Flak is out for a while

Until some issues get resolved, I will have to sit out for a while. With the unlimited crashes that is plaguing UT every few minutes at this time due to whatever, the instability my system is encountering (I think it's thermal related) and the junk connection we have with our ISP currently (signed on and had 20 Mbps connection, currently...the speed is worse than dial-up) the entire internet experience is impossible to work with.

I may pop on here from time to time, but it took 10 minutes or so just to get to the point where I could type this. Even forums are at a crawl.

I will miss everyone... But it looks like I will get more reading done..but a lot of my studies is online, but that will be later and I hope the internet portion of our problems will be fixed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Monkey, out.

and to which internet god do we have to sacrifice elite to???
maybe that will fix you probs

will miss you hurry back

I WILL miss you.. really

Get back as soon as you can.

Update for everyone.

Found my thermal issue (BSOD and reset problem)
I found a black something sitting on my sound card...and another...then a spring on the desk. As I peeked inside, I saw a heat sink pointing in a 30 degree angle from the video card. A spring loaded heat sink anchor broke off and was overheating that chip. So, with a little poor mans ingenuity (no, not the handyman's secret weapon...duc tape). I poked a pin in the base and bent it, creating a stop for the spring loaded post to hold it in. So, hope this cures that problem.

The net access thing is in my system. The wife had 11 Mbps speeds where mine was just horrid. I had my system "repair" my network connection. It seemed to fix it but it was short lived. With this fix above, I'm hoping the hot chip was creating noise on the bus making poor network throughput (my network card is built into the MoBo). So far, I'm getting 3-5, nowhere near to what we had when we signed up last year (20 Mbps). but it's adequate. We shall see how long it lasts. I'm afraid the plastic post will weaken where I made the hole and eventually break, sending a metal pin bouncing towards electrically charged items that don't need to speak to one another that way.

But, I'm spending my time job hunting. Things are looking bleak in the financial dept. UI is looking to run out, unless I get an extension. Will need to find more answers tomorrow. I just cant find IT jobs at the moment. But, will keep looking. If things go wrong, well, we will be moving to more "affordable" housing. I'm afraid to what that will be.

Just checked my bandwidth again...it's degrading...now getting .57 Mbps..fading fast. *sigh* I may need to deactivate this network card and get a new dedicated NIC...

sounds like you might have to go buy a tent!

Got a tent... but it fits me and camping gear.

Well, found out it's my on-board NIC. Borrowed a Linksys from school and now I'm getting 11 - 21 Mbps (depending on the server I test with). So that should be a relatively cheap fix...but not for another week or 2.

So, I can now study online when I can, and be back in the game as well, time permitting.

Now, off to bed. Was a long day.

Fast forward to this morning... May have an issue with my router as well. Plugged directly into the "modem" and what a difference. Cuz when I turned on the puter this morning, wasn't getting the results I did last night. So, I will try my spare router that I said I didn't need (I will never hear the end of it if it fixes the problems). If that works, then I will try the on-board NIC again and see if it continues to be the fix. I don't think it should as my wife was getting good throughput when I wasn't...so it all pointed to me having the issue. And when I turned off my computer, her web performance was even better. So it was like I was creating chatter on the network hurting performance. We shall see, but for now...I'm screamin' fast. Even the upload speed is 5X faster at this moment. More to come...

Connection to the old router told me to switch it out (it was funky as well)...So we are switched. Here is a hint for everyone. Always check what voltage input your peripherals take. Even between same model # equipment, things can change. Case in point: I bought a replacement router, same model # as the old one, but the voltage requirements were different. The old one took 5v, 2 amp input. New one took 9v, 1 amp input. Evidently they changed something in the model version that I got in place now to warrant the change. But always check, or you could have a nice, smokin' paperweight.

Now I'm afraid to plug in the old NIC in fears that it too is a problem and maybe helped permanently impair the old router. So I will leave as is till I get all my studies in and can buy a replacement.

so true on the power req's! but you should of used the new power supply that came with the router and not the old one at least unless you looked at the specs before plugging it in

it's kinda natural to save the new for in case the old dies ( i'm that way too

) but I always try to check the specs on the supplies to make sure their the same!
don't always remember to sometimes

guess its my electronics classes that I took in HS thats got me that way...............or is it from putz'n with the stuff before then?

My lesson was from a nest of power plugs of same and different sizes and I plugged the wrong one into a friends router and kinda fried it. So ya, lessons hard learned. :-

ya I remember make'n sparks fly and things smoke a time or two thru the yrs cuz I did not properly check things first!

Out for a long while. Yesterday, loading up Torlan for some TDM, the map just tweaked on me, bad. I thought going out and back in would fix it. I got dirty graphics and artifacts galore. Got out of UT, screen ok. Back into UT and intro and all, artifacts all over. Something messed up on the 3D side of things, either the card or the Mobo. I have been noticing whatever is wrong is slowly getting worse. So I guess I'm out till I get the money to fix this right or (better yet) build a new rig. So, guess the 600 club will have to wait.
Guess I will get more study time in...as hard as that is to get these days.

Monkey, out.

hey do you have a Fry's store near you? they have some good deals every now and then like today the got a evga nvida 8500 512mb vid card for $14.99 after rebates

I replaced the vid card...the problem persists. I can only guess it has damaged the mobo as well with all the overheats. And now, if I try and go it, I get a CD Key error even though it is correct, it says it's invalid or something. I just received my replacement DVD ROM drive in the mail the other day, so maybe a reload will fix the error. I may do a restore on an old backup as well in the system directory. Will see what happens.

Well, the DVD arrived last week. Got a chance to do some work today as I didn't have any jobs on the road to do except parts management at the base store. So, along with other odds and ends I did with my wife, I installed the DVD drive, Removed that Aerogate II that is worthless (sounded good when I built this thing). Removed the giant, silver, braided IDE cable that connected my 2nd HD and DVD with a nice, old, easy to work with ribbon cable as the new DVD is SATA. Dug in the garage for a second cable for that part and did some other cable management to clean things up. Looks much better now than the rats nest I used to have.

Anyway, will see what I can do with UT if I want to try and do a recover from my back up or just do a re-install, then copy over all the skins, settings, cache and maps.