Repeatable restarts on windows xp

So I've got two different HP machines that seem to have the same fault
When I turn it on, it posts and I get the spinning dots for it loading windows but then as soon as they go away and it should bring up the login screen they just restart
Both pcs will happily sit at the BIOS for hours on end and on both of them I have tried a bookable Linux USB which does the same thing
When I just had the one I assumed it was a faulty motherboard or something but now I've got a second and it's doing the same thing?
Not sure what to do so any help is appreciated

i see you
[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]
^{can you hear the buzzing of the bees?
eternity is in their buzzing}
"What does this button do?" asked the being who strolled into the Room Of Buttons Not To Press If You Don't Know What The Fuck You're Doing - Tadpole's Warning Bedtime Tale - Leebaw
^{the one and the zero, the octal, the hexidecimal
exist in their buzzing like blood pumps through their wings
can you hear them?
your name is Dhruv}
Good judgment comes from experience.
Experience comes from bad judgment.
And I have very good judgement when I'm not on fire. - Unknown, Age of Reasonable Concerns
^{i see you
your name is Dhruv
but before that it was Dahlit 397721
do you remember why they named you Deshmuhk?
i do
to remember, we have to go back}
The dust swirled around, carried by the winds that roared through the mountain passes, howled in the valleys, and scoured the faces of the mountains. It was a thick gray dust, glittering here and there with plasma glass dust. Burnt out cars were covered by the dust, thickly caked after being rained on by thick, black rain.
A single building somehow sat intact amid the rubble and destruction. It was a low, squat building, surrounded by wreckage and ruin. A sign, blasted and scorched, had two jumping fish on it and the legend "Pop: 4,823" at the bottom even though the middle of the sign was gone.
The sound of drums and singing could be heard from the building. Not the driving frantic beat of modern music, but the steady cadence that carried with it a solemn feeling. The singing was from many different voices, male and female, but all of them in a language that time had nearly forgotten.
From out of the dust came figures. Two female, four male, and single figure that stood out from others.
Together, they moved toward the sound of singing, until the reached the door.
The leader, a large man of heavy muscle and bone, checked the doors with one hand, a large pistol in his hand.
"Barricaded," the large man said. He motioned. "We should check for any other entrances."
The older woman of brown skin and tightly braided hair moved forward.
"Allow me, brother," she said gently. She held her hand out, twitched her fingers, and smiled.
From inside came the sound of furniture scraping across the floor.
"Thank you," the large man said. He pushed open the doors, holding them for the others.
Inside was a curio shop slash tourist center slash museum. Buckskin and beaded works hung from the walls and ceiling. Glass cases containing ancient artifacts were scattered about, the glass shattered by the apocalypse that had rained down upon the world.
The drums played and the voices sang.
"It's a recording, Father," the slender brown skin man said, brushing the gray dust off of his clothing.
"Live voice," the largest of the men said. He lifted his head, cocking it slightly to listen closer with his right ear. "Young. Early twenties."
"If you say so," the thin man said. He looked around. "This is all devoted to a single person."
"Sometimes, people are that important to others, Dhruv," the older brown skin woman said softly, patting the slender man's arm. "Important to others as you are to us."
The slender man looked doubtful but nodded.
The youngest male of the group looked around, staring at the artifacts and relics scattered around. On his shoulder sat a green mantid wearing a food wrapper as a poncho.
"She's this way," the heavyset man said, leading them on a winding course through the shattered displays and racks.
In the back room, surrounded by artifacts, buckskins, and beaded works, sat a single young woman. Her eyes were white, blinded from the plasma flashes. Her skin was scarred from burns, her hair was only left in small patches. Her skin, beneath the ash and the scarring, was a rich bronze, her remaining hair was black.
She was singing along with the recording, swaying back and forth slightly.
^{there she is
remember her
remember remember}
The larger man knelt down, touching the young woman.
She did not react.
"She's dying," the man said, standing up. "Hunger, thirst, radiation poisoning, at least a half dozen infections," he heft the pistol. "There's nothing we can do for her. Low-vee Apers."
"Low-vee APERS" the pistol replied in a heavy synthesized voice.
"Stay thy hand, Phillip," the one who was markedly different said, his voice as gentle as his features formed of flowing blue and white computer code.
The large man lowered the pistol.
"She's dying," the large man repeated. "Radiation poisoning, starvation, a hard way to go."
"Will none of you speak for her?" the man of code asked gently.
Before any of the others could act, the slim bald man stepped forward. "I will," he said softly.
^{the first time you reached out
a frozen moment of time remembered
by the buzzing of the bees}
The man of code stepped forward, touching the hairless brow of the slender man, just above the missing eyebrows.
"I understand her words now," the slender man said. He moved up and knelt down. "I can heal her."
"Then do so, Luke," the man of code said.
The large man stepped back, a compartment opening on his thigh. He holstered the pistol, looking doubtful, and the compartment smoothly closed, leaving his leg unblemished.
"I need more genetic code," the slender man stated. He stood up, moving around, touching artifacts. "This. Here. An artifact recovered from a collector only a few years ago. It has genetic code attached."
He touched the artifact, then moved over to the woman, who was still swaying back and forth, singing, unaware of the others around her.
He knelt down, reached out carefully, and touched her forehead.
^{you reached out to another
helpless and alone
like you}
The woman threw her head back, her eyes opening wide, her mouth opening in a gasp. The white drained from her eyes, the scar tissue went soft and was replaced by unblemished skin. The blisters, sores, and scratches on her body vanished.
She collapsed forward, the slender man, Luke, catching her.
"Is she alright?" the youngest male asked, his voice full of honest concern.
"Exhausted," Luke said. He lowered his head slightly, sweat dripping from his bald scalp. "That was tiring."
The glittering man moved forward, kneeling down to touch the shoulders of both the woman and the bald man.
"Now you see in yourself what I saw in you," he said.
^{remember
remember
even the smallest can shake the universe
remember}
Sirens were howling in the bay as Jaskel wriggled, trying to break free of whatever was holding him upside down in mid-air. He'd already dropped his chainsword, his pistol had fallen from his equipment belt.
The two stood in the middle of the deployment area for Clone War Bay Sixteen, the male's arm protectively around the shoulders of the female, who wore only the cloak.
"I..." the word hung in the air.
It seemed like the entire universe held its breath to Jaskel.
"...am Legion."
The Admiral grabbed his pistol, rolling in place, firing it as fast as he could pull the trigger.
The rounds exploded on the glowing blue shield that only appeared around the impact points, showering sparks across the bay.
The bald figure made a motion and the pistol flew into pieces, the Admiral yanked into the air upside down.
"Gimme missiles," Jaskel grated from between gritted teeth.
--legion legion legion-- 8814 transmitted. --wait don't wait--
The woman spoke, her cadence stately and almost archaic feeling.
The man spoke back to her in the same language.
More troops ran into the bay, even as the windows overlooking the bay shattered. Weapons deployed, pointing at the pair.
The slender man, without looking, motioned.
Guns flew away, breaking apart, rapidly disassembling. Power armored troops were flung into the air, to hang upside down. Captain N'Skrek found himself upside down, scrabbling for purchase on this air.
The woman spoke to the man. He spoke back.
Finally, he turned, facing the troops hanging in mid-air.
The woman spoke.
"My sister apologies for my rude actions," the man said. "I am merely ensuring her safety."
She spoke some more.
"She has been gone for many years," the man said. He looked around. "My sister, a Biological Apostle of the Digital Omnimessiah, pleads with you to lower your weapons and stay your hands."
The tension was so thick it almost made Jaskel gag.
Finally, the Captain put the tip of a bladearm against his temple.
"Stand down," he said, Jaskel hearing it through his armor's commo system. "All hands, stand down."
There was silence for a moment, only broken by the background humming of the ship's systems.
The woman spoke.
The man faced the Captain.
"She will go with you, to answer questions, on the stipulation that I accompany her and that no man's hand is raised against me without cause," he said.
The Captain nodded.
Jaskel felt relief as he was flipped over and set on his feet.
--luke luke luke is here--
999999
Captain N'Skrek ducked slightly to fit through the doorway into the Captain's Briefing Room Six.
Sitting at one end was the woman, now clothed in what his implant assured him was treated deer hide leather, with tassels and beads upon it. The man was wearing a uniform that made his implant twitch and his nerves draw tight.
A Terran Combined Military Authority uniform.
His staff filed in behind him and took their seats once he sat down.
"I'm Captain N'Skrek, currently assigned to the Gray Lady on autonomous assignment," N'Skrek said.
"You heard me," the slim bald man said. He gave a grin. "You may also know me as Vat Grown Luke or Dhruv Deshmuhk."
The woman spoke and he shook his head. "Yes, sister, I know, Deshmuhk is my slave name. I wear it for revenge."
The woman spoke again, her tone slightly chiding.
"Like they say, the best revenge is living well, sister," the man said, still smiling.
Again, the woman spoke.
N'Skrek noticed that his implant was absolutely no help in deciphering the woman's speech.
"I know that doing things like that and saying things like that is exactly why Daxin always told me people wanted to punch me in the face," the man laughed.
He turned back to Captain N'Skrek.
"My apologies. My sister refuses to speak anything but her people's ancient tongue," his eyes gleamed with mischief. "She is slightly put out with me for answering in Confederate Standard, since now you know that she understands perfectly what you are saying."
N'Skrek nodded. Vat Grown Luke had given up a valuable piece of information in what was sure to be delicate negotiations.
"And what should we call your sister?" N'Skrek asked.
Vat Grown Luke smiled. "Tsakáka Wia, but it would probably be easier for you to use the more common name," he said.
The woman spoke sternly.
"What? It's your commonly known name?" he said, smiling.
The woman's face grew stern and she spoke rapidly.
"The first lesson we learn, sister mine, is that we must bend the knee to reality," Luke said gently. "That name has no power, only a few of us remember it."
^{i remember
the bees remember
can't you hear it in their buzzing?}
The woman spoke again, her expression softening.
Luke turned back to the gathered officers. "Her name, as you would know it, is Sacajawea."
N'Skrek consulted his implant.
And felt fear chill his icon. He looked at his staff and saw that a lot of them looked sick.
"That's right. We are real, and he was real," Luke said. He leaned forward slightly. "He was real both times."
N'Skrek stayed relaxed and calm, at least outwardly.
"I am willing to accept, at this time, that the Biological Apostles and the Digital Omnimessiah were and are real," N'Skrek said.
"Just be glad Dax isn't here. He's not as even tempered as I am," Luke said.
Sacajawea spoke again and Luke laughed. He looked at Captain N'Skrek. "She was just reminding me of the time Daxin completely lost his cool and went to town with his cutting bar on a Countess Crey Bingo Cola vending machine that ate his money then mocked him for it."
"He was known as Enraged Phillip," N'Skrek said.
Sacajawea spoke for a moment and Legion laughed, then turned to N'Skrek.
"Yes."
N'Skrek hated that. When a person spoke at length and the translator just replied with a single word.
"Why are you here?" N'Skrek asked.
Legion smiled. "You have forgotten important things, Captain. You, and the entire Confederacy have forgotten some very important things."
"Like what?" N'Skrek asked.
"If you print enough identical clones, I am reborn through them," Legion smiled. "But that's not the big part. The big one is the one that the Mar-gite's masters either forgot or never learned."
"What is that?" N'Skrek asked.
Legion smiled widely.
"What fear tastes like."
^{your name is dhruv}
[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [wiki]

I recently found this video linked from some article Google News thought I should see. https://youtu.be/9Beq9t4_Jew?si=1WomjpgKyl_s5rrV
The thinking goes that you craft Poisoned Caltrops using 5 steel by scrapping everything in Sanctuary. Then you make your way to Diamond City and sell them all to Myrna. She sells shipments of steel, so you buy those from her, turn it into more caltrops, and repeat.
In that way, it's supposed to be a self sustaining economy of infinite caps and XP. However, does it work?
I just tried this and Myrna was selling a shipment of 100 Steel for 870 caps. That's enough to craft 20 caltrops. Each Poisoned Caltrop sells for 40 caps. So 100 Steel = 20 Poisoned Caltrops = 800 caps. I'm losing 70 caps every time there. What am I missing? How is this method self sustaining for infinite caps when I really can only do it a few times until I'm too low on caps to buy more steel from Myrna?

Are servers down? I cannot play the game at all . Everything is updated on my Windows 10 PC . Windows is updated, Steam is updated, DBD is updated. I restarted the PC 3 times, did a scan, nothing works.

Openvpn Connect version 3.4.4 on Windows 7 client
In config I have:
remote mydomain.example.net 12345
mydomain.example.net IP is updated by a powershell script and configured on a dynamic dns service like dyndns, or duckdns in my case.
When my server IP changes the client properly gets it: if I launch ping command from the windows client to mydomain.example.net it responds as expected.
The problem is just for openvpn client, it retries to connect to the old IP, fails, wait about 10 seconds, retries and so on. It doesn't "sense" the new IP address of remote domain of openvpn server.
It's not an issue related to dynamic dns service: within client windows system mydomain.example.net redirect properly to new IP. I cannot figure why ovpnconnector active service continues to try connecting to proper domain but referring it to the old IP.
Here my config:

ping-restart 10 dev tun proto udp remote mydomain.example.net 12345 resolv-retry infinite nobind persist-key persist-tun remote-cert-tls server data-ciphers-fallback AES-256-CBC verb 3 user nobody group nobody auth-nocache ecdh-curve secp521r1 

Hi, so I'm having a bit of trouble today, and I was hoping someone could help
I'm not sure why (perhaps malware) but when I enter my pin it first required an internet connection (it's never needed one before) and then once that was available (as well as before when I tried starting in safe mode) gave me the following issue

something went wrong and your pin is'nt available (status: 0xc000006d, substatus: 0x0). Restart your device and see if that fixes the problem.

No version of a restart I've tried fixes the issue, and I can't log in with my password due to having lost it (I cannot change it as I lack sufficent information for windows to help me, and when I hit reset password on my computer it attempts to load but then takes me back to the regular login.
Looking into it, I've learned that this can be caused by a corrupted NGC folder and deleting it so windows can replace it is a possible fix, the problem is I need to long in as administrator and I don't have that option (I tried going to command prompt under troubleshoot and entering net user Administrator /active:yes but no option appeared on login, either regularly or in safe mod.
Any help would be appreciated! Please and thank you! (I've seen that a system reset could possibly fix the issue as well, but I would perfer to avoid that if need be)

Windows 11 Home, Ryzen 3600x, GTX 1080, 1TB HDD, 500 SD and another 500 SSD, 16G DDR4, B550 M Gigabyte board.
My PC BSOD the other day with Error 7023. I ran SFC scan and checked all disks with a restart after each check. Error has gone away, but every time I turn on or restart my PC, it asks if I want to cancel the Check disk, begins to check C and boots to Windows immediately.
Is there still something bad going on in one of my drives? I'm sure I'm missing something

I am following professional LoL for already 9 years and for vast majority of this period (except of spark of pure madness in the middle of S8) there is constant complain that "pro meta is too small". People are get bored watching same champions over and over again, and to solve this problem, Riot tries to solve this problem by making frequent adjustments and balancing tweaks.
But actually it is a wrong decision, and this MSI, same as previous Worlds, same as Worlds-2022, and same as many tournaments before, shows that the answer should be completely opposite:

Just give teams time to figure things out.

Let me try to explain.
Time is a constraint function here. Pro players are playing a lot, but even them have a limited number of time to practice. Whenever a change happens, the first things teams trying to do is to figure out new "broken" strategy, picks, synergies, compositions, etc.
Then they start practicing it. Because it is a "broken" strategy, you want to make sure you can play it to not lose quickly. So, players, who have on average maybe 150 SoloQ games and ~100 scrims games for a single patch, need to practice certain champions, synergies and mechanics. Obviously, it is simply not enough. Even the best players need time to learn and practice certain nuances, ideas, execution of tactics like lane-swap, new lvl-1 setups, etc. ~200-250 games sound a lot, but it is not a lot for that high-complexity game with 168 champions and quadrillion mechanics, interactions, synergies. You can't go really deep in the pool and cover a lot of angles during that short period of time.
After a few weeks we have a critical moment: meta seems to stale. Champions repeat each other, pick and bans are the same, people get bored, and Riot decides to shake a bit things by a new patch.
But what would happen if you don't do this?
This is where MSI and Worlds help us.
Once teams master "OP" tactics, they start to look beyond it. They start to look for counter-plays to expand arsenal. Especially, teams who are behind in "OP" start actively looking for plan B and plan C, checking new variations and counter-plays.
And they find them. There were only a few exceptions in LoL history (like Ardent-2017) when patch was critically needed for balance. In most of the time, teams figure out on their own how to play. T1 in 2022 basically re-invented the meta. They just find an answer. An asnwer which would be lost if the cycle would be standard. Assuming that T1 would play Worlds in only 2 weeks, they would not make it to even Semis. But they win it, because they just have time to find an answer.
Same we see now with G2. Knowing that they can't compete East "at their field" playing standard meta, they just turn on brains and find good answers. We can see this Iverns and Poppy because G2 have a month to practice on the same patch.
More to this, long patch windows allows teams to focus more on macro, mid-game, etc. Instead of just mastering new champion synergies or lane swaps, you can focus on tempo, on vision, on decision-making too.
I hope that new Fearless format will allow us to finally step out from very harmful 2 weeks cycle. It should bring "enjoyment" for fans which should allow Riot to experiment and maybe do changes less often, giving more time to teams to work on answers, rather than a constant nerfing it.
League of legends, as I said, has 168 champs and quadrillion of synergies, interactions, and fancy counter-plays which we get to never see on stage because teams are in a constant run to adopt to the most OP at the moment.

Hello, I have a HP laptop. It's telling me theres no WiFi connections available. So then I go to the Network & Internet Settings and I tried to troubleshoot. When I do that it says "An error occured while loading the troubleshooter: An unexpected error has occurred. The troubleshooting wizard can't continue." Under Advanced Network Settings I clicked on Change Adapter Options. There is shows me 3 Network Connections, a Bluetooth Network(Not connected), Ethernet(Network Cable Unpluggeg), and WiFi (Not connected). I have restarted my router already, everything is plugged on that needs to be. The WiFi is working perfectly fine on my phone and on my child's Nintendo Switch. So I figured it's a problem with the laptop itself. I googled some responses from people and tried all the options I found which included searching on Windows for the computer management, which windows won't let me search. Using the command prompt, and typing in the code options I found might help. It told me the file doesn't exist or I don't have permission to access the file. But I am the administrator. And looking for updates, which I haven't found any that are needed. Does anyone else have any suggestions or advice?

I was (poorly) homeschooled for a long time, so I was never really around people besides my family. I began school recently, though, about 6 months ago, and I think I’ve got my first crush???
This is the best!! I’m having so much fun! I have someone to giggle over! I blushed talking to him! I’m listening to lovey pop songs and I’m thinking, yes, I get it now! It’s beautiful! It’s an amazing feeling!
He’s a pretty quiet guy, but everything he says is so thoughtful and smart. But he’s not completely distant or wrapped up in school - he’s fun! He has such a nice laugh. He can get along with anyone, but he still hangs out mostly alone. He reads books!! He dresses so nicely. He has really nice hands. He always tries to include me since I’m pretty shy and hesitant to intrude on other people’s space. He’s so sweet.
I usually don’t talk to him one-on-one outside of class. I don’t want to bother him. But he laughs at my jokes sometimes, and if we’re sharing projects, he always has something nice to say about mine. We banter back and forth when we’re in the same group. I always sort of noticed him, but when he rested his hand on my shoulder one time, I was like, oh. Yeah. This must be a crush.
During the solar eclipse, my school had a break in the day to go out and see it. Everyone was in their own little groups talking and laughing, but he was kind of off on his own, with his own little bubble of space around him, and he put his glasses on and looked up and the sun was literally shining down on him. It was a scene out of a movie. I had to leave because I was blushing so hard I didn’t think I could survive if I kept looking at him.
In class, he mentioned a book he recently read and loved, and I seriously went out and bought the book hoping I could talk to him about it. (My teacher noticed and asked with a smile if I was “inspired” by his mention of the book. All my excuses I planned went out the window and I just laughed and said yeah. I might have even been blushing. I’m so obvious and I don’t even have it in me to be embarrassed!!) He sits next to me in homeroom sometimes but I’ve been too nervous to talk to him outside of class.
He’s graduating in about two weeks, going to university in a different state. I know I don’t have a chance, and I don’t think he’d be into me like that anyway. It’s a little sad to see him go so soon when I just met him, but…
Having a crush is so fun! I’ve never felt like this before. I think about him my entire weekend, I listen to songs and think about him, he laughs at something I say and I repeat the moment in my head until another happens. I’m so glad I got to experience this even if nothing comes of it. I just had to get this off my chest - everything feels so light and nice and it’s so hard not to laugh/smile around him. I hope this is the first of many crushes.

I have a HP laptop, refurbished. I've had it for roughly a decade. It was perfectly fine and then the next day I tried to get on it, and it's telling me there's no WiFi connections available. I have restarted the router. And the WiFi is working perfectly fine on my phone and on my son's Nintendo Switch. I've also tried restarting the laptop, looking for updates. Windows won't let me search for the computer management to see if there's anything in there I can do. I've tried using the command prompt as administrator. I'm currently cleaning it now. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Just had this error again on an Epson XP-960 on a Mac. It's annoying that it happens recurrently and is a bit of a faff to sort out. I carried out the usual deletion of the printer and associated files, restarting, and reinstalling and had to do it about 5 times before it reliably sorted the problem out. Waste of time. Surely the OS and drivers could work together better?
Other irritating issue is the fact that unless you know about it most people probably use the Mac Bonjour driver, when in fact the IP driver gives you more functionality and better photo printing.
Also the various Epson websites can carry different ages of the drivers in their support pages. Why not just align them worldwide so that you always get the newest one at set up?

I booted up my pc today, i noticed a command prompt opened and closed multiple times in less than a second, then a few seconds later EA App opened. The EA is not set to open on bootup, and usually doesn’t. Task manager only has SecurityHealthSystray.exe, Microsoft Teams and Laptop Devices to open on startup. Nothing on a Windows Defender full scan, restarted a couple times and it didn’t happen again. Im on the latest Windows 11, and i have an Nvidia graphics card, if that helps. Hope anyone is willing to help, im pretty worried

I know netbooks are underpowered as hell, but is there a broswer that runs slightly good on my Windows XP netbook? So far the ones I've tried (MyPal and Supermium) worked like crap, and I wanted to know if there was a browser that this laptop could run good on, except for K-Meleon.

Hello people,
I am currently playing a second time through the campaign on hard difficulty and since for my first go I got very frustrated from times to times and shared some (I think Helms Deep and Minas Tirith) in this sub and got questions I couldn't really answer since it was too long ago, I thought I recollect my impressions from my second playthrough as some things have changed (at least it feels like). In general: It got easier.
Moria: Very straight forward. Seperated hobbits and actual heroes into 2 groups and started clearing out goblins and skipping level ups. Once an actual hero got to lvl 2 I picked up a level-up getting them to lvl 3. Fittingly there are 5 hidden level ups and 5 actual heroes. So by the end of the level everyone who matters was lvl 3. Yes I hate the hobbits go sue me.
Lorien: Cloak the hobbits, proceed with heroes. Kill the Lumber mill in the bottom left corner, bring the hobbits. Enter Lorien and build 2 Archery Ranges. The hobbits are send to collect the treasure while everyone else is gathering at the north-western bridge. The hobbits naturally arrive at the norther bridge where they will cross and kill the lumber mill. Constantly produce elven archers and keep an eye on gimli, aragorn and boromir as they tend to get themselves isolated at the front without archer support. just get them back and heal if nessesary. between waves the hobbits go and kill the third lumber mill in the north and then run from chasing lumber jacks and orcs. Either kite them to your archers (go back around, don't try to get past a wave) or just enaugh so you can cloak them. once cloaked/save cloak them and forget about them. Southern bridge will be attacked next, so reposition to the south, after which reposition to the north. Freewin.
Rohan:
Your priorities should be: +Command, +Special, +Resources. Use the early missions, which are very easy, to max out on Rohirrim and get all upgrades asap. You should be able to train new units after every mission (as you get +command) which lets you recruit rohirrim archers and sell them at the main building to level your stables to get shields. At around Fangorn the missions will get more tricky as the enemy will have large numbers of spears with improved weapons. Don't charge them if possible. Kite them to a base with towers or just outrun them. You are usually not in a hurry. You are in a hurry tho in 2 missions where "Isengard will arrive in X minutes" - you don't want that. The army that arrives is strong and has wargs and spears which will decimate your Rohirrim. You want your Rohirrim to level from mission to mission as lvl 2 Rohirrim will not be sufficient.
Helms Deep:
There is no use in defending the lower Wall. I sell everything, archers and peasants in the main building and build Elves exclusively (unlucked once the elves arrive). Station them on the third ring at the very top. Leave all gates open, don't close them. Gather as much resources as possible while upgrading your elves with standards and fire arrows. Ignore improved weapons. Use the Rohirrim and Theoden and Eowyn to safe the peasents, let them gather the treasure and sell them. Defend the right gate on the 3rd wall with gimli, aragorn and boromir. Keep them close so they always have archer support.
The enemy will attack soon and flood the first wall (the one you're supposed to protect) but some of them will be diverted to the open gate. Your elves will kill a constant but slow stream of enemies as they trickle through. Close the lower gate from time to time to waste the enemies time as they will walk towards the ladders to climb them. Just open the gate again when rams arrive. The rams will walk through the opened gate and kill the farmsteads on the lower leve. Your archers will take care of them.
At some point ladders will gather up infront of the game unable to pass through. At that point keep the gate open at all times as ballistas will appear. They wont be able to get past the ladders and get stuck. Like this your losses are kept to a minum. From here on out it's basically just holding out. Once Eomer is ready to be called wait. Another wave will trigger shortly after. Once that has passed/reached your first gate call Eomer. Mount Gandalf and charge the first base with Eomers "For the King" ability. your losses will be minimal. After that turn around and charge whatever is left inside the keep and reunite with Theoden. Heal up on a well, maybe wait out another wave and then ride out. Eomers and Theodens abilities make your riders very tanky so you can charge the second base. After that's done retreat into the keep. No more waves will be spawned. Use your heroes to clear up the map like this you can level them up some more.
Isengard:
Became irrelevant, total cake walk. Before fire arrows where a real issue as they just DELETED ents so you had to cheese the Mission. But now, you are so strong no cheese needed. Defend the first attack, clear the goblins and the troll cave, build up ents. Walk around the base and bombard the urukhai pits and any fire-archer troops you can find while 2-3 ents defend while standing in the puddle outside the gate. Then just go in and kill everything. manouver burning ents into puddles and use heal at your own disgretion. Keep Treebeard alive and mount the Hobbits or cloak them.
Ithilien: Build only rangers and equip them with fire arrows. Try to keep everyone alive, you don't want to lose entire battalions. In the south there are a few rangers and a catapult. You can clear a big deal of the enemy camp on the middle plateau with that catapult. Aswell as the Oliphaunt in the top right corner. It will try to attack your catapult but the invisible wall makes it impossible. You can reach the Oliphaunt with your catapult from a cliff spot on the right side of the walkable map. Just area bombard where the oliphaunt stands it will return after charging you after each hit. Once that is done and the middle plateau is cleared position in front of the ramp and use the Terrain ability (that green circle where your units get boni) as close to the top right base as possible. This will trigger the orcs and trolls to attack you. Then proceed to bombard the bottom right base with your catapult and take it down with your rangers. Just take them to the topright base you cleared already and raze it to the ground. this should work ideally before mordor arrives so you can save most of your rangers.
After that you can pick missions again, and again: Command->Special->Resource.
Be careful in Dunharg, there are a lot of spears on that map and it is rather small. Striking fast is the key to victory although I lost some riders.
Osgiliath:
Then the defence of Osgiliath. This mission got a lot easier but is still tricky.
Right at the start move 2 catapults south aswell as the tower guard. Retreat with your rangers so they don't die to the attacking catapult (your otwer guard in the south will most likely be dead already). Build up the base in the south and kill the catapult with towerguard and your own catapults. Focus on Smithies only, build a well in the southern base. Man the towers with rangers and keep towerguard in defensive formation as a meatshield. Don't advance over the bridges. Maybe I got lucky but the Ai ignored the southern bridge from there on and only send waves down the middle and north. The north can easily be defended with 3 Ranger battalions and 1 towerguard.
From there on build your army up: A few tower guard are enaugh (I guess 6-8 batallions) rest Rangers. Get all upgrades from all buildings. Once your army is maxed call faramir, not earlier. You'll need the additional firepower. I used that time to upgrade the ithilien rangers that haven't been upgraded yet and leveled Faramir on the middle bridge to 5 for the +50% armor leadership bonus. I attacked the catapults one by one luring them into death while I also started building all towers in the southern base. Then I gathered everything except for 2 Ranger battalions and 1 Towerguard which stayed north and crossed the river. This will trigger nazgul to attack. Kill them asap. Establish a footholt on the other side and start taking down the base right across the river. Mount Faramir so he can dispatch any catapults quickly. Once that base is fully destroyed a large and very powerful (lvl 4+ Trolls, Oliphaunts and Orcs) will spawn. This is true for every base the enemy has. Therefor I gather all of my troops around the center of the base, once it's cleared I build a base of my own. the entrance will be to the southwest where I will build Towers at the entrance and on each spot while building a statue and a well in the back. The towers in the front will be cleared almost instantly, just rebuild them that gives your rangers till to kill anything that moves. Expect some heavy losses. Rebuild your army and kill everything but one small tower in the bottom right base. then go topside and do the same for the north base. Kill the manned towers with your catapults. Then kill both bases simultaneously and the mordor army will not spawn for base 2 and 3.
Kankra's Lair: Just walk around with Sam and kill all spiders. Don't free any soldiers. In the top left there is a troll which is too strong for Sam. So you let him throw rocks at it, until he is one hit away from death. use heal and wait until his health drops below half (after his health turns yellow one more hit) then activate the light. Once the troll flees just cloak. Wait for Sam to heal up and heal come off cooldown. Repeat this once and on your third fight with the troll sam should win. Proceed to clear everything with sam until you can only move south-east. Go and free all soldiers. Proceed with sam, kill spiders and free soldiers with soldiers. In the south there is a large arena. Gather all soldiers and tank Kankra with Sam. You will need to heal here so Sam doesn't die. Kankra runs and small spiders swarm. Your soldiers will take care of them. Kankra returns and who she focuses is random afaik so try to kite soldiers she targets away so your losses are not too big. After kankra is defeated clear the rest of the caves, gather treasure and free soldiers and gather at the exit. There is a small base in the bottom right corner guarded by some orcs. Kill them. Build the base and build 3 Smithies and a Farmstead where the Lumber Mill stood. Wait until your smithies reach Lvl 2 then research all upgrades. After the upgrades went through demolish 2 Smithies. Build an archery range and a barracks. Recruit 3 swordsmen battalions from the baracks so it reaches lvl 2. Take them and the rescued soldiers and let them die at the enemy base. They're all worthless. Recruit 12 batallions of Tower guard and 12 batallions of Archers. Fully upgrade them. Delete the archery range and build another Smithy. Throw your army against the enemy base. Once you breach the walls mordor will send a strong army so your first army is most likely lost. I managed to kill a lot by positioning towerguard wisely but in the end it wasn't enaugh. The army wont cross the bridge tho so you can just save up and build 12 Tower guard. Demolish the barracks and build an Archery Range. Build 12 Archer Battallions, full upgrade everyone. This force should be enaugh to overwhelm the defenders.
After that is Minas Tirith. That's where I am right now and I will update in the coming days once I complete it.
General: So far I feel like my troops survive more easily, the enemy armies aren't as punishing as before but I had to resort to cheesy strategies in Helms Deep and expect to cheese Minas Tirith aswell. This playthrough is therefor less challenging and usually I prefer more challenging games even or especiall when it frustrates me. But the changes just made me cheese less and restart less because I accidentally wiped 8 batallions of Rohirrim on a single urukhai spear batallion.
Mistakes I made so far: I didn't really level Gandalf in Fangorn or Helms Deep so I wont have access to lvl 10 in minas tirith. Wihch might be an issue.
I lost some Rohirrim in Dunharg which I couldn't really replenish.
(Maybe) bought the Rohirrim special power and am at 11 Special points with Anduril and Army of the dead missing.
Speaking of which: Special abilities, which I took and why:
Heal: Best ability in the game.
Bonus dmg for heroes: Worth the 1 point.
Gandalf the White: Grey is just useless.
Green-Land-Thingy: Handy in some missions.
Rohirrim: Helped me out at some later missions as fodder to throw into dangerous troops like spears and keep them occupied.
Anduril (not bought yet): Stronger Aragorn is always good, but it is a prereq for Army of the Dead.
Army of the Dead: Is good.
Eagles and Ents are not worth the points you can't use them in most missions. Elves were always underwhelming for me, they deal little to no damage, their range is kinda meh and their melee capabilities suck as in those missions you can use them the enemy has leveled and upgraded orcs/urukhai which delete the elves. Upgraded Peasents: The same reason I don't level Hobits. Sure you can take your time to do so but what's the point?

I just wanted to make this information more accessible for others who may have this issue! Maybe it's just me but I love the idea of being able to do inventory management and check my map or items by looking off to another screen.
The 'Fallout Pip-Boy' app on iOS & Android (since removed from android) was made to be a companion to the game? Idk too much about it but I ran into an issue while trying to connect it to the PS5 version of the game. Couldn't find my console and I made sure all the settings were turned on but nothing worked.. until I found the most simple fix which in hind sight; makes sense and I feel like a dumba**
Load up a save game on the ps4 version of the game and make sure you have the pip-boy setting enabled in the gameplay tab (restart ur game if you had to enable) I suggest loading a save file around sanctuary or near concord then try connecting on your Pip-Boy app.
It might not work the first time so restart your game and repeat until you see your IP & console on the Pip-Boy app. Connect and it should work!
Afterwards, load up the PS5 version. Double check you have the pip-boy setting enabled (restart ur game if you had to enable) then it should detect the game and work from there on out!
**I have found that if you try and use the local map on the Pip-Boy app while on PS5 (idk about xbox or PC) but it'll crash your game immediately.

Hello all. Recently, I've decided to try to hunt down the parts needed to rebuild the computer setup that my family had when I was a child. I was born in 1997, and my family got their first PC in 2000. It was a Gateway model, with the green lettering and cow-texture cube for branding. It ran Windows 98 Second Edition and came with a printer, scanner and microphone. Past that, I can't remember a thing about the specs it had. I remember it being pretty solid for point and click games, but it obviously couldn't play the games that began to come out in the Windows XP days. I used this computer for years growing up, until about 2008-9 when my dad sold our house. It got broken in the move, and I haven't seen it since.
I've managed to find the exact tower shape that we had, here is a photo of it: gp71.jpg (584×1121) (wordpress.com)
Doing some reading, I've found that these towers held the Gateway Essential, Performance, and GP6-GP7 series. There may have been more, but the archived links I've found to Gateway's shop don't have the pages I need to see product listings. I remember our computer having a big binder of Microsoft Office/workspace discs with it, and this makes me think that it may have been a G7 since those were more business-oriented from what I've read. I could be completely wrong
I'm searching for what could be a better computer in this line that would be able to handle most games up until 2000 or so. If anyone has any experience with these models and can point me in the right direction, I would love the advice. I have a lot of nostalgia for this computer setup and would love to rebuild it and break out my old CD-ROM's. Any help on this is greatly appreciated!

Hello all
Recently switched back to Mac after 7 years of Windows (aside, Windows11 is a joke) and was baffled to see that hooking up a decent (BenqPD27Q) external monitor, 27in, 2560*1440 - a very common size/resolution combo (about 20% of the Steam install base if that means anything) - resulted in appallingly low quality text clarity. It is shockingly bad. I'm obviously running it at the correct resolution before the fanboys with Stockholm syndrome arrive to ask me dumb questions and tell me it's the cables.
The same Monitor hooked up to Windows10 and 11 laptops, and hell, even a Samsung tablet (S8, Android 14etc) displays text just fine, and that's all because, having looked into it a bit and having recognised the symptoms from shitty non cleartype text on windowsXP era laptops, it turns out MacOS no longer does subpixel sampling.
Now, that's understandable for the amazing built in display - it simply doesn't need to mess up fonts to make them appear smoother
However, for external monitors, most of which I'd guess are not 5k 220PPI studio level displays, it's still a requirement. Otherwise text and the UI look like shite. I mean unusable. I was driving me mad. I found BetterDisplay and the option to mess with the HiDPI settings to force MacOS to render fonts properly, and it's the only thing that's worked. It's made such a difference I might even pay for the license.
But, what I can't figure out is, why this isn't a bigger, noisier issue. There's very little on the apple forums. There must be milliions of MacOS users hooking up to 24inch 1080 or similar displays all suffering silently from shittyfont-syndrome. And the default response they they're getting from Apple is forum members telling them it's their settings or their cables, when it's neither. Last time I was full time OSX (2015) the Apple experience really was excellent.
This time, yes, the 16inch MBP is a gorgeous, ridiculously powerful machine. But this is one of a few little niggles that detract from the overall experience.
https://www.reddit.com/MacOS/comments/o5i1va/blurry_text_on_your_external_monitor_with_you
https://www.reddit.com/macbook/comments/s1azu5/how_is_blurryfuzzy_external_monitors_for_the/
The only thing that's helped is
github.com/waydabbeBetterDisplay