What Have You Done Today - (Computer Version)

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Today, I bought a DisplayPort to HDMI cable, and I also bought an external disc drive.

Getting the DisplayPort to HDMI drive finally lets me put my main display on my HDTV. At first, I thought my DisplayPort didn't connect to my PC. It was all to find out one of my HDMI slots no longer works. So I was glad to know my DP port works. This is the first time I worked with a DisplayPort. There is a slight delay using the DisplayPort. I didn't have this sort of problem when I connected HDMI with HDMI. It also takes a little longer to play back sound from my HDTV with the DisplayPort than when I used HDMI with HDMI. Otherwise, this thing works just fine.

The external disc drive I got is a DVD Writer. I now can have my new PC read discs and do whatever I please with them. This also means I could install old programs from old discs on this newer PC. If I want to, I could also put on stuff on DVDs and write them.
 
I finally got round to installing a new 4tb M.2 SSD I purchased about a month ago. I'll be using it for game installs. The OS is on the existing 2tb M.2 but thats pretty much full now. Only 100gb storage left.

I should uninstall some games, but, a new SSD appealed anyway and the prices have ben really good.

I think it'll be a new NAS and a new laptop soon.
 
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Yesterday, I attempted to boost my computer's VRAM through a combination of BIOS changes and a registry edit. This is all to try to play "rFactor 2." I bought it (again) and will keep it this time instead of doing another buy-refund sequence. Turns out, since I'm using Intel integrated graphics, I technically have NO real VRAM (or VRAM that can't be detected). I later learned my mini office PC actually does not have the 512 MB VRAM needed to play rF2. I have 128 MB VRAM. So I may need to invest in an eGPU dock and an eGPU that has the at least 512 MB VRAM needed to play rF2 for my mini office PC.

There are some people I heard of who played rF2 and are using integrated graphics. One person even said one has been able to play rF2 better with integrated graphics than with any true GPU or EGPU. It is sad that I could play a game like Assetto Corsa very well but not rFactor 2. Then too, rFactor 2 has been a hot mess of fail. I heard GTA4 had kind of the same issue involving not having enough VRAM. However, since I haven't enjoyed any GTA after "GTA: Vice City Stories," I can't confirm any issues involving the PC version of GTA4

I'm low on money, so I can't do much else right now.
 
I fear my folder on my External 4TB drive with all or most of my games on it... may been corrupted and unreadable. :( There were gigs and gigs of material that now can't be accessed from Explorer. I'll have to rebuild all of my stuff or just start anew. What seems encouraging is that only the root folder has been affected. I could access some of the folders that aren't part of the root directory of my game folder. I'm not sure how it happened. I was mostly looking for more ways to play rFactor 1 again. Then when I tried to put in my 4TB drive into my newer PC, it said that game folder was corrupted and unreadable. That would be gigs of memory I have to replace. I don't think this has ever happened to me in all of my years owning PCs. Terrible shame. :(

[UPDATE] I was able to rescue all or most of the files from the corrupted folder by going into Safe Mode and put the files in a new folder. I then deleted the old folder. Threat averted. Total sadness averted.
 
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I installed Unreal Engine 4 on my PC. I had Unreal Engine 5 on my PC, but it ran so slow. So any would-be development through UE will be done with UE4. I previously had little luck using UE4 on my previous PC. I've used UE4 tonight to use the vehicle templates. Regardless, I may still use Unity3D instead because it's easier and less intensive.
 
Well today was the day of a much needed factory reset of my 10 year old MacBook Pro.

Total wipe including the persistent memory holding all the passwords etc. then an update to the last supported OS Catalina.

Hopefully this will give us another few years of use. Hoping to get at least 15 years out of it before upgrading.
 
I happened to see that Game Maker is free now so I thought I'd sign up to have a play around with it, last time I tried to use an actual game creation thing may have been Clik 'n' Play way back in the '90s... No, wait, it was Dreams, didn't get far with either though. I also made a Pong Clone in Python for work but that's about as far as my experience in making games goes. I've got some ideas for things I'd like to make so this seems like a good entry point to at least toy with the ideas, if not actually develop a game for other people.

Only problem is I don't have a Mac or a PC with me, just a Chromebook and Steam Deck, which is going to be a significant obstacle!
 
So I got a new laptop recently and naturally, I've been up to a lot of things since then. So what have I done exactly? Well here's the gist of it:
1. Turned it on and made sure it worked obviously. Once I realized it did, I proceeded to wipe the drive and install a variant of Windows 10 since I had heard bad things about Windows 11 (which it came with) and how it wasn't great for gaming. (which is what I bought my computer for) Really glad I did because Windows 11 didn't exactly make a good first impression on me.
2. Installed a bunch of my essential programs to it first thing and copied everything of value to me such as music, pictures .etc from my portable HDD to their respective locations.
3. Tested a few games and noticed they were running at unacceptably terrible for me. I later was told my GPU drivers weren't installed mostly likely due to me switching to Windows 10, so with the help of some friends I reinstalled them, and then everything worked a million times better.
4. I knew my new computer was a significant upgrade from my last one, so naturally, I tested a myriad of games with it including some my last computer could never run. Although I kept them on an external drive, I had to reinstall Call of Black Ops 1 and 2 and NASCAR Racing 2003 Season since neither wanted to work right and apparently expected some files to be present on my computer in order to work. Once I reinstalled them though, they worked just fine.
5. Made some changes to the graphics settings by setting it to "High Performance" for some games so I could get the most performance on some since some games wanted to use the iGPU for some reason.

And I am sure I could name more, but I've been toying around with it quite a bit since I got it. Feels good to finally be able to run games I've never been able to run before and achieve great framerates on everything else as well. This new PC has certainly exceeded my expectations and I can't say I miss my old one too much.

Some things I need to do though is:
1. Figure out how to keep my external HDD from powering down after short periods of time because it's proving to be rather problematic for me when playing games since I keep all of mine on it.
2. Figure out how to record sound even when my volume is muted. My last PC let me do that and it was great, but this one however won't record any sound at all when muted and the volume of the recording depends entirely on what volume I have set on, which I hate.
3. Reinstall a bunch of really old games to my external HDD since many of them were on my last one and I never moved them to the external drive.
 
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Sonygamer455
I had heard bad things about Windows 11 (which it came with) and how it wasn't great for gaming.
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My son has only had one game not work on 11 on his new rig we built. Thankfully someone on a forum had a patch that fixed it for him. Everything else runs great.
 
I'm glad it's working for him. I've always been apprehensive about updating to newer OS's since I don't always know what to expect when it comes to game compatibility, especially with older games. The things my friend told me about it really made me not want to do it.
 

I'm still going to stick to Windows 10 for now, I'd personally rather lose a little gaming performance than deal with 11's UI quirks (mainly the "modern" settings app - I don't like things being buried under a million different menus).
 
  • Installed a new internal hard drive
  • Moved all of my movies and TV shows from my external to the internal drive
  • Completely uninstalled and reinstall PLEX because once I disconnected the external, PLEX wouldn't start
  • I ran into a database error that I had to figure out
  • Fix a fair number of movie and TV show matches that were incorrect
    • For the third time

It's been a day...
 
So I decided to try plugging my PC into my TV today via an HDMI cable and test a few games on it with a DS4 plugged in and this was my result:
1. Nerf Arena Blast, Call of Duty World at War, and Call of Duty Black Ops III - Worked perfectly fine.
2. Wreckfest - Works but was super slow loading into the menus for some reason when it's never this bad when I am just playing on my usual computer screen.
3. Call of Duty Black Ops 1 - It displays on my TV, but no sound plays on my TV itself, just on my laptop's speakers and it didn't recognize any of my controller inputs either. Not sure what's going on here.
4. Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) - Everything worked fine until I needed to quit the game. Every time I tried, the game would close, but would still be on the taskbar and my cursor would only show on the taskbar. It disappears if I move it outside of there and I have to log out just to stop all this, but this never happens when running the game on my laptop's monitor, only on my TV. :odd:

Meant to test Need for Speed Most Wanted, but I forgot and I really don't feel like moving my stuff back over there to test it. :P

Pretty disappointed by Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) not closing properly because that game is pretty significant to me, but hopefully theirs a solution somewhere I can try. On the bright side, at least I know the games in #1 work fine and I don't have much to worry about with them. I must say, playing PC games on my TV feels so weird in a way I just can't describe, but I hope to maybe give it a proper go someday. Need to figure out how to configure my Chronus Zen to work with my DS4 so I don't need a cable.
 
Reinstalling Amazon Music on my phone to see if that fixes some major annoyances that popped up recently like:
  • First song to play after opening the app taking several minutes to get to the actual music player to begin buffering
  • changing songs without the next/previous track buttons being treated as mere suggestions
  • closed out the app before the reinstall and deciding of it's own volition to begin playing what I was listening to beforehand.
  • first time exiting out of the player to change songs manually resetting the filter I had in place (by date added)
  • forgetting where on my song list I was and defaulting to the top every time aftet
That's before we get into the mind-meltingly idiotic design choice to bury the shuffle button behind a menu that's only accessible in the app in portrait mode. Making a real case to go back to downloading it for offline usage
 
Sonygamer455
4. Star Wars Battlefront II (2005) - Everything worked fine until I needed to quit the game. Every time I tried, the game would close, but would still be on the taskbar and my cursor would only show on the taskbar. It disappears if I move it outside of there and I have to log out just to stop all this, but this never happens when running the game on my laptop's monitor, only on my TV. :odd:
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So I mentioned earlier, well I found a solution to the problem and it was a very simple one. All I really needed to do was just put it in compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3) and that was all it took! :) Not exactly sure what the problem was before or how it fixes it, but it works flawlessly now and I am so glad it does.
Sonygamer455
Meant to test Need for Speed Most Wanted, but I forgot and I really don't feel like moving my stuff back over there to test it. :P
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I remembered to test this while I was at it and no issue with that either. Didn't mess with it too long though since I haven't set up any controls for it on DS4 yet, but that'll come someday. Going to test some more games later on and try to figure out what's going on with Call of Duty Black Ops 1.
 
Updated some scripts that are used by cron to make backing up more efficient, this is to prevent crap like this from happening again.
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Glad to see I'm not the only one shocked by the size of aftermarket Air Coolers. I upgraded my system this week (I say upgrade, Its pretty much a full rebuild minus the Ram and Case) and I opted for a Be Quiet! cooler at the recommendation of my local PC Store.

It's huge. Good job we checked the clearance as its about an inch away from the tempered glass in the opposite side😂 I wanted the Dark Rock 4 Pro but it was OOS. So settled for the Shadow Rock 3 as I needed my PC back.

When I pick up another 32gb set of my RAM I really hope I can get to the first DIMM slot without taking it off. Looks like there's just enough space. I think if it is tight taking the Cooler fan off will be enough.

(I'll post a better photo tomorrow) :lol:
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On another note, I took the opportunity as it was going to need a new Windows Key to upgrade to Windows 11. It's fine so far. I haven't come across any problems personally. I find it easy enough to navigate and find what I'm looking for. The biggest thing to get used to was the central taskbar but that can be moved back to the bottom left so it ends up being a fresh looking Windows 10 to me.
 
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Chrome, for whatever reason, when choosing to remember that I specified imgur.com in my "always load desktop mode" list (of which it's the only one) instead of imgur.io:
Tired Chum Bucket GIF


Hopefully this latest re-entry decides to stick for a while.
 
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So I recently learned about a program called Ultimate Vocal Remover and when I did, I naturally decided to give it a try since removing vocals to make acapella and instrumental versions of songs was a huge fascination for me back in my teen years. Needless to say, I was thrilled by how well it worked, so I've been fiddling with it a bit.

This prompted me to make more lossless rips of my music CDs for ones I hadn't already done so I'd have better quality sources to do this with. However, it ended up being about more than just that when I found out one of my very first ones was no longer in decent enough condition to be fully ripped anymore, even though it worked fine the last time I used it and hadn't been used since. So now I am backing up all of mine to my external drive for safekeeping so they don't end up being like my very first one. While they're going to take up a lot of space, my drive is more than big enough to do it, and at least they'll be there if I ever need them in the future.
 
Sonygamer455
So I recently learned about a program called Ultimate Vocal Remover and when I did, I naturally decided to give it a try since removing vocals to make acapella and instrumental versions of songs was a huge fascination for me back in my teen years. Needless to say, I was thrilled by how well it worked, so I've been fiddling with it a bit.

This prompted me to make more lossless rips of my music CDs for ones I hadn't already done so I'd have better quality sources to do this with. However, it ended up being about more than just that when I found out one of my very first ones was no longer in decent enough condition to be fully ripped anymore, even though it worked fine the last time I used it and hadn't been used since. So now I am backing up all of mine to my external drive for safekeeping so they don't end up being like my very first one. While they're going to take up a lot of space, my drive is more than big enough to do it, and at least they'll be there if I ever need them in the future.
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Is it a free program? There were several projects I had in mind that I just gave up on after never being able to find a program that worked the way I wanted or never being able to afford a far better quality one.
 
RACECAR
Is it a free program? There were several projects I had in mind that I just gave up on after never being able to find a program that worked the way I wanted or never being able to afford a far better quality one.
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Sure is! While some will turn out better than others, I found it’s very effective in most of the songs I’ve used it on. I should note depending on your settings, it can use a lot of resources, but it’s worth it.
 
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Bought another 32gb of my RAM. Came today but I'll wait for tomorrow before installing as I picked up a second M.2 NVMe SSD and just as well put them in together.

I also sold my old MSI RTX 2060 FOR £130 as it was just gathering dust since I upgraded.
 
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Put new case fans in my system.
The stock ones that came with the case started squeaking and limited airflow only about 18 months from purchase of it.
Seemed quite quick for fans to go out. So I just replaced it all and got a argb hub and pwm setup.
 
I've been thinking of upgrading my fans too. The ones I'm using are fine at the moment, Temps and Airflow seem fine and the system makes very little noise. I do think it would be worth it just for piece of minds sake to get some better Fans now I have a upgrade pretty much everything else other than the Case. What are people's preferences for Fans? I imagine Noctua? I've been impressed with the Be Quiet! Products that I've used so far (PSU and CPU Cooler) so I may stick with them.
 
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Sonygamer455
This prompted me to make more lossless rips of my music CDs for ones I hadn't already done so I'd have better quality sources to do this with. However, it ended up being about more than just that when I found out one of my very first ones was no longer in decent enough condition to be fully ripped anymore, even though it worked fine the last time I used it and hadn't been used since. So now I am backing up all of mine to my external drive for safekeeping so they don't end up being like my very first one. While they're going to take up a lot of space, my drive is more than big enough to do it, and at least they'll be there if I ever need them in the future.
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So I said this earlier and as of last night, I think, I've ripped darn near every CD I have to a lossless format and I finished tagging them today. I later moved them to my external drive and that folder is weighing in at 65.2 GB. :P I need to go through my older rips and update their metadata so it will be consistent with the rest of them because I noticed some were lacking a lot of it.

I must say, it made me realize just how much music I had on hand and had much I had obtained since I started buying CDs more often. Lord knows it's only going to continue to grow from this point forward. :lol:
 
For the first time in a few years, I got myself a Bluetooth speaker for Christmas. I am kind of finding ways to incorporate this to listen to stuff around the house. I may have to stream from my smartphone or my Chromebook for streaming audio.

I also got myself a Google Nest Hub for Christmas. The Google Nest Hub is more like Google's answer to Amazon Echo. I've tried customizing my Google Nest Hub via my Chromebook, but I've had better luck with my smartphone. None of my edits seem to save when I try to edit some of the existing stuff on it. So I find myself having to use my smartphone more along with making completely new prompts rather than edit pre-existing ones. Otherwise, my Google Nest Hub is very cool.
 
Someone suggested I should try podcasting. So after giving it some thought, I went ahead and bought myself a newer USB microphone. I got myself a JLAB GO Talk microphone for just over $40 USD. It may be about $70 USD less than a YETI microphone, but I was pretty impressed with it so far. The only issue I've had was in setting it up. I learned I could use my old tripod to screw it in to hold it. I had myself quite a time trying to make random sound samples speaking into it. Its usefulness and range of applications make it great to use. I ultimately got around to using it for mono sound at either 22500 hz or 44100 hz. I also set the volume gain all the way up to try to get the best possible sound recording. Maybe this becomes a new avenue for my creativity.
 
So I said this earlier:
Sonygamer455
1. Figure out how to keep my external HDD from powering down after short periods of time because it's proving to be rather problematic for me when playing games since I keep all of mine on it.
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I finally found the setting to change it yesterday thanks to this post on Reddit and it worked! I have no idea what it was set to previously, but after doing this, it was no longer powering down so darn quickly at inconvenient times like it was before. However, it seemed to be staying on indefinitely and I did not want it to do this because that would decrease its lifespan. So I experimented a bit and found that the numbers in that command represent how many minutes. So I set mine to 5 because I felt this was acceptable and sure enough, that was about how long it took to power down when I don't use it. Really glad this is finally sorted because it had been a thorn in my side ever since I got my new PC.

However, along the way, I found out my other external HDD I had been using for years was dying and I needed to move everything off it soon before I lose everything. So now I am going to have to figure out where to move it because I have stuff I don't care to lose on it right now. Fortunately, it's still operable for now, so I have a chance to get it done, but I hate that it's on the verge of failing because I've been using it religiously for years now and it rarely gets unplugged anymore. I guess now would be a good time to start thinking about getting another one someday.
 
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