Passed memtest as well as an OCCT run. Maybe I’ll try
sfc /scannow
Got it. I’ll start it tonight and see how things are looking in the morning
So I have a fresh Windows 11 install on my PC; I did it to attempt to fix another issue I was having, but it turns out that was due to faulty RAM. Since I’ve been on the fresh install though, I've been encountering hard crashes that I can’t diagnose.
I’ve installed drivers (Chipset, CPU, GPU)
Updated my SSD firmware (though not on my boot drive or for my hard drives)
Updated BIOS
Reset CMOS
Have my GPU running stock and very well-cooled
I do have XMP enabled, as well as PBO on my 5900X. There was no issue with these for the year+ I was on my old Windows 11 install, or on Windows 10 before that, and I’d really prefer to leave these on since I game on this computer.
I leave my computer running with the monitors off most of the time, since it also functions as a Plex server. Recently I’ve been leaving the screens on, and caught a DPC_Watchdog_Violation blue screen which had evidently hard-crashed once it reached 100%. A post from Tom’s Hardware recommended going into Control Panel to install “Standard SATA AHCI Controller” for my SSDs, which I did, but I’m still getting the hard crashing.
I’m at a bit of a loss here; the only real common factor is that my displays are turned off when the hard crashes occur. I left them on all day yesterday with no issue, turned them off through the night, turn them back on the today, still with no issue, and then had a hard crash this afternoon during the 1 hour period I had them switched off. Also, this issue has never occurred while I’ve been using my PC, and it seems to happen at random intervals.
I’ve had issues with hard crashes in the past related to GPU temps and messing with the GPU voltage, or playing with CPU voltage, but never something like this. This didn’t happen while I was using my PC like this on the previous Windows install.
EDIT: Did 2 runs with memtest (all tests selected) and it passed both times. Also ran OCCT with the more demanding workload, and again no crashes
Not a right-wing source in and of itself, but Corey Robin’s The Reactionary Mind explores the history and philosophical underpinnings of conservative thought from Burke/Hobbes on through the 21st century, on a variety of different topics. It’s a serious engagement with the ideas, and attempt to understand them and their origins
It’s DDR4 so not crazy expensive; I went ahead and got a new kit. Thanks for your help!
Swapped the new kit in and it works perfectly now. Thanks for the help!
Here’s hoping it’s RAM (memtest seems to suggest so); thankfully DDR4 is probably as cheap as it will ever be right now
Ultimate boot looks like an extremely useful tool, thanks for mentioning that. After testing each RAM stick in the primary slot for my MOBO, I’m running memtest and getting a lot of errors (now over 500 and still on pass 1)
Running memtest, I’m at over 400 errors before the first pass even completed. I take it that’s probably a RAM issue?
Are there vendor tools that run off of a flash drive like memtest? I can’t boot into windows at all
I haven’t reset the CMOS yet; I’ll give that a try. But I did try booting with a single stick inserted, swapping them out, and both attempts gave me a BSOD (the critical system error one). My CPU cooler has a tiny fan for the VRMs, and my case has excellent airflow, so I think that one is less likely
I leave my computer running for long stretches because it also acts as a plex server. I turned my monitor on last night to open steam, and the window didn’t render in; I didn’t think much of it, but before I could restart my PC, I got a “memory management” BSOD. I turned off XMP, as well as taking out each RAM stick, but I continued to get BSODs. Either “memory management” or “critical process error”. Some other things I’ve attempted:
I can’t reset the PC; when I try, I’m told “there was a problem resetting your PC”.
I can’t use a system restore point; that also fails.
When I open the terminal and run
sfc /scannow
it finds and fixes corrupt system files every single time (I’ve attempted 3 times now), but I still get a “critical process error” BSOD.
I attempted running
DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth
before “sfc” but this got an error 87 and didn’t work.
When I turn on the PC, my lights for DRAM and VGA stay lit up for maybe 5-10 seconds, but turn off while I’m in BIOS or the windows startup repair screen (and my monitor is plugged into the graphics card; my CPU can’t do display out).
I’m at a bit of a loss here. My next guess would be to attempt to reinstall windows, but I don’t have another windows PC handy to create bootable media, so I’m hoping I have a thumb drive laying around with an ISO on it, or I’ll need to wait to get one from a friend.
Also, in the event that reinstalling windows is the fix, should I disconnect the drives holding my plex media beforehand? Wouldn’t want to risk them getting wiped
An update: I have a drive with installation media for Windows 10 laying around, but when I got to the point where it was installing files on my boot drive, partway through it said it didn’t have the required files and cancelled.
THE FIX: Turns out it was an issue with my RAM. I plugged in a thumb drive containing memtest, and after running the test received a ton of errors. Swapping in a new RAM kit seems to have totally resolved my issues. The PC boots up perfectly fine now
I don’t see there being a sale at all. ByteDance isn’t gonna sell the world’s hottest social media platform simply because a foreign country demands it, and even if it were a lucrative enough offer to be tempting, the CPC wouldn’t allow it anyway. If something like this happened in the other direction, I think 1/4 of the US Senate would go into cardiac arrest on the spot, and there’s exactly a 0% chance it would be allowed to happen
While I’m sure their casualties are undercounted (as are everyone’s), I find it very easy to believe that the real numbers are still low; dropping guided munitions on children doesn’t expose your troops to much risk
Oh absolutely! I’ve heard the term “power gamer” used to describe people who love building the perfect, 100% optimal character that is multiclassed just so with such and such items, who can do X amount of damage per round, and so on. I think some people use that as a derogatory term but I don’t see it that way. It’s just how some people like to play, just as some people like to play characters who are this race with this color hair and an elaborate backstory, stats be damned.
There are absolutely people out there like what you’re asking for. Lots of combat, exploration, puzzles, and roleplay is restricted to basic narration (“my character asks where the bad guy is” “ok, roll persuasion”). They have a presence online as well, for example r/3d6 on Reddit, but it’s a bit smaller/less vocal than the RP folks I think.
Here’s my source. It’s the latter case, they use digital sales figures from the companies that provide them.
You raise a good point: if Larian aren’t sharing sales figures then it’s not possible to definitively compare them. I don’t think the 22M figure is very credible (as the other commenter said it doesn’t match up with the data we do have regarding player count/copies sold, and came completions) but even 5-7M copies sold sounds like it would place BG3 on the list. There’s enough bleakness in the gaming scene as it is, so I’m glad to hear it might not be quite as bleak as I thought.
I genuinely wonder how much it matters though. From online discussions you’ll see that Baldur’s Gate 3 is beloved by fans and held up as a benchmark for community engagement and listening to player feedback. It won GotY, had a launch far beyond anything the devs expected, and got incredible rave reviews.
But if you look at the top 20 best-selling games of the year, Starfield is #10 despite a lukewarm reception, numerous issues, and being accessible via Xbox Gamepass, while BG3 isn’t even on the list.
I think it really brings into perspective just how small a minority the people who post online about these things are, regardless of platform. Maybe the Gamers don’t know jack about your job, or maybe all their criticisms are 100% right. If it sells millions of copies either way, who cares?
The occasional salty dev, I guess
There’s a decent chance you might not be missing anything, it’s just not for you. Minecraft and Terraria are beloved titles that people put thousands of hours into, but I never got into them myself.
A turn-based CRPG is a very old-fashioned thing (the C stands for Computer), and it’s a pretty faithful adaption of a TT (tabletop, so pen-and-paper) RPG, which is even older (though the current ruleset for DnD is pretty new). I can definitely understand how Skyrim appeals to you but something like BG3 doesn’t; they’re fundamentally different games, and Skyrim is much faster-paced
I wonder why they decided to crank up fall damage compared to tabletop. A fall from that height in 5e is 3d6 bludgeoning
I like this concept, and I think at a table where players are more likely to just put random rings on and see what happens it could be a lot of fun. I also like the concept of losing fingers and how that might impact a character. Maybe it eventually imposes disadvantage on attacks for a melee character, or affects a spellcaster’s ability to use spells with material components. You could specify in the description if you like, but a DM could also have some fun figuring out the exact consequences
I see some important bits of info you should add:
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Is it an action or bonus action? Magic items in 5e will specify. So the description would read something like, “as an action, the wearer points the digit wearing the ring at a target within range, causing the ring to glow as it focuses its energy. On the wearer’s next turn…” Alternatively, if you don’t think it should require an action, you could say “When the finger wearing the ring is pointed at the target (no action required)…”
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What’s the range? The various spells have different ranges as written, but perhaps setting them all to one high value would be fitting for a legendary item
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What’s the spellcasting ability used? This informs the hit bonus/saving throw DC. For example, I as a DM would need to know what a target has to roll on their DEX save against that fireball.
That’s an interesting idea, and I can definitely see some groups liking that, but I don’t think it’s for my table. It would end up buffing enemies and skew balance towards casters. I do think it could be an interesting trait for a boss though, to represent especially potent spellcasting ability
Just a note in case anyone is worried I’m adding a mage to every encounter, I very rarely use counterspell against my players; it’s one of the spells I consider to have high “fun-ruining” potential.
I’m struggling a bit to decide on how to handle this interaction in a way that feels fair. From my understanding RAW, a character doesn’t know what spell is being cast. I think you can use your reaction to make an arcana check to discern it, but of course then you can’t counterspell it. For enemy spellcasters I generally describe what’s being cast, instead of naming the spell right away, but it can slow combat down, and is a bit one-sided since when a player casts a spell they lead with “I cast X”. This leads to an imbalance where I’m aware of what’s needed to counterspell something while the players are not, and can cause some awkwardness trying to decide how to play around that without metagaming.
I can think of a few different ways to handle this, each with its own drawbacks, but I’m curious to hear what y’all do at your tables!
I’m feeling a bit torn myself. I understand the thinking behind the vanilla rules; it helps balance out some of the spellcasters’ power, especially at higher levels. But my understanding of balance in 5e is that it’s to balance the players against each other, to avoid having 1 or 2 players be so clearly better at so much that it naturally pulls the limelight away from the rest of the party and causes people to lose interest their own character.
I think totally unrestricted spellcasting carries the potential for imbalance, but doesn’t guarantee that outcome, and if I’m not making my spellcasters manage their resources then I’m doing something wrong. Something like Matt Mercer’s house rule “spells of 2nd level or lower” would also be a good compromise because it allows the utility of things like Misty Step, or for a Gish to summon a shadow blade etc.
What do y’all do at your tables, and why?
I’m looking to run a prewritten campaign for 3-4 people, because I think it would improve my DMing as well as work on some of the basics for my players. What adventures do y’all like that start at lower levels (not level 1)? Ideally on the longer side, but shorter campaigns are fine too.
So I’m looking to finally build a dedicated plex server, instead of using my personal desktop, but I’m having a hard time deciding on components (for a tower). I would say 3 simultaneous 4k remote transcodes would be the goal.
There are some 12/13600k and Arc A380 bundles on Newegg that have caught my eye; at the very least I think I’d like an A380 to ensure AV1 10-bit support for the future. Am I missing out by not hunting for the perfect deal on an old Xeon or something off of eBay? I’m not really familiar with server components, and I don’t know to what extent I would benefit from features like ECC RAM.
I also figure that a hard drive array (RAID or Unraid) would be best, because it’ll be more than enough speed for my application and give me some data protection. I’ve got around 10TB of content right now, and have a 6TB and 8TB drive (both Seagate Ironwolf). If there’s a solution that would allow me to incorporate those instead of just buying all new drives I’d be especially interested in it. Also, from what I understand I can get some decent enterprise drives for a reasonable price?
Finally, OS; I’m most familiar with Windows, but I’m willing to try something Linux if there’s enough of a benefit
I torrent (on the same PC that I run a Plex server from), but also auto connect on my devices whenever I’m on public wifi, so speed and avoiding blocks/captchas is also important. From what I understand having port forwarding will make a big difference in my torrent transfer speeds and ability to connect to peers.
I’m currently using Nord, but I’d like to make the switch to a company with a better privacy track record. I’m still really drawn to PIA because of the speeds and port forwarding, but I know their ownership is pretty sketchy, even if there’s nothing to point to there (yet). Mullvad dropped port forwarding, which seems to leave ProtonVPN. But now I’m hearing that the influx of Russian users post-invasion has increased the number of sites and services that block PVPN servers?
It seems like despite the huge amount of choices, nothing checks all the boxes except PIA. Am I missing something, or misinformed?
Playing through as Gale. In tabletop DND, all wizards are able to use ritual casting from the start, but I’ve picked up Find Familiar and I’m not seeing the option to do that, nor do I see it listed in his character description (N isn’t pulling up a character sheet for some reason)
EDIT: Ritual casting confirmed, just works differently than I had assumed
What set of English subtitles should I be looking at to use with the 2015 Japanese Blu Ray release? There are a lot of English releases over the years, but are there any that I could basically just drop in without needing to figure out syncing?
So I’ve got a rip of the Japanese Blu Ray of Evangelion, and I’d like to turn it from a jumble of numbered .mts files into something more useable. How do I get started going about that process? As an example, if I download a raw CD rip, I can use cuetools to turn it into a list of .flac tracks ready for listening. Is there some similar software (or multiple programs) for Blu Rays? I’m not really familiar with working with .m2ts files and don’t know where to start
EDIT: makeMKV worked (just to test, handbrake did as well, because the version I have has no DRM, but bear in mind that HandBrake is going to transcode/compress the resulting file by default). This turned the contents of the disk into 1 MKV file, which I could then run through MKVToolNix and split into individual episodes
From what I understand, Threads will be joining the fediverse, and Bluesky is going to be federated. Will I eventually be able to access both from my Lemmy instance? I’m also still trying to wrap my head around the whole concept so I’m not even sure if I’m asking my question correctly