Other What's ruining your life right now?

Green. Green in blue = eww.

 

Reshelled my main computer into a Corsair Carbide 200R.

Lovely little case to work with.

This morning the front USB panel has packed up.

Google tells me this is common.

Can see me now spending my evening with a soldering iron repairing the sodding thing.

 

Didn't think that the green looked that bad myself. To be honest I wouldn't have noticed it if you hadn't said anything.

 

For some reason the photos come out lighter than it actually is in here. It's dark in here, I have the curtains drawn because the sun is determined to burn everything today. So yeah, IRL the green glows into the blue and looks quite nasty.



NVM, law and order has been restored.

 

Not the end of the world, but after a 6 hour flight and having been up for 20 hours at the time it felt a little bit rubbish.

Got back into Glasgow airport at 4:30am this morning from a holiday, and after collecting our cases I did the usual and phoned the car parking company (PurpleParking) to come and pick us up.

We were getting no reply on the provided number, so we walked over to the pick up location just in case they had decided to turn up anyway - didn't see them anywhere. Tried calling them a few more times only for it to drop to the answer machine, and even calling the parent company was useless as their business hours were from 9am - arghhhhh
In the end we jumped in a taxi to the secure car park about 2 miles away, but when we got there the doors and roller shutter were locked with a sign posted by the landlord stating that company had shut up shop having not paid rent.
Good news though, there was a number to call to get a key holder to come and open up, and half an hour later a security guard arrived, but, without any keys because he thought it was a combination lock and he had no idea who put the new padlock on. He then had to go back to his office and see if there were any keys, an hour later no sign of him - so more phone calls to the security company where we had to threaten to get the police or forcibly open the building myself they eventually sent along another security guard with bolt cutters.

In the end we got home a few minutes before 9am (4 1/2 hours after landing), waiting for the parent company to phone us back.

Totally shattered and a bit pissed off, though did manage to get back in time to snag tickets for The Killers in November.

 

Decided to swap my case for something with a bit more airflow, so I went and got my old Define R3 back off my brother. Finally get everything stripped out of the RVZ01, cleaned up the R3, and started mounting bits. mITX & SFX components in an ATX case might look a bit comical, but it'd give me much more airflow.

Except the ATX 24 pin cable is nowhere near long enough, not by a country mile. (No, it doesn't help if I flatten/straighten the cable, it's about two inches short)



It never ends, it never ****ing ends... EDIT: For context... No low profile CPU cooler I've tried can keep up with cooling down my 4670K, so I need a *really* decent AIO (or a custom loop). Of course an AIO/custom loop won't fit in the RVZ01 as it's so teeny, so that means I'll need a new case. And now I discover that my PSU cables are nowhere near long enough for an ATX case (and uATX would be doubtful), so that means if I want a roomy case with decent airflow then I'll also need a new PSU.

 

Er, buy an extension cable for the 24pin? Seems a little less drastic than buying a new case or PSU

 

TBH the R3 was only a stop-gap measure anyway - there's no USB3 ports on the front, only USB2, and that'll piss me off in the long run: I'm not reaching round the back of the case to find a free USB3 port every time I need to read a MicroSD card. I still need the new CPU cooler, I still need the new case, and the jury is still out on whether or not the PSU is actually dying or not (the fan has been rattling - it's not a bearing, it sounds more like the fan hitting something (or something hitting the fan)). I can't see any phyiscal damage or obstructions even after disassembling the PSU. Hopefully re-assembling the case and giving everything a bit of a clean will have dislodged whatever the problem was.

 

Have you got a malfunctioning chip or something? Surely any half decent 120mm AIO (which can be found cheap on Gumtree) will tame an 84w 4c CPU... Unless you're expecting to run it at it's max clock/volts 24/7??

 

Not as far as I know - I had this running under a Seidon 120 V2 a few years ago and that did the job just fine. The problem is that a half-decent AIO is a very tight squeeze in the RVZ01 case - there's not a hell of a lot of clearance in there! If I didn't have the GTX970 then I could wangle a radiator into the gap that the GPU occupies (like this), but as it stands that's not an option.

There isn't a lot of clearance between the CPU socket and the only point at which you can mount a 120mm rad. I've already tried a couple (the aforementioned Seidon 120 v2 a while back, and something else I can't remember) and there was no chance - couldn't get the top panel on because there simply wasn't enough room in there to squeeze the hoses in. Given enough research and testing I could probably find an AIO that would fit into this case, but that's going to be a massive pain in the arse.

I already want a new case anyway to get some better airflow and have something that's a little more pleasant to work in. The RVZ01 is an impressive little case but it runs damn warm, and it's a real pig to work in.

 

Mouse wheel is dying.

Why do my mouse wheels always die?

 

Me man. Me have strong hands. Me mame mice.

 

You would get on well with my cat then

 

Bit of a piss and moan but do need some advice please.

OK, so I tried to switch the broadband using Origin about a month ago. It did not happen, and when I phoned and spoke to their CS they said the order had not gone through and they would call back. They didn't, so I called them back about a week later (two weeks after initial order) and they said they could not understand why it wasn't going through. I said "cancel it for now" and they did and refunded me my money.

Any way, cut off date is 21st (my ex wife won't keep it in her name) so I have been trying to sort a replacement. I went on Vodafone earlier today and it was £2 more than Origin for the same overall package. Any way, I went to order it and it said "Order failed". So I tried again but it said the same. I phoned Vodafone who said they would manually do it for me on the phone. They said they were going to do a credit check, and then the penny dropped. I have no credit. I did in 2001 but I went to the USA and didn't come back until '08 and I've not taken out bugger all in my name since. My ex wife did it all, and it never dawned on me you needed credit for a broadband and phone account.

So Vodafone basically refused, and I got more het up before mum said she would do it in her name. So I've gone back on Origin's site and ordered it in her name...

It's not illegal is it or anything bad like that? There's no other way tbh. I can't live without phone and the net, it's pretty much all I have.

 

I don't think there's any problem with that arrangement. It might mean some difficulty for you if you ever have to contact them though, as they'll usually insist on speaking to the account holder.

In terms of building credit history, it might be worth getting a credit card with a low limit - there are cards out there specifically designed for people with no credit history (or a very poor credit history). You have to be extremely disciplined with it though: pay off every single penny you spend on it in full, because the interest rates tend to be pretty high. If you get caught in the trap of only paying off the minimum, or not paying the full amount, the interest rates are going to make it very expensive indeed. A mobile phone contract is another good shout, but they usually need a credit check when you sign on - if you're only getting a low-value phone (or paying for the phone outright) it might not be a problem.

What's 4G coverage like in your area? If you can live with a slightly increased latency then a 4G hotspot/dongle might be an acceptable solution for home broadband. EDIT: I know you've already got the contract set up now, but might be worth thinking about.

 

I bought some manga that I wanted in a physical format - All you need is kill. I love Takeshi Obata's art however.... I accidentally bought it in French.

 

French lessons for you then

 

It was 37*C here today, with humidity in the 80+ range.

OhGodI'mDying.

Done that before. Amazon screwed up and declared it English, when it arrived it was French. They did the same with a different series and it was in German. Eventually found used copies for cheap, after much hunting around. But sometimes the prices asked are insane... £160 for something that should be a fiver? Are you havin' a laugh?

 

You tried a NH- L9i? Have some of those spare and they all came off 4670k machines.

Cooled very well at stock anyway.