This post concerns enrolling in the Extended Security Updates (ESU) program for Windows 10 especially if you prefer to use a Local Account. Up until 10-Oct-2025 it was possible to use the script at https://github.com/abbodi1406/ConsumerESU to enrol without a Microsoft Account, but the developer has confirmed that this no longer… Continue reading
Earlier in the year my main PC failed. The board was dead and it wasn’t the PSU as I have a PSU tester and it tested out fine. The PC was long overdue an upgrade, so I went ahead with that. More on that in another post. The system was… Continue reading
I’ve been meaning to post this for a while, so the info here is a little out of date I suppose since the RTX 3080 Ti is quite an old card now. Back in November 2022 (blimey, was it really so long ago?) I bought a Zotac RTX 3080 Ti… Continue reading
I’ve had a weird issue recently when playing some games in Windowed fullscreen mode under Windows 10 Professional. Specifically the Epic Games Store version of The Outer Worlds: Spacer’s Choice Edition and also Robocop: Rogue City, although I’m sure it’s not limited to those. The issue is that after Alt-tabbing to… Continue reading
In a previous post I detailed building a dual Xeon workstation using a Supermicro X8DTL-3F salvaged from a used 1U server, and dual Xeon X5680 CPUs. That was 6 years ago now, and it’s time for some upgrades. I was finding that, with air cooling, CPU#1 was ingesting hot exhaust… Continue reading
In a previous post I detailed building a NAS from a Supermicro 1U server, using a X8DTL-3F motherboard and a Xeon E5645 CPU. I’ve made some big changes since then, so I decided that this warranted a new post rather than just an update to that post. Obviously, one change… Continue reading
I recently updated the motherboard on my NAS server from a Supermicro X8DTL-3F to a X8DTL-6F, which is a pretty much identical motherboard only with an onboard LSI SAS 2008 controller on it. During the course of that update, I needed to flash the SAS 2008 to IT mode, and… Continue reading
In the mid 1990’s Suncom Technologies released a series of serious flight sticks aimed to compete head-on with Thrustmaster and CH. Their F15e stick was modelled on the real joystick from the McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing) F-15E Strike Eagle fighter aircraft, and consisted of four models. All four were 2-axis… Continue reading
I made passing reference in a previous post about being careful when upgrading the CPU on an existing motherboard, and I was recently reminded that I never got round to expanding on it. So here is a quick post about it, especially things to watch out for and gotchas you… Continue reading
I have been regularly encountering an issue with a USB keyboard and mouse, where the mouse pointer freezes, and the keyboard experiences missed or delayed keystrokes. After approximately two seconds, it would unfreeze again, but the problem would reoccur almost immediately. Having now found a solution, I thought I would… Continue reading
In a previous post I detailed how I built a NAS server from a Supermicro X8DTL-3F motherboard with Xeon E5645 CPU and DDR3 ECC Registered memory. It set me thinking on my spare PC. This PC used to be my main PC before an upgrade and is not really appropriate… Continue reading
Just a quick post. I recently did a fresh install of Ubuntu 17.04 on my Ubuntu PC which has an nVidia GTX 1050, and on the fresh install I no longer had 2560×1440 as a display option for my Dell U2713HM monitor. In fact, I was limited to a maximum… Continue reading
This is based on a previous post I made on building a NAS server from a SuperMicro X8DTL-3F, and cuts to the chase for people who are googling for the relevant information on how to mount an after-market cooler to a LGA1366 server motherboard (a.k.a. serverboard). It covers the Cooler… Continue reading
I’ve been running a small NAS server for several years using the excellent HP MicroServer N40L upgraded to 8GB RAM (officially its max, although I know some people have got it to work with 16GB), and with five WD Red 2TB drives, running FreeNAS v9. The N40L only has 4… Continue reading
Symptoms: When you reboot your computer which has an ASUS X99 Deluxe-II motherboard, it goes through the POST fine, but when it hands over to the OS, you get a black screen with a flashing text cursor in the top left corner. Examining the Q-code display on the motherboard shows… Continue reading