own hunk-a-junk thatīs acting up

Thanks though and have an extra cup of java today, Acadian. Maybe it helps to solve my problem!

Posted by: mirocu Aug 21 2013, 10:34 AM

Downloaded Microsoft Essential and now I use that instead of Windows Defender since they canīt both be used at the same time. Anyone who knows which is the better program?

Posted by: King Coin Aug 21 2013, 02:09 PM

If Wikipedia is to be believed, Windows Defender is an antispyware program and Microsoft Essential is an actual antivirus suite. So definitely use Microsoft Essential over Defender.

Posted by: mirocu Aug 21 2013, 04:51 PM

Yes, I suspected thatīs how it is. I have other programs for spyware and of course I have the Windows firewall enabled. I think this is the best I can do to secure my PC and still not pay anything

Posted by: mirocu Sep 2 2013, 03:51 PM

Installed the Fallout 3 DLCs today and I did what I always do prior to that; I made a new savepoint. Those have helped me greatly before so I always make sure to have a fresh one just in case

Posted by: mirocu Dec 14 2013, 10:11 PM

Ok, so today I had to make a system reset because yet again an update made it impossible to quote at Bethsoft. Itīs already impossible to use the emoticon list, colours, etc etc but when I canīt quote I had to do something.

Slight problem though this time. I get an error when the puter starts up but I donīt know what it is and everything seem to be working. At least for now. Beside the system reset I also disabled Windows Update to avoid the problem in the future. I donīt get it, why are the updates making Bethsoft forums acting up?

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 14 2013, 10:15 PM

I'm not sure it's the updates screwing things up on the Bethsoft forums. There's a thread in general discussion about people having problems with the forums, including being unable to quote people.

Edit: http://forums.bethsoft.com/topic/1479533-troubles-with-the-forum/

Posted by: mirocu Dec 14 2013, 10:17 PM

But itīs after an update I got this problem. Now after the reset, the quoting works again, although not the colours, emoticon list etc.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 14 2013, 10:22 PM

I meant it's most likely that the changes made by the update react badly with something on the forum's end, rather than the problem being with your computer.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 14 2013, 10:26 PM

Yeah, I donīt think itīs my puter specifically since this problem also occurred with my parentsī puter.

Posted by: McBadgere Dec 20 2013, 04:44 AM

Not sure what day it was, but we had to get the computer tech Bro-In-Law (who is forever in our gratitude anyways) to come and sort ours out...

Turns out it was trying to install updates in one order and the programs wouldn't take them unless it was done in another order...

Like, it wouldn't update - or was it upgrade to - Internet Explorer 11 without installing Service Pack 2 first...But it was trying and failing and messing the comp up a bit...

Anyways, we got that sorted...But now my email, which I do through IE (The wife and kids use Firefox) won't use the emoticons...

Bloody windows updates...I wonder if that's knocked out some of the "Buttons" like the quote one...

Posted by: mirocu Dec 20 2013, 09:33 AM

Iīm with you. Like I said Iīve disabled windows updates on both my puter and my parents, and I see no reason to enable it again. It just messes things up!

Donīt fix what ainīt broken!!

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 20 2013, 09:41 AM

*Checks laptop*

Wow, I've got over 600Mb of updates to download

Might have to see about getting those, most of them are listed as security updates.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 20 2013, 09:42 AM

I wonder what all that is anyway, and itīs so often

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 20 2013, 09:55 AM

I just figure it's Microsoft trying to fix their bloody broken OS.

I've got Windows 8, it came with the laptop.


I've also got to download an updated driver for the touchpad, for some reason the left side of the clicker's been completely reassigned for no reason, and I can't seem to do anything about it.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 20 2013, 10:04 AM

Which is why Iīve now disabled the updates. My computer is fine and if Iīm not told what they do I donīt see the point with all these updates. I mean, what do they fix when I canīt see any difference? The only time I do see a difference is when they move stuff around like you described and I get !

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 20 2013, 11:08 AM

Well I haven't actually downloaded any updates for months, so I've no idea what's going on with the touchpad. It just stopped letting me left click with the button for some reason. I'm hoping the driver will fix it.

Posted by: mirocu Feb 4 2014, 04:12 PM

Just wanted to mention that I havenīt had any issue after disabling the Windows updates. If nothing I have avoided problems since I did that and I have decided to stay off. I can always enable it if absolutely necessary but I donīt see that coming at all.

Updating when everything works is like fixing a flat tyre when you donīt have a flat tyre

Posted by: haute ecole rider Feb 4 2014, 04:25 PM

The only problem with not updating is that your computer eventually becomes extremely vulnerable to viruses and other malware.

Like you, I have automatic updates disabled on my Win7 partition. However, I still go in and look at what's pending, and pick and choose what to update.

Since I started playing Oblivion daily on this computer, I've also started running daily backups. I'd hate to lose everything due to one lousy update. I'm fortunate in that my Mac Pro is still running solid, and I have a spare drive to back everything up to on a daily basis.

Of course, there's nothing on my Win7 partition but Google Chrome, Oblivion and all its associated mods and utilities. I often joke that this game is the only reason I even have Win7 installed!

Posted by: King Coin Feb 4 2014, 04:49 PM

This. I do know you pain with Windows updates though. I ended up reinstalling Windows last semester because of some F'd up updates.

Posted by: ghastley Feb 4 2014, 07:41 PM

And not updating is letting your tyres go slowly flat, instead of keeping them pumped up!

< /analogy >

Posted by: SubRosa Feb 4 2014, 08:31 PM

I have never had any trouble with Windows Update on the three or four boxes I have owned since Microstone started doing it. In fact, Windows Update seems to have fixed a problem with random lockups I was having last month. I couldn't figure out what was causing it, and eventually I manually went to Windows Update to see if anything was out there, found four or five fixes for things, manually downloaded them, and poof, all my problems vanished.

Posted by: mirocu Feb 4 2014, 08:42 PM

I very much disagree there, buddy

I do have Microsoft Essentials going and that I update regularly

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Mar 11 2014, 03:30 PM

Well, I just spent a half hour panicking.

Downloaded and installed a mod for Civ 4 BtS, and fired it up.

And my touchpad stopped working.

After digging through everything, trying everything I could think of, even going so far as to fire up system restore...

A google search led me to a forum with a solution:

[Fn] + F7

*facepalm*

Posted by: mirocu Mar 11 2014, 03:35 PM

Thereīs always a solution, you just have to know where to look for it


Glad it worked out for you

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2014, 02:16 PM

Hereīs a question for those who have it; What do you think of Windows 8?

To me nothing beats XP. I never had any problems with it and every game, very old or brand new, worked on it. In contrast Millennium was the worst Iīve had. Constant problems even getting Windows to load up properly.

So with this in mind, how would you rate Win 8? XP-class or Millennium-class?

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Apr 13 2014, 02:47 PM

Well, I'm not really sure I can give much of an answer here.

Once I downloaded a couple of programs to tweak things, I couldn't really point out any differences. I got a program that brings back the start menu, and skips the Metro interface as well, and in terms of everyday usage, I'd be hard pressed to tell it apart from windows 7.

Posted by: ImperialSnob Apr 13 2014, 03:09 PM

8 is horrible.

Get 7, you need to move on from XP since it's been discontinued recently and will now be very vulnerable.

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2014, 03:15 PM

I already have 7 But why exactly is 8 so horrible?

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Apr 13 2014, 03:27 PM

I'd actually quite like to know this myself.

Beyond the lack of a start button and having the Metro interface pushed on me, both fixed with a free program, and needing to disable the swipe thing that brought up the charms bar, I can't honestly say I've had any trouble with it.

I don't doubt that there are things wrong with it, but I've not experienced anything that wasn't easily dealt with.

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2014, 03:31 PM

Itīs still bad that you have to do all that just to bring back the normal UI, but at least it can be done.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Apr 13 2014, 03:41 PM

Ture, but it was easily fixed, and the fix is literally a one-off solution.

So it was a problem for maybe ten minutes?

Annoying, certainly, but not what I'd call horrible by any means.

There might well be things that are horrible about windows 8, but if I'm not experiencing them in day-to-day usage, then how big in real terms are those problems?

Posted by: ImperialSnob Apr 13 2014, 04:28 PM

http://www.infoworld.com/d/microsoft-windows/windows-8-review-yes-its-bad-200113

http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/08/microsoft-defends-windows-8/

It's just bad.

Posted by: mirocu Apr 13 2014, 04:37 PM

All the talk about Xbox and tablets... I just want a regular PC UI

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 13 2014, 05:10 PM

I have Windows 8 on my Surface, and from what I can see it is basically Windows 7 with a phone UI laid over the top of it. It is great for a tablet where you are using your fingers for everything. I would say pretty useless for an actual PC though. I have no problems switching from the Metro Interface to the old-fashioned Win 7 one. It is just one swipe of a finger to flip between the two. The trouble with using the Win 7 UI on the tablet is that everything is much too small, even with the stylus it is extremely hard to select things.

The thing that annoyed me most about 8 was that it did not come with a POP3 email app for the Metro Interface. I had to dig to find a user-made app (I suppose we could call it a mod... that will do POP3. But one I found that, I was set there.

So if you have a tablet I would say definitely go Windows 8, that is what it was made for. If you have a desktop or laptop, stick to 7.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 14 2014, 04:32 AM

Anyone good with MACs?


So, I updated my 13" MacBook Pro, and it said it had to restart to update, but it wouldn't restart, so I turned it off manually.

Well, now it's stuck on the gray screen. It has a little bar under the dark gray apple on the gray screen indicating it's putting the update into effect, but once the bar reaches the end of it's loading journey, the computer crashes and turns off.

In short, I cannot use my MacBook

Posted by: haute ecole rider Apr 14 2014, 04:43 AM

Sorry to hear of your Mac issues, KOB. Something similar to that happened to me a couple of years ago. Believe me, I know that sinking feeling!

Does your MBP have an optical drive, or is it one of the new ones (Retina MBPs have no optical drive)? You do have your data backed up, do you?

You may want to try and boot up from a system CD (if the answer is yes) or from the http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4718 (for OS X Lion or later). If the computer boots up into the desktop from the CD or Recovery partition, then you likely have a glitch in the update process (i.e. a corrupted download).

In that case you'll want to reinstall the system from either the CD or Recovery Partition and get to to the desktop, or restore from a Time Machine backup that predates the update. Then you can try re-downloading and reinstalling the update again.

If the computer won't boot up from CD or Recovery partition, then you may have a hardware issue. That requires a visit to the nearest Apple Store or Apple Authorized Service Technician.

I hope this helps! Do let me know how it goes for you.

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 14 2014, 04:47 AM

Thanks for the advice

I hope one of those things works, I have all my Africa pics on this computer

Posted by: haute ecole rider Apr 14 2014, 04:55 AM

Ouch! Hopefully we can get them back.

All the more reason to keep your computers backed up regularly and often! My Win 7 partition is set to back up daily, the Mac partition (both on my Mac Pro desktop) hourly (thanks to Time Machine), and my MacBook Pro weekly. I also keep an archive drive of all my photos. Redundancy is a computer geek's best friend (and a digital photographer's, too).

KOB, I'm off to bed. But PM me if you need more help. I do check my email often (like to keep my inbox clean, you know).

Posted by: King Of Beasts Apr 14 2014, 04:58 AM

I'm an idiot so of course I didn't back up my computer lol


Thanks for the help

I hope I can figure this out

Sleep well

Posted by: mirocu Apr 14 2014, 07:57 AM

Sorry to hear about your MAC problems, Kobby. Canīt help you myself but I see h.e.r got you covered. Hopefully itīs not as bad as you think and itīll be up and running again soon

Posted by: mirocu May 22 2014, 10:41 AM

So yesterday I decided to make some backups of programs on my oldest puter (Win 3.1) in case it drops. I know I shouldnīt jinx it but cīmon, I have to be able to talk about it...

I wanted to transfer them to my Millennium puter because not only do they work on it, from there I can also upload them to my flashdrive. But I can only use 3.5" disks for the first step and fortunately I found one just laying about! I should have more somewhere but one was sufficient for now. I was able to fully transfer Chipīs Challenge which was my main focus, and then I moved on to copy savegames of CyClones, Duke Nukem 3D and Wolf 3D plus some other stuff. I donīt have to bother with the rest of the games because I have those on CDs so I can just install them at any point. Next step is to copy Jezzball and Maxwellīs Maniac.

I did encounter some problems, though. Because many of these programs are not installed in their own folders, the files are scattered all over the place and itīs sometimes very hard to figure out which file belongs to which program. I wasnīt able to copy Paintbrush and some of the images Iīve made, but most of them I could transfer and I might even show them here sometime!!

http://chorrol.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3843&st=780# (scroll down a bit)

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Sep 28 2014, 05:22 PM

Had a little trouble earlier in the week. Computer got a virus, though Norton shut it down quickly. The source? The external hard drive I use for backup No idea how it got there.

As it turned out, there were in fact four viruses lurking on that hard drive, I'm guessing in amongst the files from my old laptop. *facepalm*

My laptop does seem to be a little slower to start up since then though...

Posted by: mirocu Sep 28 2014, 05:24 PM

Regular virus searches is the lesson then..

Posted by: mALX Sep 28 2014, 05:26 PM

Urk...I need some antivirus on both my Laptop and PC - forgot to add it since I'm finally able to get back online after a year

Posted by: mirocu Sep 28 2014, 05:28 PM

I have Microsoft Security Essentials. Free and works for me!

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Sep 28 2014, 05:30 PM

Norton does that, and I had it on my old laptop, so I'm not really sure how the viruses got there...

Still, at least I know they're dealt with.



...

You're a braver man than I, 'Rocu.

I don't trust Microsoft for anything beyond the OS, and that's only because I don't have much choice in the matter...

Posted by: mirocu Sep 28 2014, 05:31 PM

Iīm not brave, just lazy and cheap

Posted by: mALX Sep 28 2014, 06:50 PM

I should try it then. I thought they charged for it, not sure why I thought that. My favorite antivirus and firewall (when I could afford to pay) was by Trend-Micro, it was excellent right up until the month it was going to expire, then hounded me with so many dire warnings that I went with Kapersky the next year, then Norton - neither did the job Trend-Micro did - and Thorny - I did get a virus with Norton installed.

Posted by: mirocu Sep 29 2014, 04:11 PM

I have only extremely rarely gotten virus in my puters, with or without antivirus programs. Might as well have one thatīs free. Donīt wanna pay for yet another thing

Posted by: mALX Sep 29 2014, 05:50 PM

I have problems every time my husband gets on my PC.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Sep 29 2014, 10:09 PM

Well, I've had no problem with Norton so far, so I figure between it and Malwarebytes my laptop's pretty well defended.

*shrugs*

Posted by: haute ecole rider Sep 30 2014, 12:46 AM

Well, tell your hubby to stop visiting the pr0n sites!!

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 9 2014, 08:59 PM

Ugh.

Trying to download Chrome, since Firefox is giving me issues.

But the damn thing's taking forever. Apparently it's going to take four hours to download

What on Midgard is it downloading?

Posted by: mirocu Dec 9 2014, 09:03 PM

Who knows? I have really no idea how long it should take.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 9 2014, 09:04 PM

Well it shouldn't take anything like that long.

Screw Chrome.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 9 2014, 09:08 PM

Are you on 56K?

Posted by: ghastley Dec 9 2014, 09:22 PM

(In best Yorkshire accent) When I were a lad, we were lucky to have 300 baud, over a rotary-dial phone in a coupler.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 9 2014, 09:25 PM

Aye. Tīose were the daas.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 9 2014, 09:26 PM

Haha.

I'm blaming it on Google. Browsing is quick as it's ever been, so it must be something on their end.

Anyway, screw them, I updated Firefox instead.

Dunno if it'll help, have to wait and see...

Posted by: SubRosa Dec 9 2014, 09:50 PM

Well it has to fit those bumpers, wheels, mirrors, and other car parts that are made of chrome through your cable line. It's not easy squeezing all those auto parts down that small!

Posted by: mirocu Dec 9 2014, 09:51 PM

!

Posted by: mALX Dec 9 2014, 10:28 PM

No way it should take that long unless you have a VERY slow download speed on your internet provider.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 9 2014, 10:54 PM

Hence blaming it on google.

On the upside, updating Firefox seems to have fixed the problem

Posted by: mALX Dec 9 2014, 11:45 PM

I changed over to Google Chrome after your shocked response that I was still on IE - they couldn't load themselves on my computer quick enough as soon as I said yes they had me changed over in no time.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 15 2014, 10:55 AM

And now, for one of those "well, what do I do now?" moments:

http://s1274.photobucket.com/user/Callidus_Thorn/media/20141215_0949501_zps1c0dbaa0.jpg.html

Posted by: Acadian Dec 15 2014, 04:04 PM

Looks sort of like one of those 'Can't get there from here' moments. . . .

1. Umm. . . sever the machine's arcane link to its source of shock magic?
2. Nordic steel reboot?
3. Orcish warhammer?

Actually, I think I'd consult SubRosa before attempting option two or three. The IT side of the force is strong within her.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 15 2014, 04:28 PM

Yeah, I had to laugh when I saw it, then grabbed a pic. Restarting the task manager got it working, but it seems either something's up with Explorer, or something's getting in its way.

Main suspect: Startmenu8. It seems kinda glitchy, but since it bring back a proper start menu to Windows 8.1 it's not really something I can do without...

Posted by: mirocu Dec 15 2014, 05:26 PM

Solution: Install Windows XP.




Next question?

Posted by: SubRosa Dec 15 2014, 09:43 PM

Or install Windows 7. I have not heard anything good about Windows 8. I have it on my Surface, and am very unimpressed.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 15 2014, 09:45 PM

Sometimes making progress means staying where you are.


Go ahead, Micro$oft. Some free advice right there. If you can comprehend the concept of "free" that is..

Posted by: mALX Dec 23 2014, 10:45 PM

This is the best news EVAH! I am getting a new PC for Xmas - actually won't get it till the first week of January.

Here are the stats:


Intel Core i7 4790 CPU
16 GB DDR 3 Memory
240 GB SSD Drive
1 TB Standard Drive
780 GTX Video Card
DVD RW Drive
Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

He upgraded the power supply from the original order, and I know he will install it - but he left it off the ticket so I can't write what it is - all I know is that it is better than the 3.3 Ghz one I had on the original order.

It only comes with a one year warranty on parts and labor, so I better be careful with it, lol.


Since I'm coming to this from an HP with an NVidia 8600 graphics card, I know it will be better than what I had - but don't know how it stacks up with today's PC's. Can anyone tell me if this system is ok?

Posted by: SubRosa Dec 23 2014, 11:59 PM

Ok? That is the Thor of computers! Seriously, that is a very impressive box. You could barely do better.

Posted by: mALX Dec 24 2014, 12:17 AM

I'm so glad you responded, was hoping you would answer because I know you absolutely know what you are talking about! That is so good to hear! I got my son one too since his PC has been crashed a year longer than mine was, so we will both have decent computers now. (whew!)

Thank you, SubRosa!

Posted by: mirocu Dec 24 2014, 09:09 AM

Just wait a couple of months...


Iīm actually kinda lost after Nvidiaīs 8600 card so I donīt have a feeling anymore how good a graphic card is and Iīm not good at processors, but even I could sure tell youīre definitely getting a puter good enough for Oblivion..!


[RinryGameGame]
Happy gaming!
[/RinryGameGame]

Posted by: mALX Dec 24 2014, 10:40 AM

That NVidia 8600 is the card I was using too - Oblivion at half graphics, couldn't play the Fallouts or Skyrim. My laptop is a GTX 460, which was able to play Skyrim and the Fallouts at (at least) medium graphics/some stutters after adding the official texture pack for Skyrim/crashes entering the Gibson house in Minefield Fallout 3 (because of the scaled house and trees).

My son had a basic Gateway that bogged down playing WoW and couldn't even begin to handle Oblivion.

So to both my son and me, these new PCs would be awesome if they were anywhere above what we had. I'm so excited! My son picks his up (today), I get mine the first week of January. Can't wait!!

Posted by: mirocu Dec 24 2014, 10:42 AM

Always fun to get new puters!

I honestly donīt know what graphic card I have, have to check that..

Posted by: Grits Dec 24 2014, 01:03 PM

Very exciting, mALX! Enjoy!

Posted by: mALX Dec 24 2014, 03:13 PM

I didn't know what my laptop had without looking either.




@ Grits - Thanks!

Posted by: haute ecole rider Feb 1 2015, 09:55 PM

So, mALX, get the new 'puter yet?

I'm thinking hard about what to do with my desktop. It's a 2008 Intel Mac that is still running solid. But there is one catch. I'd love to play Skyrim on the same machine as Oblivion (and Nehrim BTW). According to the UESP wiki, this Mac Pro tower meets - no - exceeds all the recommended specs except the graphics:

Recommended
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Quad-core Intel or AMD CPU processor
4GB System RAM
6GB free HDD (Hard disk drive) space
DirectX 9.0c compatible NVIDIA or AMD ATI video card with 1GB of RAM: Nvidia GeForce GTX 260 or higher; ATI Radeon HD 4890 or higher
DirectX compatible sound card
Internet access for Steam activation

Now when I got this puppy over 6 1/2 years ago, I purposely got the upgraded graphics card in it (NVIDIA 8800 GT). It has served well with Oblivion and Nehrim, though I've avoided super high textures in the interest of keeping the game playable. But it doesn't handle Skyrim all that well. So I've been resigned to that fact.

My laptop is a 2012 MacBook Pro (MBP) with NVIDIA GeForce 650M 1 GB VRAM. It runs Skyrim pretty well, but I have more problems with carpal tunnel after a while, and would prefer a larger monitor.

I started looking into moving up to a 2012 MacPro tower (the last version before Apple moved to the futuristic http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/. Refurbished models, depending on how many cores you get, run from about $1,000 to $3,000 or more. All I need is a single Quad core model, but those are pretty rare.

On a whim, I looked at graphics cards again. And guess what? It looks as if my puppy can take on a more powerful GPU! After consulting the http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:System_Requirements again, I discovered that I can put http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125414 into my puppy and it should run. So I found a refurb from a reputable dealer on eBay and ordered it. It should arrive later this week, God willing (we are in the middle of a blizzard here right now - even the Apple Store closed early!). I only hope it doesn't fry my pup!

Posted by: mirocu Feb 1 2015, 10:01 PM

Good luck with your gaming puter, h-e-r!

Posted by: Acadian Feb 1 2015, 10:24 PM

I hope the upgrades work! Sounds like you've gotten some good life and service from your rig.

Posted by: mALX Feb 3 2015, 06:37 AM

Yes, I've got it - only got a few very short plays on it though, I need to move it out of my office and closer to my living room; I don't have time or inclination to go to my office and work there, it is isolated from the rest of the house, so I spend all my time on my laptop, lol.

I'm going to move my new PC, give my office to my husband to play in, lol.


(but he CAN'T have my new PC !!!)

Posted by: haute ecole rider Feb 3 2015, 11:03 PM

Let him have his Stupid Bowl! You get the better deal!

Posted by: mirocu Feb 10 2015, 11:40 AM

My Millennium puter sometimes doesnīt start up properly due to the unstableness of said Millennium OP... No biggie though, Iīm just glad as long as it works. And in a few monthsī time Iīm gonna be using my 3.1 on a daily basis again!!!


If Iīm not being distracted by a tedious job at that point, that is....

Posted by: haute ecole rider Feb 12 2015, 05:27 AM

An update:

I got the Beast last week Friday. Put it in. Plugging in the power cables was a comedy of errors I choose not to relive again. Had to reset some fundamental parameters (reset PRAM for Mac users) to get it working on the Mac OSX side. It's been running beautifully (the Mac OS already had the drivers installed for it). My photo library in Aperture, which took about 30 seconds to load all the thumbnails, launches insanely fast with the new card.

But getting it to run in Win 7 under Boot Camp has been a real PITA. Win 7 wouldn't see the graphics card at all. No problem, just get the drivers installed. However, it kept running on something called "Generic VGA Adapter" which meant my graphics card would shut down after between 7 and 10 minutes of running. Not. Enough. Time. To search for the correct drivers! Tried the latest Catalyst driver package from AMD. No go. Tried Boot Camp driver installers. No go. Erased the drive and reinstalled Boot Camp and Win 7. Finally looked at "previous drivers" on the AMD site today, and found an older version that I knew would work with the Beast, and discovered that it needed .NET 4.0. Talk about an aha! moment. I installed the MS .NET 4.0 files, then the older version of Catalyst, and - fingers crossed - rebooted into Win 7. Knew it worked when Win 7's boot screen showed up in my monitor's native resolution (1920x1200) instead of the horrid 800x600 that should be illegal on any monitor larger than 15".

Since then I have spent the last several hours reinstalling my Oblivion set up and mods. Thank God for my download history at nexusmods.com! It's going to be a slow process, as I want to figure out the multiple install thing (http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/41271/vs. http://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/35263/?) So it'll be another week or so before I have time to try installing Skyrim.

Posted by: mALX Feb 12 2015, 06:45 AM

So did you actually install the new GPU Yourself? Holy Cow!!!!

That reinstalling is the biggest pain unless there was some issue you really wanted to correct about the previous install. I'm STILL reinstalling on my laptop!

Posted by: mirocu Feb 12 2015, 09:34 AM

Best of luck with your new toys, h-e-r

Posted by: SubRosa Feb 12 2015, 06:43 PM

congrats on taming the beast h.e.r. I had similar issues installing a pair of new graphics cards Tuesday. I put the cards in, and the first problem was the screws would not line up with the holes. After fighting with the cards for twenty minutes I just put the screws in at an angle. Then I start the machine up, and it doesn't boot. So I pull the cards out and swap them around, no luck. I put just one in, no luck.

So I put one of my old cards back in, and do some hunting online. I find some people with the same card had to update their motherboard bios to get it to work. I spent the next 3 hours trying to update my bios. But in spite of everything Asus tried to do to stop me, I eventually managed it. Then I put my new cards back in, and they worked fine.

Of course then the SLI didn't work. So I reinstalled the video card drivers, and then it worked. So I tried Skyrim, and as soon as the game started, my screen started flashing green. So I flipped around my SLI cable, and then it worked normally.

A video card is normally one of the easiest things to replace. Just put it in and you are done. I spent 4 hours getting the damned thing to work.

Posted by: mALX Feb 12 2015, 07:17 PM

OMG, I am in awe! I would be terrified to try to put anything in myself to begin with, but then to have all these issues with it and keep going - and then actually fix them !!!




(they really need a bowing down emoticon here!)

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 4 2015, 07:12 PM

Time for an update on the Graphics Card Update:

The ATI card ended up burning out after a week. I pulled it and did some more research - turns out it needed more power than my MoBo could provide (or was rated for). So I hunted around for a better alternative and found it - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 (2 GB VRAM) that drew less than the maximum rated power on the MoBo. Installed it, booted up, everything ran fine on the Mac Side. Downloaded the latest drivers on the Win7 side, and no problems getting the system to see the new card. So I've been running it for a couple of weeks with no graphical anomalies. The FPS on it is insane - barely flinches around the Oblivion Gate at Kvatch and with multiple NPC's. The Battle for Kvatch was the smoothest I've ever seen, especially in the Castle courtyard where I often see FPS lags due to all the monsters and NPC's in the same cell. So I'm perfectly happy with the NVIDIA card, and, so it seems, is my Mac Pro.

However I'm running into a new issue with Oblivion. I have been trying to rebuild it, and have had to start over a couple of times because my game saves will not load. Oblivion will launch, I can play for a while, I save (from the console, never QuickSave or Autosave) a few times, then when I quit the game and go back into it, it will CTD upon loading the save games. I end up going back several saves and being able to move forward from there, but once again the issue returns. I delete all the bad saves and the last good save and start over from the save previous to that (in case that last good save is just prior to the corruption that seems to happen). Most of the time it seems to happen when I enter a specific cell; however most recently it happens when my PC mounts Paint to take Martin up to Cloud Ruler Temple.

I've tried researching online for the issue, but most of them talk about CTD's upon saving which then corrupts the save. I'm saving without CTD's, it's when I go back and try to load up upon relaunching Oblivion that the crap shows up again.

Any ideas out there?

Posted by: Acadian Mar 4 2015, 07:46 PM

Rider, glad to hear the you're happy with you new graphics card. Sorry though about the crash on loads - and unfortunately, I'm not clever enough to help. Plenty of puter-smart folks here though and I hope someone has some ideas.

Posted by: mALX Mar 4 2015, 08:05 PM

Gaaaah, that sounds like something that most def needs fixing! Have you tried starting a new game from scratch and see if there are any issues then?

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 4 2015, 08:19 PM

Yup, twice now. At first I thought it was the way the mods were being installed, but the most recent failure happened on just the basic load order (Oblivion GOTY plus the UOP's for both Oblivion and SI).

I do have Fast Exit installed, so only rare CTD's on exiting the game. And they do not have to occur before the saves start corrupting. Argh!

Posted by: mALX Mar 4 2015, 08:27 PM

Go in on a clean game and then one by one add those you mentioned (I'd start with the fast exit, since I'd say that is causing the issues; then test with the unofficial patches if it isn't that one causing the issue).

Posted by: ghastley Mar 4 2015, 09:49 PM

One way this can happen is if a mod has bad code in a OnGameLoaded block. This is stuff that only executes when you load, to set up things that don't get automatically saved for you. I've used it a couple of times, when I had to check what other mods someone was using, and enable items in different places. For example, if someone had Open Cities, then items would be in a different worldspace.

While I was developing that code, and it was buggy, I got CTD's if I tried to do something to an item that existed only in OC, but OC wasn't loaded. It only failed on a load, because it was code that only ran during a load.

tldr; the save may be OK, but there's a mod that doesn't always handle a reload.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 5 2015, 07:50 PM

mALX, I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling Oblivion and the mods. These are mods I've used before in the past in my previous stable LO. Unfortunately, the link I used to set up the install order in Wrye Bash (not the load order) is no longer active, so I can't remember which mods get installed first. I do know the texture mods (i.e. Qarl's TP3) get installed first, but after that I can't quite recall! Ugh.

ghastley, is there a way to fix the issue you are describing? It certainly sounds like a possible cause, though this problem occurs after adding mods, not removing them.

There is one mod that I've used before, but gave me pause when I went to download it. Its the TIE - Tamriel Immersion Experience. I really like what it does to Cyrodiil, and have found that I just can't play without it. However, instead of a single file on the Nexus, it now has two versions, one for older versions of Better Cities (BC), and one for newer versions. I'm wondering if this now means that I can't play without Better Cities? I prefer mods that add new locations (like Arthmoor's village mods) rather than mods that overhaul existing vanilla locations.

What I really like about TIE are the added traders on the roads, and the *gasp* fewer bandits and nasties out there. I'd consider an alternative mod if that's all it did . . .

I'm totally dying to try out the QTP3 Redimized texture pack and one of two alternatives I found for vegetation, but I want to make sure I have a full stable LO with all my previously used mods from before first.

Posted by: mALX Mar 5 2015, 08:16 PM

Do you have an SSD drive? And if so, do you have some of your stuff on the SSD drive and some one the standard drive? Is your SSD drive overly full? They don't work well under pressure.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 5 2015, 08:51 PM

Nope, this is the same MacPro I've been using all along for Oblivion. The only new hardware is the Graphics card, which installed easily and is running the latest drivers.

I did have quite a bit of the usual crashing with just the vanilla game and the UOP patches (both Oblivion and SI), but I expected that. I copied the d3d9_27.dll file from the game CD into the game directory, as well as the Fast Exit dll, which I've used before without the problems. It reduced the crashes to just the ones I'm describing above. Those start occuring upon exiting the dungeon. I suspect either TIE or COBL, as those two mods I often install first to test.

I'm off to try again with just the vanilla game and the UOP's installed. But that doesn't mean I'm open to other ideas!

Posted by: mALX Mar 6 2015, 10:26 PM

@ SubRosa - could this be caused by the same dual core threading issues that the Fallout games experience?

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 6 2015, 11:19 PM

I don't think so. I have been following this, and drawing a blank. All I can think is some kind of save game corruption and/or mod issues, which is was ghastley warned about.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 7 2015, 03:53 AM

mALX, I had considered the dual core threading issues you mentioned. My MP is actually dual Quad Core 2.8 GHz Intel Xeon (i.e. two quad-core processors). It has run Oblivion before without any issues.

I did run the 4Gb patch on the .exe file to make sure Oblivion recognizes the additional memory. Both the Process Explorer application and the GPU-Z tell me that with the patch the game makes better use of the GPU's higher capabilities.

I am suspicious that it may be either COBL or TIE that is causing the problem. I'm going to keep going. The other day I was able to play the MQ right up to entering the Oblivion Gate. I am still running the basic install with just Oblivion GOTY plus the UOP's. So far my saves are fine. I've already passed three points where the rot started on previous builds. So I plan to keep going with the vanilla stuff until I get past the last point (leaving Weynon Priory with Martin) that I could play the game without corrupted saves.

Posted by: mALX Mar 7 2015, 07:14 AM

Wait a minute, I remember something from a long time ago about graphics cards in SLI or Crossfire configurations don't play well with Oblivion. I think King Coin had some issues with his when he first got his new card installed.

Is your new card configured for SLI or Crossfire?

Posted by: ghastley Mar 7 2015, 01:41 PM

mALX, I've only seen mention of a single card, so SLI and Crossfire don't apply. They're ways to make two cards work like one, with nearly twice the horsepower (you lose a bit from the coordination work).

Posted by: mALX Mar 7 2015, 04:48 PM

I think the way King Coin ended up working it was to not use the SLI when he was playing a TES game (which aggravated him, because that is exactly why he had wanted the SLI to begin with).

But you are right, I didn't look back through to the original posts when I wrote that - (but did know SLI and Crossfire were for dual graphics, lol).

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 8 2015, 09:19 PM

Hey mALX, thanks for trying to help me resolve the issue. ghastley is right - I have a single GPU.

I restarted from new with just the Oblivion GOTY, SI, and the UOP for both. Everything went well until after I talked to Martin in the Kvatch camp. I've pinpointed the issue to when the PC mounts Paint while Martin is following. Before, I was able to make it all the way back to Weynon Priory because the Horse Commands mod I used let Paint follow alongside Martin. I initially thought it might be that, but no, it's either the UOP or the original game. Because it's a new glitch to me (I had never seen that before, and certainly not reproducible like this!), I have to suspect a scripting error or something like that.

I've backed up my files and made the executive decision to completely uninstall Oblivion and reinstall, following http://wiki.tesnexus.com/index.php/Oblivion_reinstall_procedure. I'm in the process of defragging the drive. Once I finish that, it's on to reinstallation of the game from scratch.

The irony of all this is: by the time I get done with this, I'm going to be a Windows expert! I certainly am learning a lot about how this works! At this point I feel like I know my way around Windows 7 almost as well as I do the Mac OS.

Posted by: Acadian Mar 8 2015, 09:44 PM

Good luck, Rider. I hope all goes well and yer back ta playin' soon!

Posted by: mirocu Mar 9 2015, 08:05 AM

*makes mental note to pester h-e-r about future puter problems*



-What? Oh, nothing

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 10 2015, 12:41 AM

If it's Mac or Boot Camp related pester away!

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 10 2015, 03:11 AM

Okay new update for those following this tedious journey of the Misbehaving Oblivion.

I completed the uninstall-reinstall process outlined in the linky, and it seems to be working quite well. I was able to progress all the way to Martin's arrival at Cloud Ruler Temple without issues. I've started installing textures, and so far things look quite good. I'm ready to move on to the UI mods, but I'm taking a break from playing the game to research the options. I like the font choices of DarNUI, but not that I have to reset it every time I start the game. I like the ease of setup with Immersive Interface, also that I can make the compass go away.

I'm nearly eight hours into the game. Looks like the issues I've been having have gone away. Hopefully it's not too early to celebrate!

Posted by: mirocu Mar 10 2015, 08:46 AM

Yay! h-e-r can finally start wasting time on an eight-year-old game again! Much like me



Happy gaming!

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 10 2015, 03:11 PM

Umm, I'm still adding mods back in and testing each step of the way. Until I've rebuilt my old load order and completed the MQ (great way to test your mod LO, if you ask me), I'm holding off on celebrating.

But wasting my time? Uh, yeah . . .

BTW, I'm playing with Julian. She is as awesome as evah!

Posted by: mALX Mar 10 2015, 10:01 PM

I've kind of been a "Don't fix it if it ain't broke" type person - don't add the unofficial patches unless I find the situations come up that they will help. The same with the anti-aliasing. I will probably need them all one day, but until that day comes I don't install them. Not very "Girl Scout-ee" but keeps me from breaking my game before the time comes when I might need to,

Posted by: mirocu Mar 10 2015, 10:37 PM

Iīm so with mALX on this!

Posted by: SubRosa Mar 10 2015, 11:14 PM

I use the unofficial patch for Oblivion and SI. But not for Skyrim. I found that the one for Skyrim actually caused bugs for me.

Posted by: Acadian Mar 10 2015, 11:29 PM

In Oblivion, I use just the primary game UOP but none of the DLC ones. Using OBMM.

In Skyrim, I use all the USKP's, including those for the DLC. Using NMM.

I've never had a problem related to the unofficial patches in either game. Admittedly, my whole load order stays at or below 50 mods (and no 'overhauls'), so everything is probably easier with a light load order.

Posted by: haute ecole rider Mar 16 2015, 03:46 PM

It's official!

While Julian and I haven't completed testing the new card yet, we have over 50% of our previous mod load out installed and everything is continuing to run smoothly! FPS in the upper 50's, typically at 60, even around Oblivion Gates and in the IC/Waterfront zones.

Here's the specs of my old Mac Pro: https://flic.kr/p/rDthUX

Posted by: haute ecole rider Apr 16 2015, 02:47 AM

Aaaand now an update.

I decided to spend my sick day today loading Steam and - yup - Skyrim on my old Mac Pro. So far I only have the Steam Legendary content installed, and just made it through the first day. Of course I started over with my favorite (so far only) Skyrim character. Just as Julian *pwns* Oblivion and is my main PC, Alise Sudmeri is the Dragonborn in so many ways. After following Hadvar to Riverwood, Alise has improved her Imperial Light armor, her mace and long bow, and has had a good night's sleep.

What's next? I want to try the Skyrim Hi Res pack from Beth. Any thoughts? SKSE and SkyUI are definitely next, as I just can't play without them. I haven't played since October 1 of last year, but Steam's stats tell me Alise and I have put over 400 hours into the game. Wow!

I will have to go over my Skyrim install on my MacBook Pro and see what is already installed and working there, so I can recreate that here. I'm also looking at a few more mods. I love Argis pretty much the way he is, but I wish he was a little higher resolution. But I don't want him baby-faced - I loved how the NPCs in Skyrim look so rugged - almost reflective of how tough life is up there. Camping/Northern Ranger and Frostfall are also def on my list, as Alise just can't play without them. Being a Southerner, she hates the cold, especially along the northern coast. And she wants her kids back, so the Multiple Adoptions is coming back too.

Hmm, it's getting late, and I've got an early day tomorrow. Normally I'd stay up later, but with this darned cold I'm just taking things easy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hhm7aWp8gvc

Posted by: mALX Apr 16 2015, 03:25 AM

Skyrim Hi Rez Textures: Before installing them the game automatically put my game settings at "Ultra." After installing them it automatically set them down to "Medium."

Well, you don't have to take the game's auto settings as set in stone, but it does give you an idea of how much memory they are using up.

Yes, upgraded textures make a huge difference in game; I would consider them necessary. So either use Bethesda's official ones or find an alternative that uses memory more efficiently - but some hi-rez textures are most def needed.

Posted by: Grits Apr 16 2015, 12:14 PM

Congrats on the new install! Here’s some news: Chesko has just released http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/64798/, and apparently Frostfall 3.0 is on the way with big changes under the hood. Might want to check it out before you get into installing your camping mods. His mod page explains it far better than I could. Pretty exciting.

I hope your cold is better today! <-- restorative tea for hautee

Posted by: haute ecole rider Apr 16 2015, 04:23 PM

@mALX: thank you for the info. This rig handled Qarl's High Res textures (the Redimized Version) just fine, so I'll look around for something like this for Skyrim. I want to keep things as high as I can because I know I want a lot of high textures on the people and clothing/armor.

@Grits: Wow, I'm really out of touch - Frostfall got updated since I last played! And now Campfire, too? What I liked about Frostfall is that it made me and Alise really think about our forays in the wilderness. It certainly made the trip up to the Throat of the World that much more arduous! After defeating Alduin, it wasn't certain if Alise would make it back to the Greybeards before death by hypothermia set in! Good thing those dragons gave off a lot of heat. Thanks for the restorative tea - I'm still fighting this thing and it's awful!

Posted by: mirocu Apr 17 2015, 10:29 PM

Can anyone explain why the sound sometimes disappear when Iīm internetting? I donīt do anything, nothing happens, but suddenly the sound is gone and the only way to get it back is to log out and restart the puter.

I reckon itīs a bug of some kind but is there a fix? Iīve looked around a little but came up short.

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 18 2015, 12:12 AM

It sounds like your sound card has an executable or two that load when windows starts, and they are taking a crap on you. Try Googling your sound card, and few keywords like "not working" or "quits".

Posted by: mirocu Apr 18 2015, 07:50 AM

I have an external Soundblaster, and it goes *boom* everytime it starts up, presumebly the executable youīre talking about.

Thanks, Rosa. Iīll look it up

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 18 2015, 11:04 AM

It goes boom? Is it supposed to do that? Does it connect to your computer via a usb cable? If so the cable or usb port could be your issue as well.

Posted by: mirocu Apr 18 2015, 03:12 PM

When it starts up it makes a sound and of course how loud depends on the volume knob. And yes itīs a USB but what do I do about that?

Posted by: mALX Apr 18 2015, 03:28 PM

Maybe try plugging it in to a different usb port? I mean, maybe that one is arcing or something. (but don't listen to me, I know NOTHING! NOTH-ING!) (said in the voice of Shultz from Hogan's Heroes).

Posted by: SubRosa Apr 18 2015, 04:34 PM

My computer is about two years old now, and some of the usb ports on the front panel just don't work anymore. The port you are using might be going bad. So like mALX said, try plugging it into a different port. I doubt it is the cable that is bad, but you could try replacing that as well.

Posted by: mirocu Apr 18 2015, 04:42 PM

Huh. I didnīt think the USB ports would go bad, but I guess it could make sense then seeing as my puter is six years old now.


I heard a rumor that Windows 7 had a bug that caused this problem but whatever it is, it never happens when I play games or just mess around. It only happens when Iīm online.

Posted by: mALX Apr 18 2015, 04:59 PM

If you have a kitten in the house, there is every possibility that the kitten has bitten that cable - SubRosa's suggestion to change out the cable is a very good one.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 1 2015, 12:26 PM

The only animals I have in my apartment are dust rats and their teeth are rather dull


I could get sound to work again by fiddling with the connection so thatīs not a problem anymore. But my internet issue has gone worse and is now to the point where I simply cannot access said net at all, so I have bitten the tasty orange and decided to go back to regular broadband again. Costs more but itīs 99% more reliable which is what I want.

Posted by: mALX Jun 1 2015, 01:11 PM

Agree 100% - I left broadband to save a few septims and haven't been happy with my internet service since.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 1 2015, 02:00 PM

I have actually. My problem isnīt related to my internet provider at all, it is simply on my puterīs end

Posted by: mALX Jun 1 2015, 05:04 PM

Then how will changing to broadband fix them? Are you sure it isn't your modem?

Posted by: mirocu Jun 1 2015, 05:43 PM

The broadband is connected to the puter via network cable, the mobile modem via USB and those ports are apparently fragile and cave in. I can hear the sound the USB makes whenever you insert/disconnect something and it keeps making that sound as it loses connection. If it was the modem it wouldnīt make that sound.

Hopefully Iīll get it sooner than they said

Posted by: mALX Jun 1 2015, 08:47 PM

I hope that sound isn't arcing electricity! That is what my laptop charging jack was doing and why I had to fix it before it could be used between May 2013 and September 2014.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 2 2015, 03:15 PM

It canīt be. It does that sound with other computers too whenever I insert a USB memory stick. I guess they put it there to let the user know it works

Posted by: ghastley Jun 6 2015, 05:08 PM

I've built the machine that is becoming my new server in the carcass of the old one. I couldn't persuade the new Atom to boot the Windows 2000 server installation that I'd used with its Celeron predecessor, so I installed Linux (Debian) on the drive instead, and I'm gradually installing the new pieces of software.

The Web server is in place, so I can post images again, and all the old ones are there. However, Apache is case-sensitive, where IIS wasn't, so a lot of the links here will be broken just because they contain "skyrim" instead of "Skyrim", or something similar. I'll edit them as I find them, but if anyone's post quotes mine, I can't fix the copy.

I won't bother fixing links to obsolete downloads.

I still have to install the mail server, and it looks like I need to create the domain server on a separate box, so those are on the to-do list.

Posted by: mALX Jun 6 2015, 05:42 PM

Is that Atom the script Editor? (if so, I have it for reading Papyrus and love it!). Is there any way to tweak the program so it isn't case sensitive? I think I have seen on one of my old computers a setting that changed it from case sensitive; but can't remember how it was accessed.

Well, it will be great to have you and your screenshots back! I am just amazed at your ability with computers!

Posted by: ghastley Jun 6 2015, 06:26 PM

No that's Intel Atom the CPU. Low-power like ARM, but runs the same programs as Intel Core CPU's. It's not as fast as the desktop processors, but it's enough for a web server.

I'm re-learning a lot of Linux administration stuff as I do this. Of course I can't find my old notes about it. They were probably saved on the old machine!

Posted by: mALX Jun 6 2015, 07:07 PM

You never cease to amaze me with what you know and what you can do with it on computers!

Posted by: ghastley Jun 8 2015, 04:05 PM

The saga of the server rebuild has taken a major leap sideways - mudcrabs rule!!

My workstation decided it didn't like the Domain Controller going away, and insisted I change to a workgroup basis so it could still use the network. Doing that solved an issue I'd had for ages that prevented me using Skyrim across all three monitors, so I can now play in 5700x1080 resolution at last! Don't worry, I'll crop/scale any screenshots before I post them.

But it never gives without taking away, and Wrye Bash/Smash won't start up, and I have to manage my load order and profiles by hand until I fix that.

I'm making progress with the mail server configuration, too. I can now receive floods of spam, and have to re-train my system to reject it, but I can't yet send outside my own system. It's nice that it's secure by default, but there are a lot of hoops to jump through.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 8 2015, 04:14 PM

Could you take a pic of your gaming station with Skyrim running? Iīd like to see what it looks like on three monitors

Posted by: ghastley Jun 9 2015, 03:25 PM

I tried that last night, but there's too much contrast in the pictures for you to be able to see what's running. I'll try again with daylight in the room, and see if that gets better results.

The field of view is wider than you can really see clearly, and the side monitor images are stretched at the extremes, but movement from the sides catches your eye, and you don't get blindsided by attackers that would previously have been off-screen. That doesn't stop sabre cats from jumping on you from behind, of course. I played Oblivion that way for ages (after reworking the UI with Darn), and tried to do the same with Skyrim when I got it, but there wasn't an equivalent UI adjuster that worked for me, until Flawless Widescreen started working. Vanilla Skyrim tries to scale all the menus etc. to the screen width, so everything's off the top and bottom. FW makes it use the height to scale those instead. There are still a few things, like lockpicking, that don't get fixed, but they're ones I can live with.

I'll try and post a few wide screenshots with menus, map, etc. I can shrink them so that you won't need multiple monitors to view them.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 9 2015, 03:36 PM

I am currently enjoying my new broadband. More moneyz per month unfortunately, but at least I get unlimited data and hopefully a much more reliable connection


And itīs still a lot cheaper than my first broadband. On that I had up to 8MB/sec and on this I have 2MB. For what I use it for, 2MB is more than enough.

Posted by: mALX Jun 9 2015, 08:53 PM

Yeah, I'm with Mirocu on wanting to see a picture of your rig, holy cow!!!

Posted by: ghastley Jun 9 2015, 11:48 PM

Then http://ghastley.org/Skyrim/images/Monitors.JPG it is. Not the best photo, still has issues with contrast and dynamic range. If the screens look right, then you can't see the rest, and vice-versa.

The workstation tower is faintly glowing under the desk on the right. Core i7 extreme, 32GB, and a pair of NVidia 680's - all liquid-cooled to keep it quiet.

The server is in a closet off to the left. The fan in that makes enough noise for both machines!

Here's what http://ghastley.org/Skyrim/images/screenshot1.jpglooks like. Notice how the extreme sides are stretched out, because they're going out of your peripheral vision at those angles. Sometimes they're beyond the walls of the tunnel and you see void out there.

Posted by: Grits Jun 10 2015, 12:30 AM

Holy cow, ghastley! That is amazing.

Posted by: mALX Jun 10 2015, 02:22 AM

OMG! (drool, drool) !!!!!! AWESOME !!!!! That is like the one at Disney World !!!!! (drool, slurp) !!!!!!

Posted by: mirocu Jun 10 2015, 02:14 PM

Holy sweet rig, Batman!



All you need to do is paint the frames white and you wonīt even notice itīs three screens!

Posted by: mALX Jun 10 2015, 03:45 PM

No, they must be black for the immersion - like going into a cave! (a man cave).



But I have to QFT your first line = Ditto this:


Holy sweet rig, Batman!




*

Posted by: mirocu Jul 10 2015, 04:10 PM

*īrocuīs computer maintenance program running*


-vaccum the fans
-use compressed air to remove more dust far inside the shell
-download the latest virus definitions
-run virus program and additional malware program
-copy the two latest save files from Fallout 3 and Oblivion to two USB memory sticks
-finish up by making a new, fresh save point for computer


*maintenance program complete*

Posted by: mALX Jul 10 2015, 11:19 PM

I'd pay for someone to come to my house and do all that - especially vacuuming the dust from the fans!

Posted by: Saquira Jul 20 2015, 01:32 AM

Does anyone know of any good file recovery programs to get back older versions of your documents?

I switched over my usb on which I store all my stories from my laptop to my stationary computer, and now several of my latest story ideas are gone. Thankfully I only lost the documents I've been working on lately, so it's not nearly as much lost stuff as it could have been, but I've been working on so many different documents lately and it was a while since I made a backup, which means that about half a dozen story ideas are gone.

I'm using Piriform Recuva to try and get some of it back. But sorting through all of it takes ages because the documents it recovered it just named with numbers and of the 100 I've gone through so far it only seems to be pretty old copies of one story. Which is good, admittedly, because at least that's something, but there was a whole lot more where that one came from.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 20 2015, 10:03 AM

The only idea I have is restoring to another save point using the Windows feature. That might bring it back. Otherwise weīll have to wait for Rosa or ghastley

Posted by: ghastley Jul 20 2015, 02:08 PM

And we'll just tell you to restore from your backup.

What? You had files you considered important in only one place?

Posted by: mirocu Jul 20 2015, 04:16 PM

I have the latest two save files from all games on two different USB memory sticks. Because thatīs the most important lesson when it comes to puters; save and save often, and in multiple places.

Posted by: ghastley Jul 20 2015, 05:59 PM

Second most important is to make sure you can copy back from your backup. I have several backup tapes that can't be restored because the drives aren't supported any more. And stuff on zip cartridges and floppies, including 5 1/4" ones!

Naturally, I copied the data to another medium before the drives died. And I still have the drives, but no software drivers for them.

Still in progress building new servers for hot fail-over.

Posted by: Saquira Jul 20 2015, 08:12 PM

I keep my main files on one of my usbs and save copies to my computer and my portable harddrive as often as possible.

That said, the documents that I lost are ones I only started working on within the last few weeks, so I haven't made any new backups since then. And considering how much I've been writing on lately that's several thousand words lost that I'll have to rewrite. The ideas are all in my head, admittedly, so they're not lost. But I'll have to rewrite the scenes and that's a serious downer for me.

Thankfully, having gone through the backups, the documents that weren't corrupted and the ones I could recover I've determined that I didn't loose as much as i initially thought.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 25 2015, 03:32 PM

This is actually an Oblivion thing


I have Mirili Ulven from Highcross standing at the other side of the gate (the Cyrodiil side), I have no idea how she got there but I want to move her back to Highcross where Lothran is currently located. What command should I use?

Iīm thinking prid <RefID/BaseId> placeatme but I donīt want to try without knowing if itīs the right command.


Edit: I see that I have been subject to a bug and cannot get her back. Iīll try spawning a new copy and kill the original one instead.

Edit 2: The console commands seemed to work as I got no error message, but no Mirili appeared. Sigh.

Posted by: ghastley Jul 25 2015, 04:51 PM

Placeatme creates a whole new instance, so you don't want that one.

prid xxxxxxxx (using the RefID, not the base)
moveto player

is much safer.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 25 2015, 04:53 PM

Well, it didnīt work anyway


Thanks!

Posted by: mirocu Nov 25 2015, 09:26 PM

If anyone here has Windows 10 and is concerned about privacy issues, search for Disable Windows 10 Spying - Privacy & Security on youtube. Itīs made by a guy called Barnacules who actually has worked with Microsoft. He shows step-by-step how to disable it all and man, thereīs a lot!

Posted by: mALX Nov 25 2015, 09:33 PM

I don't have Windows 10; but I have noticed recently that suddenly every time I look at an item for sale, it is showing as advertisement on every single other site I go to from then on. This has only recently started happening, does it mean I have some kind of adware/spyware on my PC? Because I do have some supposed internet security program; and since I've never had this happen before - wonder if it is that my "Internet Security" program is not working very well.

Posted by: mirocu Nov 25 2015, 09:34 PM

I havenīt seen anything. Where exactly does this happen, Amazon and the likes?

Posted by: mALX Nov 25 2015, 10:30 PM

No, the worst offenders are Wayfair.com; Overstock.com; J.C. Penneys; etc.

Posted by: mirocu Nov 25 2015, 10:34 PM

Havenīt been on any of those so I canīt say. I do have all my Updates disabled though, the only one I update is the Microsoft Security Essentials. Donīt know if thatīs relevant.

Posted by: mALX Nov 25 2015, 10:37 PM

This security is "Avira," it is the first time I ever tried it; and I begin to think it isn't doing its job.

Posted by: mirocu Nov 25 2015, 10:39 PM

Have you tried removing all the cookies?

Posted by: mALX Nov 25 2015, 10:55 PM

I will try that when I'm not going back looking daily. But whether I look at these sites or not, my security software should be protecting my pc from being watched by others; should it not?

Posted by: mirocu Nov 25 2015, 10:58 PM

I think your firewall should do that. Make sure itīs enabled so that basically nothing is allowed through that isnīt on the "allowed list".

Posted by: mALX Nov 25 2015, 11:15 PM

I thought it should too. I'll look at it and see if I can find the issue; if not I will remove it and use a different product.

Posted by: mALX Dec 5 2015, 02:28 PM

I couldn't find any way to resolve the issue, so removed Avira from my laptop. So ... looking for some other antivirus/firewall program now.

Posted by: mirocu Feb 6 2016, 10:11 PM

http://www.howtogeek.com/241329/upgrade-now-or-upgrade-tonight-how-microsoft-has-aggressively-pushed-windows-10-to-everyone/


Iīm really getting worried here. Whatīs my option if I canīt get a Windows 7 puter next time?

Posted by: bobg Feb 6 2016, 11:15 PM

The ads are based on cookies. No malware here. It's a part of standard web browser functionality.

Many websites will refuse to load if you disable storing cookies from your browser. The ads are part of how websites pay for bandwidth.

Due to a recent law, websites are required to notify you at least once that they are storing cookies. This usually shows up as a message that pops up at the top or bottom of the web page. Clicking on the 'I got it' button makes the message go away forever.

There are a variety of ways that cookies are used. They can be used to store web page preferences, product interests, statistics about usage, frequency, etc.

Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Feb 7 2016, 12:26 AM

As bobg says, it's not a malware issue, it's cookies. I don't care much for Avira (ads!), but you'd be far better running it than having no AV program at all, that's definitely not recommended. A well-tried alternative is AVG:

http://free.avg.com/ww-en/homepage

But make sure you haven't got more than one AV program running in the background, they tend to mess each other, and your machine, up. Firewall-wise, Windows built-in firewall works perfectly well, though it's a little inflexible. Be sure you haven't disabled that.

Having said that, I also find it useful to run https://www.malwarebytes.org/ occasionally, but not as a background service (which you can't do with the free one anyway). It picks up on a few things the others may not catch - it's more in the nature of a clean-up program.

It may also be helpful to get rid of Java completely. This is now a security nightmare and it's not getting any better.

Posted by: mALX Feb 7 2016, 01:13 AM

This is needed advice. I actually forgot about removing my antivirus (with all going on in RL lately); so first:

Thank you for the reminder that I need to get another antivirus on here; going with no antivirus since November could very well be why my laptop is dragging badly lately on opening pictures or watching vids!

Second: Thank you so much for taking the time to get me those links; I have used AVG Free in the past and it wasn't bad; though I think I removed it for using too many resources - can't remember now why I stopped using it, but you are right that it is better than nothing.

And I'll get my son to run that Malwarebytes; he usually runs it for me about once per 90 days or so (between semesters); but he missed me this last break.

Thank you both for your help!

Posted by: Decrepit Feb 7 2016, 03:14 AM

I used AVG free some years ago but switched to Avast free. The only thing I dislike about Avast is that it pesters you to upgrade to the paid version. I can put up with that for what it does offer, and how few resources it eats.

Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Feb 7 2016, 12:41 PM

Maybe I'll have another look at Avast. I ditched it a few years ago because it started nagging me every 10 minutes or so. Then it started asking me to answer a survey question. Now I wouldn't have minded that once, even though it was deeply inane (something like: 'We are introducing secure browsing. Are you excited about this?' Yeah right.), but it never managed to register my answer (guess what that was), so it would come up with the same request on and off all day. Was like living with a deeply insecure small child.

Posted by: SubRosa Feb 7 2016, 06:02 PM

I am using Avast, and it used to nag me like that too. But it stopped. I cannot remember what I did. I think it was when I bought a new hard drive recently and reinstalled Windows (7 of course), on it. The version of Avast I have now looks different than the one I had before. It is clearly made to look better on a phone, with less colors, simple blocky shapes, and so on. Like the bad old days of Windows 3.1. It says it is version 11.1.2245. So maybe if you delete Avast, then download it brand new from their site, you will get a version that doesn't nag as much.

Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Feb 7 2016, 07:28 PM

Oops, slight embarrassment. Just realised the one I meant was Avanti (Avanti, Avast, AVG, a lot of imagination in the naming...). This used to be highly recommended a while back (over AVG) but now seems to have mostly died off, probably for the reasons I've given. Likely they put some pointy-headed person from the sales dept in charge of development. So, sorry, Avast...



It's all going that way. And it's exactly why I'm not going beyond Windows 7. Not going back to a toy operating system. (Well, to be fair, Win10's 'kernel' is likely pretty sound, whereas 3.1 hardly had anything at all under the bonnet. I just don't want big clunky crayon drawings all over my desktop...)

Posted by: SubRosa Feb 7 2016, 08:10 PM

Well, Avast Free does pester you too. My Win XP box still has the old version of Avast, and it still pops up with "Buy the Full Version!" at least once every time I use that computer.

Posted by: tegeus-Cromis Feb 7 2016, 08:30 PM

It's just a search for a little bit of extra pocket money. Paid-for versions have little extra to offer the consumer market. Worse, people forget to renew and are often unaware that they have no protection (AVG, I think, defaults back to the free service, at least). However, the firms (and I don't begrudge them this at all, keeps them going) likely make their main income from organisations. Sysadmins have to fret about servers, which the free versions do not cover, and network updates. When you have to constantly download security updates for a cluster of 50 workstations (with the usual slovenly users...) you can find all those licences worth every penny.

So I really wish they'd back off a bit on home users...

Posted by: mirocu Jun 22 2016, 01:19 PM

I have an issue that I had once before and itīs regarding the quote function both at Bethsoft and Nexus forums.


I recently upgraded to IE 11 and in this process something happened and when I click on quote now I only come to the reply box, with no quote. I fixed this last time by ticking the following boxes:


use SSL 2.0
Use SSL 3.0
Use TSL 1.0
Use TSL 1.1
Use TSL 1.2


But these are all ticked now and it still doesnīt work. Anyone have any idea? And please refrain from asking why I took IE. I just did, ok?

Posted by: mALX Jun 22 2016, 02:51 PM

Er...why are you using IE? (JUST KIDDING!) I don't know, but I'll bet SubRosa or Ghastley does, both are flat out geniuses at these thingls.

Posted by: ghastley Jun 22 2016, 04:28 PM

What I can tell you is that those settings are related to https (i.e. the use of encrypted transmission) and this site uses http (unencrypted) so they have no effect here.

You probably want to tun SSL 2.0 and SSL 3.0 OFF, as they're obsolete and insecure methods, but that's nothing to do with the quote issue.

I can't get quoting to work in IE11 either, but it's probably a case of the php script seeing IE11 as not a version it knows about, so it fails "safe". There's probably a "look like older release" setting* somewhere that will bypass the problem. The issue is not in your browser, but the way the script sees the incoming request. The header will have a bunch of info about what browser it's coming from, and the script will take a different path sometimes for a different browser.

*Found it: For IE 11, add chorrol.com to the "compatibility view" list, and it will work.

Edit: To add further confusion: I'm using IE 11 at home, and this site works. When I use it at work, it fails until I enable Compatibility View. However, I suspect that work uses a proxy outbound, which may affect things.

Posted by: mirocu Jun 23 2016, 02:23 PM

When I add Bethsoft to the compatibility view, then I can quote. But the page gets otherwise messed up and I can no longer access my content etc because the window sort of disappears. Well, guess I can go back and forth when I need to quote. Too bad though the shortcut is now gone.

Thanks, ghastley!


And just to clarify, Iīve never had a problem quoting here at chorrol

Posted by: Acadian Jul 6 2016, 09:52 PM

I'm happily running Windows 7. Windows has politely asked several times if I would like to upgrade for free to Windows 10. Their latest reminder said the offer to do so for free expires the end of this month.

Anybody using Windows 10 and, if so, are you happy with it? For those staying with 7, I'd be happy to hear your thoughts and reasoning as well.

Thanks for any input.

Posted by: ghastley Jul 6 2016, 10:03 PM

I got a laptop as a service anniversary award from work, and it came with Window 8. I've upgraded(?) that to 10, as I didn't much like 8 or 8.1. 10 is better than 8, but not much. The mobile style does not suit desktops, no matter how much they play with it, and they've taken away so many UI things that helped, such as contrast between adjacent areas that react differently to mouse-clicks. E.g. many buttons have no outline, menu bars blend with the window below them. A lot of web sites have the same problem of being designed for mobile users only, so it's perhaps not surprising that MS can't recruit people who understand the difference.


My main machine is staying on Windows 7 Pro (64-bit), and the Windows 10 laptop has Classic Shell installed, to make it look as much like Win 7 as possible.

Bah humbug! and get off my virtual lawn!

Posted by: hazmick Jul 7 2016, 03:48 AM

I've been using Win 10 for a little while now. It's good, but took a little getting used to. As ghastley said, it has a mobile style which just feels a little odd and makes navigation more complicated than it needs to be.

I only upgraded to 10 because my xbox and phone both use Win10 resources too so it's easier for them to all connect, and the controller support on Win10 is invaluable for the rare occasions when I actually play PC games. Upcoming cross-platform gaming between Xbox LIVE and Win10 was also a factor in my choice to upgrade.

Of course it was also free, which helped a great deal.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 7 2016, 02:45 PM

When something is free; buyer beware


I wouldnÂīt touch Win 10 with any kind of pole, even if someone else was holding the pole in question. Too much spyware sending info back to Microsoft about which pages I visit, for how long and how frequent. DonÂīt like that stuff. Also, if you have a webcam I think it can be remotely turned on as well, but donÂīt quote me on that.

Even a guy who has worked with Microsoft and praises Win 10 for its features has big issues with the spyware implemented and how hard it is to turn it off. If you want his opinion, go check out Barnacules on youtube.


CanÂīt tell you what to do here, Acadian. If you want it then go get it. IÂīll stay away for as long as possible though, and then itÂīs off to Linux

Posted by: Decrepit Jul 7 2016, 03:48 PM

I too am holding off, on my current primary computer, as long as possible. All I've read about Win10 shows it to be more intrusive than I prefer. Funny thing is, I wouldn't mind experimenting with it on my secondary computer, which I no longer use for gaming, or much else. (I let my brother putz around the internet on it when he visits. Otherwise it is rarely switched on.) But...that machine runs Vista, which doesn't qualify for the free update. Go figure. Also, if and when I assemble my next computer I might bite the bullet and install Win10 on it, since I can fine tune the OS to my heart's content before installing games and other 'useful' software. The only unquestionable positive benefit I see with Win10 is its ability to run games in DX12 mode if they are so programmed. (ARK is, or will be, coded for DX12 with a supposed 20% performance improvement.)

By all means, if you want to update, and know you run no 'mission critical' software or hardware that is incompatible, go for it. Lots of folks seem to like it, or at least be able to tolerate it.

Posted by: ghastley Jul 7 2016, 04:40 PM

One consideration: I believe the update to 10 can be backed out if you don't like it.

Posted by: Decrepit Jul 15 2016, 12:06 AM

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2016/07/14/microsoft-confirms-windows-10-new-monthly-charge/#7656c284dfab

Posted by: mirocu Jul 15 2016, 03:43 PM

It never fails. Whenever something is free there is always an agenda behind it. I can bet my head they will charge the average consumer monthly at some stage.



*starts flirting with Linux*

Posted by: mALX Jul 15 2016, 03:53 PM

I'm telling Bestie!

Posted by: King Coin Jul 16 2016, 04:21 PM

I'm using Windows 10 and to me it feels just like using Windows 7.

Posted by: Acadian Jul 16 2016, 05:27 PM

Nice to see you, KC! That's encouraging since I'm happily using 7 at the moment.

Thanks all for the thoughts.

Puter's going in to the shop where it was built for routine maintenance in a week or so. I'll talk to them and maybe upgrade then while it is still free. I'm also going to talk to them about more memory just in case I want to install ESO and still have plenty of room.

Posted by: mALX Jul 16 2016, 09:03 PM

WOO HOO !!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT !!!!!!

Posted by: Decrepit Jul 16 2016, 09:13 PM

You likely know this, but just in case... Sounds like you are thinking to play ESO at some point and want to make sure your computer has enough storage space to house the installed game? If so, yous should be checking for available free space on your hard drive(s), SSD(s) and/or so on. Computer memory (ram) is a different animal entirely. When a program is launched it loads from wherever its stored (HD/SSD/etc.) into ram. It runs in ram, occasionally accessing the storage device to load new data and/or make hard saves.

This is not to say that you won't benefit from more ram. You might or might not, depending on how much you have already and the programs you want to run. But...it sounds like what you are concerned about is adequate storage.

Posted by: mALX Jul 16 2016, 09:39 PM

ESO probably takes some whopping memory too, though. Here is the pre-release Zenimax page on it:


http://elderscrollsonline.info/system-requirements





Here is the requirements I found on the "can you run it?" site:


Minimum requirements:

CPU: Dual Core 2.0 GHz or equivalent processor
CPU Speed: Info
RAM: 2 GB
OS: Windows XP 32-bit
Video Card: DirectX 9.0 compliant video card with 512MB of RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 8800 / ATI Radeon 2600 or better)
Sound Card: Yes
Free Disk Space: 60 GB



Recommended Requirements:


CPU: Quad Core 2.3GHz or equivalent processor
CPU Speed: Info
RAM: 4 GB
OS: Windows 7 64-bit or Windows 8 64-bit
Video Card: DirectX 11 compliant video card with 2GB of RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 560 Ti / ATI Radeon HD 6950 or better)
Sound Card: Yes
Free Disk Space: 60 GB

Posted by: Acadian Jul 16 2016, 09:41 PM

Thanks, Decrepit. You are right, of course, and wise to offer the advice given my limited tech smarts. Happily, I was indeed talking about adding more storage memory to the hard drives rather than ram. I looked at how much available room I had on my main drive and the free space is barely enough to install ESO. I'd like to have quite a bit more than the minimum required so I don't have to worry about adding stuff. Thanks!

Edit: Thanks also, mALX. You were adding your helpful info as I was posting.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 17 2016, 02:51 PM

Acadian is preparing Puter to play ESO??


What has the world come to!??

Posted by: Acadian Jul 17 2016, 03:24 PM

Hey, if you can play Fallout, why can't I play ESO? Still in the thinkin' about it process though.

Posted by: mirocu Jul 17 2016, 03:27 PM

I still want you back to Oblivion


But of course IÂīm jesting, I hope youÂīll have fun with it I guess youÂīre planning to port Buffy and Superian over if plans get real?

Posted by: mALX Jul 17 2016, 04:06 PM

*mALX faints dead away on hearing Mirocu played Fallout*




"NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!! What's this world coming to?"

Posted by: Renee Jul 19 2016, 05:49 PM

Well I was going to ask "should I upgrade to Windows 10?" but I see there's already discussion about it. I'm still not sure if I should or not. The IT guy we have at my job (he fixes all our computers if we need him) is vehemently against 10. I'm still torn. I particularly get worried when they say "you MUST upgrade or else...."

Anyways, my other question: is there a way to "optimize" Internet Explorer? My main home computer used to work flawlessly at entering various websites, even slow-loading sites like Photobucket used to get loaded up within 15-20 seconds or so. It's always been fast, until a week ago. All the sudden, most websites are now really slow-loading (except old technology sites like here at Chorrol). This includes Bethesda's forums, which have always loaded up quickly. Now Beths' forums take ages to load with Internet Explorer, if they load up at all.

I've gotten around this by finally installing Firefox at home. Firefox works flawlessly. But I actually prefer IE over the Fox since IE is simpler to use; I don't need the Fox's additional options. My comp seems to want me to upgrade IE, but if I try to upgrade Internet Exploder it'll ask me to also upgrade to Windows 10. So if anybody knows a way to make IE work faster again, I'd appreciate that.

And I should add that I already into IE"s Tools menu and did a few things. I can't remember what they were though, 'cause I'm on my work computer now. Dang. I shoulda asked this question at home so I can say more exactly what I tried.

Posted by: Decrepit Jul 19 2016, 06:28 PM

This sounds suspiciously like a campaign slogan. You aren't thinking to run for public office are you?


I've no advice to offer on IE. I've never liked it. Haven't used it in a great many years, except to access the official Minecraft forums for a brief period when, for whatever reason, Firefox all of a sudden wouldn't let me edit my Autocracy of Decrepia screenshot thread. Normally when things begin to slow down I suspect installation of resource hogging background programs, but that should affect more than just IE I would think. What does Task Manager tell you about CPU and memory usage?

Posted by: Renee Jul 19 2016, 09:48 PM

There we go, now we're on to something.

Task Manager on. Only thing I noticed is if I try to open Beth's forums, and the page actually loads, I am noticing Disk 0 (C,D) maxes out at 100%, or close to it. But then usage will fall dramatically to near-nothing. Meanwhile, the Beth page is loaded up, but I won't be able to interact with it at all. There will just be a spinning circle on the tab next to Bethesda Forums. But I won't be able to click on my mail, won't be able to click on any links, won't even be able to go backwards a page.

If the page doesn't load, now Disk 0 (C,D) will be showing no activity. 0%, or close to 0%. So yeah, I'm thinking it's something in the C hard drive specifically. Maybe Norton is messing things up.

Posted by: Renee Jul 20 2016, 11:46 PM

I fixed it.

All I had to do was right-click on my C hard-drive and then cast a spell called "Disk Cleanup". Clicked on a bunch of options: Temporary Internet Files, Debug Dump Files, Offline Webpages... I don't know what the hell I just did, but it worked. I'll have to save Disk Cleanup into my spell book.

Posted by: Decrepit Jul 21 2016, 12:06 AM

Glad it turned out to be nothing more than an overstuffed drive. That's normally about the simplest computer problem to fix there is.

Posted by: mALX Jul 21 2016, 12:20 AM

Doing that should be regular maintenance at least monthly. I do mine weekly:


* Clear out any internet cookies; history; etc.

* Delete any .tmp files.

* Clean all of the above you just said

* Defrag


* And search for bad sectors; repair them I do on my standard hard drive about once per month; I don't do it on my SSD drive.

Posted by: Renee Jul 21 2016, 02:54 AM

Excellent advice, mALX, I should do this monthly too. I feel so stupid too, because we (well, not me, but this guy at work) regularly defrag and do dick cleanups on our work computers; it never even occurred to me to do this at home. Everything has worked so flawless up til a week ago, I guess.

And thanks to Decrepit, for nudging me in the right direction. If I hadn't seen the weird activity going on with the Task Manager I'd probably be at Best Buy by now, standing in line saying "help me, help me!"

Posted by: mALX Jul 21 2016, 03:25 AM

BOLD: Wow, what kind of place do you work at? BWAAAHAAA !!!!!!!

Posted by: ImperialSnob Sep 25 2016, 03:37 PM

I highly recommended everyone moves to Linux instead of Windows or Mac. Currently using Fedora 24 with XFCE4 on a Virtual Machine and it's brilliant.

Also does anyone know how to root an android and change the OS?

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Sep 25 2016, 07:33 PM

Can't say for certain, but you'll probably be able to find out http://forum.xda-developers.com/

Posted by: ImperialSnob Sep 25 2016, 08:09 PM

ty!

Posted by: mirocu Sep 30 2016, 04:50 PM

Hit a bump in the road when trying to play Colin McRae Rally 2005 on my new XP. Installed and verified just fine but before the game launches I get an error saying "GraphicsSS_SetupRender Adapter has no modes!"


A quick search suggested that maybe the graphics card needs to be replaced, or thereÂīs an issue with the Hz. Can anyone here chime in and provide any more information? Yeah, IÂīm looking at you, SubRosa and ghastley

Posted by: ghastley Sep 30 2016, 06:09 PM

In general, if it's a graphics issue, run dxdiag and see what that says. That will tell you if it's the card or the game that's at fault. It should require DirectX 9, but I don't remember what XP has by default.

Posted by: SubRosa Oct 1 2016, 12:25 AM

My guess would be either a driver or Direct X issue. See what version of Direct X you have, and compare it to what the game says it needs. And look for a more recent version of the video card drivers.

Posted by: mirocu Oct 1 2016, 02:21 PM

I just left Puter at my computer guyÂīs home. HeÂīll replace the current card with Geforce 6200 or if it was 6800, I already forgot but I think itÂīs the latter.

Not the most powerful card out there even ten years ago but I do suspect the game will work with that. ItÂīs supported by the game and what I saw on the webz the most likely problem is related to the card. IÂīll see where this takes me and go from there.


Thanks for the tips, btw. IÂīll check the DirectX specs later if it still wonÂīt work.

Posted by: mALX Oct 1 2016, 11:14 PM

The 6800 should play Oblivion at medium grapics, it is what my old PC had. Might not handle the Fallout 3 or New Vegas games though.


EDIT: Excuse me, my old PC had 8600; not 6800. So ... best be sure they know what kind of games you play!

Posted by: mirocu Oct 2 2016, 02:20 PM

For now IÂīm just trying to get Colin McRae Rally to work. I might also get a few other stuff on it later but IÂīm not planning to play Oblivion or Fallout on this machine.

Posted by: mALX Oct 2 2016, 04:13 PM

It should play Chips!

Posted by: mALX Nov 30 2016, 09:28 AM

All day today I haven't been able to open up any threads on Chorrol. I kept getting an error message saying some file was missing and to contact the administrators.

Well, it is still doing it ON GOOGLE CHROME. But at Acadian's suggestion I tried using Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Firefox would not open, it said there was some odd error and to repair something.

Internet Explorer is opening the pages just fine! So it is probably not this site having issues, but either Google Chrome or my PC.

Can someone tell me which, what is causing this?

Posted by: mirocu Nov 30 2016, 09:31 AM

So.


*hrrm*


Maybe some people will get off my back about using IE now?



I thought not

Posted by: mALX Nov 30 2016, 09:32 AM

Posted by: Decrepit Nov 30 2016, 11:48 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgKJMsJ-6XU&t=558s.

No problems with Chorrol and Firefox for me today. What's your OS? (Windows 7 for me.)

Posted by: Acadian Nov 30 2016, 02:26 PM

I am running W10 for an OS.

My primary browser is Firefox and it is working fine for me.

For troubleshooting purposes, I just brought chorrol up with both MS Edge and Google Chrome and both also work fine for me.

Although woefully ignorant on browers, it does seem that is where your problem lies mALX.

I have alerted the Admins here as to your situation but am hopeful that some of our members might also be able to assist you in troubleshooting your Firefox and Chrome. I'm so glad that IE is working for you!

Posted by: ghastley Nov 30 2016, 03:32 PM

Copy/paste the exact error message here. "some file is missing" isn't quite as precise as we'd need.

Posted by: Cain Nov 30 2016, 04:33 PM

Did you unplug it and plug it back in?

Posted by: Acadian Nov 30 2016, 04:37 PM

As silly as it sounds, several months ago I was having a terrible time with my phone answering machine doing unreliable stupid things. I just happened to have the service provider out at the house for something else and mentioned it. The tech suggested exactly that - unplug it and plug it back in. By Kynareth's wings if that didn't instantly fix the problem!

Posted by: ghastley Nov 30 2016, 04:49 PM

Forcing the system to reload everything fresh often eliminates a temporary corruption of active data. How deep a restart is needed varies. Sometimes restarting an application, sometimes rebooting the machine, and the unplug, plug back in is the final level before you're considering deleting and re-installing things.

Windows, and the browsers, have a nasty habit of "upgrading" themselves without asking. Not all those changes work. At least Windows has a mechanism for rolling back a level, to where it worked before.

Posted by: mALX Nov 30 2016, 04:52 PM

Windows 7 Professional.

Posted by: ghastley Nov 30 2016, 05:02 PM

My Win 7 Pro is currently having issues if I let Windows try and process the content of a zip file. That's not normally a problem, as I use 7zip file manager to look inside any compressed archive. However, when a file is downloaded, it tries to security scan it, and that can hang the system if it's in .zip or .rar format. The .7z files aren't an issue as it gives up trying to open them and look inside. Right now I have to download some things on my laptop (Win 10) and carry them over on a thumb drive.

That fault suddenly appeared and I didn't track what Windows update introduced it. They don't update Win 7 as often as the current releases, which may be a good thing!

Since IE is working, I doubt your problem is Windows, but the browsers update frequently as well. I just got Firefox updating itself to 50.

Posted by: mirocu Nov 30 2016, 05:04 PM

Not on my puter. Disabled that nasty habit immediately

Posted by: mALX Nov 30 2016, 05:12 PM

Okay, I took a screen capture of it; I'll upload it once I get back into my Imgur account (which mysteriously logged itself out at the same time this issue started).



Ditto.





I actually have been leaving it on for a few weeks, so I will try this and see if it works.

On the "rolling back" - are you talking about a system restore on my computer (?) or a way to roll back the browser to the previous version?

Posted by: mirocu Nov 30 2016, 05:14 PM

IÂīve rolled back to an earlier save point a couple of times with System Restore. One really good feature of Windows.

Posted by: mALX Nov 30 2016, 05:17 PM

I use 7Zip too, and did just yesterday (or actually the day before yesterday now) open a zip folder in my Oblivion folder; so may have triggered this issue then.

Another thing that may have caused it is my son's gf brought over her Xbox One and my son changed the password on the WiFi. Ever since he did that, I can't get the WiFi to work on my laptop at all. It isn't even showing XFinity anymore as a secondary option.

Posted by: mALX Nov 30 2016, 08:09 PM

I went to the Chrome site and followed all THEIR instructions on how to fix forum pages not opening properly:

Clean Cache, close other applications, restart, run the Malicious Software Removal Tool, etc. It is still doing it.

I hate Internet Explorer, and don't feel safe using it. (Malware).



But at least I can still get on here with it.

Posted by: mirocu Nov 30 2016, 09:59 PM

Gahhh!!

Apparently I hadnÂīt disabled the automatic IE update thing and now it has messed up youtube for me. Can I revert back to the previous version somehow without using System Restore?

Posted by: mALX Nov 30 2016, 11:56 PM

Okay, here is the screen capture of the way the forum pages are displaying and the error message I am getting.

And if it means anything at all, this site is the only one not coming up correctly on Google Chrome.

From the forum main page I click on a thread I want to see/comment = which should bring me to any posts added since my last visit to that thread.

Instead it keeps bringing me to the FIRST post of the thread and then just making a list of all following posts. (see First screen)

They look like links; but if you click on them all you get is an error message (see second screen)


http://imgur.com/a/CpRcf




So I am completely unable to use the forums via Chrome now. I can use my PM box, but not the forums. I have to use Internet Explorer to access the forums here.

This is not happening on any other site but Chorrol.

Posted by: ghastley Dec 1 2016, 12:20 AM

That's a familiar format, and I don't remember when the board software uses it. I seem to remember seeing it when I follow a search result that links here, and I don't have a cookie from signing on (because it's from a different browser than I usually use, for example).

I'd suggest clearing cookies, signing on fresh, and seeing if that reverts you to normal. Since cookies are specific to a site, they can affect just that one, if they're corrupted.

Posted by: mALX Dec 1 2016, 01:08 AM

Cache cleaning = yes, I already cleaned all internet cookies, temp files, browser history, etc.; restarted several times (and unplugged for 5 minutes, then re-plugged up) = it is still doing it. But like you said, the only site with the problem is this one. TESAlliance; Nexus; even Haven = no issues.




Wait, I haven't tried signing on fresh yet, I'll try that.






(Not to mention that I ran the Malicious Software Removal Tool twice)




Okay, I just signed out, restarted my PC, signed back in = still coming up the same, with the first post and that list of consecutive posts that lead to an error message.

And by the way: That error message does say to contact the Administration as if it were a link, but pushing it is useless - it is not a working link.

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Dec 1 2016, 02:03 AM

Done a bit of poking around the forum, think I've found the problem.

You appear to have your display mode for the forum set to "outline". You want to hit options, just below the new topic button at the top of a thread, and set your display mode to "standard". That should straighten things out.

Posted by: mALX Dec 1 2016, 04:17 AM

PROBLEM FIXED !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My friend Arion found the problem!!!! It was on this site, under "Options" for the forum - somehow it had been switched over to "Outline" version !!!! It is all fixed now, thank you all for your help!!!

WOO HOO !!!!!!

Posted by: Acadian Dec 1 2016, 04:31 AM

That's wonderful news, mALX! Looks like your friend and our own CT were thinking along the same lines. Thank the Nine for puter-smart folks!

Posted by: mALX Dec 1 2016, 08:03 AM

You were right, Thorney!!!! That was exactly the problem! I didn't see this message, but another friend I was playing ESO with told me the same exact thing and walked me through fixing it - your instructions here are as clear as his walk through was! Awesome, thank you so much for finding the right answer !!!

Posted by: mALX Dec 1 2016, 06:59 PM

I'm still trying to figure out how it got toggled to "Outline" in the first place!

Posted by: ghastley Dec 1 2016, 08:51 PM

I think that might be the board default, as I've seen it when following links here from a browser I don't normally use, and which wouldn't have a cookie for the site. Which would be why discarding cookies left it that way. However, I expected logging on fresh would re-establish your personal choice, and it doesn't.

So the "why it happened" is just that the cookie expired.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 2 2016, 09:52 PM

Can anyone help me getting back the fullscreen feature on youtube? For some reason it has been deactivated and I canÂīt find any setting for it anywhere.


IE version 10
Win 7 64

Posted by: Cain Dec 2 2016, 09:55 PM

Posted by: mirocu Dec 2 2016, 09:59 PM

Then how do I roll back to version 9? It worked before anyway, just a couple of days ago.

Posted by: Dark Reaper Dec 2 2016, 10:22 PM

Ugh Internet Explorer, I could never get that to work properly on my PC. I use Google Chrome (with Adblock) for all my internet needs. Anyway I hope you get yours working again.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 2 2016, 10:25 PM

Hate IE all you want, guys. But fullscreen worked for me on youtube just a few days ago. Now the youtube player is different and fullscreen is inactivated.



And there are still those who wonder why I hate when something changes! ItÂīs because it always make something stop working!!

Posted by: Dark Reaper Dec 2 2016, 11:01 PM

I fired up my IE and took a look at YouTube and tried both video Theater mode as well as full screen mode and so far it worked for me...Maybe try deleting your cookies in your history and see if that helps.

Posted by: mirocu Dec 2 2016, 11:05 PM

Oddly enough, fullscreen still works on my parentsÂī puter and they have almost the same stuff as me. I now have the same youtube player as them except for fullscreen. Some update must have taken place and screwed that up.


Cookies are deleted every time I exit the browser.

Posted by: Dark Reaper Dec 2 2016, 11:09 PM

That can usually happen. I wish I can help further but I'm not that familiar with IE.

Posted by: mALX Dec 5 2016, 07:21 AM

Yes, thank the Nine for them !!!!

Posted by: Callidus Thorn Jan 22 2017, 12:02 AM

So, been having a slight issue from time to time with my wifi lately. Nothing major, just the occasional difficulty connecting, I figure something's just being awkward. Until I noticed that there was an extra device connected to my wifi. So I changed my password, but whatever it was was still connecting. Went poking around and found no info on it apart from a MAC address, which I've blocked.

Can't help wondering if the two were connected. If not, there must be something up with my wifi.

Update: Found a site where I could look up MAC addresses, and it seems it was someone's Sky box that was connecting. Though that doesn't answer the question of how it reconnected only a few minutes after I changed my password...

Posted by: Dark Reaper Jan 22 2017, 10:14 PM

I had to do a factory restore on my computer. This is the second time under Windows 10 I had to do this, so now I get to enjoy Windows 7 again, which doesn't bother me I hardly had any issues with it.

Posted by: mirocu Jan 22 2017, 10:19 PM

Yay for Win7!


Glad to have you back on the team, Reaper! Too bad you had to do a factory restart though. Again

Posted by: Dark Reaper Jan 22 2017, 10:42 PM

Thanks---I don't know what happen with Win 10 but all my programs and files became corrupted and unusable.

Posted by: TheCheshireKhajiit Jan 22 2017, 10:50 PM

This one is very pleased with Win7.

Posted by: Decrepit Jan 22 2017, 11:18 PM

This one remains perfectly happy with Win 7. I dread the day when I feel myself forced to make the jump. In my favor, I have a SSD devoted solely to my Operating System. As far as is humanly possible I try to keep all else off that drive. (My primary machine contains three SSDs (one a low capacity first gen relic) and two hard drives.) Should my OS go bonkers, only info on its SSD will be trashed. That's my hope at least. Course stuff like my Oblivion saves might be lost, but those tend to be backed up DVD. At worst I'm apt to lose a few months of play. Which reminds me I now have enough Oblivion save files to fill another DVD. Gonna have to get on that.

Posted by: Cain Jan 23 2017, 02:20 PM

I have to say, Win10 (professional) has been solid for me. Been running it since early November with zero issues. Pleasantly surprised.

Posted by: Acadian Jan 23 2017, 03:08 PM

Yes, my current puter was built last summer - with Win10. No problems.

Posted by: ghastley Jan 23 2017, 03:18 PM

Win 10 is definitely better than Win 8, but I still prefer Win 7 over either. The Pro versions are likewise preferred to the "home" or whatever they're calling the lesser ones.

My laptop, ordered with Win 7 Pro, arrived win with Win 8 home, and was almost useless that way. Win 10 at least lets it play Morrowind, but I still hate the general interface, and having to spend so much time turning off the "helpful" features that aren't.

Posted by: mirocu Feb 25 2017, 11:11 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgKJMsJ-6XU

Posted by: mALX Feb 26 2017, 12:25 AM

Geez, if Microsoft would send me free games, I'd be happy about it,


(just kidding)

Posted by: Decrepit May 14 2017, 08:48 PM

I'm sure all here know of this, but just in case....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibLaCEL8E4E

Is apparently making the rounds big-time.

My primary PC should be safe, assuming folk are correct that having all Windows Updates installed patches the vulnerability. Gonna power down soon as I'm done posting this (it can spread to all machines on a network) and check my Win10 secondary computer.

Better safe than sorry I reckon.

Posted by: mirocu May 14 2017, 09:11 PM

Welp.


I guess my outmost important files are backed up; game saves. I also have photos on two computers but I still need to get an external harddrive!

Posted by: mALX May 14 2017, 11:46 PM

As cheap as external hard drives are, there is really no excuse not to have one. I have two "Passports," the smallest is 400 gig - bought that one almost a decade ago. Since then the price of them has dropped by more than half and the size of hard drive memory they hold has increased exponentially. Get one, you will never be sorry.

Posted by: mALX May 15 2017, 12:32 AM

Now, how do you configure your firewall to block any incoming access/code?

Posted by: Cain May 15 2017, 05:54 PM

Looks like I'll be updating like crazy when I get home!

Posted by: mirocu May 15 2017, 07:08 PM

Best thing I could do now was copy the most important stuff to my two flashdrives, mostly pictures. In order to do that though I had to delete many backup saves from Oblivion, Morrowind and Fallout 3. But I kept the very first saves as well as the most recent ones. The ones in the middle really don't matter much to me, it's the very first ones and most recent I really care about.

I also copied some texts, mods etc because I had space left over but other than that I don't have much that needs being backed up.