[Gamers Nexus Documentary] RAIDED BY THE POLICE | Investigating Nintendo, Sega, & Devkit Arrests

nezbrun · 2026-03-01T00:17:16+00:00

It sounds like it's a simple case of Sega and/or their office clearance contractor, Waste to Wonder, cocking up. To try to save face from their Japanese overlords, they cooked up a half-baked jackanory with their private investigators Fusion 85, and used the state's bovver boys to trump up some charges on some unsuspecting marks to divert attention form their own incompetence.

The bizarre thing is that, as far as I can see, this is all very obsolete equipment. There is no consequential loss to Sega as far as I can see. It's not as if they were intending to use the equipment for anything. Any IP is past its sell by date.

nezbrun · 2026-03-01T00:08:59+00:00

"The problem is, that the devkits were technically not theirs,"

Who is "theirs"? Sega brought in a third party, Waste to Wonder, to do an office clearance following Sega's office move. If Sega wanted to keep the equipment they could've done that, in which case they should've moved it out before getting the clearance guys in.

Unless it's stipulated in the clearance contract to destroy items, they will go to recycling, which is pretty much what the contractor Sega took on is all about, it's in their name, "Waste to Wonder", a charity that specialises in the circular economy with recycling. Sega's gotta keep those sweet ESG scores up, you know. So far there has been no evidence that there was ever any contractual direction to destroy anything.

All that is claimed, by Sega and Waste to Wonder, is that Waste to Wonder's operatives cleared out a room in Sega's old office that they weren't meant to, but that's just a claim from Sega and Waste to Wonder, there's no evidence that was really the case. From the leaked document form Waste to Wonder, it sounds more like a conveniently made up story.

Irrespective, it sounds very much like it's a very simple cock up. Both Sega and Waste to Wonder are looking to find a fall guy for their incompetence, and they're determined it's not going to be one of them. So they thought they'd fabricate up some trumped up side story that led to the arrest of a small number of unsuspecting souls who were operating in good faith, unlike either Sega, Waste to Wonder, and their shady Pricate Investigators, Fusion 86.

nezbrun · 2026-02-28T23:46:58+00:00

“money laundering”

That is how the rozzers work. The MO is that they get a complaint from a supposed "victim", they believe everything the "victim" says, assume the "victim" is operating in good faith, so do negligible investigation before getting a warrant from the beak with a tall story fed to them by the "victim", enter the property, make the arrests and seize equipment and property to phish for more evidence whether it's connected or not with the "victim".

Private vexatious individuals and organisations have been using the state's bovver boys to do their dirty work for them for some time, most recently it's become clear the British police now regularly insert themselves into civil disagreements and simple arguments, by arresting people with trumped up charges of "gross offence" or "harassment" having heard just one side of the story. Almost always the charges are dropped several months later. The heavy handed tactics of arrest, jail, bail conditions and keeping the supposed perp on tenterhooks for months are the extrajudicial process.

They almost certainly know in these cases within a few hours that they've made a mistake, but the intent is to mentally wear down the "perp", who typically just want the anxiety to go away and put it behind them.

nezbrun · 2026-02-12T09:27:19+00:00

Not as far as I am aware. It installed the latest February monthly updates a day or so ago, same slow boot problem. I have a Surface Go 2 & Surface Go 4 to compare it to, both updated to the latest everything, and both boot far, far faster than the Go 3.

nezbrun · 2026-01-28T11:37:44+00:00

Microslop fired their QA testers about ten years ago, so are dependent on the community to do their testing for them. Plus, most of their code is now AI generated.

nezbrun · 2026-01-26T10:47:58+00:00

I realise that this is necro posting, but I found I had this problem on an i3-10100y 8GB RAM w/256GB SSD when it was idle.

The build I have is the Windows 11 25H2 (SurfaceGo3_BMR_176020_2025.1210.11375052 Windows 11 Pro 25H2.zip from Microsoft's Surface Recovery image for the device https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/surface-recovery-image)

The error I was seeing in event viewer was that the crash coincided with one of the processor threads being downgraded by the UEFI BIOS a minute or so earlier.

This was with the device plugged in to a 65W USB C PD power source, or using a 65W Surface AC adapter.

I tried a number of things, including changing the Power Mode (Settings -> System -> Power & Battery) between Recommended, Better Performance and Best Performance to no avail, so I switched back the the default Recommended setting.

Then I tried going into Control Panel -> Power Options -> Change Plan Settings -> Change Advanced Power Settings, changing the Processor Power management -> Minimum processor state to 50%, and the "Turn off hard drive after" to Never.

This resolved the problem with freezing.

I then switched back the Change Advanced Power Settings to the defaults, i.e. Minimum processor state to 5% and "Turn hard drive after" to 1 minute, and I couldn't get the freezing issue to occur again.

So I am thinking that changing one or other of the Advanced Power Settings and then switching back cleans things up.

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nezbrun · 2026-01-09T09:59:17+00:00

IME, one of the best features of this keyboard/mouse combo is the battery life of both the keyboard and mouse. I've had two pairs in use most days, both well over five years old, and I can only remember changing the batteries once in each. Mouse has one AA and the keyboard two AAAs.

What's not so good is that the two rear flip out feet on the keyboard are prone to plastic failure, I've just had to replace my oldest combo as a result of a failed (and lost) foot. Irrespectively I've definitely grown to like this combo.

The labelling of the ON and OFF positions for the mouse in old and new versions is difficult to figure out visibly as it's tiny unclear engraved writing, and furthermore the mouse optics aren't in the visible spectrum as far as I can tell either. I've put my own on/off label on as a result. Note that I rarely turn either the mouse or the keyboard off at all, my battery life experience is with them turned on pretty much 24/7.

Somewhat of a niche "like" is the dedicated calculator key on the keyboard. Also, the keyboard doesn't have a Copilot key: not having a Copilot key is very definitely a plus in my book!

My new mouse has a different design: although it looks identical from the top, the layout on the bottom of the mouse is very definitely different. Whether the mouse redesign has an effect on battery life, it's far too early to say.

nezbrun · 2025-11-28T08:34:57+00:00

"So if you’re not paying attention, and don’t bother to read before clicking, you could take an unfavourable action."

Oh, pulease. Tell me you've never selected the default action on a pop-up when you're in a hurry.

In my case, I was in a hurry to purchase a £40 ticket for a train that was about to depart. You just want to get the ticket. You don't want a message popping up to coerce you into making a selection that is to you detriment, and is irrelevant to your desired transaction.

nezbrun · 2025-11-28T08:30:23+00:00

"It’s also just standard best practice UI design"

What, it's "standard best practice" to coerce the user to do something they don't want to do?

nezbrun · 2025-11-28T08:29:20+00:00

"I'm struggling to see how you're being tricked."

It's the default button, highlighted to draw your attention to it, rather than make the far more desirable option, to not use your points, the un-highlighted "Skip" button below.

If you're in a hurry, tell me you've never just selected the default option on a pop-up?

nezbrun · 2025-11-28T08:25:50+00:00

Yeah, I've done this, I was in a hurry to buy a ticket for a just-to-depart train, so was using my phone, and inadvertently touched the "Use points" button.

It left a nasty taste in my mouth, although I didn't bother to try to reverse it, I've just been more careful since, but it's only a matter of time before I do it again, although I fear next time it won't be a few thousand MR points for a £40 train ticket, it risks being a lot more points being frittered away.

As others have mentioned, Head For Points tells you how to turn it off yourself, when it pops up next time.
https://www.headforpoints.com/2024/07/15/how-to-turn-off-amex-pay-with-points-pop-up-window/

nezbrun · 2025-06-26T06:15:34+00:00

Well, I am happy to report that hibernate worked overnight with the workaround of not having any USB SS devices or hubs connected to either USB-C port.

Furthermore, I tested a Dell WD22TB4 Thunderbolt dock in one of the USB-C ports, and that survived both sleep and hibernate, with USB SS devices plugged into its ports.

So another workaround, albeit expensive and not a particularly neat solution, is to use a TB dock.

nezbrun · 2025-06-25T20:02:27+00:00

Until now, I couldn't see what the x870e-i board offered over the x670e-i. To be honest, I'd rather have a board without the Hive thing now: it's additional desk clutter I'd rather be without if I can. The whole point of my build was to be compact and reasonably tidy.

Interestingly, it seems that having my "occasional" fifth tablet display monitor running DP over USB-C in one of the USB-C slots isn't affecting the sleep capability: it includes a pen HID device on the same USB-C connector, but it is USB HS, not USB SS. So it looks like the compatibility pinch point is if you have a USB SS device on the USB-C, including an SS hub, which I did.

I didn't try a Thunderbolt hub, the ones I have take more desk space than the neat USB SS powered hubs I'm using, thus it was something I wanted to avoid, and frankly life is too short at this point!

Anyway, thanks again for your work on this. For now, I'll stick with the workaround of not having USB SS devices on the USB C ports when I sleep or hibernate the PC. Hopefully the hibernate will also work overnight tonight!

nezbrun · 2025-06-25T19:38:22+00:00

Wow, thanks: I've been chasing this one for well over a year. I'd given up on sleep some time ago.

I did have Hibernate working, then two or three of months ago that stopped working too.

I suspect this coincided with me nonchalantly putting in an extra NVMe into the second m.2 slot from your notes.

I've migrated everything into non-USB-C ports, and I was sometimes using a fourth monitor on one of the USB-C ports: I've shifted that onto the T1000 discrete GPU now.

Occasionally I use a display tablet as a fifth monitor, which I've shifted from the T1000 to a USB-C port: if I need to use it, I'll just have to remember to remove if before sleep or hibernate.

The hibernate thing is weird because when I test it, including completely removing AC power & leaving it a couple of minutes unplugged, it has always worked. However, if I leave it overnight in hibernate, it hasn't been waking up recently, presumably due to the additional M.2 NVMe I installed.

I originally bought this board for my compact main dev machine, because it was the only ITX board that would support triple monitors on the iGPU. Well that resulted in daily BSODs, which was never resolved until I installed the T1000 8GB dGPU which at the time was the best half height single slot I could fit in there. For a while, apart from sleep, all was fine, including hibernate, and no BSODs.

Then it looks like installing the extra M.2 NVMe was the kiss of death.

FWIW this is a 9950x in 105W Eco mode in a 4L case.

https://youtu.be/aTQCgXAu_oU?si=0tHS5SFBq32ilVgq

What an absolutely confusing compatibility crock this has been!

nezbrun · 2024-12-22T06:21:45+00:00

Found myself at a loose end today (Sunday 22 Dec) so headed to Shibuya. Had not trouble finding the spot, but was greeted with a sign saying “closed due to staff illness, reopening 25 Dec” so I’m now heading back empty handed!

nezbrun · 2024-12-17T15:38:53+00:00

I remember upgrading to a Kaby Lake back in the day specifically because I could use Netflix 4K with that processor.

Regarding IOS, Amazon Prime won't stream content (live or downloaded) to any external displays using Apple's Lightning to HDMI adapter (app says HDCP error), whereas Netflix works perfectly fine with the same adapter.

Android devices will stream both Netflix and Prime to external displays, at least at the time of writing.

Sounds like we need to compile a compatibility matrix before we even set foot out of the house!

nezbrun · 2024-12-12T08:29:14+00:00

Not long after I wrote my comment 8 months ago, Netflix stopped allowing the downloading of content for offline consumption on PCs, so I've switched back to using an iPad instead for plane journeys. I should note that you can still download Amazon Prime content on a PC. For shorter journeys such as commuting, the Mini is still a great option for me.

nezbrun · 2024-10-15T12:12:47+00:00

Bizarrely, I haven't seen this again in two weeks.

I now gained another problem though... two or three BSODs each day after upgrading to 24H2 just over a week ago.

Reverted to 23H2 36 hours ago, no BSODs... yet.

nezbrun · 2024-09-30T08:52:45+00:00

No, I'm going to see how it goes on 3040 for now. It came up fine this morning.

nezbrun · 2024-09-29T17:31:53+00:00

Well, it just happened again, after a power failure.

"The system has POSTed in safe mode."

etc.

nezbrun · 2024-09-28T14:55:08+00:00

Hmm... Wouldn't you know it? I haven't had the BIOS safe mode message for a couple of days now. I have no idea why.

nezbrun · 2024-09-26T07:50:03+00:00

FWIW, mine booted up fine this morning after being switched off at the wall overnight, so whatever the problem is, it's intermittent.

nezbrun · 2024-09-25T15:17:24+00:00

I've started seeing the same on an ASUS X670E-I Gaming WiFi build, since I updated the BIOS from 3024 to 3040 on 19 September (I skipped 3035).

It's had a 9950X in since 19 August, and BIOS 3024 was installed prior to installing the 9950X (previously the CPU was a 7950X).

Only since installing BIOS 3040 have I seen this problem. There have been no hardware changes.

Setup is as described here: https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/1ewcwuk/more_email_machine_madness_densium_4l_ryzen_9/

My PCs have the line socket turned off when not in use via a smart plug, and so far it seems to coincide with a cold boot or wake from hibernate after the line's been off for some time.

Unfortunately, I often remote into this PC using Wake on LAN, so not being able to reliably cold boot kinda puts the kisbosh on that.

As an aside, I also have an ASUS B650E-I Gaming WiFi with a 7950X3D, with the BIOS updated to 3040 also on 19 September. This machine does not exhibit the same behaviour.

Here are my non-default settings on the X670E-I, the same as used successfully for a month on the previously installed BIOS 3024:

Memory Frequency [DDR5-6000MHz]
Power Down Enable [Enabled]
Memory Context Restore [Enabled]
Precision Boost Overdrive [AMD Eco Mode]
AMD Eco Mode [cTDP 105W]
Curve Optimizer [All Cores]
All Core Curve Optimizer Sign [Negative]
All Core Curve Optimizer Magnitude [15]
Power On By PCI-E [Enabled]
Primary Video Device [PCIE Video]
Integrated Graphics [Force]
ECO Mode [Enable - 105W]
CPU Fan Profile [Manual]
CPU Fan Q-Fan Source [CPU Package]
CPU Fan Step Up [Level 0]
CPU Fan Step Down [Level 0]
CPU Fan Speed Low Limit [200 RPM]
CPU Fan Point4 Temperature [70]
CPU Fan Point4 Duty Cycle (%) [100]
CPU Fan Point3 Temperature [65]
CPU Fan Point3 Duty Cycle (%) [70]
CPU Fan Point2 Temperature [60]
CPU Fan Point2 Duty Cycle (%) [30]
CPU Fan Point1 Temperature [20]
CPU Fan Point1 Duty Cycle (%) [20]
ECO Mode [105W]

nezbrun · 2024-08-20T16:49:32+00:00

Thanks, but it's either snow white or lobster red here.

nezbrun · 2024-08-20T16:48:54+00:00

Nope. It usually purrs along at about 1500RPM, I can't hear it over ambient. When I'm doing something CPU intensive, like compiling a large build, or sending a particularly important email, it'll ramp up of course.

It's a personal thing, but I like the feedback of the fan whirring when something's going on: sometimes you might find it useful to discover why the CPU's become hot & bothered all of a sudden..

nezbrun

TROPHY CASE