The Mind Of OverlordTomala
Computing

FRAPS and my R9 290 might need to get a divorce (plus some PAX drivers).

Despite the reinstall I managed to get more black screens of death yesterday. I was ready to RMA my card in, but then I decided that since it was a fresh install of Windows 7 and I had only so many things installed I could do a process of elimination. What was one of the last programs that I installed? FRAPS.

I uninstalled FRAPS and left the computer on all night without any crashes. I’m even on the winter drivers for AMD which are more sensitive to crashing and nothing has happened. Could it have been FRAPS running in the background causing me grief the whole time?

It wouldn’t surprise me actually. I’ve been back to their website a few times to see if they’ve pushed any updates. Their last update was back on February 26th… 2013.

I find that odd considering in the past they pushed out updates more frequently. In a years time there have been a lot of new video card releases and driver updates, plus games update a lot which require outside companies to fine tune their software in order for it to work with the latest bleeding edge tech. I remember an issue I had with filming any newly updated Source game, and I had to update my copy of FRAPS in order to start filming again. But now, since it looks like the beepa team has fallen off of the face of the earth pretty much, I’ll have to look into something like liteCam.

Update

It seems another possibility for crashes might be the latest PAX audio drivers. Removing FRAPS stopped the lockup’s but continued to fall in and out of black screening and fractals. So far it’s much more stable on an older set.

Computing

Results so far.

Well, I’m up and running on the new Win 7 install. I’ve decided to run it as a test though since one way or another I’ll be migrating my Windows OS drive over to an SSD in the future when there is a nice sale. So far I’ve only had one issue where after restarting the system locked up while making a high pitched squelching noise. At least it wasn’t a blackout. I’m going to leave this running while I’m sleeping to see if it triggers anything (that and I need to repair the RAID anyway).

I’ll head back into the old install later so I can work on a few things. But I’ll mainly be using this install, beating it up accordingly until I can confirm everything is fine.

Oh, and happy weekend to me. 😀

Work

This is why you don’t shop over the phone.

Last night I got a weird call at work. I had to deal with a man calling on behalf of his wife who wanted to know how well Carhartt jeans fit compared to Levis and Wranglers. The conversation involved me repeating myself over and over again, getting creeped out by the guy in general, and me trying to keep utmost patience.

First, I had to explain that we no longer carry ladies sizes in Carhartt, and that if she wanted any she would require a man’s size. He wanted to know if they came in a size 8 and I had to explain to him that men’s pants are not sized that way (they go by waist and height rather than just a number). I had to repeat that a few times. He wasn’t deaf or anything, he was just trying everything he could to shop over the phone.

Then he wanted to know if I would know how they would fit compared to other pairs of jeans and I told him there really wasn’t a difference for, but that’s just me. He thought this meant that these jeans would fit perfectly for ANYONE and I had to explain no, people have personal preferences. What one person likes could be what another person doesn’t fit into. And with sizing varying from country to country and company to company it would be best to have her try them on herself (I had to repeat that 17 times. I counted). He wanted to know what size I wore, and I tried to give an example but couldn’t remember if it were 30×32’s or 32×30’s that I wore. “So you’re a medium size right? Are you a heavy medium or a thin medium?”. Then he told me that his wife was 5 ft 4 and wanted to know my size. When I told him he said “Wooow you must be all leg” I tried not to barf… Then I had to explain to him that she might have issues finding a size that she won’t have to hem. I again recommend coming in and having her try them on, and at that point he held the phone up to his wife so I could explain this to her. Because apparently him just telling her “Lets go shopping and try pants on tomorrow” was too difficult to of a phrase to speak of. What was really creepy though was that when I tried to talk to her I heard no female voice. She didn’t speak, I didn’t hear any breathing, it was just the guy telling me “Don’t worry she can hear you!”.

After 20 minutes of repeating myself and him asking me about my dimensions and height he finally decided to give it a rest. He asked what our closing time was and I told him we were closing in 30 minutes. After wondering if they would make it down on time he decided that they would just go shopping in the morning.

That’s assuming said woman actually exists and that he wasn’t actually just getting his jollies. I guess he makes regular calls to the others asking about young teens pants and wants to speak to workers who wear them… Oh well, I guess it’s cheaper to call stores rather sex hotlines.

Computing

*snap* back to reality

Enabled the ASMedia controller yesterday and everything seemed fine. Then tonight I got a random black screen while typing a response on another blog. Fuck it, I’ll just torch the OS and start fresh. I hate going through Windows Update Hell but if it has to be done then it has to be done.

So I guess I get to resurrect this photo:

computerwork

Oh well, time to reschedule it I guess. 😛

All in an Overlord's day / Computing

Computer status update.

Well, I guess I can cancel my reinstall of Windows for now. Still haven’t had any crashes, and I’ve even enabled my ASMedia controller tonight since I’m pretty sure I’ve nailed what the culprit was. I think tomorrow I’ll plug in a hard drive into the hot swap bay and see if it throws a shit fit.

I had a pretty busy-ish evening after work, so I didn’t have time to really write about anything (or work on anything for that matter). Will try and post more later today/tomorrow.

Computing

No crashy?

I got my Logitech F710 a few days ago, and I plugged it into my main system to test. I also decided to remove the controller program that came with it since it was messing up my buttons in certain games. Since then I haven’t crashed once. Could it be that this entire time it was the software conflicting with something? I’ll have to test this more but I feel like I might be onto something.

Gaming

Carmageddon: Reincarnation

One of my most anticipated games for this year has finally been released (and in early access no less). Carmageddon: Reincarnation can now be purchased on Steam for $29.99. For those who have never heard of Carmageddon it’s a racing game like no other! The object isn’t about racing around the track to beat the other racers, hehehheheheh that would be too boring. You have to beat your enemies… to a pulp by running into them. If you’re the sensitive type you probably shouldn’t watch this trailer:

I had fun in the original versions. Can’t wait to tear into that and give it a spin. I always liked the electro bastard ray among the other power-up’s (and downs) you could get in the series.

Uncategorized

Video stuffs will be post poned for a bit.

computerwork

My computer has been acting up under Windows 7. Since I never gave it a clean reinstall after adding the new motherboard, processor and video card I’m thinking I should just clean things up and try again. It’s annoying to be typing or working on something and suddenly get a black screen crash. The worst part is that it happens randomly, and the event log isn’t telling me anything to help me pinpoint it. If a reinstall clears all of my troubles it’ll be great.

Are you fucking serious?

If you look up the definition of irony you’ll find Sen. Leland Yee

I’m a firm believer in karma. And man did the karma hit Senator Lee like a drunk plane into asphalt.

Let me set this up, because it’s just majestic… Senator Yee back in 2005 tried to pass a law that would ban violent video games from California. It failed. Then with all of the shootings that have been taking place (notably Sandy Hook) he felt it was time again to say his piece, but first telling anyone who is a gamer to basically shut up.

“Gamers have got to just quiet down. Gamers have no credibility in this argument. This is all about their lust for violence and the industry’s lust for money. This is a billion-dollar industry. This is about their self-interest.”

Now here is where the irony sets in. He’s against guns, gun violence, and violent video games that happen to include guns that he got his ass in hot water over trafficking guns.

According to the criminal complaint filed in San Francisco this week, Jackson operated a consulting business where he worked closely with Yee on his multiple campaigns, including his 2011 San Francisco mayoral campaign. The duo managed to solicit donations from undercover FBI Agents in excess of the $500 donation limit; at least one of those FBI agents, who was posing as a businessman, wrote Yee a $5,000 check to his mayoral campaign.

After Yee lost, he faced $70,000 in campaign debt. He and Jackson solicited the same “business associates” to help pay that off, and in exchange, offered up “certain official acts.” The purported corruption continued well into Yee’s campaign for Secretary of State this year. According to the complaint, he continued tapping the undercover FBI agents for more money, and in exchange, he did them favors — including facilitating a meeting with an arms dealer to traffic weapons through the Port of Newark in New Jersey.

Violent video games = bad. Selling guns for a profit = Totally ok!

Gotta love ol murica.