Coconut Monkey Cornerclub

[Frindis]

My PC was not in Secure Mode, and we need it for the Battlefield 6 open beta on the 7th of August (9-10th if you did not watch the stream earlier or part of Battlefield Labs). So I went around YouTube trying to find someone to give me a quick way to do it and all I got was people talking about formatting drives and going into depth about stuff I did not care for. Then I found this guy and he solved it in under two minutes. Props to him!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF2vdUnzLlg

 

[Colif]

Enabling secure boot if your hdd is formatted as MBR can end in blank screens when you start PC.
Since it can't boot off MBR in that state.
So it helps to know that your drives are formatted as GPT before you do it.
MBR is becoming less probable as you use newer versions of windows. You can boot off it in 10, but you have to do special steps to get windows 11 onto it... or just update from 10 with it installed as mbr... that would be long way around. Most new PC would be GPT now

GPT = GUID Partition Table
GUID = Global Unique ID = Every GPT drive on earth has a unique ID
GPT drives can have a max of 255 partitions on them
Max size of a GPT drive/partition is 18.8 million TB


On some Gigabyte motherboards that didn't have an easy way to reset bios, it could be an expensive mistake.
It was always in the back of my mind. Its one reason I never turned it on in either last or current PC.
Funny how its always games that require it... previously it was Valorant.

 

[Frindis]

@Colif That is part of my frustration, because I could not find any version or even volume info at all going through disk management. I even tried on two different administrator accounts and both just looked at me with a question mark. It works now, though, so I assume my motherboard came with GPT from the get-go.

 

[Colif]

@Colif That is part of my frustration, because I could not find any version or even volume info at all going through disk management. I even tried on two different administrator accounts and both just looked at me with a question mark.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/84888-check-if-disk-mbr-gpt-windows.html

i would have been surprised if it was anything else. Not many PC would have MBR now, unless they old Win 7 installs.
MBR has limitations that essentially reduce its usefulness on new drives.
Max size of an MBR drive is 2.2tb, for instance. Format a 4tb drive as MBR and you lose almost half the space.

 

[Frindis]

@Colif Either the guides were using older Windows versions or I didn't pay attention. Probably the latter. So, it is confirmed that I at least have an OS drive on GPT and my two HDDs on MBR

Max size of an MBR drive is 2.2tb, for instance. Format a 4tb drive as MBR and you lose almost half the space

Ohhh, I didn't read that properly I was going to arrest you, but got arrested instead since both my HDD's are only 2 TB. Don't laugh! Well, maybe just a little.

 

[Colif]

I am fairly sure all the drives in my last two PC were GPT, but I am not so sure about the one I had 10 years ago as it came with Win 7 originally. I think its sata ssd was probably GPT as I clean installed it a few times -I think it was MBR at the start as I recall only having 1 partition at one stage and thats impossible on GPT.
Its too long ago now. I am not sure about the hdd. Its 10 years since I opened it so not even sure how big hdd is in it - the ssd is 250gb. I Remember the hdd had two partitions, I think its a 2gb drive.
Everything before that was MBR. Each PC has had more storage, which in my case just adds up to more free space. I have about 9tb free still.

could be after 10 years answering questions like this, I know who to ignore... or what to search for

 

[BeardyHat]

My friends want me to go camping with them at the end of August. I'm half tempted to, but also don't really want to? I probably should and I could take my van with my camping mattress to sleep in, so it would be pretty comfortable, but I also don't much like leaving my house.

It would only be 2 nights though...

 

[Colif]

It would only be 2 nights though...

if you anything like me, it gives you a month to think of an excuse.

Depends how often you see them. I haven't been anywhere since before 2020, I should go see one friend for a weekend, but I always have something I have to do. And I don't really want to visit him in Summer as it gets too warm where he is. Maybe next year.

 

[BeardyHat]

if you anything like me, it gives you a month to think of an excuse.

Depends how often you see them. I haven't been anywhere since before 2020, I should go see one friend for a weekend, but I always have something I have to do. And I don't really want to visit him in Summer as it gets too warm where he is. Maybe next year.

Well, I need confirmation from my wife anyway and she's out of town at the moment. Odds are she'll day yes, but I do hope it's a no...

I see them semi-frequently. Talk to them every day via text, see my geographically closer friend once a month, often more and other friends once every two months or so and talk to everyone on Discord voice a couple of times a month.

I just don't care all that much for camping and I feel like not much will come of the trip, but it might be fun? I dunno. I don't like pooping in the woods either...

 

[Colif]

One guy I always seem to randomly meet outside my house - he used to live in my street but that was 30 years ago, he still uses it as a short cut if in the area. He had moved back into town in the last few years as prior to that he lived on the other side of the country.
Other guy doesn't travel but lives down the coast so we visit him.
It really doesn't feel that long ago I was last there but it was before 2020, as the building I stayed in last time has been burned down since.

 

[Frag Maniac]

My friends want me to go camping with them at the end of August. I'm half tempted to, but also don't really want to? I probably should and I could take my van with my camping mattress to sleep in, so it would be pretty comfortable, but I also don't much like leaving my house.

It would only be 2 nights though...

Do you ever see cougars where you go camping? As far as I know, Colorado has some. I ask because I was mt biking solo once in Eastern Wa and I saw some rangers at the turn around point after a climb up a forestry road and they asked if I saw the cougar on a ridge above the road where I was. They had some massive chainsaws slung over their shoulders and were walking in a ways to clear out some fallen trees.

I still wonder whether they were just trying to scare me away from riding solo or if there really was a cougar spying me. The only cougars I worry about currently are the elderly women in the senior only apt building I live in.

 

[BeardyHat]

Do you ever see cougars where you go camping? As far as I know, Colorado has some. I ask because I was mt biking solo once in Eastern Wa and I saw some rangers at the turn around point after a climb up a forestry road and they asked if I saw the cougar on a ridge above the road where I was. They had some massive chainsaws slung over their shoulders and were walking in a ways to clear out some fallen trees.

I still wonder whether they were just trying to scare me away from riding solo or if there really was a cougar spying me. The only cougars I worry about currently are the elderly women in the senior only apt building I live in.

We usually call em Mountain Lions out here, but no never seen one. Saw some bear scat at a park when I was in the mountains last week, but usually the most common site are dear and foxes.

Usually the mountain lions are pretty shy, but they'll stalk you and potentially attack if they're hungry and desperate. But attacks by any animals are typically pretty infrequent; most often people's houses, campers and tents get raided by bears looking for food.

 

[BeardyHat]

Also, anyone know where Zed's been? Looks like it's been a couple days, though I see he was last online yesterday. Finally having a good sleep for once?

 

[JCgames]

Go van camping! It will be a great memory and people need more of them. There is something about hanging out by a fire and eating fire roasted food that hits your dna like nothing else.. its been an urge and part of humans for a million years.

The world would be in a better place if more people took that decompress time
Food, fire and friends with the stars above it doesnt get better than that. Yea i know it sounds like a beer commercial, but its still true.

Just do it!

 

[Colif]

Always handy when a question asks you to do something on your PC that doesn't work.
had to encrypt a file. Problem is windows just shows the square as greyed out on both 10 and 11.

Looking online the answers are registry edits which don't look all that safe to me - of all the answers I have given others in the last 10 years, the percentage that included even looking at the registry is almost 0%

So using one myself didn't seem right.
So I made a screenshot showing the square is blank and uploaded that with the question. They wanted a screenshot showing it was encrypted, I showed I can't.

I see what they say when they mark it.

Beginning of the week I had 12 questions to complete, I am now down to two. They won't be hard, I am just not in a rush. Might answer them in the morning.

edit: midnight: only 5 questions this week... already done 3. Easily be up to date this week.

 

[Frindis]

Also, anyone know where Zed's been? Looks like it's been a couple days, though I see he was last online yesterday. Finally having a good sleep for once?

Without going into details, he paused his account. He'll probably/hopefully be back later.

 

[BeardyHat]

Go van camping! It will be a great memory and people need more of them. There is something about hanging out by a fire and eating fire roasted food that hits your dna like nothing else.. its been an urge and part of humans for a million years.

The world would be in a better place if more people took that decompress time
Food, fire and friends with the stars above it doesnt get better than that. Yea i know it sounds like a beer commercial, but its still true.

Just do it!

I probably should and it wouldn't be uncomfortable at all in my van. But my introvert homebody side screams with anxiety.

I still need to talk it over with my wife and see if it's kosher anyway, since I'll be busy at a tournament all day the Saturday after and if I we're to go camping, she would also be denied access to the van for our kids, though we have another car, it's just not as convenient or comfortable.

Without going into details, he paused his account. He'll probably/hopefully be back later.

Hopefully soon and like I said, maybe getting some sleep!

Just discovered last night that there's a tank museum about 6 1/2 hours from my house, called the National Museum of Military Vehicles.

I think I'm going to have to make pilgrimage. Maybe next year, if I can finish up my engine rebuild and get my Jeep on the road, I could drive up there, camp at a KOA, do some Off-roading and visit the museum.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I've always pined for a VW Westfalia 4x4 camper van, but damn they're expensive. One of my mt biking buds had a VW Eurovan. It was a nice camper van, but low to the ground. It got a bit dicey driving it on some of the forestry roads we had to drive to some rides. Dang was his kitchen in that van nice though, he loved cooking in it.

DaimlerChrysler bought out Westfalia-Werke way back in 2001, so no more VW Westfalia's but the used ones. I think it's strange that DaimlerChrysler uses Mercedes Sprinter vans to make the new ones, but puts a RAM logo on the grill. I've seen some pretty cool custom Sprinter van conversions made for mt biking, very pricey though.

 

[JCgames]

The classic 70s vw bus campers are awesome if you can find one in good shape, aka not a rust bucket They are a great restore project if your into that sort of things. the engines are super easy to work on and repo parts are super easy to find. They can sleep two fairly comfortably and have a small cooking/sink/fridge in some. The ones with the pop up top are extra cool!

 

[Frag Maniac]

The classic 70s vw bus campers are awesome if you can find one in good shape, aka not a rust bucket They are a great restore project if your into that sort of things. the engines are super easy to work on and repo parts are super easy to find. They can sleep two fairly comfortably and have a small cooking/sink/fridge in some. The ones with the pop up top are extra cool!

Easy to tinker on too, but you have to know their limitations and do your due diligence with preventative maintenance. One of the biggest flaws in the design of the older 70s VW bus was the fuel lines were right above the magneto, plus the engine block was magnesium. We had a young couple stop in front of my prior residence after someone yelled "Your bus is on fire!"

All they had time to do was pull their kid, her trike, and a big beer cooler out. They shouldn't have closed the sliding door though because the quick heat buildup popped all the windows. The engine was burning white hot like a mag torch in no time, and left a big divot in the pavement and scorched a low branch of the tree above. There were many onlookers, and a news team, and a firetruck.

Someone was walking around with a hat to take donations to get these Grateful Dead fans back to Vegas after this fateful trip to one of many of their concerts. It's a hard lesson learned to know your vehicle well and make sure those fuel lines are replaced often, especially when you have a little child with you. They were all lucky it wasn't much worse. Hope they taught the kid better after that.

 

[Charagma]

As mentioned, I got a new arrangement (Work) for a local movie. Possibly one of my biggest projects I ever received. Part of the music recordings needed to be done in a cave (Needed the natural Echo of drums and voice in a cave). For those in the music industry will know this is a good few days' camping to get the perfect sound.

Just before we left for location recording, I started noticing my PC taking extreme loading times on sound banks. Being new sound banks, I did not worry about it too much and just sat through the loading of it. At one point sat through watching the loading screen for just over an hour.

At location I realized I left my mobile internet modem at home. Not a huge problem since I do not need internet on location except for emails which I can get on my phone. This however was the tipping point of what was hiding on my PC. First day of recording I did not get to my PC but on the second day I needed to save a FLAC file I received to add to the project. Thinking of how long it takes to load the new sound banks, I started the PC up and went out for coffee. When I returned, logged in (Yes whole PC was at crawling pace) I received a message that I am not connected to the internet. I found it odd since I have nothing that needs to start up with the internet on my PC.

I did the ALT+SHIFT+ESC trick for task manager, and it opened 10 task manager screens (For some unknown reason) on the last one that opened I caught a glimpse of an unknown program that disappeared in the list. Closed all my task manager windows and went into start-up to see what changed and found nothing out of the ordinary in the startup list.

This is about where my "grey matter" kicked in and I remember the "SFC /scannow" command. Ran that and it returned that I had corrupted windows files that has been repaired. The big hunt started in task manager (that now just opened one windows as it should) and in there found a "start-up" grouping close to the bottom of the list. In there, there was an application just called APP and was linked to a file inside my temp folder which in return was linked to the internet.

Task manager startup tab showed the application, and I deleted it there.

Even though my PC is OK now (Speed is where it should be and able to work faster) I lost most of my documents and game save. Fortunate my important documents are backed up on an external drive, but my game saves are gone forever.

I am assuming it was some form of Malware or ransom ware but do yourself a favor and keep an eye on your start-up programs from within the task manager window. There might be something lurking in there wreaking havoc without you knowing. If I had my internet access with me at location, I would have just kept assuming it is the new sound banks.

PC is back to normal, with longest loading sound bank load time being around 5 minutes (As opposed to over an hour). How it got there I do not know, just glad it is gone and upset about having to restart most of my games......from scratch.

 

[Pifanjr]

As mentioned, I got a new arrangement (Work) for a local movie. Possibly one of my biggest projects I ever received. Part of the music recordings needed to be done in a cave (Needed the natural Echo of drums and voice in a cave). For those in the music industry will know this is a good few days' camping to get the perfect sound.

Just before we left for location recording, I started noticing my PC taking extreme loading times on sound banks. Being new sound banks, I did not worry about it too much and just sat through the loading of it. At one point sat through watching the loading screen for just over an hour.

At location I realized I left my mobile internet modem at home. Not a huge problem since I do not need internet on location except for emails which I can get on my phone. This however was the tipping point of what was hiding on my PC. First day of recording I did not get to my PC but on the second day I needed to save a FLAC file I received to add to the project. Thinking of how long it takes to load the new sound banks, I started the PC up and went out for coffee. When I returned, logged in (Yes whole PC was at crawling pace) I received a message that I am not connected to the internet. I found it odd since I have nothing that needs to start up with the internet on my PC.

I did the ALT+SHIFT+ESC trick for task manager, and it opened 10 task manager screens (For some unknown reason) on the last one that opened I caught a glimpse of an unknown program that disappeared in the list. Closed all my task manager windows and went into start-up to see what changed and found nothing out of the ordinary in the startup list.

This is about where my "grey matter" kicked in and I remember the "SFC /scannow" command. Ran that and it returned that I had corrupted windows files that has been repaired. The big hunt started in task manager (that now just opened one windows as it should) and in there found a "start-up" grouping close to the bottom of the list. In there, there was an application just called APP and was linked to a file inside my temp folder which in return was linked to the internet.

Task manager startup tab showed the application, and I deleted it there.

Even though my PC is OK now (Speed is where it should be and able to work faster) I lost most of my documents and game save. Fortunate my important documents are backed up on an external drive, but my game saves are gone forever.

I am assuming it was some form of Malware or ransom ware but do yourself a favor and keep an eye on your start-up programs from within the task manager window. There might be something lurking in there wreaking havoc without you knowing. If I had my internet access with me at location, I would have just kept assuming it is the new sound banks.

PC is back to normal, with longest loading sound bank load time being around 5 minutes (As opposed to over an hour). How it got there I do not know, just glad it is gone and upset about having to restart most of my games......from scratch.

Steam makes backups of the saves of most games, which is a real life saver when your saves on your disc become unusable for whatever reason.

 

[Charagma]

Steam makes backups of the saves of most games, which is a real life saver when your saves on your disc become unusable for whatever reason.

Will have a look at it. Doubt it will be there. I mostly play my games in OFF-LINE mode to save resources. I have a Potatoe PC remember. So, anything that can be switched off gets switched off when gaming.

Will go scratch around in steam and see if I can find anything there.

 

[Pifanjr]

Will have a look at it. Doubt it will be there. I mostly play my games in OFF-LINE mode to save resources. I have a Potatoe PC remember. So, anything that can be switched off gets switched off when gaming.

Will go scratch around in steam and see if I can find anything there.

Here's a direct link to an overview of save files in Steam Cloud:

Sign In

store.steampowered.com

 

[Colif]

The one actual useful use of Lava Lamps