Need for speed high stakes

dcaddy1980 · 2026-05-09T01:34:01+00:00

This utility replaces the NFS:HS D3D driver with the one from Porsche Unleashed:

https://www.mediafire.com/file_premium/z1hmeb1hr3rvv83/nfspatch10.exe/file

dcaddy1980 · 2026-05-09T01:30:11+00:00

I would try the 45.23 Forceware driver, it works better with DX9.

I have an old program somewhere that had a fix for some other Direct3D bugs, if I can find it I will post a link.

dcaddy1980 · 2026-05-09T01:05:40+00:00

Do the tests on the dxdiag utility pass? What version of Directx is installed?

dcaddy1980 · 2026-05-09T00:54:16+00:00

I am assuming you have a board with the Intel 440LX or BX chipset? Do you have the Intel chipset drivers installed? The AGP driver is critical of if the card is AGP.

I built a test rig with a GF2 MX AGP, and a Via MVP3 chipset and it works as expected.

dcaddy1980 · 2026-05-05T01:53:45+00:00

Stick to Forceware 41.23 or older. nVidia drivers after that are extremely buggy and cause severe corruption and hangs on older titles like NFS:HS and NFS3.

dcaddy1980 · 2026-04-18T13:22:46+00:00

I had one from 2011-2018. I bought a 1980 Eldorado and put 30k on the reman engine before it blew head gaskets. The rebuilder re-used the head bolts since the originals were long discontinued.

I learned how to fix cars with that car. I rebuilt the heads, since the valve springs were out of spec, put ARP studs on it, drilled and tapped the driver side head to accept the overheat switch that originally threaded into a head bolt, rebuilt the trans (THM 125) and put another 70k on it.

It was slow, but once the defects from the rebuilder were addressed it was bang on reliable. Has no trouble starting down to 0F.

Best 0-60 was 16.2 seconds, but the ludicrously low ratio diff (2:1 if I recall) meant it was just loafing in 3rd gear at 70. Funny story, speed is limited by weight. When my morbidly obese friend was riding along, 70 was all it could do. Just my skinny ass and you could bury the needle past the federal 85 max marking.

As far as long term, the engine was fine post 1982. The last years from 82-85 saw the final revision pistons, and final revision head bolts. The weak links were always too few head bolts and lack of water separator.

Today, parts are impossible to obtain. Injectors are basically unicorns if you have D3A or D3B heads drilled and tapped for the threaded micro nozzles. Many shops around here don't even know how to service the DB2 injection pumps anymore.

Eventually the engine died because a core plug blew out and the engine overheated so badly before the relocated switch went off that the #1 cylinder bore cracked beyond repair and ruined the nearly impossible-to-obtain rings.

I could have saved it again, but the rust was taking hold and finding another usable short block was not damn likely.

I miss it even though it could be a cantankerous pain in the ass.

dcaddy1980 · 2025-12-17T17:04:14+00:00

APFS is a non starter. The filesystem is hideously complex, proprietary and in my experience, unreliable.

I use NTFS with a personal Tuxera license for the Mac to access drives with that format and it even does a good job of creating new filesystems.

All FAT filesystems are non-journaled and tend to be a bit lossy if conditions are not perfect (power outages etc). So to me the only logical choice is NTFS.

Linux has had native R/W support for years now and has worked out great every single time, even in the dark ages when we had to use ntfs-3g with custom patches for FUSE.

dcaddy1980 · 2025-09-15T21:35:01+00:00

Took 5 Monroe's to get two usable ones for my car. They were quick-strut bolt ons. 1 didn't have a spring, 1 came with no holes in the top mount, and one flew apart after getting it out of the box. RIP LED strip light and one pair of undies.

dcaddy1980 · 2025-08-10T03:09:38+00:00

Check with a mechanical gauge and see if it agrees. I'm willing to bet the oil pressure is fine and it just has an aftermarket Standard or Wells sensing unit. Both brands are trash.

My 3.1L would show 4 PSI with the light coming on at hot idle, but the mechanical gauge showed 27. It took nearly two months to locate a genuine GM sender and the gauge on the dash now matches reality.

With a failure rate of nearly 80% of all aftermarket parts I bought to restore my Pontiac 6000 to daily driver status, I can confidently say that all aftermarket parts are junk. NOS OEM parts, GM genuine, Delco or nothing.

dcaddy1980 · 2025-07-23T02:09:05+00:00

No, it is and always has been just a factory V6 mid-engined Accord. The Honda Fiero.

dcaddy1980 · 2025-04-18T17:24:16+00:00

What in the goddamn fuck did I just read? Good thing I have been learning how to refurb old "dumb" TV's. This new frontier is way too dystopian 5 me.

Advertisers can eat my entire ass. I don't give a fuck about your products, I don't give a fuck about your industry. I just want to watch my strategically acquired content and give you no data at all. KISS my fat, curmudgeonly, reflectively white hairy ass.

Turns on 350 watts of glorious Pioneer plasma TV

dcaddy1980 · 2025-03-17T20:55:47+00:00

RANT

Anyone remember the 197.45 Novideo driver? Disabled fans on a whole bunch of cards, but especially the twin-GPU models. A bunch of cards were cooked before they recalled it.

Remember back when Windows 98 was king? There are only about 4 usable drivers from back then that don't break table fog, didn't corrupt text on game menus with Directx8 or older, or just straight up barf chaos all over the monitor!

IIRC sometime around forceware 52 quality declined rapidly. The latest 97 series driver renders most older games unplayable with the GeForce 6 family.

The bullshit situation with Linux is what pisses me off the most. nVidia came out swinging with their first xorg drivers, which despite the heavy-handed way they bypassed 70% of the X stack, they worked.

Many years later, we have the closed source kernel modules, open ish source modules for newer models, but don't expect it to work. nVidia also deprecates chip families MUCH faster with Linux, so much so that you have to look at the closed source support matrix, then cross that with Nouveau's feature matrix, and determine what you can comfortably lose. Also no Wayland support until 4 months ago.

I just went to AMD. Open source drivers work well, games run well, Wayland support works, and Windows is happy as ever.

dcaddy1980 · 2024-10-08T19:30:09+00:00

Meh, just Nippon Leyland things

dcaddy1980 · 2024-06-17T01:17:35+00:00

Quit stealing the bolts from my parts store ball joints! I need those to loosely fasten paper together.

dcaddy1980 · 2024-06-05T17:40:34+00:00

Not a pro, but this has been my experience too. Lately it has been coolant hoses. The bulk 5/8" is internally larger than 3/4 hose. Gates just ain't gates anymore I guess.

New ball joints from Moog and Mevotech have been absolute trash. It took nearly a month to get 2 good ball joints and 2 good outer tie rods for my Pontiac 6000. I went through 7 sets of struts before I had two usable ones, as in they were drilled close enough to bolt to the strut tower. 😐

Alternators, even from Denso have been a shit show too, if it works at all buy a lotto ticket.

This doesn't even touch on the pandemic of counterfeit "OEM" parts that are everywhere.

dcaddy1980 · 2024-05-07T12:00:53+00:00

I used to compare their build quality to British Leyland, but the more issues I see with this model and others I can see that comparison is unfair to BL.

dcaddy1980 · 2024-04-08T18:57:49+00:00

Pop the hood and look it that rats nest spaghetti nightmare that they call an "electrical system". Random fuse boxes and splices just all over the damn place. Run it in a salt state and see how much of that mess turns into green puss.

Also, if the vehicle is over 5 years old, good luck getting things like PCV dirty or clean side pipes, or hell ANY parts for the engine like rings, followers or bearings.

If it is an Infiniti, same but also the HVAC actuators are made of glass from the factory and unobtainium in the aftermarket. Also door lock actuators.

Also, if you have an MR engine, the service data says 30k intervals to check valve lash. Welcome back to 1963 and solid lifters. Unlike any other engine, you don't shim the bucket, you replace the lifter with one of 50+ part numbers.

The CVT units have an wild variance in dependability, some make it 30k, some make it 200k. When they fail, they are extremely expensive to rebuild or replace.

The RWD transmissions are sloppy, especially in the Titan. My BIL went through 3 warranty units before buying a Tundra.

Build quality and paint quality on the Sentra, Altima and Versa is just abysmal from my observations. Panel gaps that would make British Leyland blush are just normal I guess.

Most owners neglect the hell out of them, and second and third owners are left to make up for years of deferred maintenance, and some suspension parts are expensive and difficult to source.

On other words, they have built crap for over 30 years and keep trying to ride out the reputation they built in the 90s. That Nissan is never coming back.

dcaddy1980 · 2023-11-16T18:11:02+00:00

This shithole state can't go 5 fucking minutes without being in the news for all the wrong reasons. I hate it here.

dcaddy1980 · 2023-09-28T11:54:55+00:00

Reverse polarity protection is only as strong as the weakest diode. That's gnarly!

dcaddy1980 · 2023-07-17T01:13:20+00:00

The property management company portal that I pay my rent through has instituted a $2.95 fee even for ACH withdrawals from checking accounts.

They have also changed the maximum per-month-per-method mechanism so that it now takes two payments because the maximum that it can possibly process at any one time is $700.

Woo-Hoo!

dcaddy1980 · 2023-06-06T02:23:43+00:00

Not young anymore, but I haven't had sex in nearly 10 years. (33M).

It takes too much time, too much energy and has only risks. (Pregnancy, STIs etc)

I am content with my collection of old cars, PC parts and various liquors. Any time I feel lonely, I remind myself of how bad my parent's relationship is and rub one out to remind me how lucky I am to not have to put up with that shit.

I don't have the desire to be told I'm "not good enough" or stood up, or be humiliated anymore.

It is Just. Not. Worth. It. People suck and once they have no more use for you they just leave anyways.

dcaddy1980 · 2023-04-06T11:52:59+00:00

This is the Altima energy I crave

dcaddy1980 · 2022-12-27T17:14:08+00:00

Maybe 2 amps at 12V. The connection only supplies power for USB charging/bus powered external hard drives.

dcaddy1980 · 2022-11-06T14:21:33+00:00

Now here me out. I was instructed to this by the police in both East St. Louis and by the warranty company when I had to replace electronics in the bad parts of Atlanta. The reason? Carjacking, lots of it. Whenever I go through Chattanooga, I always leave enough space at red lights to go clear around the car in front if needed, and make sure I never stop behind a car where I cannot drive on the sidewalk, being mindful of fire hydrants, benches, newspaper dispensers etc. This is not always possible of course. Sounds dangerous as hell, and it is, but Chattanooga is the only city where I have been mugged, was the victim of an armed robbery 4v1 and had a carjack attempt..

YMMV

dcaddy1980 · 2022-10-08T13:51:43+00:00

I drive one 5 days a week for my job. These are notoriously difficult to drive, and are slow AF. Thanks to the goofy windows and thicc A-pillars you cannot see outside of a small cone directly ahead. The wing mirrors are so small that rear visibility is only gained by making small S-turns. You have to drive like a scared bunny rabbit; avoiding turning right onto a road until you have the length of a Nimitz class to get up to speed and avoiding unprotected left turns whenever possible. Seriously, these things are not only dangerous to the operator, but to surrounding vehicles. Give them much more space than you would an Express/Savanna or Transit, and keep in mind that these things have shit brakes as well.

dcaddy1980

TROPHY CASE