#i want to be clear that the antivirus thing was actually a joke

[trxnquilite-blog]

can omnics make back-ups too?

I think they absolutely could, if they so choose! While I’m sure a lot of them just sync up certain things like cherished memories, others would backup their entire personalities and everything just in case something were to happen to their body, and they could just download into a new one.     Some would backup to a universal cloud feature, which isn’t the safest method; if hackers were to gain access, things could get out there that omnics wouldn’t want to be out in public, or vital files could be deleted from the cloud. Others would backup to local drives that they personally own (to which they could connect via wireless means), which would probably be a touch more secure but if they lose the drive then they lose everything.     An amount of omnics - such as the Shambali, but often regular civilians will have the same stance - prefer to not back themselves up, living more like humans do; if their brain is destroyed then that’s the end of them. They are more resilient than humans, given that if their bodies are destroyed but their brain survives then they can be put into a new body, but they still only chance at life, unlike those who decide to backup their entire personalities, who could potentially live forever.

[king-killaway]

Hope: What do we have without it?

Dr. Victor Cannerts had become a very busy man once Thomas had been introduced, he hardly slept and was constantly working on finding a cure. The rats being one of the only other beings near him, and even they were infected.

Of course he was being extremely careful to not become infected himself, working with three sets of gloves was always irritating, but necessary. Once a rat died, he bagged it and anything it touched, before tossing it in a waste bin near the door. Everything was becoming frustrating and being sleep deprived wasn't helping.

However, one highlight of his mood was when Jake Riley stopped by after his patrol. Instantly Victor had taken to the man, he's handsome, optimistic, hard working and understanding. The only problem was he was stuck here in the quarantine as well. Vic was here on duty, he wasn't about to leave these people, but Jake? Jake was in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Victor simultaneously hated and loved himself for it. For one he loved seeing the man, it always seemed to make everything worth it. But, he felt guilty. Jake was at risk every day he stayed here, double so since he basically lived at the hospital.

Victor also didn't miss that both him and Katie were getting closer, and at first he thought he was jealous of her. But, he found that he just wasn't. He did want Jake's attention, but he was also finding that seeing the two together was making Victor happy too. Katie was an interesting character that even Vic could see himself loving. She was just as determined and ambitious as he was. They had both crawled into his mind.

Which is why it hurt when he noticed how much they're distrusting of him. Honestly he couldn't blame them, but was still disheartening.

Perhaps that's why he kept going, regardless of how much sleep he had lost, how much he wasn't eating in search of a cure.

Also why he was glad he was wearing a mask when Jake stopped by after his latest patrol, it hid his smile.

"Doctor Cannerts." Jake had paused at the viewing windows, his police uniform and helmet bulking up his frame. Victor put down the rat he was holding, then the syringe. He was testing his latest experimental antivirus. If it worked they were in the clear.

"Officer Riley." Victor offered, moving to the door. He stepped out and leaned against the wall, watching the male. Jake glanced at him, before watching the rat.

"Think it'll work?"

No

"We have to hope." Victor answered, inspecting the color of Jake's eyes, before traveling down his figure. Fit, clearly for an officer, and holding himself without a slouch. Victor was envious, his own frame was much too thin, too skin and no muscle. He is a man of science after all.

Jake laughed, genuinely laughed. "Hope. What do we have without it?" Victor smiled softly.

"Death, I suppose?" Jake scoffed, tearing his gaze from the rat to question Victor.

"That's... Hopeful." Victor shrugged, crossing his arms.

"I have to be hopeful, Jake. Otherwise my sleepless nights awake working will be for nothing. This virus, it's ruthless, so I have to be too."

"But, you're not ruthless." Victor frowned. He's right, but Vic had no other choice.

"You don't trust me." Jake himself frowned, clearly not expecting that. "Neither you or Katie."

"Doc-"

"No, I understand. I haven't been exactly wholeheartedly truthful." Jake shifted on his feet, turning completely now to face the man. He was listening intensely. "I'm a doctor, hiding bit of the truth is part of the job. But," He trailed off.

"But?" Jake took a step closer, luckily they both had protective gear on and Jake still had his visor down.

"But, there have been a few things I think you should know. You both should know."

Another step closer and Jake was looking down at Victor, his arm up on the wall, blocking him. "Then talk."

Vic sighed, glancing away, afraid of what Jake's reaction would be once he did.

"The infection rate is taking longer. Rather than 48 hours to take affect, it's taking longer for symptoms to show at all." He closed his eyes and took another breath. "Katie was right about patient zero, it wasn't the Syrian kid." Jake huffed and Victor winced. "My attempts at a cure or antivirus, or, or anything, are failing more than getting anywhere." Jake took another step closer and Vic began to curl around himself, still refusing to look him in the eye.

Now or never

"And," Victor held his breath. He could do this, he had too, he needed the man to see, to understand. To realize and trust him. "I think I'm in love with you." It came out in a whisper, and Vic was surprised that Jake had even heard it. But by the way his hand slipped and how he caught himself againist the wall, he definitely heard.

"What?"

Victor finally opened his eyes, letting himself see Jake. He had moved back, watching Vic in was could only be a mix of pity and confusion.

"Why?" Jake muttered. "Why lie to us?"

Vic shook his head.

"I was trying to stop the spread of panic, isolate the cells, and-"

"Damnit Victor, speak straight! Stop avoiding the actual question." Jake had paused, standing up straight. "If you really, really love me then tell me the truth. I want to trust you." His voice had calmed and lowered to just above a whisper.

"I lied because I didn't want to worry you both." Victor pointed to the rats. Noticing that the one he had been working on was already dead. "I lied, because I didn't want to believe it myself. Because I'm scared." He admitted, tears welling up in his eyes. "I'm so scared Jake. Henry was supposed to be the only one. Then Dr. Sanders became infected. She was my ward. And I... I didn't know what to do." Victor was panicking now, tears actively falling.

Now Jake looked worried, but didn't rush to help. He just listened.

"I didn't know what to do, then Sabine called and said to lie about patient zero, so I... I. Jake,"

"You went along." Vic nodded. And Jake finally understood.

Victor had a small part to play to whatever was happening and then he was tossed in here like the rest of them. And now he was their scape goat. Jake couldn't be mad or blame him for that.

"Hope." Jake chuckled. His laugh was distorted, he too seemed overwhelmed with emotions. "We get a bunch of dead rats and two messed up love stories."

Victor choked. "So you do love her?"

"Of course I do doc." Jake took a moment to think. "And I don't think she'll be the only one."

Victor snapped his gaze to Jake's, digging through his look to figure out what that had meant. His tears had stopped, but some refilled his eyes.

"Vic, I trust you. And I'm hopeful that you'll find a cure. We need you to find a cure." Victor nodded. "But I can't watch you do this to yourself. When was the last time you ate? Or slept?"

"I- don't know." His face scowled as he tried to think. "A couple of days."

"Exactly. Here," He pulled off his helmet, "go take a shower and change. You have a date to get ready for."

"Excuse me?" Victor was shocked and wasn't sure if Jake was joking or not.

But the man chuckled. "I'm serious. You need a break and," his eyes flickered to the rats, "something tells me you won't leave without a push. So, go take a shower and I'll get us something to eat. Meet me in the waiting room." Then Jake walked away.

A break would be nice

When Victor entered the waiting room turned sleeping quarters, it wasn't just Jake who was waiting. Katie was there too, although, she looked less than pleased once she saw Vic.

"There you are." Jake called out with a smile, ignoring the glare Katie was sending his way. Victor couldn't stop himself from shifting uncomfortably. And also ignoring the safe space rule that Victor had come up with, Jake pulled him into the room completely, before placing a hand on his shoulder and forcing him to sit down. "Rehydrated spaghetti!" He spoke like it was the greatest thing in the world. And Victor noticed that three plates of a small serving of the food had been laid out. "I hope it was okay that I invited Katie too?"

Jake himself looked nervous under his cheerfully act.

"Uh, I don-" Katie cut him off.

"Jake I don't see why he's here." She was pissed, not at all wanting to be anywhere near the doctor, let alone eat with him.

"Like I said, the doc has some stuff to say. And the man hasn't eaten for awhile, he's no use to anyone starved to death." Jake sat down beside them both, already picking up his fork and getting into his food.

Katie didn't look impressed. "Then talk."

Victor wanted to laugh at the similarity, but caught himself when he finally glanced to look at Katie completely.

"Jake's right, I do have some things to admit." He glanced at Jake, who gave him a soft and encouraging smile. "Again. I already know that you knew I was lying, and yes, I had been. About a few things. I knew that the Syrian wasn't patient zero. Henry Burns was." He had to stop, his voice strained as he tried to keep himself from breaking down again. He had picked up his own fork, but was only fidgeting with the utensil. "I was given a call by the CDC to tell the public otherwise, and when Dr. Sanders, when she, she." He swallowed, trying to calm his breathing. "I went along, unsure of what to do. I'm sorry. I honestly shouldn't have lied."

Katie still didn't look happy, but she had shifted as if everything was getting to her, and her eyes had moved to Jake momentarily, asking if he was lying again. And when she didn't get a yes, she frowned. Somehow this might have been worse than the lie itself.

"Is that all?"

But the doctor was in no condition to respond. He was staring at the floor, eyes red and tears just barely being held back. So, Jake spoke up.

"No, this one is bad news."

"It's all bad news Jake."

"The infection rate is taking longer for symptoms to show." Victor said, look up, not trying to hide his sadness. "And I'm no where near closer to a proper cure."

At that, Katie grabbed her plate of food and walked away, leaving the two men alone.

"She'll come around."

"No, no she won't Jake. Not with me, not the way you are." Jake frowned, but didn't argue.

"Well, this is still a date!" Jake clapped his hands, putting up his cheerful facade again. "So, tell me about yourself."

They talked, and even with it's rough start, dinner turned out alright. Jake seemed actually interested in Victor, questioning whenever something caught his attention. And Victor hadn't noticed when their plates were empty, too busy chuckling at Jake's lastest stupid joke.

"Thank you." Victor smiled, watching as Jake shrugged and held out his hand. Vic hesitated, before reaching out with his own. When they met, Jake tugged him closer, until he had the doctor in a tightly held hug. Victor couldn't stop his incomprehensible stuttering, which Jake only laughed at.

"You needed that." Jake pulled him away, holding onto his shoulders, smiling dumbly as if a child was just gifted candy. "You needed all of this."

[albertinabourke-blog]

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[blazehedgehog]

Hey, kids! Can you figure out what’s wrong with my desktop?

I have some bad news: that Sonic Mania video review I’ve been working on for like, a month? It’s postponed. Maybe indefinitely. Well, not indefinitely, that’s dramatic, but the long story short is that my desktop may be dying or dead and I’m a little lost as to what to do. It’s a long story, and kind of boring, so you’ll have to click through to read the full post: 

9/29/2017: I hook my computer tower up in the spare bedroom at my brother’s place where I’m living until we can move in to our new apartment. It has been shipped from Colorado to Nevada in a moving trailer with as much padding as I could find. It probably still wasn’t enough. The system boots up fine, but very slowly, and software (especially games) stutters. I shut it down and touch a few connections inside the system, making sure the RAM, graphics card, and HDD connectors are firm. It’s not very thorough as far as checks go, but I start the system back up anyway. Stuttering is still there. The system doesn’t have internet yet, because even though I bought a $15 TP-Link USB Wifi adapter back in February or March in anticipation of this moment, I absentmindedly left it in storage. Storage doesn’t have lighting inside of the units, so finding the Wifi adapter will have to wait until the sun comes back out. I think maybe the stuttering will go away once I connect it to the internet, since some games act funny when they can’t connect to the web.

9/30/2017: With the TP-Link USB Wifi adapter installed, the system updates everything but the stuttering problem persists. Friends urge me to open the system and do a full check of all the connections. Some suggest taking everything out and reconnecting it. I don’t do that, but I do find that the CPU cooler is loose and that the backplate on my 1060 is also loose (this is me pushing down on the metal plate, which has separated from the 1060′s chassis a little bit, allowing the loose screws to raise up). I take the 1060 out and gently tighten all the screws so the backplate doesn’t shift around anymore, and I manage to snap 3 out of 4 of the CPU cooler pins back in to place (it’s one of those generic, stock Intel coolers). The 4th one kind of snaps in, but it’s a little mushy and these coolers are fragile so I figure it’s good enough. Amazingly enough, the computer starts up much faster and all stuttering in games is gone.

10/1/2017: A new problem has emerged: when the system sits overnight without being turned on, on first boot it will show the BIOS logo, POST, and then instead of loading Windows, it gets stuck on a black screen. While on this black screen, if I hit the reset button, the system boots normally. One friend suggests a power supply issue. I contact EVGA, my PSU manufacturer, who claim to have a 10 year warranty. EVGA says that doesn’t sound like a power supply issue to them, and we start talking about what it could be.

10/2/2017: I have this strange paranoia about the power cable I’m using for the tower and whether or not the surge protector is too old. I grabbed a newer surge protector from storage thinking that may also fix the stuttering problem, but since it didn’t fix that nor the black screen problem, I plug the computer directly in to the wall outlet and joke to myself, “hopefully this isn’t a bad idea.” Is it a bad idea? I can’t quite remember.

10/3/2017: Out of options, EVGA suggests I just disassemble the entire PC besides the the CPU and see if the black screen happens. If it doesn’t, reconnect the entire computer component-by-component until it happens. Then, simply replace that component. That sounds like a lot of work, and given how small this spare bedroom is, I don’t have a lot of room for that kind of stuff. I’ll have to psyche myself up for it.

10/4/2017: Suddenly I realize: the first time the system started up, it didn’t have the black screen problem. It was only after I connected the TP-Link USB Wifi adapter. I pull it out of the system before I start it up, and sure enough, it boots straight in to Windows. A quick Google search reveals others, with nearly identical models of TP-Link adapters, suffering the EXACT same problem. It’s a long standing hardware conflict with a Windows 10 USB 3.0 Controller and TP-Link devices that neither are interested in fixing (and at least for some, seems to cause a variety of USB problems until they got rid of the device). This guy says his TP-Link device actually damaged a USB 3.0 port of his because of this problem. A friend suggests an internal PCIe Wifi card. It’s $60, which is a lot for someone who is still technically homeless, but you get what you pay for, and last time I cheaped out with the TP-Link adapter, it bit me in the butt -- so I go for it.

10/7/2017: The ASUS PCIe Wifi card arrives, I put it in, and it works with zero problems. The day is saved. Or is it?

10/11/2017 (12:45am): Around midnight I go to the bathroom and return to find my TV is turned off. My computer monitor is too big to use with my tower in this tiny room, so I have it connected to a TV. Same size, but the base is smaller, so it fits on this table easier. What this means is that when my desktop tells my TV to enter standby mode due to inactivity, the TV just reports “No Signal” and turns off after 30 seconds. Absentmindedly, I move the mouse but forget to to turn the TV on at first, and by the time I get the TV on and it stops showing the Vizio logo, the computer is already mid-reboot for some reason. Seems like coming out of standby with no display may have crashed the video card. Surely it’ll come right back on.

1:05am: Windows has been stuck on a loading spinner for close to 20 minutes. I’m getting worried and looking up stories from people who left their system sit on this same spinner for hours, even days, with no progress. The HDD activity light hasn’t blinked in a while. The system is just sitting there. Some solutions say to just shut it off and try again. So, I throw caution in to the wind and go for it.

1:15am: It takes at least another five minutes of loading spinners, but the system finally boots. Seems like Windows may have rolled back to a restore point as some icons have been moved around on the desktop to old positions, but not everything was rolled back (the event viewer makes no note of this). Not only that, but my ASUS PCIe Wifi Card is gone. Windows is complaining about there being no ethernet connection, which it shouldn’t be doing. Checking the device manager, the ASUS wifi card is there, but it’s saying there “aren’t enough free resources” for it to function. Code 12. A Google search on my tablet says this means it’s run out of IRQ slots. What? It wants me to disable other devices on my system to make room. Does that mean something with my Elgato or the 1060 is broken? Given this was apparently a video error, I’d say the 1060. The day before, GeForce Experience had notified me of new drivers and I ignored it because I was in the middle of something. Maybe I stumbled upon an IRQ bug they patched?

1:35am: I uninstall, reinstall, disable, and renable the PCIe wifi card repeatedly. I get out the CDROM that came with the PCIe card and install the “official” ASUS drivers instead of whatever Windows thinks it needs (Windows says it’s a Broadcom device; it’s not). Nothing changes: every time I reboot, it’ll say wifi connections are available, but when I connect, I get wifi for a split second and then the device disappears and stops functioning. I’m considering downloading clean Nvidia drivers on a USB stick using my laptop to see what that does.

1:50am: I’ve run the Windows Hardware Troubleshooter. It states the obvious: hey, your wifi card’s not working. It claims to do some magic behind the scenes but nothing works. The problem evolves and the Hardware Troubleshooter next says the wifi card’s drivers might be faulty, even though five minutes ago they were fine. Look, all I need is those Nvidia drivers. I plug in the TP-Link USB Wifi adapter, knowing that’ll give me internet long enough to download the driver update. This was a bad idea -- I’d uninstalled the device completely, and I think it needed the drivers disc before you plugged it in to the USB port. Windows seems to summon drivers from somewhere, for something, and instantly the whole system is brought to its knees and eventually BSODs with a DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION. This essentially means that a piece of software caused an extreme memory leak (or something similar) and this is Windows catching it before it could cause real data corruption from an overflow or something.

2:13am: The system boots up after the DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION blue screen and I load up Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU), ready to, at the very least, clear out what is probably just a bad Nvidia driver. DDU says I should run it in Safe Mode, and I idly wonder if maybe I can just turn my antivirus off. I disable Malwarebytes, and for some reason pop in to the Device Manager to have one last look to see if the Wifi Card is still broken. Instead of being broken, it’s merely disabled. That’s... new. I re-enable it and suddenly Wifi just... works. I have full internet again. It’s like nothing was wrong. What? I didn’t actually fix anything. Why is it working now? Maybe it was me turning off Malwarebytes? Was it conflicting with Windows Defender? (for the record, I’d had Malwarebytes installed for a while but all of its real-time protections were turned off -- until the night before, where it updated to a free trial of the premium version and turned all the real-time protections on). Just to make sure no conflicts happen in the future, I uninstall Malwarebytes.

2:41am: Sure enough, I tell the Nvidia Tray Icon to update my 1060′s drivers and an entry appears in the Event Viewer saying the GeForce Experience is either missing or corrupt (The GeForce Experience handles driver installation and other things like video recording, etc.) The tray icon downloads and installs a fresh copy of the GeForce Experience to replace the corrupted stuff.

2:54am: Wifi disappears again. Same problem: there aren’t enough IRQ slots. When the GeForce Experience reinstalled and updated the drivers, the Nvidia Tray Icon went away and never came back. Maybe something’s still corrupted in there. I boot in to safe mode and use DDU to clean out the all traces of the Nvidia driver.

3:02am: When I restart with no graphics drivers, wifi is instantly working again. This looks promising. Fresh install of the drivers and everything’s looking like it’s back to normal.

3:40am: Wifi goes out yet again, because once again, it’s run out of IRQ slots. What do I gotta do to make sure this stays fixed? Well, since restarting last time fixed it, maybe restarting again this time will fix it.

3:45am: The system hangs on the “Restarting...” screen. Not sure what to do, I leave it there for a few minutes until eventually it cuts to a blue screen. Our old pal DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION is back.

4:02am: The system seems to have steady wifi for about 30-45 minutes before it runs in to that IRQ error and dies. Now, the IRQ error precedes a guaranteed DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION blue screen, usually by only a few minutes. I’ve also noticed that when the wifi runs out of IRQ slots, the ASMedia eXtensible USB 3.0 Host Controller also fails along with it (no error about system resources, it just stops working, this time with “Code 24.”).

4:45am: Something weird has started to happen. Wifi will dip out for just a second, but then come back and the system will be “fine.” It’ll still eventually BSOD with the Watchdog Violation, but it’ll keep the internet up until that moment.

5:10am: The event viewer starts spitting out weird warnings about “Reset to device, \Device\RaidPort0.” followed by messages about retrying “IO operations” on the Disk at “logical block addresses.” Checkdisk seems to not care, says all drives are healthy. Earlier in the night a friend mentioned checking out software called “WhoCrashed?” that analyzes BSOD crash dumps and can help tell you what’s going on. I have to clear some HDD space for it, but eventually it’s just a matter of time of waiting for the next BSOD. I also install a system resource monitor called WhySoSlow from the same place just to see what’s going on under the hood. At this point, it’s been over an hour, and I start to think maybe I won’t have another BSOD.

5:20am: Idly, I run a system integrity check (sfc /scannow). This scans core Windows components for errors. It says everything is fine.

5:50am: Within five or ten minutes of the integrity check finishing, “Application Responsiveness” and “Kernel Responsiveness” in WhySoSlow spike HARD out of nowhere. They go from 0ms to peaks of 200ms or more. It’s like when I plugged in the TP-Link device a few hours earlier. The system is incredibly sluggish, but the Event Viewer isn’t reporting anything out of the ordinary, the USB 3.0 controller’s still working, and so is the wifi. Even the system temperatures are normal (40C and below), so this isn’t a loose CPU cooler again. Regardless, boom: we have our Watchdog Violation BSOD to analyze.

6:08am: Windows is LETHARGIC to start up. It takes forever just to get to the desktop, and even longer to show icons. I manage to get it to load WhoCrashed and it analyzes five dumps made by Windows. Unfortunately, I can only read one and half of another. The system won’t shake this sluggishness and I know what that probably means. I snap photos of the two entries so I can look at them in detail later, with the other three impossible to read.

6:10am: Windows BSODs again with another Watchdog Violation. WhoCrashed said the Watchdog “detected a prolonged runtime at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL or above” and that this was “typical of a software driver bug” and not a hardware issue. Of the second memory dump it read, all I could make out was that the error happened in asstor64.sys -- aka the ASMedia eXtensible USB 3.0 Host Controller. I try to get Windows 10 to boot in to safe mode so I can have a look at the rest of the dump analysis, but Microsoft removed the ability to boot you system in to safe mode by holding F8. Now you have to actually get in to Windows and pick “Safe Mode” from a menu option. Hard to do that when Windows “loads normally” and eventually BSODs before you can get to the Safe Mode menu.

6:16am: Windows is still starting up INCREDIBLY slowly. I can’t even get the start menu to come up. And, before I know it, once again, boom: Watchdog Violation. They’re getting closer together.

6:20am: As Windows 10 once again lurches back to life, I try and get it to shut down, but the start menu still won’t come up. Instead I hit the power button to force a shut down, but it gets stuck on the “Shutting down...” screen for several minutes before also getting a Watchdog Violation Bluescreen. Instead, while it’s on the BIOS screen, I just power the system off entirely, frustrated.

And so here we are. I’m back on my laptop now. My incredibly slow, incredibly small laptop. I’m lucky to have it, but this thing has problems of its own I don’t want to talk about right now.

So what do we think happened? I’ve spoken to four or five friends now, and there are three running theories:

One friend says it sounds like a bad motherboard. This is the motherboard I have, and I paid $140 because I wanted something reliable. It was “Tom’s Hardware Smart Buy 2014.“ (I bought it in 2015 when it was on sale for Black Friday). Apparently ASRock Mobos have problems where if they lose power suddenly, they can develop problems, and the power apparently did go out yesterday (10/10/2017) in the morning while I was asleep. The system was off, however, but it was still connected directly to the outlet -- opening it up to power surges. Still, one would think power surge problems wouldn’t slowly get worse over time, and you’d think it’d manifest as a power supply problem first, right? Either way, I have a 10 year warranty on the EVGA PSU and even though Newegg doesn’t sell my mobo anymore, this one is nearly identical and costs $100. That’s a lot, especially after I complained about $60 for the wifi card, but it’s either that or no computer at all, period.

Other friends say to boot in to safe mode and reinstall all of my motherboard drivers. That’s an inexpensive option to be sure, but it really did seem like things were getting worse, not better. With as slow as the system was getting, it seems like hardware damage may have been done.

Related to the above, the BSOD problems didn’t start happening until I plugged in the stupid TP-LINK USB wifi adapter without reinstalling its drivers from the disc it came with. Could that be mucking up the internals? But again, if it was getting so slow, that probably at least means reinstalling Windows 10...

Or perhaps a fourth option that you out there on the internet know about...?

Anyway, this has been a hellish night, on top of a hellish week, on top of a hellish three months. Sickness and hospitals (and hospital bills) and almost not finding an apartment and now my computer progressively having a worse and worse meltdown. Any tips you out there have would be welcome.