My Old PC Challenge! Try, Try Again!

I've been a computer geek since the late '90's. Basically since PC's became mainstream and the Internet was born, that's when I started my journey. I built my first Linux box in 1998 and I've built many PC's since. I got my degree in computer science and worked for some of the Silicon Valley giants doing network management, before leaving it all behind for another career in healthcare medical imaging.

Over the years, I've accumulated LOTS of computer parts- whole PC's, cases, motherboards, RAM, graphics cards, hard drives, peripherals, boxes of cables, etc. So if I get an itch and want to build something or change something, I have a deep bin of parts to choose from.

At the time that I started building PC's, I started playing PC games. Unreal had just come out. I read all the reviews and heard all the rant. I had to have it! It did not disappoint. Then I played the Diablo series. I've been a Diablo (and Blizzard) fan ever since. So it kind of became a habit of building a new system every time a new benchmark game was coming out. Eventually, life got busy and I was less involved with gaming, but I would still build and play for games I really needed in my life.

Diablo III was released in mid-2012. About a year later was when I built up a fire-breathing rig that was worthy of running that game. The build included a new cooler-breathing Lian Li tower, an Asus P8Z77-V motherboard, a Intel Core i7 chipset, a Radeon HD 7770 PCI-E video card, and 8GB RAM. That was a phenomenal machine for the game! Over the years, I put in another better graphics card in there, pumped up the RAM a bit, and converted to a solid state drive.

In 2021, I did the unthinkable- I switched to Mac! Something that I NEVER thought I would ever do. Diablo IV was around the corner and I knew that I would have to build up the PC, since the requirements were so high. I added up the cost and to buy a new motherboard, chip, graphics card, RAM, etc was going to cost $1500+. At the same time, I was also thinking about getting a new laptop. So many priorities were changing for me at that time. My Samsung smart watch just died in a hot tubbing accident on a recent cruise and I needed a replacement. I was somewhat pissed at Samsung that built a watch that couldn't take 10 seconds being submerged, so I wasn't crazy about giving them more business. I was pretty interested in the Apple watch that had fall detection, in case I was to get in kind of accident. Unfortunately the Apple watch was not compatible with a Samsung Galaxy phone, so that meant that I would need to get a new iPhone, which was just starting to put satellite technology into their builds. Well, heck- if I were to get a new iPhone and Apple watch, it would work best if I had an Apple laptop too. So could I dock a Macbook like a Dell and have it run as my desktop too? Apparently, yes! and could it run games? I went down this expensive rabbit hole and bit the financial bullet. The watch was everything I was hoping it would be. I hate to admit it, but the iPhone is rock-solid! Way more dependable than the Galaxy. And the Macbook is at least 4 times faster than any Intel laptop could be. I does play some games. I was able to install Bioshock on it through Steam and it ran like a dream!

So most of my issues were addressed. Except for that Diablo IV thing. When D4 was finally released, Blizzard elected to not make it Mac friendly. In order to run it on a Mac, I would have to run it on Wine, Parallel (or some kind of translator), or subscribe to an additional streaming service and play it on their servers for a monthly fee.

Okay. Back to the PC drawing board. It was the beginning of 2025. I was about to have my second open-heart surgery and I knew I was going to have some downtime. I thought it would be nice to play that during my recovery time. Could I make my current PC rig run the game on minimum requirements? I installed a new BIOS, ran some GPU programs and was able to overclock the card. I overclocked the chipset too. I bought the game and yes, it could run. But after trying to play it a few times, it was chunky and not very satisfying. That took the wind out of my sails and so the machine sat.

Fast forward to now. I bought that game and it seemed a shame to not be able to play it. What could I do to get it to play in an acceptable manner? I'm sure that throwing more RAM at it would help. and a better graphics card could surely help. If I could do this without breaking the bank, I could live with that. I bought 32GB of RAM and a brand new Radeon RX 580 graphics card on Amazon. After messing around with it for 3 days (and doing a completely fresh install of Windows 10 Pro), I finally gave up on that video card. Whenever I opened a game on Steam, whether it be Bioshock Infinite or Diablo IV, it would shut the computer off. I tried different drivers and different game graphics configurations. Nothing would solve the problem. I returned the Radeon card and half of the RAM (convinced that the memory was not the issue) and bought a refurbished Nvidia card to see if the drivers was the problem.

The renewed Nvidia card was $60 more, but that seems to have fixed the problem. It was a pain in the ass trying to get the newest drivers installed, because Windows wouldn't do it and the Nvidia application wouldn't do the installation. The game kept complaining that it needed a more updated version of the graphics card driver. I did a clean wipe of the old drivers in safe mode and miraculously Windows found a more recent iteration.

I've been torture testing the "renewed" card all day and I have yet to have my PC crash on me yet! I started on Diablo 4, since that's what this fuss is really all about. I bumped up the video config demands in stages until I was at full screen in 3840x2160 and it's still running at 60 frames per second! The game looks fabulous and it's running smoothly! Then I switched back to Bioshock Infinite. Slowly, I increased the graphic demands of the game and again, 60 fps with no crashing! The rendering and colors are simply stunning! Okay, we have a winner. Although this card is 10 years old, it's just what the doctor ordered! and it'll get me there until I need to do a full gutted rebuild. All-in-all, the PC refresh cost me just over $250 to get these games to run the way they should. That, I can live with 👍

Screenshots from Diablo IV

Screenshot from Bioshock Infinite

Moab 2025!!!

I've been waiting for what seems to be forever to go to Moab to run my Jeep! So many times, we've had the vacation planned and penciled in, then we would cancel for one reason or other. Well, when my Diablo 4-Wheels Club decided we were going to go this year, I had to be in on it!! And it did not disappoint!

Before I get into the vacation summary, I have to spend some time gushing about my Jeep! I am so surprised and proud of him! what he is actually capable of doing!

So everyone who gets a Jeep has to figure out which path is right for him/her- what's the Jeep going to be used for? What would be the appropriate equipment to buy? How much do you want to spend on it? I specifically purchased this little 2-door JK to rock crawl. When I went to the stealership, I knew that I did not want to buy the Rubicon model, because I would just replace all the upgraded parts on it anyway. Electric windows and door locks? I would be removing the doors some of the time anyway. So ultimately, I knew that buying the least expensive model, the "Sport", would be the right option for me. Sure, it didn't have lockers on it like the Rubicon, but I could take all the money that I saved and just do everything the way I wanted it.

The Sport model does not have the stronger Dana 44 front axle like the Rubicon does, so I had to do some reinforcements on it. I took the Jeep to the 4X4 Shop in Livermore. I had a truss welded to it, as well as C-gussets. I also had front control arm skid plates welded to it, as long as the shop was welding. They also installed new Synergy ball joints, installed Eaton e-lockers front and rear and regeared the Jeep to 4.56. (I always felt the Jeep would only be offroading 15-20% of the time. I also built the locker selector system myself.) I later installed Revolution Gear chromoly axle shafts to increase strength to the axles, since I would be running 35" tires. Tom Wood drive shafts were fitted front and rear. I purchased a Rubicon 4:1 transfer case from someone on FB Marketplace and rebuilt it myself with all new everything. I eventually installed a Metalcloak 3.5" Gamechanger suspension system with MC bumpstops. I'm running the Teraflex Falcon 3.3 adjustable shocks on all four corners and Smittybilt skids all along the bottom of the Jeep. I went with AEV Borah wheels (with beauty rings) and BF Goodrich KO2 315 tires. For additional external protection, I have a Smittybilt front bumper, Poison Spyder rear bumper and rock sliders. Poison Spyder iron differential covers protect my gearing.

Oh and for sound, I just had to replace that God-awful excuse of a stock sound system. It wasn't until I replace the original head unit with a double-din system I stole from my Miata that I found out just how absolutely shitty the stock speakers sounded! It's as if they had to adjust the curves on their head unit just to make the speakers more listenable. But replacing the head unit only  reveals how terrible the stock speakers really are! Being able to hear music at freeway speeds with the top off is a must!! So I installed a Sony stereo/nav unit paired with Infinity Prius components in the front and Polk Audio components in the soundbar. I have an Alpine 8" subwoofer under the seat and an Alpine 4-channel amplifier to give the system some help. This sound system is AWESOME!!

The Jeep has just about 80K on the odometer. I drove it from the SF Bay Area to Moab with a soft top and hard doors on it with a hitch trailer and a 300 pound dirt bike on the back of it! I averaged 16 mpg to get there and 14.5 getting home (due to high wind activity in the last half). I would say that's pretty outstanding, considering I'm used to seeing 13-15 mpg around town! When I got to camp, I removed the hitch rack and unmounted the hitch from the rear frame. 

During the trip, the trails and obstacles we ran were:

• Hells Revenge, including Hell's Gate and the Staircase options
• Top of the World
• Metal Masher
• Steel Bender
• Poison Spyder Mesa and Gold Bar Rim, including the Waterfall and 
• Cliff Hanger

Notice that they are all rated difficult (RED)! I was told that some providers don't even recommend that 35" go on Cliff Hanger! Now, remember- my Jeep is still running Dana 30's!! My Jeep, King, did GREAT on all these trails, but I did have to get winched on one of the last step ascents coming back on Cliff Hanger- I didn't have enough clearance to find a good line where my tires won't slide off! Other than that, no assistance needed. A good spot didn't hurt on some of the superhard stuff. Nothing broke and most of the time, I was even running the air conditioner! To say I had the time of my life would be an understatement!

I was also able to do a few other things that really completed my trip. I spent one day running the Onion Creek Road trail on my Honda dual sport bike with my buddy, Don. That road wasn't very difficult- just a lot of stream crossings. Lots of fun!

One afternoon, I hiked out to see the Delicate Arch in Arches National Park to watch the sunset. The lighting was like magic! Then I stuck around a bit longer for the stars to come out, and was able to get some pictures of the Milky Way next to the Arch!

On the way home, I made a stop to do a tour of the Upper Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona. I went with a tour company called Tse Bighanilini Tours. Our tour guide was Keanu. He and the tour were outstanding!! All during the morning drive out to the Canyons, it was raining and overcast, but during our tour slot, the clouds dissipated and the sun came out! That was very fortunate, since I paid a premium for that time slot, because the sun would be more overhead, so there's a good chance the sunlight can shine into the slot canyons! Keanu was full of great and fun information! He was instrumental in setting the camera filters for his customers, and he took pictures of everyone on their phone cameras!

Right after that, I drove for 10 miles to the Horseshoe Bend, and there it started raining again. It was a 0.75-mile hike to the overlook. Then it really started pouring rain! But I was at least able to get a few shots in, before the downpour! Hiking back to the Jeep, I got pretty soaked and had to change my shirt and shoes.

Another 8 hours later, I was in Las Vegas. Emily had booked a room for me at Treasure Island. I did free self-parking in the hotel parking structure very near to the entrance security booth, where someone could keep an eye on my motorcycle. I quickly dumped my stuff, got dressed and made my way across the street to the Wynn Hotel, where I ate at their famous buffet! The buffet is known for their seafood selection, which I pretty much tried every bit of it. But I had to sample the meat too and for me, their beef brisket took the cake! It was SOOOO GOOD! That made the visit completely worth it!

The next day, I woke up, hit the Starbucks inside the casino, then had very long drive back home. Now I can cross Moab off my wheelin' bucket list! It did not disappoint! and the time I got to spent with my friends was really nice. King performed like a champ! and all the way home, I knew that I made all the right decisions building this little Jeep!

The Economy SUCKS in California- Don't Believe What the White House is Telling You

Please explain to me how well our economy is doing Mr. Biden.

Denny's Restaurants just announced this week that they're closing 150 locations. CVS is closing 300 stores by the end of the year. Walgreens is closing 1200 stores! In 2024, California is the 5th largest economy in the entire world. And we have the most billionaires living here. But grocery and gas prices are still on the rise. PG$E bills have doubled in just the past few years. Home and car insurance have both raised their prices significantly! Home insurance companies are dropping policies, because they're losing money. Highway 1 is closed off in Big Sur. There are roads that I used to use in my local area that are closed and have not been repaired for YEARS, because California doesn't have enough money to fix them? Bridge tolls are going up AGAIN, claiming that they're still in a deficit from the Pandemic. BART is raising their prices again. Both Oakland and San Francisco are MILLIONS over budget (SF $800M and Oakland $80M) and can't close the gap. Where are all my California taxes going???? I am paying over $14K in property taxes alone this year!! These are ALL reasons why I am planning my move out of California, a once glorious state- the state where I was born.

These are all signs of a good healthy economy? Don't drink the Kool-Aid.

Yes, the stock market is at its all-time high, but the stock market IS NOT an indicator of the economy.

I Think I Have Time For That... I Retired!!!

So I did a crazy thing the other day. I went ahead and quit my job (because it sucked)- I decided to get on with my retirement. Until recently, I was an MRI technologist working for the Big-K (Kaiser Permanente) in Oakland, California. I actually really loved what I was doing, but was not crazy about my employer and management. A few years back, I used to train MRI techs and I would always teach them on the first day- make no mistake about it, healthcare is a business and all the decisions that are made are business decisions a.k.a. it's all about the money. They don't necessarily care about the welfare of the customers, it's all about the money.

And that is Kaiser in a nutshell- not giving staff enough time to properly do their jobs, not having the proper equipment on hand, forcing the techs and staff to do things against what they're supposed to do. At Kaiser, I would constantly say that they're just pushing their luck waiting to kill a patient, THEN maybe policies will change, at least for a little while. (I worked there for two and a half years and NEVER ONCE did we EVER do a CODE BLUE drill! I would spot check staff about the procedures and no one knew what to do!) And that's exactly would did happen. Again and again. The pandemic made things worse in that we were constantly short-staffed. And the more short-staffed we were, the more morale would decline and more staff would call out sick. When staff individuals quit, most of the time the staff member would not be replaced. Management style was reverting back to the late 90's. It was a thankless job. I actually wanted to quit a year and a half ago, until I realized that if I didn't achieve at least 5 years, I would not vest and all my miserable time spent working at Kaiser would add up to nothing with the pension.

So I tried applying to other jobs outside of my normal job scope. I applied for 10 months for just about any office position until I finally got a call! I took a job as a cashier in the Eye Center. When I arrived for my first day, they asked me if I would mind cross-training into scheduling. I didn't know better, so I said okay. They didn't tell me that there was very little training involved and I would be talking to 100 angry old people who couldn't hear you on the phone! It was literally 45% of my MRI pay. After 3 days, I figured that if I was going to work a job that sucked, I might as well get paid for it, so I returned to my former sucky position.

But that also spurred me on to start working on a retirement forecasting spreadsheet that recorded all my assets and liabilities. The forecasting projected through my 90 's (as well as my wife's). I came up with a plan and calculated that as soon as I crossed my 5-year line with Kaiser, I could "retire" at the early age of 59. I knew that I would not have Medicare for another 6 years, but I built that into my plan. Most people don't really know where they stand with their retirements- they just know that they don't want to run out of money, so they keep working. I was able to see that even quitting at 59-years-old (my wife already stopped working 3 years ago), we would never run out of money. By my calculations, by the time we're in our 90's, we should still have tons of money in the bank, and all along we should have enough money to live like we already do- toys, vacations and all.

My point is: if I can do it, you can do it! With the way things are today, working isn't what it used to be. Figuring out your retirement isn't rocket science- it's strictly math. You have all the tools to forecast and plan it. If you have a good plan and the discipline to follow it, you're golden!

Mounting the ARB Awning, Again!!!

Today I was set on getting my ARB awning on the Jeep. I called in sick today, since my body (and attitude) has been so worn and beaten from work for the past three weeks. I've got a lot of little projects to get done and I just don't have that many free days off to get things done. I truly needed this mental rest day just to sharpen my saw.

I already had the Rhino rack on the Jeep from the iKamper installation. The awning is so long that I really wanted to add a third rack rail to the top to give the awning more stability, since I will be taking the "overlanding" setup rock-crawling. I had another Surco rack set laying around and figured that I could reuse the front rack assembly. When I bought the used Rhino Rack bars from ExtremeTerrain, I somehow ended up with an extra (third) bar for free! So I thought it would be nice to get that into the mix. But when I tried to attach it to the feet a few weeks ago, the inserts would not work right, so I went ahead and ordered some more off of Amazon. I bought some Chinese knock-offs to save some money. What could go wrong?! Lol!

The idea was to mount the third bar in a manner that I would later be able to use it to carry traction boards or extra Rotopax fuel cans. I removed the Surco bar from the feet, then tried to attach the Rhino bar to them with the new kits from Amazon. As it turns out, the screws were too long, so I had to hunt through the garage for some suitable replacements.

I got the new bar assembly onto the top of the Jeep. Then I tried attaching the awning. I mounted both front and rear awning stays on the tops of the bars. There was a difference in heights between the Rhino and Surco rack bars. The Rhino setup has such a low profile that the awning mounted at a downward angle front to back. Hmmm...something I hadn't really considered. Okay. So I mounted the front awning stay to the bottom of the Surco bar. Much better! Close to perfect, but now the awning sat so low that the driver door couldn't even open. Also when mounting the stay to the bottom of the bar, the stay was so long that it ran into the mounting foot, so it was sticking out away from the roof quite a bit!

I decided to whomp on them awning stays and do some cutting and drilling. I drilled three new holes in each 1 inch higher that the original holes. I also took the front stay and cut 2 inches off its length. I sprayed a little satin black paint on them to keep the rust away, then it was time to mount.

In order to mount the stay on the front, I had to remove the rack from the top and slide the foot aside, so I could have access to tighten the bar mounting screws. At this time, I also measured 8" off the RTT so that the Rotopax will fit comfortably when mounted. The rear stay was a bit more work. One of the awning stay bolts was buried under the RTT, so I had to unmount both left and right mounts for the tent, just so I could lift the tent assembly to give me access to tighten the bolt! Of course after I had it all tightened up back together again, I realized I needed to undo it again, so I could be able to tighten the bolts that attached awning to the stay! Argh!!!

Once it was all back together and tightened up, the awning was mounted solidly and level! Yay! The mounts were far enough apart that they will have plenty of support when things get rough. 

My Honda CRF300L- a Little Horror Story.....

After riding the CRF300LA for one dirt outing, the bike had an issue with the ABS system. I had decided that the bike needed a different kickstand, since it made the bike sit so high that I always thought it would just fall over if a light wind hit it. I bought an adjustable replacement from T-Rex Racing and installed it. I used the youtube video from JaketheGardenSnake, which also showed how to disable the factory kickstand engine killer safety device. The device is designed to kill the motor if the rider tries to put the bike in gear with the bike running and the kickstand is still down. After I finished doing the kill switch bypass, I gave it a quick test by starting the bike and putting the bike into first gear with the stand still down. To verify that the bike was truly in gear, I slipped the clutch and let the rear wheel spin a few rotations at a slow speed. Well, after that, the bike was never the same. From then on, the ABS light would be constantly flashing no matter what.

I went online and tried to do combination button resets, riding the bike past a specific speed, etc. Nothing would reset the light. It was probably tripped because the computer thinks that there is an ABS deployment case, when the front and the rear wheel are turning at different speeds. I asked the forums and got radio silence. Some forum informations suggested that it was an OBD issue and that the stealership can just hook up their reader and reset the light. I realized I was over my head and that I should just take it to Honda and let them reset it.

After calling around, the only local Honda dealer that had immediate time slots to reset the light was in Berkeley, so I rode the bike there. After a couple of hours (I got there just in time for the techs to take their lunches), Carl, the service department rep, informed me that it wasn't as easy as a quick reset. and that the system was reading a speed sensor error code. They needed to order the part and they would call me when the part arrived. I rode back home with the problem unsolved. Two weeks later, I was back again to install the speed sensor part.

Again I waited a couple of hours. Apparently the new speed sensor did not fix the problem either, so the tech was on the phone getting advise from Honda, the mothership in Ohio. They finally told me that they needed to order a couple of more parts to try on and that again they'll call me when the parts arrive. Again, I rode home issue still in hand.

A couple of weeks later, I loaded the bike on my hitch rack and I was back at the dealership, but this time, I was advised that they would need to keep the bike, while they'll have to correspond with Honda to get the problem fixed. I called them every week hoping for progress. They swapped out more ABS parts including the rear ABS disable switch. Nothing seemed to work. They had to order another ECU, thinking that could be the problem.

Five weeks passed. FINALLY I got the call that the bike was ready for pickup!! When I picked up the bike, I asked Carl if they ever figured out what caused the problem. He told me that nothing that they replaced fixed the issue. They even tried a different (new) ECU and that didn't do the trick either. Then suddenly the blinking light went away! I could've been a loose/bad connection in the loom and that by messing around with it so much, the connection finally seated. Who really knows? He said that if the problem comes back, I can always have them check it out again. Well, that's just swell.

So if I never brought the bike back to Honda, there is no way that I would ever have intentionally fixed the blinking light. Maybe over time, it could've fixed itself. This also means that for anyone with this bike (or me in the future), this problem or something worse could happen to them/me, more than likely after the warranty has expired.

I'm Going Fuckin' Crazy

Having a puppy means that often I can't even have 2 minutes to myself to think. I'm not just training the puppy, I am training my wife to train the puppy. She is having more problems with Toffee than me. Toffee likes to jump up and down on her and bite. Me? Not as much. When I need time, I have to steal it by going into the garage to work on the bike. At this point, work is a better place to be.

It's so frustrating trying to blog, while my wife and the dog are around. I usually can't even finish writing a full sentence. And when I actually have to explain to Emily why I need time to myself, I need extra time to calm down, before having my alone time. Argh!!!!