Is it anything to do with HTTPS? Some browsers dislike regular http sites, and won't send login details to them. In a few cases, just changing that part of the URL cures it.

Still, most sites just redirect the http port traffic to the secure one and you don't even notice. It would be odd if that one didn't do that.

UPDATE:
15 min ago or so I again tried logging on AT&T via Firefox. NOPE. Following another hunch I web-searched "AT&T Log In". Used one of the resultant pages. BINGO....success! I then completely exited Firefox and relaunched. I'm still signed in to AT&T. Whether this is a permanent fix I'll need to find that alternate sign-in page when my current log-in expires remains to be seen.

I got the new motherboard for my server, but I'm not yet up and running. The machine boots, but does not connect to the network. I don't have a spare keyboard to plug in and make inquiries, and I can't use Putty to log in until I get the network issue fixed.

That is, I have plenty of PS2 keyboards, but need a USB one. The only adapter I found is the wrong way round. Murphy rules!

Argh ghastley!

I used to keep around a few 10 buck keyboards for just such an occasion.

That's just what I do, but they're all the wrong kind! One doesn't look at that aspect until it bites. I'll just borrow the one from my game machine, (this one). The server normally runs headlsss, so it's only for long enough to tweak the bios settings, and enable the NIC's.

Ran into a problem with puter that, amazingly, I was able to fix without calling my puter shoppe or sending a panic PM to SubRosa and/or ghastley. I figured I would share the details just in case they may be of interest/help to anyone else.

My puter uses Windows 10 with Firefox as my primary browser. Recently had a problem where about every program I tried to open required the puter to think for up to 30 seconds before opening it (browser, games, even Word). Very annoying.

I recalled that W10 had done a big ‘update’ only a few days ago and Windows Defender asked me to turn on ‘App & Browser Control’ which had somehow turned itself off. I wondered if the new problem was related so perused my startup menu and noticed two unfamiliar programs (Data Protection Notifier by Datacastle, and Delayed Launcher by Intel Corporation). Both of these programs were set to ‘on’ at startup. So I turned them both ‘off’ for startup. Did not fix my problem so I looked again and the darn programs were set back to ‘on’ for startup. So I set them to ‘off’ again and immediately did a restart of the puter. Voila, problem solved and those two programs remain set to ‘off’ at startup. I’ve no idea what they’re for and given the problems they were causing, don’t think I want to know. Grr.

Anyway, problem solved and puter is happy again.

Good to know, as I've not yet been "blessed" by the big Win10 update. Oddly, just the other day I noticed Skype amongst my Startup items. No idea how it got installed. I'm very careful about such things. I deactivated it via Task Manager. One program that "should" start at launch recently disappeared from Startup. No big deal, as I can easily launch it from its desktop icon. Still, I'd like to know why it disappeared from Startup.

Oh yes, Skype was somehow installed with no action or desire by me some time ago (Puter doesn't even have a camera!). This latest W10 update gave Skype 'startup menu' privileges which I also disabled.

Edit: Oh, one more discovery. That W10 'update' also completely removed Fraps from my startup menu. So I had to figure out how to add Fraps back the startup menu, then enable in on at startup. These instructions worked perfectly for that task: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/45...ally-at-startup


Geesh.

LIkewise for me, no camera. No mic either, not since mid 2018.

I've another startup idea that's been gone awhile. Just figured out what it is: Steam. No loss there. I'm more than happy to launch it from its desktop icon as needed.

Something more changed yesterday. All of a sudden my computer enters sleep-mode if left alone for 25min. I used to do that, but was forced to disable it after the last major Win10 update. At that time, it entered sleep mode, but couldn't be woken. Nor could I turn of the PC via its physical power button. Had to unplug it from the wall socket. (Or switch off the power supply, which is hard to reach.) Then yesterday POOF, sleep mode enabled. Now it will indeed wake, but kicks me all the way back to the loading-BIOS screen. I've disabled sleep mode again, as you might imagine.

I have a mic(discord) and no cam but I use Skype to call back home.

Dad doesn't know what WhatsApp is. ><

Good to hear ya fixed it!

So is it normal to have this many C++ entries in my boot drive?

https://i.imgur.com/yT2ilIW.jpg

I'm saying yes, since I have at least that many, including the 2005 version. I believe I once knew the reason why. Best I recall is that certain programs require specific Visual C++ distributions, but don't quote me.

Sometime yesterday I stopped receiving email notifications from YouTube channels I subscribe to. At first, I assumed it was due to a screw-up on my part. Nope. Turns out YouTube terminated email notifications yesterday, 13 Aug 2020, claiming peopled doesn't click on those email video links enough to justify the service. Grrrrr....

The icon suggests they're all .msi files, which are the installers for the run-time. Once the executable code has been installed, it's noted in the registry, so products won't ask for it to be installed again. That means you can safely delete all of them. They've either done their job, or it wasn't needed in the first place.

Awesome, thank you for this info!

And the server is back on-line!

It's a long story. The new motherboard was just a revision of the old one, so I'd hoped I'd just plug it in, and boot up.

Well, sort of. The MAC addresses for all the network connections were new, so Linux assigned new devices. I lost eth0 to eth5 and gained eth6 to eth9. That meant hunting all the references to the old ones down, and replacing them.

Then I discovered that the socket I'd previously been using had become the IP Management Interface port, and instead of going to my web server, port 80 was now the connection to the Management Interface. Naturally, that can't find any of my pages. So I reconfigured the MI to use a different set of ports. Still no go. Although it tells me it's using a shared physical port, it's really taken over completely on that one.

I finally got it working by bringing up another LAN part and plugging into that. Now I have to figure out how to access the IPMI at the same time, but I'm not sure I really want to. I may still have issues with the router and DHCP, but so far, we're good.

Oh, forgot to mention. The IPMI has a random password, on a sticker on the motherboard, so I had to take the machine apart to get to it. It's printed so small, I needed a magnifying glass to read it. The documentation on random passwords doesn't come with the board, you have to search the manufacturer's web sire for that. When you find the document it implies that it does not apply to the board I have. It was only after getting to the IPMI that I could determine how the LAN ports were configured.

Anybody have any experience with E: \Application Not Found ? This just showed up a couple days ago when I tried to play some Oblivion. Since my Oblivion requires the actual disc to be in my gaming computer's E drive, the problem seems to be that disc drive. All my other games (which don't require discs) work fine.

There are a slew of answers online. All sorts of ways to solve this, but none of them work for me. In all these cases, Application Not Found seems to be my computer *not* seeing the disc drive itself. And so all these solutions merely point the system to see that disc drive.

So my question: is it possible the disc drive itself has gone bad? This seems unlikely. The ONLY disc which has been in that drive (literally for years) is Oblivion, which is squeaky-clean. It never gets removed. But when I eject and insert any disc in there, usually the drive will immediately start reading the disc (all those whirring sounds occur). This does not happen at all.

@Renee

Question. Can files on the Oblivion disk be recognized/read by your file-manager-of-choice? Can files on other disks be recognized/read?

I have the disc version of Oblivion, but I recently bought a digital version off GOG for $6. GOG is really good about making older games run smoothly on modern machines. I also have Fallout3 from GOG as well.

Decrepit: no it does not recognize the Oblivion disc at all. If I double-click on my OBSE shortcut it says "Insert the Oblivion Disc." Same thing if I try to open the original non-OBSE Oblivion.exe launcher. My computer does not recognize any other discs I put into that drive. I already tried the Anthology Arena disc.

Khajiit: Yes I have thought of that too, just downloading the game. But wouldn't I have to restructure all those folders all over again? Would my computer still recognize all my original saves, and all the mods I've installed?

Overall, if the drive is bad, I'd rather just replace it. But I'm trying to see if it's the actual, physical drive first.

EDIT: and it's not the Oblivion disc. I have a second computer, and if I insert the disc into that one, it reads the disc fine.

I think it would recognize the saves, but you’d probably have to copy over your old data folder or wherever you keep your mod data.

If you cannot read any disc you put into the drive, then the drive is bad. Thankfully they are not that expensive, or difficult to replace. There are only 2 cables from the motherboard that plug into the back of the drive.

Awesome thank you. You probably just saved me some diagnosis time & money, Rosa.

I have an idea. If it's possible to switch the good drive from my other computer over to the gaming computer, I might have a friend swap them. And then I'll know for sure it's the drive.

IF this is true, any suggestion for a good brand of disc drives?

I thought about your swap idea earlier, then forgot to mention it here. It 'should' work so long as they both use the same connectors. I suppose there's a chance the problem is one of the drive's connection cables being loose or defective, but I'd be surprised if this were the case.

As to DVD drive brands, I'm at a loss. I generally don't keep track of such things until right before assembling a new system. I'll be surprised if you find much variety these days. PC bay DVD/CD drives are falling out of favor, since most software these days is downloaded or comes on a USB stick. Heck, a great number of newer computer cases no longer included those bays.

An external DVD drive might be an option if you can't find an appealing internal. (They connect via USB port, so far as I know.) But I've no experience with those whatsoever. (I don't expect you'll need to.)

@ Renee
If you need to buy a new DVD drive, here is the one I put in my machine:

Asus 24x DVD-RW Serial-ATA Internal OEM Optical Drive DRW-24B1ST Black(user guide is included) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0033Z2BAQ/ref=cm...i_W4xpFbQJ416KT

Hmm...that might be the ASUS model in my primary PC. They certainly look identical.

It has good stars and it’s $20+change price tag makes it very appealing!

I've demoted myself back down to console player .

Nothing wrong with that Reaps.

But the waters of Mt. PC Olympus tasted like Ambrosia and I could look down upon the people T_T.




Lol.

I ah... console myself... with my PS4... when PC gaming falls to give me happiness.

Same, Treydoggiedog. I’ll probably be playing my PS4 soon because I’m getting annoyed with trying to get Oblivion to cooperate with mods.

Hey, thanks for your info, Decrepit and Khajiit. I'll keep everyone posted. Asus is a brand I've heard of, so that's good.

Ain't nothing wrong with console gaming, in my opinion. I still game on console sometimes even though I have a fancy gaming computer with gleaming red LED lights! It's the simplicity of simply playing the game, rather than constantly tweaking / fixing it.

I haven't owned a proper console since the 90s. I loathe controllers.

I also have trouble watching games on anything but the largest Tv's. Too expensive for me.

As for optical drives, ASUS is good. My PC case however doesn't even have the slot for one. Like, no case panel to pop out. They're nearing obsolescence and it's sad. My laptop doesn't even have one.

Bah! Earlier today my primary PC keyboard decided to misbehave. Neither its SHIFT (either side) nor ENTER keys responded. A good shaking and vigorous use of canned air fixes it. Swapped it with the keyboard on my third PC (which hasn't been turned on in several years). Yes, it works fine. Problem is, I swear by ergonomic keyboards. The substitute keyboard is only partially ergonomic. It lacks both a separation-space dividing the letter keys in two sections and a slope toward the middle. As a result, it hurts to type with it. I decided to restore the better keyboard and make do without SHIFT and ENTER until buying a replacement. Then, while typing a report of my dilemma here, the "o" and "p" keys stopped working. At that point there was nothing for it but to again use the substitute. That' where things stand now.

In a normal world, I'd swing by Best Buy during tomorrow's grocery / medical appointment run for a replacement. Only, our Best Buy suffered a direct hit during this April's tornado. There used to be an office-supply store near the place my brother works. Whether it's still there I've no idea. I do recall that its prices were high. I can of course order off Amazon / NewEgg, but would rather type on this substitute as little as possible. It's quite unpleasant.

Another issue, my MS keyboard model is no longer available. Ergonomics, for some reason, aren't as popular as they once were. Options are few. I'll likely buy Microsoft's 'replacement' for my model, though I don't like its layout as well.

Well poot! Following this morning's medical appointment, before heading to Walmart, I stopped at Office Max to check their computer keyboard selection. Nowadays they carry only Logitech, it seems. They stock one full ergonomic. The darn thing is $130US!!!!! Too bad, if not beyond my budget I might have bought it. While I Walmart I realized I ought to check it its computer keyboard offering too. They stock two bottom-of-the-barrel Logitechs. No local purchase for me, not with Best Buy totaled.

Can you do Best Buy online?

I think so. But if I go that route (as I'll have to), I'll likely order off Amazon or NewEgg.

Yeah good call. I’d probably do Amazon under normal circumstances, but Newegg might get it to you just as quick.

Yes, I was immediately thinking your keyboard went bad, D. I've been through at least four mouse / keyboard sets on my home computers over the years. Those symptoms you describe are ones I know very well.

So good news: my gaming computer's DVD drive went bad. What I did was swapped the good drive from my second computer and put it into the gaming computer. I was surprised actually, at how easy this was. Sure enough, it was the drive. Thanks everyone. Now I can return to Oblivion.

Why would a drive go bad like that? Is it just cheap? It's not like I'm constantly swapping discs; Oblivion practically lives in my gaming computer's drive most of the time.

Because it has moving parts. That means wear, where they turn or slide, and if wires have to flex, they can break. And yes, these days everything is cheap. There's no point engineering anything to last beyond when it's obsolete.

Colin Chapman once said that a race car is engineered correctly if it breaks down on its victory lap. Everything lasted as long as it needed to, and no more.

Ha ha okay, that makes sense.

I did have a quick look online at DVD drive prices and they're ridiculously low. An Asus drive for just over 22 bucks. LG? $17.95. But see, that makes me more nervous, not confident. Okay, here we go. Blu-ray drives are pricier. I'm seeing $60 and up to $350. Pretty sure the drive in my gaming comp is blu-ray.

Glad you got your DVD drive sorted out R!

Khajiit’s SSD boot drive will soon be out of space. Anybody here have any good tips for replacing boot drives?

Yeah, PC DVD/CD drivers are a dime a dozen these days. Drives could be built with higher quality, more durable parts, but there's no market for high-end PC DVD drives anymore. I sometimes think to replace mine with a PC Blu-ray drive, but then remember I own a grand total of two blu-ray disks. (They are in deluxe Movie packages that include both blu-ray and DVD versions.)

I field-stripped the MS Ergonomic Keyboard this afternoon. Boy does it have a ton of securing screws, including some in tricky places! Cleaned its innards as best I could. No improvement. Into the trash it goes.


I'm pretty sure there are downloadable utilities that allow fully functioning boot drive clones. I've had no need for one in years so haven't researched it. I betcha there's plenty of YouTube video's on the topic. Assuming your current SSD still has plenty of life left on it (????), have you considered a second SSD, moving certain types of programs and/or data to it? BTW, do you mean a 'traditional' SSD rather than an M2 NVME drive (assuming your motherboard accepts those)?

I guess it’s a “traditional” one.

It’s this:
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB 2.5-Inch... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OAJ412U?ref=pp...op_mob_ap_share

DVD drives are just dirt cheap is all. Don't feel bad about only paying $20 for one. Be thankful!





I always took that as a sign that it was time to reinstall Windows on a bigger drive. Or just move things off your boot drive to a new drive.

What I’m wanting to do is move all of the stuff on my C: drive to a more spacious SSD. I suppose I could simply move some stuff from the C: drive to the A: drive (which is a 1tb HDD), but honestly that scares me because I’m not sure what all is safe to move.

<nods> Yours in a traditional SSD. An M2 NVME SSD would be akin to this:

Samsung 970 EVO 500GB M.2 NVME SSD

They're faster than traditional SSDs, and having their own dedicated motherboard slots need no connection cables. That said, the BIG jump in speed / durability / longevity is between SSDs and traditionally mechanical hard drives. The jump from SSD to M.2 NVME SSD is not nearly as important.