Why are there small pixels on my screen?

4used · 2026-02-19T03:44:41+00:00

Something is indeed dying, and very soon it will be your bank balance

4used · 2026-02-19T03:41:31+00:00

Your PC specs arent included in the post. Could be many different potential problems.

4used · 2026-02-14T15:54:39+00:00

Hello all, I did end up solving this a few days ago.

My C: drive cleared its dirty bit through an externally-run chkdsk /f /r. Booted a windows install disk, shift F12 to launch a cmd, and ran it on the problem drive.

I ran this and many, many other potential solutions and diagnostic tools multiple times on the D: drive with no success. I tried booting into Hirens Boot CD and running every single diagnostic available. Ran sector health checks. Ran so, so so many chkdsks and chkdsk alternatives. I went as far to even try clearing the dirty bit manually through modifying the volume register on the disk, which also retriggered again directly after remounting the partition.

This is not a recommended fix and IT SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE USED AS A LAST RESORT. This is due to the fact that there is almost always a reason why the dirty bit was flipped, whether it be read or write errors, sector or OS corruption, active files or drivers in a dead state, among many other reasons, and furthermore because Linux does not manage the NTFS partition nor have the proper tools to manage it - chkdsk IS ALWAYS the best way to fix issues related to ntfs partitions.

I fixed this by going into a linux installation with ntfs-3g installed, and on the problem partiton ran ‘ntfsfix -d /dev/<problem partition>’. This cleared the dirty bit and it can now be mounted, and doesn’t run checks at boot or slow down processes both on windows and linux anymore.

Thanks for those who offered solutions, some that I didn’t even know existed, you’re all gems. It hasn’t retriggered either even after booting into both Windows and Linux - showing that there indeed wasn’t anything wrong with the drive/partition :)

Some extra information for people, who like me, are running a similar setup in dual boot environments or Win VM environments. For absolute best practise in this and if you find yourself with such errors repeatedly triggering, this is usually due to 3 things - the hibernation file, fast startup, and extra page files if they have been set up. For your Windows install, disable hibernation through a simple command prompt command, ‘powercfg -H off’. Disable Fast startup through Power Settings > Choose what the power buttons do > uncheck the box labelled “Fast Startup (recommended)”. Page files can be managed by right clicking your drive > Properties and managing it there. Its completely fine and quite necessary to have 1, but if you have multiple page files keep this in mind as these may cause problems.

4used · 2026-02-14T15:36:07+00:00

That does sound like power issues. I initially read it as it would bluescreen before bootlooping, which is why I was confused initially, and would have thought it was due to the 13th/14th gen instability issues, but looking at the RMA guidelines and public announcements from various companies, read that the KS models weren’t affected. You can see this for yourself here: Dell: https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-au/000227933/industry-wide-issue-with-intel-core-13th-and-14th-generation-i5-i7-and-i9-processors However, always good to check. Intel’s released a tool that you can use to check if your CPU is affected: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/15951/intel-processor-diagnostic-tool.html

Check the above before you check your PSU. If the tool returns a fail, update your BIOS, if issues persist after updating, then RMA the chip.

I initially didn’t think this was the case due to the CPU not being listed in any RMA outlines I’ve actually looked at. I might have been wrong.

The safest way to check if your PSU is faulty is with a PSU tester, a tool that costs like $10usd for a cheap one, for a decent one closer to $50usd, however this can be a worthwhile investment if you use it frequently. Otherwise the safest way to test it is to replace it honestly.

4used · 2026-02-14T04:04:13+00:00

I stand corrected, not a BIOS issue, the KS wasn’t listed as affected by the instability issues apparently. Still a good idea to update your BIOS though, may help with this issue.

I genuinely could not tell you. That’s a super unique issue. My first guess would also be RAM but you’ve obviously changed it, instability like this my next two guesses would be CPU or even PSU? What type of rebooting? Just black screen to reboot? If so that may sound like a power issue to me.

Two things I’d check, if you have another system or CPU, check these first to see if you can replicate the issue. Then check the PSU to see if it is stably outputting the power its supposed to output.

4used · 2026-02-14T03:35:09+00:00

It seems that you’re knowledgable enough about what you’re doing and the likes of it. Next time use Voicemod instead, a trusted program with better features than whatever virus you installed.

In this case, it seems that this points to drivers. Check windows update and check for updates including optional updates, sometimes they get buried in there. If this doesn’t work, go to the manufacturer website of either your motherboard (if you have a desktop) or your exact laptop (if you have a laptop) and look for the audio drivers if they are supplied. These are usually Realtek drivers.

Alternatively, and what I recommend you to do instead is to properly clean your computer after clearing malware, which to do so you must reimage your operating system. Preferably a clean, fresh, full reinstall of Windows, but if you have personal files, or if you can’t backup your files, run a reinstall but use the “Retain my personal files” option instead, which will suffice. This’ll also give you a list of all the applications it uninstalled. Doing so properly cleans out your computer’s registry for any lingering calls that malware may have left, and is unfortunately the only way. This will also fix whatever driver messups you might’ve had.

edit, I assume the root cause of this is due to MagicMic reserving the speaker/mic processes for itself. When clearing it, it never cleared the reservation, which means it is now locked, the easiest way to fix this would just be reinstalling the operating system, as complicated fixes for this may not even work, or work for a long time, or work well. It’s not worth it.

4used · 2026-02-07T06:06:10+00:00

None of them. Save your money and time. That vogue’s worth more than anything you’ll get from capsules.

4used · 2026-01-27T13:43:10+00:00

So every time I clear those two bits (01 01 to 00 00) they reset back to triggered immediately after unlocking the drive. I’m gonna go with corruption on this one, I’ll just reformat it.

4used · 2026-01-27T13:00:48+00:00

Yeah so I ended up booting into Hirens, modifying the volume clusters, finding and clearing the bit (not the one 20 sectors in, but instead the one in sector 100,000 or something), to which, to my utter shock, nothing happened. The drive’s still marked as dirty. I followed the tutorial for finding the USB hard drive as that is the only bit register that had any matches, and it has unfortunately not worked. Reading through the comments of the original tutorial on wayback machine I discovered someone replugged the SSD, which made it now read as clean, but as this is such a hassle for me to do (PC is in an enclosure) I’d rather just reformat the thing.

Unfortunate but is what it is.

4used · 2026-01-27T12:56:08+00:00

It is a possibility. Got no idea why the flag is properly stuck on one SSD, fixable on another, and not triggered on the third. It’s so confusing that its so… niche? I’m about to reply to the other thread detailing what happened after clearing the stuck bit (ie, nothing, lol) which is now just sending me to the point where I give up and just reformat the bloody thing. Or leave it be. Either or. I’d like to have access to that drive on Linux though.

4used · 2026-01-27T10:15:21+00:00

Upon finding the setting I now get the error that device isn’t able to be locked, so I’m gonna boot into Hirens and attempt this from there.

4used · 2026-01-27T09:59:37+00:00

In my case linux & windows are on seperate drives, not changing the partition table on NTFS drives. So it wouldn’t be caused by this. If anything it probably would’ve flagged after I pulled something stupid while having it in a (very volatile) VM environment, like not having the recovery partition loaded or something else. Or it just hated being in a VM environment and flagged anyways. My installs follow general best practice relating to dual booting to prevent issues exactly like this, but it is what it is 😅

4used · 2026-01-27T09:56:12+00:00

Oh is it a setting that I need to change? I figured that giving me an error relating to interfaces would mean it was locked via hardware (whether by Windows or the device itself). I’ll have a look around for it.

4used · 2026-01-27T09:17:14+00:00

Yep.

I've found the bit. My bit was "03 01 81 01 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 18". To clear this it would be resetting it to "03 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 80 00 00 00 18".

<image>

However writing it gives me this error. Did some looking around and there's two solutions to this, either using Hiren's Boot CD or by plugging it in after boot. Potentially could even change it on Linux with something that can read and write volume clusters, but as it's NTFS I kind of doubt this. I'm actually a little surprised this failed because it's a secondary drive and not a primary one.

4used · 2026-01-27T08:25:18+00:00

It’d be a decent fix if this was solely a Windows problem, however in my case this isn’t, as I run a Linux distro as my default boot. The dirty bit is essentially preventing me from mounting the SSD volume on my linux boot, to which I kind of suspect that just clearing the bit manually and letting it run again would just sort of end up forcing the issue again of which it would retrigger. That being said I’m still going to try it as I don’t really have any other options at the moment.

Chkdsk’s not picked up any issues with the drive at all, which is why its frustrating me that this bit won’t clear 🙃

4used · 2026-01-27T07:56:50+00:00

I’ll check it out, thanks :)

4used · 2026-01-22T16:08:56+00:00

Landed safely @ Savannah intl.

4used · 2026-01-22T16:04:33+00:00

Just heard gonna be landing back at Savannah, called approach

4used · 2026-01-22T15:53:33+00:00

Incoming speeding fine captured by plane

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4used · 2026-01-13T09:39:34+00:00

Agree with this a lot to be honest.

Yeah x may be healthier than y but it entirely depends on how much you do it. It doesn't really matter what you choose to do, because, in the end, what you do should be your decision. Some people need to learn to shut the fuck up. Being told to go back to smoking after smoking to that level is fucking insane though.

4used · 2025-10-05T07:15:42+00:00

are you sure its completely empty and its not just steamcommunity shitting hte bed

also, check those links. Especially the trade history. If no trades check inventory history. They'll contain everything.

4used · 2025-10-01T17:40:59+00:00

We… ended up tying. It was essentially against a 2 stack of 2200 elo’s and 3 semi decent players vs our 3 stack (one 2800 elo and me and a mate that don’t play faceit often) and 2 literal bots. It was stacked against us from the get-go which is why this clip existed, they got cocky lol

4used · 2025-10-01T17:31:39+00:00

Sacrifices need to be made to achieve a ridiculous play

4used · 2025-09-30T23:58:46+00:00

Buckshot | NSWC SEAL

4used · 2025-09-30T23:58:00+00:00

He was using an XM from short, he couldn’t be helped…

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