tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59693207878322841632024-03-20T08:01:37.308+00:00one.miguel"For the good of all of us. Except the ones who are dead."Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-88214219755810465852014-02-04T05:12:00.003+00:002014-02-04T05:13:13.696+00:00Thoughts on Fishing Recently, I've tried my hand a fishing and I guess I'm "hooked" having spent a lot of time fishing and well, not really catching. I'm trying, on my own, to work my way through the basics and the different aspects of fishing. While I could spend a couple of hundred bucks on a guide or a charter or otherwise learn from others, I'm thinking I will save that for later. So, I'm essentially fishing the same area for the same fish week after week, testing different theories, changing just a few variables at a time in order to understand this thing. To keep things simple, I've been focusing on boat trolling, with a downrigger. I'm on a medium sized lake going after cutthroat trout. This is where I fish:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixpTd1xQhaT1K6bhrPcLkwUmrvTfk7QitShP2QabY5VrBYXFn1uRu32T0U7utSJkifA3Yw4v9lfBrNkGhqw5s1qIv0Ff7B7AK8_b2bwTDduvTZjYsJvPkjdZL8SM3gbXX9Z-lz8d7AzgSJ/s1600/WP_20140126_001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixpTd1xQhaT1K6bhrPcLkwUmrvTfk7QitShP2QabY5VrBYXFn1uRu32T0U7utSJkifA3Yw4v9lfBrNkGhqw5s1qIv0Ff7B7AK8_b2bwTDduvTZjYsJvPkjdZL8SM3gbXX9Z-lz8d7AzgSJ/s1600/WP_20140126_001.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beautiful winter morning on the lake.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
I've managed to increase my catch rate from zero to 1 so I'm not focusing on figuring out exactly what changed and what to build on. <br />
<br />
<b>So far, I've found that the following matters:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Speed of trolling (less than 2 mph per my Windows Phone).</li>
<li>Depth of trolling (20' seems to be the consistent)</li>
<li>Length of line out (currently playing with ~ 100')</li>
<li>Lure (<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51EW0FgYhYL._SL1500_.jpg" target="_blank">rainbow colored Luhr Jensen Needlefis</a>h seems to be the winner)</li>
<li>Attractors (sticking with a <a href="http://www.luhrjensen.com/Ford-Fender-Lake-Troll/Ford%20Fender%20Lake%20Troll,default,pd.html" target="_blank">Ford Fender</a>)</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Things that don't seem to matter:</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Bait (no bait, powerbait, power worm, etc)</li>
<li>Noise (lure is 100' behind me, so no sense whispering)</li>
<li>Fish Finder (all times I've had a fish, I didn't see jack on the fish finder prior to the hit)</li>
<li>Treble, barbed or single hook. I'm using single hook no barbs. Haven't lost a fish yet. My guess is the big to-do with barbed vs non-barbed is a philosophical thing. Basically if the fish is on your hook, you got the fish. If it's going to get away, it's going to get away.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Things I'm not sure of yet:</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Length of leader from attractor to lure.</li>
<li>Time of day</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Some observations:</b></div>
</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Ford Fender creates a LOT of drag - makes it a chore to bring it up.</li>
<li>When there is a fish on, even a small one, you can really tell. If you are wondering if there is a fish on, then there isn't one on.</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-37914727568960312992013-03-27T23:04:00.005+00:002013-03-27T23:04:55.288+00:00SOLVED: Wireless Limited Network Connectivity<br />
<b>Issue: </b>Wireless connection never completes and shows "<b>Limited Network Connectivity</b>" or it does connect and<b> intermittently disassociates</b> and/or shows "Limited Network Connectivity".<br />
<br />
<b>Other Symptoms:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>System Event ID 5060 for the Wireless device:</li>
</ul>
<div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">\Device\NDMP35</span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">Intel(R) Centrino(R) Ultimate-N 6300 AGN</span></div>
</div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;">0000: 00 00 08 00 02 00 38 00 ......8.<br />0008: 00 00 00 00 C4 13 00 60
....Ä..`<br />0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........<br />0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 ........<br />0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........<br /><b style="background-color: yellow;">0028: 48 4D 41
43 A5 0F 00 00 HMAC¥...</b></span></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Often unable to associate properly with a wireless router but works with other wireless routers</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
</div>
<div>
<b>Solution:</b> Disabled Quality of Service (QoS) on the router. In some routers this may show as "WMM" or something similar. Just <b>disabling the QoS function altogether caused all wireless connection issues to go away.</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<i>Note: This issue occurred with my work laptop and my home wireless router. The home wireless router worked with everything else - mobile phone, personal laptops, Apple TV, wireless tablets, XBox, wireless connected TVs, etc, etc. Conversely, the work laptop worked with everything else: work wireless router, Internet sharing mobile phone, other routers, etc, etc.</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-6385350573351488652012-12-15T00:32:00.000+00:002012-12-15T00:32:37.012+00:00Hitman: Absolution Easter EggFound it by accident.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzjMP-kNtC6cqrE3VPsaBtT9jl50rdqdXHvwEmOeCHLu7vjVqWOhN2U4qb0JD2onT52HbLZCJwPwnrgLNhymfctUnhPzC1jlJAEStt28RIrd-nDs4FAypHFkRjxBtQ1GR7lxPTD6zyr3Y/s1600/2012-12-08_00003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqzjMP-kNtC6cqrE3VPsaBtT9jl50rdqdXHvwEmOeCHLu7vjVqWOhN2U4qb0JD2onT52HbLZCJwPwnrgLNhymfctUnhPzC1jlJAEStt28RIrd-nDs4FAypHFkRjxBtQ1GR7lxPTD6zyr3Y/s400/2012-12-08_00003.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-89316795395955578982012-11-12T22:12:00.000+00:002012-11-12T22:12:36.067+00:00Mac OS X cannot be installed on this computerWell, actually it can. The problem is that if the <b>install disc you are using came from another system </b>(i.e. pre-bundled DVDs) instead of the retail version. <b>The workaround is fairly straightforward:</b><br />
<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Create a DMG version of the DVD using Disk Tools.</li>
<li>Restore the DMG version to a thumbdrive or external hard drive.</li>
<li>Using a terminal window, copy the "System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg" file somewhere (i.e. /tmp):<br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b>cp /Volumes/Untitled/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg</b></span></li>
<li>Figure out what your system type (i.e. "MacBook4,1") is:<br />sysctl hw.model</li>
<li>Extract the contents of the file using "xar":<br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>cd /tmp<br />xar -x -v -f OSInstall.mpkg</b></span></li>
<li>Edit the file named "Distribution"</li>
<li>Look for the line "<b>var hwbeSupportedMachines</b>" and add your machine code so it looks something like this:<br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>var hwbeSupportedMachines = [<br /> 'iMac10,1',<br /> 'MacBook4,1',<br />];</b></span></li>
<li>Save the file.</li>
<li>Recreate the OSInstall.mpkg file (again with xar):<br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>xar -c ./ -v -f NewOSInstall.mpkg</b></span></li>
<li>Copy this new file over the old OSInstall.mpkg:<br /><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>cp /tmp/NewOSInstall.mpkg /Volumes/Untitled/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg</b></span></li>
</ol>
<div>
Now you shouldn't get that error message anymore.</div>
<br />
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-74608848669943269582012-08-29T15:40:00.000+01:002012-08-29T15:40:29.389+01:00Internet Explorer Bad GrammarIs it me or is this bad (or at least awkward) use of the English language by Internet Explorer?<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSYITN6zNDio__40ND6URtG8JAkT0Mp7xKUgceywST3TMZhnthi3EBOQzPYD_Hi3pyevV_Dv4AahWhEXXytfHaQcdSa0STrCdeCqr38nAysipfZImdVC6oUX10m__ZCCl20pZbeMsJk46/s1600/ie-security.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="27" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixSYITN6zNDio__40ND6URtG8JAkT0Mp7xKUgceywST3TMZhnthi3EBOQzPYD_Hi3pyevV_Dv4AahWhEXXytfHaQcdSa0STrCdeCqr38nAysipfZImdVC6oUX10m__ZCCl20pZbeMsJk46/s400/ie-security.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
Security protects something, so why would my security need protection? Perhaps a better way to state this is "To help enhance your security, Internet Explorer has shut itself down."Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-77127140424733497592012-07-03T07:41:00.002+01:002012-07-03T07:41:24.094+01:00Date Ranges in Web AppsI find it extremely frustrating that date ranges, especially in but not limited to online banking, will typically show you the "current month" as the default view. Simple use cases will show that while this works extremely well for the later part of the month, it is not so helpful in the earlier part of the month.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNRbTclFEWrODxr-QsDXAC4PaG1pGX0HWp84uekDJra-saHm73a4vB6LF_UUELYvEn_DzMCX6xpKtkeyajMCn2HxYn88JTNxb5RIsu4mkQl-a7R2_y0JRFc71ONhccZrNyw4nq1p9NEAP/s1600/ugh1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeNRbTclFEWrODxr-QsDXAC4PaG1pGX0HWp84uekDJra-saHm73a4vB6LF_UUELYvEn_DzMCX6xpKtkeyajMCn2HxYn88JTNxb5RIsu4mkQl-a7R2_y0JRFc71ONhccZrNyw4nq1p9NEAP/s400/ugh1.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seriously? How does this help me?</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
A more reasonable approach is to have the default view as the "last 30 days" or something like that. Month-views should be optional. When viewing your history, do you really just care about the last <b>three days</b>???<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLzRm6DOiql4_JnEFwWfhMPy7Dwe8LMfKzYruYL1rBi0Bj57wcev0HalJLVcZBaKPyh0BTHW_2mkCopA-WIXspGXEQi3grWqXM60VJKAOvQm4O4W6GbfZmUtUVPd2_4xasPoBenIXFM3OW/s1600/yes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLzRm6DOiql4_JnEFwWfhMPy7Dwe8LMfKzYruYL1rBi0Bj57wcev0HalJLVcZBaKPyh0BTHW_2mkCopA-WIXspGXEQi3grWqXM60VJKAOvQm4O4W6GbfZmUtUVPd2_4xasPoBenIXFM3OW/s400/yes.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Much better. KTHXBYE</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-40180618468097717682012-06-20T18:12:00.002+01:002012-06-20T18:12:43.003+01:00BloatwareInstalling a Microsoft Silverlight browser plug-in needs 100MB in space?<br />
<br />
Installing a printer driver requires a 200MB in disk space?<br />
<br />
How about a video card driver that needs a 160MB installation file??<br />
<br />
Can we cut the please, please cut the bloatware before we need a 4GB printer driver?Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-22517548306792155382012-06-06T19:40:00.001+01:002012-06-06T19:40:20.732+01:00LinkedIn Password Hash File is RealYep, just checked it - my unique LinkedIn password SHA-1 hash is in there.<br />
<br />
<b>If you have a LinkedIn account, login NOW and change your password. If you've used that password with other things associated with your LinkedIn login (usually your email address), then change those passwords too!</b><br />
<b><br /></b><br />
Here's a link to the hash file: <a href="http://wordpress.phobostechnology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/combo_not.zip">combo_not.txt.zip</a><br />
<br />
Here's a nice write-up on the details as well as a online SHA-1 generator so you can check for your own hash: <a href="http://erratasec.blogspot.de/2012/06/confirmed-linkedin-6mil-password-dump.html">Errata Security</a>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-84107253850674526832012-06-04T15:42:00.001+01:002012-06-04T15:44:54.619+01:00iTunes Home Sharing Not Working [SOLVED]Not working and sometimes when it is working, it cuts out in the middle, or when you click on the computer name, the focus goes away from the library. In other words, really weird.<br />
<br />
<b>What it is</b><br />
iTunes has a feature called "Home Sharing" - it basically allows you to share your entire or part of your library with other instances of iTunes in your home network. It requires you to login to your iTunes account on both computers. A typical scenario is to enable Home Sharing on your desktop machine and then access the library from your iPad, Apple TV, iPhone, Mac, etc.<br />
<br />
In my case, I have iTunes on my desktop machine running Windows XP in the attic with Home Sharing enabled and then I access the library from my Macbook and Apple TV, depending on what I want. <a href="http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3819" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to use Home Sharing can be found here.</a><br />
<br />
<b>Symptoms</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Home Sharing machine not showing up in Apple TV or the Macbook</li>
<li>The Macbook home sharing not showing up on my desktop </li>
<li>Home Sharing working intermittently</li>
<li>Connections getting cut of intermittently</li>
<li>Usually, restarting iTunes or the desktop computer will make things work.</li>
<li>Sometimes, restarting the Macbook or the Apple TV will make things work.</li>
<li>The "working" doesn't last long</li>
</ul>
<div>
<b>The Fix</b></div>
<div>
On the desktop computer where the Home Sharing is enabled, I disabled the "QoS Packet Scheduler" from the network connection:</div>
<div>
<ol>
<li>Open Control Panel</li>
<li>Open Network Connections</li>
<li>Right-Click on your connection (in my case, it was "Wireless Network Connection 4"</li>
<li>Select Properties</li>
<li>Uncheck "QoS Packet Scheduler"</li>
<li>Click OK</li>
<li>Restart iTunes if necessary</li>
</ol>
<div>
After doing the above, Home Sharing worked like a charm. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://gigapple.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/home-sharing-1.png?w=590&h=401" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="http://gigapple.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/home-sharing-1.png?w=590&h=401" width="400" /></a></div>
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</div>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-6340994502974068912012-05-31T07:24:00.000+01:002012-05-31T07:55:48.366+01:00System TemperaturesI often see posts on OC and hardware sites about system temperatures: is it normal? Am I overheating? What is the maximum temperature for my CPU? etc, etc.<br />
<br />
Over the years, I've found that the best and most logical approach is:<br />
<ul>
<li>Computer components, especially processors, hard drives, RAM and video cards will heat up. It's a fact, get used to it. They are designed that way.</li>
<li>The heat needs to escape your system.</li>
<li>If the system is designed well with proper fans, you should feel a lot of heat escaping the computer. <b>This is not a bad thing</b>. Hot air being blown out of your machine is a good thing.</li>
<li>There are three times to watch for:</li>
<ul>
<li><b>Idle temperature</b> - when doing mostly nothing, how hot do your components get?</li>
<li><b>High utilization temperature</b> - when doing things like playing high end 3d games, how hot do your components get? What is the rate of increase from Idle? Does it level off or keep going?</li>
<li><b>Cool down temperature</b> - when you stop doing high utilization stuff, how long before you go back to idle temperatures?</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Airflow</b></div>
<div>
The flow of air in and out of your system matters:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Always have more air being blown out vs being sucked in</li>
<li>Hot air rises, so exhaust fans should be on the top of your case</li>
<li>Cold air goes down, so intake fans should be on the bottom of your case</li>
<li>Imagine the air flowing in your case and look for dead spots where:</li>
<ul>
<li>Heat is generated</li>
<li>No airflow takes the heat out.</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<div>
<b>Max Temperatures</b></div>
</div>
<div>
My setup:</div>
<div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">i7 2600k @ 4.2 GHz</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">16GB RAM</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">2x Gigabyte GTX 570 SLI</span></li>
</ul>
<div>
I have a mini-tower case and everything is packed in there tight. I'm using liquid cooling for the CPU and have an intake fan at the bottom of the case (sucking in from the floor) and an exhaust fan on the top of the case (pointing at the ceiling) and another exhaust on the side (right above the two video cards). The max I've seen so far:</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>CPU MAX TEMPERATURE </b>: 84.0C</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>CORE0 MAX</b></span><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"> TEMPERATURE </b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">: 83.0C</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>CORE1 MAX</b></span><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"> TEMPERATURE </b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">: 85.0C</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>CORE2 MAX</b></span><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"> TEMPERATURE </b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">: 82.0C</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>CORE3 MAX</b></span><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"> TEMPERATURE </b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">: 81.0C</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>MAX CPU POWER </b>: 79.734W</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>AMBIENT MAX</b></span><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"> TEMP (MB) </b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">: 63.0C</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>GPU1 MAX</b></span><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"> TEMPERATURE </b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">: 74.0C</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><b>GPU2 MAX</b></span><b style="color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"> TEMPERATURE </b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">: 67.0C</span></span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div>
Idle temperatures are somewhere in the high 30s for the CPU, low 20s for the Ambient and low 30s for the video cards. The rate I hit these temps are pretty quick (minutes) and it tends to level out. After quitting a game, for example, the hot air blowing out of the case turns cool in a matter of seconds. The temperature drops rather quickly. I'll chart it one day, but I'm not so worried about it right now. <br />
<br />
<b>I hit these temps last night with Assassin's Creed Revelations at max settings for everything.</b><br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtrBMIbX0D4PBMQz6rEEw-XMqp_XJKIdhzTK-grE9HLZ4GKgA4gVPD0ePfQxbsNnab4PBrku0WkD3Y-20LYwB24IOdIBnKbJy4QlmQLXSfJ6CYJsnHE4Ch6bey9-7cHvMkKm83e5UgZuzF/s1600/465843_4070568682224_1222571259_33851587_1392955214_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtrBMIbX0D4PBMQz6rEEw-XMqp_XJKIdhzTK-grE9HLZ4GKgA4gVPD0ePfQxbsNnab4PBrku0WkD3Y-20LYwB24IOdIBnKbJy4QlmQLXSfJ6CYJsnHE4Ch6bey9-7cHvMkKm83e5UgZuzF/s400/465843_4070568682224_1222571259_33851587_1392955214_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br /></div>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-47265329434850219382012-05-07T15:59:00.000+01:002012-05-07T15:59:18.491+01:00Dead Island: Something is Wrong<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/videogames/detail-page/760592011DI7.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/G/01/videogames/detail-page/760592011DI7.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
There is something wrong with the game Dead Island. It's not the story or the game premise. It's not the idea. It's the execution. Too many little issues with the execution that bugs me and I'm not talking about the bugs.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Re-spawning zombies: this takes away from the immersion aspect. If I walk into a bungalow and slaughter whatever zombies are in there and then I go back a few minutes later, I should not find them back to where they were in the beginning. Also, I had a great panic when several of them came streaming down the stairs from all directions. I got through it only to find when I pass that same area a short while later, they are back. That really takes so much away. Same with having to run over them over and over again. At the very least, take the bodies away but don't make them come back!</li>
<li>But, the bodies also disappear, making it hard to recognize areas you've been in before. This would have been super useful for again, immersion.</li>
<li>The "Thug" zombies are just nonsense. There's a repetitive nature to it, which again, takes away from the immersion.</li>
<li>Your character pleading with you not to let them die is kinda corny.</li>
<li>The game feels unfinished. Even AA is missing altogether.</li>
</ul>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-4757131320631659702012-05-06T10:54:00.002+01:002012-05-06T10:54:44.117+01:00How NOT to Run a Banking SiteThis is not what you want to give your customers if there is something wrong with your online banking site <b>AFTER they login</b>. It makes us feel <b>uncomfortable</b>, <b>abandoned</b> and generally the opposite of what you intended. <b> I do not feel like you value me as your customer.</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZX9pptgruh5i3ik_DgNjfxxUqJf36jEleNHctZm2Zy40qZ01pIV0AsE7219m_pODccSE42y8xEioivqCSiC3lnpLYhkpPr5y0HjK29KkgxPSoo4Ze6pMyAK7X5j_KFAgI4UTyOcHlR2HT/s1600/bad-site.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZX9pptgruh5i3ik_DgNjfxxUqJf36jEleNHctZm2Zy40qZ01pIV0AsE7219m_pODccSE42y8xEioivqCSiC3lnpLYhkpPr5y0HjK29KkgxPSoo4Ze6pMyAK7X5j_KFAgI4UTyOcHlR2HT/s400/bad-site.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-50956908585228600802012-04-22T19:28:00.001+01:002012-04-22T19:28:51.469+01:00The New HotnessLiterally. It's like 66C up in there.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2bLjXKEVYBpSJ5wb1Tj5KVxXP7tvGIQ8NpZK9T7IECbJ__HZ89CFddSh-gR31MWZYqb5kX3kuUBKCKoB0ms7iBp56C3bileKOS_zpvSePNWJnxLNutpsHi2dzK34obQqc0o-ChzEDLODN/s1600/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2bLjXKEVYBpSJ5wb1Tj5KVxXP7tvGIQ8NpZK9T7IECbJ__HZ89CFddSh-gR31MWZYqb5kX3kuUBKCKoB0ms7iBp56C3bileKOS_zpvSePNWJnxLNutpsHi2dzK34obQqc0o-ChzEDLODN/s400/photo.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With dialog bubble. Because G+ Creative Kit.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbzyQhV2ZRgf_u6IZxAYgHVsUhxlD36mq_vFr3VVJyJYesW-vahIJyTMqRBJl02Lcy2j630TPZp7pMM7Yu_I-fcSX6IOdMukbKGksuLskbjZili-hB-V_BuYc1jzYUpAF-oKR6yep0dPQ/s1600/IMG_20120417_181045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVbzyQhV2ZRgf_u6IZxAYgHVsUhxlD36mq_vFr3VVJyJYesW-vahIJyTMqRBJl02Lcy2j630TPZp7pMM7Yu_I-fcSX6IOdMukbKGksuLskbjZili-hB-V_BuYc1jzYUpAF-oKR6yep0dPQ/s400/IMG_20120417_181045.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sound card straddled by two GTX 570s. HOT. Literally.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
But the crashing is gone with the replacement card. And performance is much better with dual GTX 570s. Now, I can move on.Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-17125115137404199022012-04-17T14:38:00.001+01:002012-04-17T14:38:46.070+01:00Driving a WedgeIn an earlier post, I wrote about the sound card which was hitting the video card fan since it was so close together. I gave the on-board audio a try but found it lacking. So what to do? I decided that some sort of wedge was needed to keep the card apart. I found a red rubber washer in my toolbox and electrical taped it to the back of the sound card. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://s7.cdn.hardwareandtools.net/is/image/HardwareandTools/039166039395?wid=225&hei=225" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://s7.cdn.hardwareandtools.net/is/image/HardwareandTools/039166039395?wid=225&hei=225" /></a></div>
Not only does this keep the cards apart but also gives a bit of room for airflow.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoTyWahBH63bwBIaOrcw9Uudg8Xn8aNrCCK_7YOp0Zbbyc0Sffw-pD_MqHpod1vpiwALIBOxun-kBoe_2OumW79oRdbVziXciSCRXduwfw3CXvA9R-I6EJSQ1RMR0kwDRDT-Q1gNUBJR2u/s1600/IMG_20120416_084600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoTyWahBH63bwBIaOrcw9Uudg8Xn8aNrCCK_7YOp0Zbbyc0Sffw-pD_MqHpod1vpiwALIBOxun-kBoe_2OumW79oRdbVziXciSCRXduwfw3CXvA9R-I6EJSQ1RMR0kwDRDT-Q1gNUBJR2u/s400/IMG_20120416_084600.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-91066716312230834362012-04-14T14:07:00.002+01:002012-04-17T14:39:18.346+01:00New GTX 570 = No More Skyrim IssuesWell at least the whole system reboot/black screen of death thing.<br />
<br />
I got a new GTX 570 in the mail today, installed it and also tidied up the cables in the system. So far so good. Still a little nervous, half expecting the system to crash, but nothing like that so far! Skyrim had a few issues, but nothing I couldn't recover from. Which brings me to an interesting observation. <b>With the previous video card, I never saw Skyrim (the program) fail. I would only see the whole system crash. </b>Now, I see the crash to desktop (rare) and the occasional video driver crashed thing (also rare).<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeRwc8cNDLSvdUfK6oq8VxFSFrxuPhpn30VYLCHKcdDI8WasZ7Ah1yIu42KwyMWJ9kazker4CU1S7aGnRNlAGvZ1yZlPGxTRCE6x0Plg7PqwCsfpd6FdHz8V9ei38xQOR9wQ_pvF2GY0X/s1600/IMG_20120410_180907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeRwc8cNDLSvdUfK6oq8VxFSFrxuPhpn30VYLCHKcdDI8WasZ7Ah1yIu42KwyMWJ9kazker4CU1S7aGnRNlAGvZ1yZlPGxTRCE6x0Plg7PqwCsfpd6FdHz8V9ei38xQOR9wQ_pvF2GY0X/s400/IMG_20120410_180907.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
One scary thing - about an hour into play, I heard a loud grinding. Turns out the sound card was touching the fans on the GTX 570. I couldn't do much more to separate them, so I ended up removing the sound card and switched to onboard audio. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9GKjsw27CWqtbjQ5krBrvyUFW_bc2MmDHCo-uIjBcnlcALOc21FAdV9Wnx41rMq_NoxTZRTSd3FTOXO4q8dD9NCVDpdlr0YbBm3Wv2dR8RXjhWgah9tPDTao-ND8OU8z80jNzu8nv_sTX/s1600/IMG_20120410_191918.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9GKjsw27CWqtbjQ5krBrvyUFW_bc2MmDHCo-uIjBcnlcALOc21FAdV9Wnx41rMq_NoxTZRTSd3FTOXO4q8dD9NCVDpdlr0YbBm3Wv2dR8RXjhWgah9tPDTao-ND8OU8z80jNzu8nv_sTX/s400/IMG_20120410_191918.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">See how close the sound card (top) is with the video card? Yikes.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
When I get the 2nd GTX 570 in, it will be really crowded in there with the sound card. I'm thinking of gerry rigging some kind of wedge between the sound card and the video card, but in the meantime, I'll give the onboard audio a try.<br />
<br />
It's been almost a week and so far so good. Now if only the 2nd GTX 570 gets here soon...<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyRM3WKm4QdMvXi3s99SPMztXlDRABsBynF_sz3U2aI1bcRR_m6fyyo5tftbNe9TiAoJzEF1-s-s7cAjYfXVhwGd84xHEu1yV1OjKUD_BvFMH2GsURlo1NXgT4-tmpVAyfEdg_AvflheWT/s1600/IMG_20120410_191951.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyRM3WKm4QdMvXi3s99SPMztXlDRABsBynF_sz3U2aI1bcRR_m6fyyo5tftbNe9TiAoJzEF1-s-s7cAjYfXVhwGd84xHEu1yV1OjKUD_BvFMH2GsURlo1NXgT4-tmpVAyfEdg_AvflheWT/s400/IMG_20120410_191951.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-9890093551619023212012-04-04T10:05:00.002+01:002012-04-04T10:06:43.626+01:00Amazing Skyrim Story EngineDon't want to reveal any spoilers, but when talking with a friend about Skyrim and he shared that at one point in the game, if you kill a main character in an abandoned shack, it will spawn a whole new set of quests. When I was at that point in the game, it never even occurred to me to do that. It's amazing that the Skyrim developers programmed that alternate storyline in.Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-49834878929510190052012-03-27T08:47:00.001+01:002012-03-27T08:47:23.634+01:00Apparatus Update<b>Couple of quick notes:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>System has been behaving as intended (<b>no black screen/sound loop crashe</b>s) since I replaced the GTX 570 video card with a GT 8800. Hopefully, when CyberpowerPC sends back a new GTX 570, the problem will not return. <b>At this point, I am extremely leaning (99.999999999999%) towards a video card hardware problem causing my Skyrim issues.</b></li>
<li>I'm using 12 Skyrim mods now (can't remember them off hand, but mostly graphics related) and it's working awesomely. The only thing that would make it more awesome is if I could use the GTX 570 that I paid for. :-) So, yes, <b>anxiously awaiting for the RMA process.</b></li>
<li>I'd love to use Skyrim UI since the inventory menus are so badly designed, but I don't want to deal with <b>the hassle of continually updating SKSE</b>.</li>
<li>Eagerly waiting for the first Skyrim DLC</li>
<li>Still looking for a good <b>Bokeh mod</b> that can be installed from the Steam Workshop. I could use the Nexus ones, but I don't want the hassle, similar to maintaining SKSE. Is that asking too much?</li>
</ul>
<br /><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/images/11318-2-1330399914.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://static.skyrim.nexusmods.com/downloads/images/11318-2-1330399914.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bokeh</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-11373125445583596982012-03-20T15:35:00.003+00:002012-03-20T15:37:24.936+00:00Liking CyberpowerPCI'm really liking CyberpowerPC. They consistently respond to my emails with quality customer service response, even if the answer is not positive (i.e. they don't do advance RMAs). That, along with great support while purchasing and quick, quality shipping, will make me buy my next system from them. After that I got this response to an email inquiring about the RMA process:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>As we do not repair the video cards here at Cyberpower we will be replacing the video card all together. Once we receive your video card for replacement you will be notified by email.</i></blockquote>
Nice! This should fit right in with validating if the problem is the video card or not. In the meantime, I have a 8800GT 512MB video card and I'll be testing that to no end to see if it produces the same crash in Skyrim.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/template/default/images/SiteLogo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="67" src="http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/template/default/images/SiteLogo.png" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-35698397845849663082012-03-18T15:36:00.004+00:002012-03-18T15:39:57.403+00:00More On Video CardAfter several more hours of testing and researching, I had a few more observations:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Skyrim utilizes DirectX 9 and possibly some DirectX 10.</li>
<li>Grid utilizes DirectX9 and possibly some DirectX 10.</li>
<li>Battlefield 3 utilizes DirectX 11</li>
<li>Batman: Arkham City utilizes DirectX 11</li>
</ul>
<br />
So far I've only experienced problems with Skyrim and Grid (the latter only in the past two days). The crashes are the same: video feed goes out, sound loops, system unrecoverable. This can happen after several hours or after just a minute (or even straight from power off, boot, game load, crash). The usual suspects are out:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Heat (measured over and over, max GPU is like 72C and max CPU is 68C. This was extreme testing. Normal operations is about 35C CPU and 42C GPU lower.</li>
<li>Overclocking - the crashes are seen without overclocking, with overclocking and with underclocking. It ain't the overclocking, okay? I tested it.</li>
<li>Malware - no malware on the system.</li>
<li>System errors - NO ERRORS IN THE OS EVENT LOGS.</li>
<li>Power Supply - replaced 750W power supply with a Silverstone 1000W power supply</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br />
Now, the fact that no issues are seen in Battlefield 3 and Batman and only the games NOT using DX11 led me to <a href="http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=515" target="_blank">this article</a> which describes how installing an older DirectX 9 game can muck up your DirectX 10 but leave DirectX 11 intact. Weird, that sounds like my issue!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Quote from article:</b></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Obviously, something is wrong with the DirectX 9 redistributable package. However, I don't think Microsoft can do anything about this since the DirectX 9 redistributable is everywhere and has been in use for ages. We just want to warn you about this problem so you won't need to scratch your head if your DirectX 10 game does not work. It could be because you just installed a DirectX 9 game. Try reinstalling the DirectX 10 redistributable.</i></blockquote>
<div>
Well, I tried the fix (install DirectX 10 runtime manually), but to no avail. I still get the crashes in Skyrim and (now) Grid. YARH (Yet Another Red Herring)? Likely.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Frustrated and unable to get away from the observations:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
* Crashes in DX9/10 games (Skyrim & Grid)</div>
<div>
* Does not crash (yet) in DX11 games</div>
<div>
* Just started crashing in Grid a few days ago</div>
<div>
* No errors found using OCCT, Furmark, Heaven, etc, etc, etc</div>
<div>
* No OS errors (this means the OS does not even catch the error, indicating it is likely NOT the video driver).</div>
<div>
* Was able to change the crash slightly by disabling Timeout Detection Recovery (TDR).</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
All of the above points to a video card that is not behaving properly. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Frustrated, I removed the Gigabyte GTX 570 from my system for packing up for the RMA and I found an older Nvidia Quadro FX 4600 sitting around, so I installed that. I tried and tried to replicate the crashes, but I could not. Changing the video card eliminated the observed crashes. The logic is inescapable: it's not software, it's not my setup, it's not my configuration. The only variable that changed was the video card itself. <b>Observation: video card is causing the problem. </b></div>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9oov1nMII0SvP5gFtj5B4lUoNQ7C9ZAkzJkw-MToMc07FifYpmR2v84ICcRe8FyGJEwIoX6Fy_vXI3luDT5Mc8B3gQNsM0dD2Dwud0ossDhwdQbJ6pqX86O4hlaSnBwLmOi8j4ZDjqrtA/s1600/IMG_20120318_104441.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9oov1nMII0SvP5gFtj5B4lUoNQ7C9ZAkzJkw-MToMc07FifYpmR2v84ICcRe8FyGJEwIoX6Fy_vXI3luDT5Mc8B3gQNsM0dD2Dwud0ossDhwdQbJ6pqX86O4hlaSnBwLmOi8j4ZDjqrtA/s320/IMG_20120318_104441.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guilty? We shall see.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
<div>
It's weird that this would indicate that so many people have faulty video cards. But then again, is it really so many? In hindsight, no. Sure, there are a lot of forum posts about it, but then again there are probably a lot of forum posts about....well, anything. More than half of the posts tend to be trollers, leaving only a few with the same actual issues.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And then I remembered how my video card got a low rating (around 68%) for the ASIC in GPU-Z. <b style="font-style: italic;">Perhaps it's true: Skyrim does push your hardware in ways other games and stress tests do not. </b>Here's another interesting fact: <i style="font-weight: bold;">Had I not played Skyrim, I would have had zero issues with this system.</i> Well, at least I think so.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ85G8oucxkrsUigazDhnJzSI4ziwTnjH81m3mDUL7ku1OsgZSe9iiT1fVl6JLiYDxUZkw8HGqdGos5gXOCG52puyOPIedrvtU9KcpK2jEO5_yDXHwUsC3UgA1HtiatovecWZKcUtFxpOM/s1600/IMG_20120318_104416.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ85G8oucxkrsUigazDhnJzSI4ziwTnjH81m3mDUL7ku1OsgZSe9iiT1fVl6JLiYDxUZkw8HGqdGos5gXOCG52puyOPIedrvtU9KcpK2jEO5_yDXHwUsC3UgA1HtiatovecWZKcUtFxpOM/s400/IMG_20120318_104416.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is a very good video card. When it works.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
Hopefully this is the final test. It is important to note that prior to the video card swap, I was already up to over 10 crashes in one day. It was getting crazy. After the swap and after several hours in Skyrim, loading saved games that would consistently crash, I got zero crashes with the older card. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The GTX 570 now sits in a shipping box, ready for RMA. However long it takes to get there and for CyberpowerPC to send me a replacement will hopefully be worth it if I've found the root cause of the problems for the last four months. Now I just hope CyberpowerPC doesn't get the card, run Furmark against it and then send it back to me. If that happens, I may just have to get another video card altogether.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://roboawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/picture-30552.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="279" src="http://roboawesome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/picture-30552.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Video card, huh? You were losing the video feed? And then crashing? Must be tough to be so frigging smart!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-87371720361736216692012-03-17T09:29:00.000+00:002012-03-17T09:29:59.587+00:00TDR: Helpful. Next Stop: Video CardAfter the TDR disabling, the crashes still happened, but more slowly. In what previously was a quick video feed shutoff followed by a buzzing that was the last 1/2 second of audio looping now became a video feed shutoff, audio still playing with some distortion and the keyboard still responding. I was unable to gain control though, since in about 10 seconds the keyboard became unresponsive and the audio eventually became the same buzzing.<br />
<br />
This is at least something in the crashing that changed - and it means... <i>something</i>. Previous changes were only on the frequency of the crashing, but this is the first time I was able to change the crashing method. Another interesting change was I was able to get a single Windows Event Log entry:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Log Name: System</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Source: nvlddmkm</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Event ID: 14</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Level: Error</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Keywords: Classic</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Task Category: None</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Binary data:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">In Words</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0000: 00000000 00300002 00000000 C0AA000E</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0008: 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0010: 00000000 00000000</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">In Bytes</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0000: 00 00 00 00 02 00 30 00 ......0.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0008: 00 00 00 00 0E 00 AA C0 ......ªÀ</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........</span><br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">The description for Event ID 14 from source <b>nvlddmkm </b>cannot be found.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">If the event originated on another computer, the display information</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">had to be saved with the event.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">The following information was included with the event:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">\Device\Video5</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace; font-size: x-small;">An uncorrectable double bit error (DBE) has been detected on GPU (03 03 03).</span><br />
<br />
<br />
What this means to me is that the crash is centered on the video card. Probably bad memory chips on the video card. I ran GPU-Z and I got 68% on the ASIC - not clear on what that means, but the general consensus on the Internet is that the higher the percentage, the higher the quality of the video card build. <br />
<br />
Shortly after this, with TDR still disabled, I saw the same crash in Grid. <br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion #1</b>: Having TDR enabled is good, because it catches most crashes, preventing the system from going down.<br />
<br />
<b>Conclusion #2</b>: Having TDR enabled is bad, because it hides these crashes from us and only when a crash is not recoverable (i.e. in Skyrim) do we think there is a problem.<br />
<br />
Obviously #2 causes us to run down some crazy rabbit holes, while technically related, is really not something I can do anything about. <br />
<br />
I've sent in an RMA request for the video card. So we'll see what happens next...Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-84311683057981476762012-03-16T08:46:00.000+00:002012-03-16T08:46:02.999+00:00Next Stop: TDRWell, the crashes continue. I've started a new Skyrim character and while it works fine 99% of the time, there's still the occasional jarring crash. I've experimented with hardware, bought a new PSU, tried to work with Bethesda, all to no avail.<br />
<br />
While I continued researching, trying to find commonalities between the reported crashes, I ran across something called "TDR" (<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/gg487368" target="_blank">Timeout Detection and Recovery</a>) used in Microsoft Vista and beyond. <br />
<br />
Right now, I'm going to experiment with disabling this feature. The theory is that if the video card is busy, it cannot respond to the OS in the time and the OS will then send a restart command to the video card. Right in the middle of Skyrim, this cannot be good.<br />
<br />
To disable TDR in Windows Vista and Windows 7, either change or add the registry settings described in the link above. For me, I set "TdrLevel" to "0" to disable it altogether. I'd rather get a blue screen than what I'm getting now.Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-32156534528208829342012-03-08T13:35:00.002+00:002012-03-08T13:35:47.942+00:00Bethesda Support Findings: nullBethesda support was nice enough to exchange at least 11 emails with me, but alas, it led nowhere. Here's their last response (emphasis mine):<br />
<br />
<i><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The links you have provided are only anecdotal evidence at best. Whilst some of those people may be encountering the same symptoms as you are, ie a hardlock on their system, this does not mean that it has a common cause. For example some of the people in one of the threads you are providing have fixed their issue with hardware changes.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Furthermore, </span><b style="background-color: yellow;">all of the tests you have suggested simply prove that your hardware works fine under the conditions that you are testing them under</b><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">. Not all applications or tests will stress your system the same way. As an example, I had a similar issue to yours on a system I had been using with a different game. I was encountering random crashes and occasional lockups with one single game, all of the stress tests I did showed passed fine, and there were no temperature issues with the system. However as soon as the overclock on the system was removed, this game stopped crashing.</span></span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Whilst this is only anecdotal evidence, I hope that it provides some insight as to why </span><b style="background-color: yellow;">I do not believe this to be a game/software related issue.</b></span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969);">Now it may be that the game is simply encountering a crash, but because of the configuration of your system, the operating system is unable to handle the crash normally and so the system locks up and restarts. </span><b style="background-color: yellow;">In this case it is very difficult for us to troubleshoot the problem, as we are unable to get any solid crash reports as your system is completely locking up.</b></span></i>
<br />
<i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><b style="background-color: yellow;"><br /></b></span></i><br />
With all that said, this game is still one of the best I've seen. For completeness, here's my response to the above email:<br />
<br />
<i><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I understand and appreciate your time on this. So far the workaround </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">for me when this does happen (and it's rarer now that I've been more </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">frugal with binding spells and weapons/armor to the favorites) is to </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">restart the system, load the last saved game and then make a few </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">changes, create a new save file and then reload that new save file.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">That seems to consistently get me past a crash point. The overclock </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">recommendation does not make a difference with my problem since it </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">occurs with normal clock, overclock or underclock. Believe me when I </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">say that I've spent multiple hours troubleshooting this even before </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">contacting support.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">With that said, I'm continuing to enjoy the game (2nd character build </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">now) and am looking forward to the DLC/expansion that's been in the </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">news lately. I've also began to experiment with the mods available on</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Steam. They definitely add to the replay value for this game, which </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">despite the technical issues I've encountered, I still consider one of </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">the best games made to date.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'm assuming there was no progress on the save files I've sent </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">previously? Should I encounter another consistent, repeatable, crash, </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'll try sending the save game file (along with my .ini files) in the </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">hopes it will increase game stability. Perhaps if a game debugging </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">mode was made available/known, I could provide those logs to Bethesda</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">as well.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Thanks again for your time.</span></i>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-74556003507918542412012-03-03T10:10:00.001+00:002012-03-03T10:10:14.442+00:00Bethesda SupportI've been exchanging emails with Bethesda support regarding the Skyrim issues I've been having. They've been really patient with me and I really appreciate their support. The latest exchange has involved them looking at my system configs. Their current concern is my overclocking:<br />
<br />
<b><i>From Bethesda</i></b>:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Given that your system is crashing at a very low level and it is restarting this does not really point to a great amount of system stability. It should be noted that the person in the youtube video who which you passed to us is also overclocking their system, which could point to a common demoninator.</span><br />
<br />
<b><i>My Response</i></b>:<br />
<br />
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I'm not sure what to say other than I have the same amount of problems</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">when I'm not overclocking and even when I'm underclocking and even</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">when everything is set to auto. I do agree with your statement in</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">general terms, but in my case, everything I've tried thus far has NOT</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">pointed to anything OTHER THAN a stable system. I have not been able</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">to create a crash, either system or to desktop, or errors or anything</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">at all OTHER THAN in Skyrim. The ironic part is that I bought this</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">system specifically for Skyrim and had only Steam and Skyrim installed</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">when I first started having problems. I did NOTHING to my system when</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I started having problems, it was literally out of the box.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Troubleshooting started when I started crashing over and over and the</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">game became unplayable.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Here's a quick summary of what I've done to date:</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Reinstalled Skyrim from Steam</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Validated files in Steam</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Replaced power supply with a known good brand, high rated, over</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">powered (1000W)</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Reinstalled drivers (Video/System/etc) using a clean install</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Ran Prime95 (to test RAM) for 7 hours</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Ran Linx (to also test RAM) for 1 hour</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Ran OCCT (to test GPU RAM)</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Ran OCCT:CPU (to test CPU)</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Ran Kombustor</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Ran Heaven</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Ran Linx, OCCT and Kombustor AT THE SAME time</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Monitored for GPU, CPU and System Temperatures (logging to a file</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">every second) - no spikes seen just before crash in Skyrim.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Removed Creative Labs audio card</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Underclocked CPU, RAM and GPU one at a time</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Disabled Intel speedstep</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">* Disabled CPU Parking</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Non of these tests showed any problem whatsoever. If the above tests</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">are not enough to test for system stability, then please let me know</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">what I can test for.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Again, there are NO ISSUES outside of Skyrim. Skyrim could run for</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">four hours or 7 minutes before the system reboots. At one point I had</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">a save file that would CONSISTENTLY cause this problem, but that file</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">could not be opened by your support staff and since the latest patch</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">would no longer crash for me. This file would load inside of</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Dragonsreach and I would turn around and exit the front door and the</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">system would reboot. I did this multiple times in a row and then</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">loaded a different save game and didn't experience the reboot. I've</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">also found that unbinding spells from favorites seemed to have caused</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">the reboots NOT to happen. This clearly showed it was *something* in</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">the save file. Again, I did this systematically: reboot/crash,</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">reboot/crash, reboot/crash, unbind spells, no reboot/crash, load</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">again, reboot/crash. As I said earlier, this save file could not even</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">be opened by your support staff - it would cause the game to crash to</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">desktop.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I have zero issues in other games, namely Batman:Arkham City,</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Battlefield 3 and Grid. But I bought this system specifically to play</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Skyrim and it's the only game causing me problems.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Others in the Internet have the same symptoms, as it's popped up in</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">multiple forums. Clearly it's something that is specific since only a</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">minority of the millions of players out there have this problem. I</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">know of two people personally who have had no issues in Skyrim. As I</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">said above, overclocking is something I've done just recently because</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">all my testing showed that the system is solid - I can't find a</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">problem with it AT ALL, except for Skyrim crashing. In other words,</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">crashing is isolated to Skyrim.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I read an interview with Bethesda's Todd Howard where he had stated</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">that things you do in the game cause issues, such as the PS3 lag</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">that's been widely reported. I can't help but thing it's something</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">like that for my issue. Now, I do understand about software</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">development and software issues, so what I'm looking for is this: what</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">is happening with my install/game that is causing this problem? If</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">it's something like "binding spell x and spell y at the same time"</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">then it's not a problem to avoid that behavior.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I've maintained a blog with some graphs and more detailed information</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">of the troubleshooting I've done, including a red herring of disabling</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Intel Speedstep (it did make it more stable, but I think it only</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">masked the problem) and disabling Windows 7 Core Parking.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This link shows you all the Skyrim related posts:</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><a href="http://one-miguel.blogspot.com/search/label/Skyrim" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" target="_blank">http://one-miguel.blogspot.<wbr></wbr>com/search/label/Skyrim</a><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">But please, if you believe my system is unstable, let me know what</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">test to run so I can start to pinpoint the problem on my end, because</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I've been trying to blame my system for the past three months but I</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">can't find a problem.</span><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><br style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.917969); color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Thank you.</span>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-82980197521255819452012-02-26T09:42:00.001+00:002012-02-26T09:42:31.797+00:00Skyrim Lag Over Time (PC) [Solved, Sort Of]Skyrim has this, uh, feature that depending on how you play (what spells you use, what items you have, what order things are done, which butterfly flutters it's wings, etc, etc), <i>sometimes</i> your game will start to experience lag. Specifically, input lag. For me, it's barely noticeable, but I still do.<br />
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Anyway, if this happens to you, just do an "ALT-TAB" to go back to Windows and then ALT-TAB back to Skyrim. You may need to do this a couple of times before the game actually comes back, but when it does, you are good to go.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Skyrim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="232" src="http://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Skyrim.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGG!!!!!!"<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5969320787832284163.post-91526195931743083492012-02-25T10:33:00.002+00:002012-02-25T10:35:08.651+00:00Website Developers: PLEASE STOP!!!Please, for the love of all that is holy, STOP sending web pages back in a language other than what the browser is sending you for "Accept-Language"!!!! It's there for a reason. Almost every website, from Google to Myspace to Facebook to Blogger, sends you web pages in a language based on your IP address. WHY???? Use the "Accept-Language"!! UGH! Seriously, can someone explain this to me?<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">See </span><a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec14.html#sec14.4" rel="nofollow" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #4a6b82; cursor: pointer; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">RFC 2616 HTTP/1.1 Accept-Language</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, 'Liberation Sans', 'DejaVu Sans', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px; text-align: left;">.</span>Juan Miguel Paredeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14027659645575367269noreply@blogger.com0