K thanx.

I wound up going with a GTX 1650, stocked by Best Buy. Because I noticed that card from Newegg is not Nvidia, it is a company called GPVHOSO (I think). Is GPVHOSO as good as Nvidia? Maybe, maybe not. Not taking any chances though.

Weird that GPVHOSO uses Nvidia numbers & letters to designate their stock, in fact I noticed a bunch of third-party companies do this. Maybe this is a sales trick to fool fools like me. Almost worked! Or maybe it's just their way of saying "our product is is equivalent to Nvidia's version if you purchase our (fill in stock number here)."

Finally got the new graphics card running but there are probs. I'll just focus on two of them.

1). My computer defaulted to max resolution: 1920 x 1080 with the new card, which is wrong. A bunch of icons were getting pushed offscreen, most of all. Should be 1360 x 768. So I changed it. Either way, everything looks really jagged on the desktop. Icons are too small, as well. I dunno how to put it; everything just looks bad.

Here is a screenshot with old card (the way it should be)

Here is a screenshot with new card (Baaad!)

Actual gaming is okay, if a bit off. Everything is sized correctly, at least.


2). But it's sunny today, which means some Fallout 3. So I try to start that game. "An error occurred while installing Fallout 3 "no internet connection". Thing is, the game is already installed. It's been this way for years. Why would swapping a graphics card mess this up?

It probably changed your screen magnification if icons are too small. Which Windows version are you running? Check Settings -> System -> Display. There should be a setting to scale your desktop there.

As to why Fallout decided to reinstall itself... Swapping a graphics card is a big thing for a game, actually. May be it is programmed to install different shaders for this card?

Yes, this helped. Good gosh PCs have so many options I don't even know about. But anyway, everything's sized correctly now.



Hey, you would know better than me! This is probably the reason. Right now I've got a headache though. Mess with the game later.

1 - 1920 x 1080 is probably the native resolution on your monitor. It has been pretty standard for the last decade or more. Typically video cards will want to default to the native resolution of whatever monitor they are connected to. When you use a different resolution, the image can get fuzzy or distorted in appearance. When you go to set your resolution and it gives you list to choose one, the one that says: (Recommended) next to it will be the native resolution.

In any case, whenever you change your resolution, the icons on your desktop will be moved around a little when that happens. That is normal. Just move them back to where you want. Unless the icons are too small to see, I would suggest keeping it at 1920 x 1080. You have a lot more screen space that way.

2 - The Fallout thing is an entirely different issue. It is saying you have no internet connection. Which is ironic, considering that you posted this on the internet. Maybe your internet was down when you tried to start Fallout? Is your copy of Fallout from Steam? A google search implies that this is a common issue with Steam games when they cannot connect to Steam. If it persists, you could try setting it to offline mode.

I have the exact same dilemma. My computer wants to run at 1920 stuff, but my eyes are more suitable to 1360. It isn't just the icons that get too small, but also text. And no, text in the Construction Set does not scale with the Windows "Make text look bigger" option - it is too old school for that. You genuinely need to lower the resolution to get the CS to a readable font size.

Another issue is that my PC does not have enough muscle to run Oblivion at 1920 something. The best it can do is 1600.

And here again we have the issue of eye sight. The peculiarity of mine is that I have issues with fine detail, in particular thin lines - they appear double (or more). And that's even without rum! So to my eyes 1920 looks blurrier than 1360... even though you are right, and non-native resolutions can look jagged and blurry.

So in my case, while my hardware can do better, my wetware lags behind... And I can't just swap out those eyeballs.

FWIW nVidia make the GPU, and other companies make the cards that they go on. Just like your motherboard is HP, not AMD or intel, who make the CPU. You might find an intel motherboard, or an nVidia card, but not many.

Thanks all for your concern.

Rosa: Actually my "monitor" is a flatscreen TV from 2012. It's got a VGA input as well as two HDMI ports, as well as the old-fashioned RCA connectors. So 1360x768 is actually best. Right now my desktop is looking pretty good. Still not perfect, but at least it doesn't look like it was drawn with crayons!

Now with Fallout. Internet connection shouldn't matter. It's a Steam game, but I always play offline. I have two monitors and two desktop towers. One for gaming, one for everything else. That's how I'm able to type online yet still be gaming.

Anyway, doesn't matter either way. If I do have the gaming computer online it immediately asks if I want to install Fallout 3. I'm literally clicking on the FOSE desktop icon which should start the game. : And it's asking this question.


Lena: Thanks again for suggesting Magnification. That tool is really wonky to use, and I have no idea what I did right or wrong. But it worked!


ghastley: Okay that makes sense. So that's why I'm noticing a lot of companies with nVidia part numbers, yet the card is made by Asus or some other manufacturer.

Your problem with Fallout seems to be a known issue with Steam. My guess is that trying the "Add previously existing alternate installation libraries/folders to Steam" option might be what will fix it.

My goodness, you guys have been busy while I was away


I just found it interesting to see what stuff you have on your desktop


This is why I refuse to use Steam for my games. It's also why I would never buy a car made after 2015 or whatever; the more stuff there is the more stuff that can go wrong


Hope you get everything sorted, Renee!

Awesome thanx Sub, what a Godsend. Thing is, I can figure all this out myself, but another thing is, I already have figured a lot of stuff. After a while it all starts to wear down on me; not sure what happens to y'all. So it really helps when I don't have to look up something else, figure out something else. Headaches ensue, and all.

mirocu: Ha ha thought someone would get a kick out of that! In fact my desktop is about half-organized in that pic. All the utility stuff (Fraps, Xpadder, etc.) should be on the very left side, with the trash can at the very top left. Next comes the older games: Baldur's, Arena, Daggerfall, etc.. In the middle are the more modern games, in order of their release: Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout NV, and Skyrim. Elder Scrolls Online. And then on the right of the screen are just miscellaneous things I don't use as often, such as Modio, Steam's page, and so on.

But like I said, it was a mess yesterday. Everything got moved around and I gave up trying to organize it. Plus, normally I wouldn't use that horrible color for the background! Was just trying to give an example so folks could see the icon sizes, and so on.

Yeah, I hate the idea of Steam, and every once in a while Steam gives me grief. But I need to play Fallout 3 and Skyrim. That trumps everything else about avoiding Steam.

Gog.com sells Fallout 3 and Skyrim SE. Don't see the original Skyrim though. It's on sale right now though.

Yes, GOG.

Not a computer Issue, just a couple general questions.

1). The new card has two Display Ports on the rear, as well as an HDMI output. I want to run a Display Port cable all the way, but my TV is older; hasn't got any Display Ports. So I got two cables from Newegg: 1- a Display Port to HDMI, and 2 - a Display port to VGA.

Here is what I notice. When using the display port to HDMI cable, the images on my TV were very sharp. "Jagged", like I said yesterday. With the display port to VGA the images look smoother. More like my old graphics cards, the 640 and 760, prob because I used VGA cables with those cards.

I like the second cable better actually. But is this typical? For different cables to render so differently on PC?


2). I also notice my new card's GPU temperature falls to about 40C at the lowest, when no game is playing. While gaming it rises into the 50s. Granted, I'm only playing Baldur's Gate right now. But that minimal temp... it never dips below 40, even when the game is off... Is this okay?

My old card, the GTX-760, when there was no game going, its temp would fall into the low 30s. Heck, if it was cold and I had a window open it'd fall into the 20s! 26C at the lowest.

I did a web search for GTX 1650 temps. Here is what the A.I. results say:

"Based on the provided search results, here are the normal temperatures for a GTX 1650 GPU:

Anything between 55-60 degrees C range is considered great.
Between 60-65 C is fine too.
Temperatures above 70 C can be a concern, and it’s recommended to improve system airflow or consider changing the case fans.
Some users have reported temperatures ranging from 68 to 74 C while gaming.
The safe temperature for a GTX 1650 is considered to be under 80-83 C while gaming."

Your post led me to realize that I had not installed GPU-z since needing to reinstall Windows from scratch on my Primary PC when its Win Boot Partition suffered unrecoverable damage. That's now rectified. To my satisfaction, it shows my RTX 4070 to be at 35c with a "hot spot" of around 40-41c. Not bad. I of course suspect it to jump noticeably higher while gaming.

Why is my mobile phone signal always rubbish?


Feat. I don't need my dishwasher to connect to my car to connect to my washing machine to connect to my fridge.



#technologyfatigue

But… but… I want my fridge to play Skyrim!

Don't you mean Doom?

My fridge doesn't play any games too good, but it does play pizza really well.

Decrepit: thanks, that helps. I'm in the habit of letting my card cool down before I shut it off.

You want your fridge to be cold, resist frost, but do not want it invaded.

I wrote what I meant.


Fridge belongs to the NOOORDS!

Sorry. Another problem... which is, my computer keeps not being able to "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for this file", in regards to the graphics card I recently installed.

Which to me means, even though the computer's recognizing the card and its drivers are installed, it keeps not letting me manipulate any settings! I can't use the Nvidia Control Panel to change color, saturation, etc.

Now, if I follow the process below, everything works fine.

> Click on the Windows button, so the tiles screen shows up.

> Press and hold the left-shift button while Restarting the system. Wait a few until the blue screen POPs up.

> Click Troubleshoot. Click Advanced Options. Click Startup Settings. Click Restart.

The system partially restarts itself. Another blue page called Startup Settings shows up. I press the number 7 on the keyboard, which is "Disable driver signature enforcement".

The computer reboots. I enter the password. Everything works fine.

Problem is, I have do do this every time I restart the computer and want to do some gaming!!! And I can't find any solution for that part.

Try updating your video card's drivers. Go to the Nvidia website and download the latest drivers for your chipset from there and install them. It does not matter who the manufacturer of the card is. Just that it is a GTX 1650.

Updated drivers, multiple times.

This would be the one from Nvidia's website. The ones that came from an install disc with the video card might be old or unsigned. I would not bother with them. Always get your drivers straight from Nvidia. If not, then maybe it is this issue with Windows updates then.

I got the drivers from nVidia's website, come on now, I'm not that clueless!

In fact my card did not come with a disc. Probably all of this would've been under the bridge by now if there'd been an official disc.

However that article on driver installation issues be the answer. Hold on.

Tried installing both the patches.... "The update is not applicable to your computer".

Tried (just for the heck of it) right-clicking and then choosing "Install Here" just to see what would come out of those two patches. Okay, got some .cab and .xml files, which I assume are the updates. Maybe I can manually place these somewhere, like in whatever folder contains windows updates, what do you think?

Those patches were for Win7, and I assume you are on 10 or even 11.

Did you get any messages during the driver installation about signing?

My gaming computer is Windows 8.1, thank you.

Only message I got is the "Windows cannot verify the digital signal" one, which showed up after I right-click > Properties the graphics card, while viewing in Device Manager. There may be another message somewhere along the way, not sure.

I'm gaming now! So whenever the next time I shut off/restart my tower I'll try to look for other messages.

Do you have the 32-bit version of Windows 8.1, or the 64-bit version? Those drivers I pointed to were 64 bit. I am not sure if Nvidia has 32 bit versions.

This article might help. It looks like this issue can sometimes be caused by corrupted files. The procedure to SFC Scan and Repair Windows Image and then run Windows Update near the bottom fixed it for this person.

I believe the problem is that the newer drivers are not signed for Win 8.1 because that version of windows no longer exists.

The only fixes appear to be the each-boot method you are using, or to turn off driver signatures completely. Right click the start button or hit windows key+X and pick Command prompt (Admin), then enter
bcdedit /set testsigning on
This says you want testsigning, which is the state of drivers before they are signed. It will add “Test Mode” to the bottom right corner of your desktop, but just that window, not all of them.

Windows 8, 64 bit. Tried to do some searching around at Nvidia's website, but (grumble... groan) they haven't got an actual search bar!

Anyway, let's see what you two came up with. Florens: I read about corrupted files at some other website(s) I've visited. Haven't gone that far trying to see if that'll help, becuaes it looks complicated.

Okay, ghastley! Haven't tried that yet, but that IS something I haven't read yet. Some other site had me going into Windows + R last night, entering some other line of code, but that didn't work. However, bcdedit /set testsigning on is something new; something I haven't seen before.

Still gaming. Moved on from Baldur's Gate and now playing some Oblivion for an hour or two. I'll try that fix tomorrow. And if that don't work, I'll try Rosa's link.



EDIT: My new card is destroying Oblivion!!! 60 fps, solid. Even outdoors. The real test will be the Waterfront of course.

Try installing this driver, it is for Windows 8.1, 64-bit, GTX 1650s. It is an older driver, from 5 years ago. But it might work because of that.

Nope, still same issue. I would like to commend you for finding an 8.1 version set of drivers though. I could only find Win7.

The issue isn't the card or the drivers, it's the computer. My computer recognizes the card is there, but it won't let me utilize the Nvidia Control Panel (meaning, my screen is washed out because I can't manipulate Color, Saturation, etc.).

I follow the process mentioned above, which ghast calls the "boot method", and now the computer allows me use of the Control Panel. Problem is, it doesn't seem to be saving whatever I just did.

I shut off or Restart my computer. Go to bed or whatever. Next day, I boot it up. And I'm back to the same issue. Computer screen is washed out. Can't access the Control Panel, etc.

I'm going to bed. I'll try the code ghastley found earlier tomorrow, or whenever.

I suppose I'll stick my toe into the already murky waters of GTX1650 / Windows 8.1 driver compatibility issues . . . and may the gods of computing have mercy on my soul.

(Link) I came across this thread on the Nvidia forums. (Link) According to it, Nvidia doesn't make Win8 drivers for the GTX1650 series, due to that OS's unpopularity. Several responders suggest using Win7 drivers. The thread post is neither overly long nor highly detailed. Still, it's a potential avenue of hope.

And yes, Nvidia still makes Win7 drivers for the 1650, it still being a reasonably popular OS for gamers. Its current Win7 drivers are more along the lines of Security Updates than full-fledged than feature enhancements, but that's to be expect at this stage. And BTW, Nvidia site to DL drivers from is not the "common" one but rather (link) here (link).

This site has multiple ways in which you can disable driver signature enforcement, since it is looking like that is your only option. Unless you want to update to a newer version of Windows, which does not seem to be worth it for this alone.

I would suggest Renee to update to an older version; i.e Windows 7 ...

Thanks all for concern.

mirocu: Operating System isn't the problem though, it's something to do with the relationship between my card, its drivers, and my computer. Thanks for the suggestion!

...If I were to go from 8.1 to 7 I just know there would be problems. I have considered this option btw, but if I go that route I'm not doing it myself, I'd take it to a geek shop in my town.


SubRosa: Yes, thank you! I agree; disabling driver sig enforcement seems to be my main option, scary as that sounds. nVidia also has a newer installing process called GeForce Experience, which is supposed to automatically help us or something, with the install process. Problem is we gotta have Windows 10 or 11.


Decrepit: Oh yeah, stick that toe in!

For what it's worth, I did initially have a Windows 7 drivers installed. That was the only option until yesterday, when Rosa linked me to those 8.1 drivers.

I don't think the problem is drivers though, it has something to do with the computer itself. But what the heck do I know?

Thanks all for help. I'll mull this over the weekend, and if I can't get the Disable stuff to work I might take my machine to Gadget Guru.

GeForce Experience is only good for modern cards as well. I've got it because I've got GTX1060 with my Win10 PC. I've had no issues, so also no experience in solving issues, so nothing to share. Apart from this: GeForce Experience is very annoying for older cards. It keeps bugging me that I have to update it, and every time I update it, it tells me to buy a newer card because the old 1060 is not supported... Not supported by the new shiny interface, that is. It is perfectly supported and working through the NVidia Control Panel and the old fashioned Windows settings. So don't fret that you haven't got it, it's useless anyway.

It's okay! I'm just glad to be having this conversation with you all. Learning a few things, anyway. This entire dilemma boggled and confused me, and made me sort of angry last weekend. Like that. But it's been good to be able to share & discuss with people more experienced than me, at least.

In all honesty I was (mostly) kidding. I stick with Win7 because it works for me and because it has proven to be a very stable OS on which most things work. Kinda like XP but better. The fact it's no longer supported is of no concern to me as the very first thing I did when I got it in 2009 was turning off Windows Updates anyway. Something I have yet to regret.

Still, had I gone from Win7 to Win8 I would most likely go back to 7 because of the reasons mentioned.

I need a new hard drive!

Yeah. Was all ready to do some gaming this morning when I got a message like "Repairing disk errors, this might take over an hour..." Well it took about an hour and a half. And then a bunch of options popped up, but no matter which one I chose it would lead to a second message: "Automatic repair couldn't repair your PC."

Did some research, seems it's the hard drive. At this point, the only things I haven't replaced in my gaming rig are the power supply, processor, and motherboard.

So my main question, am I safe in assuming most modern hard drives have the same inputs? Both inputs on the drive appear to be male. One has 15 or 16 "points" (don't know actual word) and I counted 7 points on the other input. I'm talking about where the cables actually plug into the drive.

Here's an example what I mean..

2nd question: Seagate or Toshiba? Those are the two names I keep seeing as I shop online. Seagates have lower prices, but Toshiba is a name I grew up with.

And just, what else should I consider with this latest dilemma?

One more thing: pretty sure I'm gonna install Windows 7 for the new OS. Because I've got older games; I've heard enough horror stories about 10 and 11.

Yes, but those are not modern hard drives, so a new one will not use the same cables. Those are IDE, and everything these days is SATA. On the newer drives the larger plug is for the power and the small one is the data connection!

You may be able to get an IDE replacement drive.

#1. Those are connectors for two different cables. The small one is going to be a SATA data cable, the large one a SATA power cable. Here is a page with pictures of the various types of hard drive cables. Yours looks like the very first.

#2. I would go with whatever is cheapest between Seagate and Toshiba. I have had both, and others, over the years. I have never really noticed any difference between them.

I suggest looking at your current hard drive and getting the make and model, and looking that up to verify the physical size of the drive, and its connectors. It sounds like you have a SATA drive, which has been standard for a long while now. But they do come in different physical sizes. Solid state drives are faster, but are also physically smaller (2.5 inches). You need a little plastic adapter to mount them in a standard hard drive bay (which is 3.5 inches). Like one of these. If you don't have one of those little adapters, you will need to buy one for the new drive. You can probably get one at the same place you get your hard drive. I am sure Micro Center has them (and believe they have a store near you).

#3. I have been using Windows 10 Home for a over a year now on my gaming PC, and for longer on my other PCs. I have not had any real trouble with it. It looks different from Windows 7. But I use a couple of programs that allow you to revert the start menu and explorer view back to whatever previous style of Windows you prefer. Open Shell Menu allows you to change the Start Menu. OldNewExplorer does the same with Windows Explorer. Both are free. With the two of them, it is just like using Windows 7.

Correct, my drive is SATA. Says so right on the back.


I actually just figured how to take the drive out myself. The little screw which holds it in place was a toughie, but I got it. Hey, in a way it's good all this is happening. You all really are right; it's not so hard to build these things, it seems.

Gonna head to Micro Center tomorrow after work. I'll show some tech my old drive. Cool thing about MC is they have classes there. I assume he or she'll be able to point me in the right direction.

All that screwing and unscrewing... Good going, Renee! BUT: are you grounded?

What I mean is whether you are wearing a grounding wristband? Otherwise you may fry your electronics because we humans are "bags of almost water" and therefore highly conductive.

I'm only nagging about this because I fried my RAM once... that was a lot more expensive than a wristband. You can get them anywhere, they are also called anti-static wristbands or wrist straps. They are cheap. You basically connect yourself to a radiator which is assumed to be earthed.

Thank you. Yikes, that sounds scary.

Well what I've been doing is putting my palm flat onto the case before going into it. I read that somewhere. It removes static electricity, something like that. Maybe tomorrow when I go to the computer store I'll ask if they have one of these wristbands as well.

I'm really messed up about Windows 7 versus 10 though. Can't decide which way to go. Maybe I make a poll.

Couple of things about working with open computers:

DO NOT WEAR ANYTHING POLYESTER!!!! Make sure all your clothing is 100% cotton or other natural fiber (plant fiber). Or if you're ghastley, nothing at all . . .

STAY OFF CARPET AND RUGS!!! Work on your computer in a room with a hard surface floor.

Even the slightest static zing (the kind we can't feel) will fry a computer component.

Always ground yourself before touching any components. I've always touched a part of the metal frame of my computer before unplugging it (the plug grounds you).

I've been able to swap out hard drives, RAM cards and even graphics cards without zapping my beloved beastie (RIP - obsolescence finally caught up).

As for Win 7 and Win 10, I find both to be quite stable on my Macs - Win 7 ran flawlessly in BootCamp on my Intel Macs, and my current Mac Studio (Apple Silicon chip) runs Win 10 ARM under Parallels beautifully - I've got Skyrim with over 500 mods running nicely at the moment. I did run Oblivion (GOG) on it as well, so that's that. That leads me to the belief that both are solid OS's, but you have to have solid hardware to run them - no trying to run them on aging equipment or you'll have problems. Hopefully that'll help you make your decision, Renee!

Awesome, thanks rider. I don't think I'll be working on my computers like the ghast. But otherwise, I think we're good.

That does shock me though, what y'all are saying about a mere tiny spark of static causing an entire component to fail.

Just a minor complaint.


I've copied over Duke Nukem 3D and Wolfenstein 3D from my Windows 3.1 to my Windows Millennium and while Duke saves/loads normally and the music is as it should, not the same can be said about Wolf. Not only didn't the highscores transfer over, new entries don't get saved. Moreover the music in Wolf doesn't sound as it should but it does in Duke. However, savegames in Wolf transferred fine and work as they should. I have no idea as to why all this is.

Assuming nobody here at Chorrol knows what the answer is, and you haven't got a specific forum to ask questions, literally start with Google. Or Bing. Or whatever worldwide search engine you use & trust.

> By 'specific forum' I mean a Wolfenstein forum. Or whoever makes Wolfenstein. Assuming the forum is still active, somebody there is going to know an answer, or at least a direction to start.

> But maybe you can't find a forum like this. Next thing to try is one of those search engines. Because you're starting off broadly. "wolfenstein high score missing" is what I would type. You'll probably get all sorts of answers, so narrow down toward the ones which seem to fit your conundrum.

I've become the Queen of Diagnoses over the years, so hope that helps.

Except if it is cork. Avoid cork at all costs. Cork is at least as bad as a polyester carpet. I am guessing that is because cork causes friction (it's not all that smooth) and it is particularly bad at conducting electricity. I used to have cork flooring, and I used to get zapped real bad especially during winter when the air was dry.