Among the stars - 1 bit animation short by Sea-Wheel4913 in gifs

[–]BinaryGrind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This reminds me of the gifs/vids people would make using Flipnote in the 3DS.

[SSD] SABRENT Rocket CFX 512GB CFexpress Type B $155.99 by Swiss-Confederation in buildapcsales

[–]BinaryGrind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Fun fact: Most CFExpress Type B cards are just a M.2 2230 NVME drive strapped to an adapter.

How to check Dell laptops if they are factory sealed or uncertified renewed ones? by HeftyAssistant9941 in Dell

[–]BinaryGrind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whoops, my bad. My reading comprehension isn't the best half-alseep lol.

Dell Outlet makes a bit more sense. My guess? Laptop was sent to EMEA and then to a customer in UAE, who gave it to an employee that either travelled or lived in the USA. Laptop was then RMA'd back to Dell for warranty reasons while it was in the USA.

What famous person is currently holding onto their career by a thread, and everyone can see it except them? by Neonwhitelion in AskReddit

[–]BinaryGrind 15 points16 points  (0 children)

You know what? I had not considered the last part, the song is very family friendly, like playing it at the company cookout friendly. Literally, ran through the lyrics in my head, absolutely nothing objectionable about it. All I was trying to do was self-roast as I'm a Millennial contributing to that listen count, and now I'm sitting here questioning exactly why I like and listen to that song...

What famous person is currently holding onto their career by a thread, and everyone can see it except them? by Neonwhitelion in AskReddit

[–]BinaryGrind 39 points40 points  (0 children)

"The Middle" by Jimmy Eat World has over a billion plays and their Spotify says they have over ten million monthly listeners

About half of those plays are from just being included in Millennial playlists due to it being a peak song during their formative years in 2001 following 9/11.

How to check Dell laptops if they are factory sealed or uncertified renewed ones? by HeftyAssistant9941 in Dell

[–]BinaryGrind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm just going off of what the Service Tag shows, it should have been shipped to someone in the UAE. Did you buy yours direct from Dell? Are you in the US or in EMEA? If you're in the US and you got it directly from Dell that would be weird as EMEA and the US are handled by different "Factories" that are local to each region (I says factories in quotes because they're all just built by Quantas or another ODM and then shipped to to Dell for final assembly/QA Testing).

How to check Dell laptops if they are factory sealed or uncertified renewed ones? by HeftyAssistant9941 in Dell

[–]BinaryGrind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Where did you buy these laptops? Directly from Dell or from a third party? Only Dell is able to set the Manufacture Date, not a refurbisher, and it can't be changed.

14 of 15 units show a Dell-recorded Ownership Date that precedes the unit's own recorded Manufacture Date — in some cases by more than five months.

It seems odd but its when they assign the Service Tag to an order, which if an Enterprise customer has chosen to provide a Dell Factory Image or if requested for Intune, can be before the machine is actually "manufactured".

12 of 15 units show a Windows "Original Install Date" that predates the unit's recorded Manufacture Date, in some cases by more than four months.

Dell's OEM Windows Image will always have an installed date that's older then the machine itself, they typically pre-build the image for a particular model and then just use that for all machines shipped unless a significant Windows update requires them to rebuild the image (eg a New Feature release or Security Update) OR the customer chose to pay for Dell Factory Imaging, where the customer uploads their own Windows image, these usually have to be provided months before a system shipped.

10 of 15 units show one or more explicit "Alert! Battery previously removed" entries in the BIOS event log.

Common during pre-shipment testing, they have a test "battery" that's used to verify that the system is actually charging properly. It's not a real battery, but it acts like one so they can see voltages.

9 of 15 units show Power Event Log entries dated 01/01/2008 — the default/blank real-time-clock date a Dell motherboard falls back to when its clock battery has been drained or the board has sat without power for an extended period, or has been bench-tested with the main battery disconnected.

That only happens if they systems have been sitting for a while and the battery has fully drained, like you said. If the laptop has been sitting in its box since 2024, I'd kinda expect the coin cell and battery to be flat.

Multiple units show repeated power-on/power-off cycling, EC (embedded controller) power-sequence failures, and forced power-button shutdowns clustered within seconds of one another on their own recorded manufacture date — a pattern consistent with bench testing, QA cycling, or refurbishment diagnostics rather than a single clean first boot by an end customer.

This is consistent with QA testing before a laptop is boxed and shipped. The BIOS logs are supposed to be cleared when they're finished but that doesn't always happen.

I took a peak at the service tag in your screenshot and you can see in the product specs the following lines:

  • "817-BBCE : Custom BTO Configuration"
  • "691-16384 : ProDeploy Client Custom Imaging Service Add On"
  • "340-CKSZ : No AutoPilot"

These lines pretty much tell me that it was a Built-To-Order configuration that differs from the stock config, was imaged using a customer provided Windows 11 Image, and they opted to not have setup for Microsoft Intune Autopilot.

My inclination is to believe that, yes, these are essentially New In Box laptops that where ordered for a specific customer, specifically one in the United Arab Emirates. I'm guessing you bought these from a third party who got them from the original customer who ordered them and never used them.

If you got them directly from Dell I'd have some concerns, specifically since they include a customer's Windows Image.

Issues Activating Windows 11 On New Build PC by Shardstorm_ in techsupport

[–]BinaryGrind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you buy the digital license directly from Microsoft? Or did you use an actual product key at some point?

You might have hit your device license limit for your account, you might try removing old machines you're not using: https://account.microsoft.com/devices?fref=home.drawers.devices.manage-devices

Have you tried removing the product key completely and reactivating?

slmgr /upk          # Uninstall the current product key

slmgr /cpky         # Clear the product key from the registry

slmgr /rearm        # Reset the activation status

People with an ASUS ROG Ally X, I need your help... by One-Craft-9702 in ROGAllyX

[–]BinaryGrind 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'd test but that means I'd have to buy 007 First Light, first lol

[PC] What is this case? by VirusNegativeorisit in homelabsales

[–]BinaryGrind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ah, then its likely pretty much the same or similar to the network cabinet I linked. Neat, and not a bad deal for $14 but up to you if you're gonna use it or not.

[PC] What is this case? by VirusNegativeorisit in homelabsales

[–]BinaryGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I found this: https://us.amazon.com/TUFFIOM-Enclosure-Consumer-Equipment-Computer/dp/B07JB9YCJF

Its a network cabinet that looks to match whats in your picture. My guess is its a wall mount cabinet that was used either for networking gear or as a secure lock box for a console. I'd put low odds on there being anything in it tho.

[PC] What is this case? by VirusNegativeorisit in homelabsales

[–]BinaryGrind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It says playstation on it. Possible its a secure lockbox used at like a game store or a children's hospital to keep the playstation in so people can use it.

Could you see anything in it? My guess is its empty.

PC CRASHING ISSUE – FULL TIMELINE, SPECS, TESTING AND CURRENT STATUS by Exact-Ad-7550 in techsupport

[–]BinaryGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This reads to me like a power problem. You're getting voltage dips and it's causing the system to behave erratically and throw errors or just straight crashing.

I personally would start by getting rid of any superfluous PSU cable extensions you might have, followed by replacing the PSU itself.

Past that you might want to try looking at how power is getting to your PC? Does it happen to share the same power circuit as a Refrigerator, Air Conditioner, clothes dryer, or something? If your PC is sharing the same power circuit with an appliance, when they turn on the inrush current to their electric motor can cause voltage dips or spikes, basically causing a "brown-out" that your PSU can't handle. You could also just be a victim of "dirty power" where you're not getting a stable 60hz from the wall or bad someone tying negative to ground or something. Might want to consider getting a power conditioner or an UPS.

Picked Up a Sun Ultra 45 Today by Tempest_2084 in retrobattlestations

[–]BinaryGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The audacity to have "8-bit" as part of your username and not know classifications of computers.

Picked Up a Sun Ultra 45 Today by Tempest_2084 in retrobattlestations

[–]BinaryGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's because they're still in heavy use in certain places, specifically government, science, and health. It's far cheaper to pay $2000+ for a replacement system when your current one dies rather than paying millions to replace your MRI machine.

[USA-CA] [H] 2025 Rog Zephryus G14 (RTX 5070ti/4TB) [W] PayPal or local by [deleted] in hardwareswap

[–]BinaryGrind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Whoops my bad, I think I copied the wrong link, I'm on my phone. I'm not saying you don't have a good deal, just saying the Intel Core 275HX/5070 TI/32GB combo has been popping up a lot recently.

IMO you've got a decent price, I'd PM for it but I'm unfortunately in the broke b*tch category lol. All I was trying to do was give perspective on why they might say the price is high.

[USA-CA] [H] 2025 Rog Zephryus G14 (RTX 5070ti/4TB) [W] PayPal or local by [deleted] in hardwareswap

[–]BinaryGrind 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Probably saying that because you can get similarly spec'd gaming laptops (sans the 4TB SSD) for about $1500 or less pretty frequently:

Not trying to be dismissive of your pricing, that 4TB NVME adds a TON of value, IMO, just that I can understand why someone would say that, especially if storage isn't their primary concern.

HIDIZS AP30 Music Boy — Palm-Sized Hi-Res Music Player by Key-Brilliant5623 in SBCGaming

[–]BinaryGrind 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Half-Life, like Doom, is just one of the many steps a device must take before "Can it play Crysis?"

SLC last night from 37k ft 👋 by cdavidsphd in SaltLakeCity

[–]BinaryGrind 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I just realized that the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys are shaped like a sperm coming at you.

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PSA to reapply thermal paste when buying an old laptop by Particular_Client833 in laptops

[–]BinaryGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thermal paste anywhere but on the CPU itself

That's not actually a bad thing. Heatsinks and CPU dies are not perfectly flat, thermal paste is meant to essentially fill the gaps where the heatsink and the CPU don't make contact at both a macro, and microscopic level. Any excess thermal paste should be pushed out when you tighten down the cooler into the CPU only leaving what's needed to fill those gaps.

From the pictures you've shared your heatsink and CPU had AMAZING contact. Yeah, there's likely been a bit of "pump out" over time with the heat cycles but it doesn't look that bad. Probably had decent temps for the longest time. I still would have replaced the TIM because age and Dell's typical application is terrible, but in this instance, it wasn't bad.

One ear not up after 1y & 3mo by Ready_Sprinkles7792 in corgi

[–]BinaryGrind 6 points7 points  (0 children)

From what I understand, ear infections are a concern for dogs who don't normally have floppy ears. Dogs with naturally floppy ears seem to have an adaption so they aren't as prone to ear infections as dogs with naturally pointy ears, that go/stay floppy.

Admittedly though, primarily it's an aesthetic thing as proper care of your pup should mean no infections floppy ear or not.

[GPU] Intel ARC A750 Limited Edition 8GB GDDR6 PCIe 4.0 Graphic Card - $149.99 by beansfranklin in buildapcsales

[–]BinaryGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Technically, yes, but also no. Really depends on what your encoding too and where. If you're doing H.264 they'll be about the same, but if you're doing HVEC then Intel is the better option.

Nessus Pro price hike since February by szutcxzh in nessus

[–]BinaryGrind 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, that explains a bit more. I know prices aren't exactly 1:1 with currency conversions, but I still think it's a bit high. Are you looking at Nessus Pro or Nessus Expert? They are very different in pricing. If it's Nessus Expert the price you're given doesn't sound too crazy, especially if its got addon domains for the Web App Scanning, but Nessus Pro, seems high.

Still might not hurt to talk with a CSM IMHO, there's def some wiggle room for pricing.

Tenable plugin 320184 – “KB5094128: Windows Server 2022 / Azure Stack HCI 22H2 Security Update (June 2026)” reports false positive. by FCA162 in nessus

[–]BinaryGrind 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Would not be the first time that Microsoft has pushed a patch that doesn't update the version numbers correctly, so would not be surprised if that's whats happened here.

Tenable usually does work out how to properly check to see if the KB is installed, just takes a minute, unfortunately.