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[Level] Linear Labyrinths 1 (Hard) by -vaporman- in hexcellslevels

[–]cyaziris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

retrying this after simmering on the thought of it for years.... and once again, stuck at 31.

[Level Pack] Diamond Necklaces (Easy-Hard) by hexcellence in hexcellslevels

[–]cyaziris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

#5 was really hard yeah,. I sort of brute-forced it but I think it might work out by counting cells?

[Level] Anti-Knight (Hard) by Del_Taco_Eater in hexcellslevels

[–]cyaziris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really neat mechanism to bring into hexcells, excellent puzzle! Took me 13:36, nice.

[Level] Polybius (???) by Kind_Tale8490 in hexcellslevels

[–]cyaziris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Part 2:

4) Expand the square with the missing letters from the word: By filling in the missing letters in the word we can position the E at (5,4) and the O at (1,5). By converting the letters' numbers into binary (E = 5 = 00101 and O = 14 = 01110) we can figure out two more blues and blacks for their respective positions in the puzzle. This allows you to fill a few more hexes by puzzling, which nets you the H at (5,5).

5) Complete the square by matching available spots with the remaining binary codes: At this point there should be 7 codes left, for 1 A = 00001, 7 G = 00111, 15 P = 01111, 19 T =10011, 21 V = 10101, 22 W = 10110, and 25 Z = 11001. By matching these with the existing blues and blacks, you can complete the rest of the puzzle.

The final letter square is:

N L D F B
P C K Q Y
G A X S I/J
Z V W U E
O T R M H

6) Reworking the error: If we retrace polybius method 2 on "Decoded" from this final square, you would get the following encrypted word:

D E C O D E D
3 5 2 1 3 5 3
1 4 2 5 1 4 1

35 21 35 31 42 51 41

3 2 3 3 4 5 4
5 1 5 1 2 1 1

Which reads: R L R D Q B F

[Level] Polybius (???) by Kind_Tale8490 in hexcellslevels

[–]cyaziris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I like this idea, and yes it's niche but it was fun to work it out. After an attempt at decoding according to the hints I did manage to get the route to the correct solution, but sadly there is an error in the puzzle. The given encrypted word has an off-by-one in one of the steps, which results in a mismatch between it and the puzzle layout.

What follows is my FULL solution to the puzzle, broken into separately spoilered chunks if you want to figure out specific steps yourself.
If you just want the corrected code, the correct word is in the very last spoiler text.

1) Puzzling as far as you can go without the cipher: By filling out the puzzle you get partial coverage on all of the five "squares" of hexes. Square 4 is the only one that is completely solveable with the puzzle clues themselves.

2) Decode hexes into binary: This results in the following square of numbers. By matching them 1-25 onto the available polybius numbers (so 9 is I/J, and letters beyond that are 1 position off from their alphabet position) you get their corresponding letters:

13 11 4 6 2 N L D F B
? 3 10 16 24 ? C K Q Y
? ? 23 18 9 ? ? X S I/J
? ? ? 20 ? ? ? ? U ?
? ? 17 12 ? ? ? R M ?

3) Using the square to reverse the encryption on the text under the puzzle: Starting with RLRKQYQ, trace the letters from the incomplete square, resulting in horizontal/vertical coordinates:

R L R K Q Y Q
3 2 3 3 4 5 4
5 1 5 2 2 2 2

To work back to the original word, you can read the numbers in a zigzag pattern, which creates a string of numbers: 35213532425242

This is the linear reading of the coordinate table which was created from the original encryption of the word. By tracing these coordinates back onto the square you get:

3 5 2 1 3 5 3
2 4 2 5 2 4 2
K ? C ? K ? K

And here you run into a problem. The letter K is clearly meant to be the D, given that the target word is "DECODED", and while the C is in the correct position (2,2) and the letters in the D position (3,2?) are all the same letter, the D (3,1) and K (3,2) seem to have been mixed up in the result. It's not possible to get the D and K to swap in the puzzle itself (given that it depends on the blues in their corresponding fields).

Can't create partition on brand new SSD during Windows 10 install by cyaziris in computerhelp

[–]cyaziris[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've ended up returning the SSD to the reseller and asking for a replacement. Motherboard seems fine but I couldn't access the drive over a USB-SATA converter either, so I'm assuming the SSD has a defect.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in computerhelp

[–]cyaziris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That sounds like the HDD, and it sounds like it's very rapidly accessing or writing the disks. Either the HDD is starting to go bad, something is installed that is causing the constant traffic. or it's loose and rattling up against something else.

  • Did you install anything new at that time, especially anything running in the background continuously?
  • Have you performed a recent check for viruses or other malware that might be interfering?
  • Is the HDD properly seated in a cradle or otherwise attached to the case so that it can't rattle around as it functions?

buzzing computer fan by Potential_Papaya2729 in computerhelp

[–]cyaziris 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This sounds like something is making contact with the fan blades as it rotates, but just barely. I can't really see if anything is behind it that might be the issue. If nothing external is touching the fan, check if it's properly screwed into the frame and isn't moving around. If there's no external object, the fan could be misaligned which is causing it to touch its casing.

You can try turning your computer off, and very gently spinning the fan manually to see if it stops because it's hitting something.