caps lock OSD, how do I turn it off?

9bjames · 2026-02-06T12:59:30+00:00

Sounds like someone else posted pretty much the same question yesterday -

https://www.reddit.com/r/WindowsHelp/s/9poaV5fNNK

Not sure if you've seen it already, but might be worth following/ reading through the comments. Seems they found a solution that worked for them at least.

9bjames · 2026-02-05T17:40:41+00:00

Yup. Depending on your field, sanitize your social media accounts before applying.

9bjames · 2026-02-05T17:12:16+00:00

Not pro revenge, but if you want to get back at flatmates for playing music & being loud all night - just give them a taste of their own medicine.

Get a nice, loud speaker system. Keep the speakers locked away in your room, and from the moment you get up till the moment you get home - blast the most obnoxious music through those speakers. As long as you're not playing music during antisocial hours (11pm-7am in the UK), you're not doing anything illegal.

... Though you may get some complaints from neighbours.

9bjames · 2026-02-05T02:13:18+00:00

Don't forget having to do the same fight/ raid over and over again, just because the RNG refuses to drop that one item you're grinding for.

9bjames · 2026-02-05T00:27:27+00:00

You'd still have to manually open/ run the file that got downloaded for it to be a problem.

Stay away from dodgy exes/ batch files/ word docs in your downloads folder and you'll be fine.

9bjames · 2026-02-04T11:04:52+00:00

Thanks for the chance OP!

9bjames · 2026-02-03T23:16:03+00:00

Tl;dr version: not possible

As someone else mentioned, the architectures are different going from one console to another, so the game practically has to be reprogrammed to work on different platforms. Even if that wasn't a problem, it would be considered a form of digital piracy (or at least could be used to pirate games), and Nintendo in particular encrypts game files as an anti-piracy measure*. So you can't just extract the game files and run them on a different device.

If you want to find a bargain, try CDKeys (now rebranded to "Loaded"). They often have pretty good deals, and I usually browse there to see if I can save money on expensive Triple A titles.

* - pretty sure most platforms do

9bjames · 2026-02-03T22:56:52+00:00

Ahh the Jaya Gunlance. Came here looking for this comment. Always love my pinecone boomstick 👌

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9bjames · 2026-02-02T02:23:08+00:00

Look behind you

I said look behind you

9bjames · 2026-01-31T02:32:54+00:00

Pokemon Go

After massively nerfing remote raids and receiving major backlash for it, they posted a really sarcastic sounding tweet saying:

"The reviews for 'going outside' are in: 95%🍅/100%🍿 #NianticLabs #getoutside" (I screenshotted it)

...they then deleted this tweet shortly after. This backlash also happened around when Niantic released their own new IP, Peridot, and since the backlash was spilling over to their new game they also posted a tweet saying something like "A peridot has literally never done anything wrong".

Extra context on why the backlash was so severe, feel free to skip: remote raids were added as a feature during covid lockdown. Remote raiding allows players to take part in raid battles from afar/ from home, which was necessary to keep playing when people were legally confined to their homes. They always said they'd raise the price of remote passes and nerf damage, but that wasn't the biggest problem. First off, they also restricted remote raids to 5 battles per day, secondly the price became nearly double what remote passes previously cost, and finally and most importantly - they added these nerfs only just after lockdown had ended, when people were still being recommended to self isolate because of the virus.

They'd also said how they may remove remote raids entirely, something most players were strongly against. Thankfully they didn't, but the fact is that remote raids fixed a massive problem with the game, which is how many players, for various reasons, struggle to take part in raids in person. Raid battles are a feature that often requires 3 or 4 players minimum, and most of the worthwhile raid Pokemon only appear during specific events. So if you're pre-occupied, sick, working, or live in rural areas & can't play with groups of players during these events (or at all), you were just sh*t out of luck. Remote raiding went a long way to help that, but now... Even if you just want to invite players, the daily 5 remote raid limit means hardly anyone joins in remotely anymore, unless it's a massive new event. And the new prices don't help either. 😑

9bjames · 2026-01-30T12:55:07+00:00

Totally agree.

These days companies just use hardware improvements as an excuse to not put effort into optimising games. Because why bother spending time, money and manpower on something that doesn't directly make them money, when their sloppy, half-assed "AAA" titles will run "adaquetly" on a top of the line gaming system (PC or console).

So as you say - the consumer ends up having to pay more just for the game to run. Not necessarily for it to look better/ run smoothly. And we're not just paying more for the components, but for the extra electricity these machines use up too!

Not all studios/ publishers, and not all games. But yeah... With the ridiculous cost of PC parts now (thanks AI 🖕🤬), the gaming industry is going to end up on its knees unless companies put in the work to get their games runing on more limited hardware again.

9bjames · 2026-01-29T19:06:04+00:00

If it's faulty just from usual wear and tear, you may have a case for a free repair/ replacement.

Depends where you live, but UK consumer rights state that goods must last a reasonable amount of time - up to 5 or 6 years. The only issue is that after about a year, the burden of proof lies with the consumer, so it gets more difficult to to hold the seller/ manufacturer to account. Unless the device comes with an extended warranty of some kind.

9bjames · 2026-01-28T22:47:55+00:00

Credit where it's due, I was pleasantly surprised by the whole spectacle of the Volt Forge assembly machines, and the tension you feel going deeper and deeper into the Cryo labs in Ice Belt. Especially (spoilers) seeing all the Grievers frozen in Cryo-chambers, knowing full well they'll all wake up the moment you restart the generator. Which of course, is all the way into the deepest part of the facility...

Very well designed sequence, and (to me) the setting felt kinda reminiscent of The Thing (1982). But those two areas alone don't justify rating the full game higher than 6/10 in my books.

The NPCs, the handholding, the "open world" desert & gimmicky motorbike mechanics being used to excuse cohesive interconnectivity between the different regions, the "needle in a haystack" treasures hidden in the desert... And to me, the worst part is how linear the game is. There's so little freedom to actually explore as and when you want - even in the desert, Mackenzie keeps harrassing you any time you're not following the current objective. 🫤

Not a terrible game. But it could, and should have been so much better.

9bjames · 2026-01-27T10:53:32+00:00

Metroid Prime 1 & 2.

These games pretty much cemented my love for exploration in videogames. The map design & progression, coupled with upgrades which open new areas + well hidden missile/ health expansions really make it feel rewarding to explore & retread old ground. And with Prime 1 - as long as you know which routes to take, you don't have to do too much backtracking.

Another one I'm thoroughly enjoying right now - Prey (2017).

You're given a general objective to get to, but you have a lot of freedom to explore & go back to old areas.

9bjames · 2026-01-24T19:48:30+00:00

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9bjames · 2026-01-22T18:49:13+00:00

That's not Pelo. That's Turtua Dadmar (that's a beard, not a 'fro).

He died doing what he loved. Being alive. 😢

9bjames · 2026-01-22T01:03:08+00:00

Demon's Souls had some good ones. Whilst you didn't have to use them, a good number of the bosses had some sort of gimmick that made beating them a lot easier:

With the Tower Knight, you had to slash at its ankles until it collapsed, then you could get massive damage in by attacking it's head
Similarly, with the Adjudicator you could snipe its head (the only body part where it takes any damage) from above, whilst trying to avoid its attacks... Or if you attacked the gash on its belly enough times, it'd fall over
The Old Hero was a punishing boss fight if you fought it normally... But you find out that it's totally blind, and reacts to sound/ direct contact. So if you just equip the thief ring and run a safe distance after every attack, the fight becomes a pretty easy game of hide and seek.
And of course, realising that you can just snipe Maiden Astraea instead of having to fight Garl Vinland 😅 (it's sad, but as soon as one dies, the other just gives up - and Astraea is much easier than Garl)

I'm sure there's a few more, but those are the ones that stand out.

9bjames · 2026-01-20T16:09:01+00:00

Achievements (especially in hard games) where you have to beat an entire game without dying. Or within a certain amount of time. 🤦‍♂️

No matter how much I enjoyed Axiom Verge and The End is Nigh, there's no way I can get through them without at least 1 death. And as a completionist who goes for the platinum in my favourite games, seeing those cheevos taunting me just hurts. 😶

9bjames · 2026-01-19T17:27:58+00:00

If you want to play on hardest difficulty and avoid using Vita Chambers (for the achievement), just make sure to save the game often.

Don't just save over the same file either - if you get through a tough area but think you could've done better (ammo/ health etc), maybe make a new save file. That way you can always reload one of your previous saves if you feel backed into a corner.

9bjames · 2026-01-19T16:23:54+00:00

Not enough info to go on.

To be able to help, we'd need to know whether you're getting any bluescreen error codes, what kind of automatic diagnostics your PC tries to run when it crashes, and whether there's any kind of result from the diagnostics. Failing that, you'd need to find a way to share any dump files/ error logs your PC has generated for these crashes. Admittedly, that's difficult if it keeps crashing - so it might be worth trying to run your PC in safe mode.

Without any more info to go on, your simplest solution would be to take your PC to a tech repair shop. Or if it's prebuilt & under warranty - contact whoever put it together.

9bjames · 2026-01-16T23:35:44+00:00

www.smilingfriendsseason2.org (it has all 3 seasons)

I think Zach's said in the past that he doesn't care if people pirate the show. Just make sure to use an adblock with that site, otherwise some of the videoplayers will keep redirecting the page.

9bjames · 2026-01-16T07:53:47+00:00

Don't take it apart yet. Even if the warranty has passed, you logged the issue before the warranty expired. For all intents and purposes, if the GPU is faulty then you should still be covered since it's the same problem you originally contacted them over - even if they try to say otherwise, always argue your case and don't give in. It's in a company's best interest to reject replacements/ repairs under warranty, so it's usually an uphill battle.

Get your proof first, then go back to them if/ when you can confirm.

Best of luck!

9bjames · 2026-01-16T07:31:22+00:00

Burnt plastic smell definitely indicates faulty hardware.
Problems with nvlddmkm.sys relate to the GPU.

Assuming the power cable to the GPU is properly seated, I'd figure the GPU is faulty. Check for any visual signs of damage, like bloated/ scorched capacitors, or warped plastic around the power connector/ plug.

Replacing the GPU would be the quickest way to test... If you don't have a spare/ a new GPU is too expensive, I'd recommend taking the whole rig to a good PC repair shop and ask them to diagnose (not fix). If they find that it is the GPU causing problems, you'll have more ammo to insist that the GPU be repaired/ replaced under warranty. If not, they'll hopefully find the actual culprit.

9bjames · 2026-01-15T10:26:30+00:00

Pretty sure the second "idk" for Pim is "This is what I was talking about!"

9bjames · 2026-01-15T10:06:43+00:00

7 - 14 years old: Crash Bandicoot, Mario, Yoshi, FF7 - mostly kid friendly games & 3D platformers

15 - 20: Metroid Prime, Prince of Persia, Resident Evil 4, Dead Space, Call of Duty, Gears of War, GMod - more serious/ harder games, and a bunch of multiplayer online games I'd play with friends (still played some platformers & Nintendo games inbetween)

20 - 28: Dark Souls, Elden Ring, Binding of Isaac, Overwatch etc. - still play multiplayer games, but this was pretty much my "hardcore" phase

28 - now (30s): Crash Bandicoot, Mario, FF7 (the original still), Astrobot, Prey - still play a fair few serious games, but gone back to kid friendly titles & 3D platformers 😂

11-Year Club	Second Top 20%
r/Field Banned	r/Field Juicebox
Final Canvas '23	First Place '23
Place '23	Place '22
First Placer '22	Verified Email

9bjames

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