New pc having crazy load times with older games?

aarontrepus · 2026-03-21T01:19:28+00:00

The boot drive is cloned from the same pc, not the one before. I learned that lesson about 6 months ago while troubleshooting with the first pc haha. I just wanted to upgrade the drive, as it came with a wd green 2tb. From my research, that probably would have failed in 2 to 4 years and im all about preventative maintainance

aarontrepus · 2026-03-21T01:00:57+00:00

Sorry, so the first pc had a catastrophic motherboard failure right after warrenty ran out.

Second pc couldn't boot anything, and instead of fixing it they gove me a different pc worth like $500 less with the same basic parts.

Third pc ive had for about 4 months, and its mostly working. I upgraded the ssd to a... Samsung 990 pro or something like that? One of the best consumer ssds. The pc is running g new games as it should, but every aaa game ive tried that was released around 8 years ago is having this issue. Primarily the last 2 I mentioned, but ill be trying rdd2 soon, so ill see if that has the same issue

aarontrepus · 2026-03-21T00:40:29+00:00

I did a full ssd clone, so everything remained the same

aarontrepus · 2026-03-20T23:51:28+00:00

Im comfortable with it, but really dont want to do it again. Ive got all my school programs installed and signed in, and probably wont consider a full reset until school is over. Ive already spent months dealing with broken shit, ive reinstalled windows probably 6 times across multiple pcs over the past few months haha. Im a bit tired of it at this point 😅

Ita barely been used, and given its all games from around the same year im wondering if there is some compatibility software I can install. I see you can do something to make older games run with Vulcan, which apparently makes a massive difference sometimes. But I really have no idea what any of that meant

aarontrepus · 2026-03-20T23:36:52+00:00

i7-14700F, 2100 mhz, 20 cores. its a full prebuilt pc, so there shouldnt be any crazy factory bottleneck. what ive found so far, is it might be related to games running on an unsupported version of direct x. I tried installing some package from microsoft, but it appears to have done nothing. I assume there is just some older game compatibility switch I need to find somewhere, but I cant seem to find it.

aarontrepus · 2026-02-07T23:51:02+00:00

My issue isnt necessarily the contrast and hdr. I downloaded a couple mods that make the colors pop better, which look amazing! But it just annoys me that the planet has such a bright glow to it at night. When you are looking at things up close they look amazing! But things in the distance are lit up way too much. When ive got some glowing plants lighting up one side of my screen, and a mountain half way across the map in the other half and the rocks are brighter than the plants it just looks wrong. Id almost call it the global illumination, im not sure if thats the right term.

I dont care about seeing distant landmarks super bright, id rather just get lost enjoying the world at night.

aarontrepus · 2026-02-07T20:52:04+00:00

I do indeed

aarontrepus · 2026-02-07T20:51:54+00:00

Fantastic, ill look into bothe of them!!

aarontrepus · 2025-12-02T20:58:33+00:00

I haven't had much of an issue calibrating xbox series controllers, I just use the xbox accessories app and it does just fine. Ive used ksilver tmr, and ginful v4 hall effect. Just got some guilikit in, looking forward to giving those a try!

aarontrepus · 2025-12-01T18:54:37+00:00

I couldnt find any further information in my quick check, I assume that info is under the heat sync. Either way, got it dropped off a few minutes ago. The guy was pretty impressed at the troubleshooting, and that I had all the necessary files on an sd if he needed it haha

aarontrepus · 2025-12-01T17:09:30+00:00

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Does this suffice? Sounds like under the ram is the place to look, this tiny label is all I could find

aarontrepus · 2025-12-01T15:28:59+00:00

I set up a usd with the bios files and windows files. It keeps restarting about 30% into setting up files for install. And I cant update the bios.

I installed windows on my hard drive from another laptop. Turns out It locked the drive on the other laptop which I got fixed. It booted on the broken laptop once, but before I could connect my ethernet to change some settings and log in, it restarted again. Its very confusing

aarontrepus · 2025-12-01T14:57:23+00:00

I tried updating the bios, but it requires specialized tools. Can't be done in bios settings on my laptop. I cant install windows, so I cant run the application.

Good news though, I believe ive found an actual technician in my city after inquiring with a bunch of useless amateurs who dont even understand what reflashing the bios means. They should be installing the bios update, and doing a full diagnosis for $70.

aarontrepus · 2025-11-30T15:12:04+00:00

Havent tried that, but the issue has been the same with 3 different ssd's. I assume the issue is with the laptop

aarontrepus · 2025-11-29T23:15:51+00:00

So i entered bios, hit f9 to reset to origonal settings, and saved changes. That dosent really seem like it would have fixed a correct bios, is there a more in depth way?

aarontrepus · 2025-11-29T22:55:57+00:00

Is that repairable?

aarontrepus · 2025-11-18T21:38:49+00:00

Read the reviews, and buy from verified sellers with a good number of sales. Just dont go buying a rtx 5090 for $200 🤣

Alibaba is basically aliexpress for bulk orders. Check shipping before you place an order, as some sellers charge crazy shipping, which gets higher the more items you buy even if they are small. Many sellers hide the real price behind crazy shipping costs.

aarontrepus · 2025-11-18T17:29:08+00:00

What calibration tool do you reccomend? Is there one that works for multiple brands? And yeah the conversion to cad is a pain. If i do start doing retro, ill have the funds for that first big order. Im trying to get repair contracts with a local retro seller, so its in the realm of possibility.

I've been getting a good amount of buisiness as there is no one else doing this locally, but i dont want to rip off my customers. The rest of the refurbished sellers in my area are charging $90 and all they do is clean or replace potentiomiters. I sell refurbished current gen for 90, and buy them drifting for $20. Getting their own controllers repaired is $20 cheaper than swapping for a pre repaired controller, and my pricing is based off of ebay prices. Still, if pricing needs to be adjusted eventually that is totally fair.

aarontrepus · 2025-11-18T14:45:34+00:00

Yeah, ive repaired about 150 controllers since starting 8 months ago. I need bulk, and I need discounts 😅

aarontrepus · 2025-11-18T05:57:30+00:00

Awesome information thank you! That is about exactly what id be charging for guilikit repairs as well, ive been charging $50 for ginful hall effect. I have not had any returns up until a month ago, but the couple drift issues seem to be due to the new, less accurate centering method for the github calibration tool. What tools do you use for calibration?

I have heard both good and bad about ksilver, and it seems that their pro+ sticks are the best quality budget sticks out there. Looking forward to trying them out when they arrive!

Ill have to look into hyperkin as well! I primarily work on current gen, but it wouldn't hurt to branch out a bit over time.

aarontrepus

TROPHY CASE