May 23: When It Rains, It Pours: Things Keep Going Wrong.

You know how I said before that my mouse and monitor started to go, and that I needed to replace them? Now my computer's developed a new issue, though it's currently pretty rare, only happening once every 3 or 4 weeks.

Basically, it rarely fails to properly boot. The Monitor doesn't turn on, and the mouse and keyboard turn on for a bit, then turn off and stay off. The computer's "hard drive access light", or whetever it's called, does stay fully on for a bit, but that also turns off at about the same time as the mouse and keyboard does, and only occasionally flashes on for a fraction of a second. Thankfully, holding down the power button still turns the computer off in this state, and it boots normally when turned back on.

Looking the problem up online, I've narrowed it down to five possibilities. Either:

A: The power supply is dying,

B: The motherboard is dying,

C: The CPU is dying,

D: One or both RAM sticks are dying, or

E: Some combination of the above.

Honestly, I wouldn't be suprised if the CPU, motherboard, or power supply are starting to go, as those are pretty much the only parts in my computer I haven't gotten around to replacing yet and were first bought late 2017. That's also the annoying part: since they're so outdated, I'll need to replace the motherboard AND the CPU at the same time if I need to replace either, as I haven't been able to find a decent CPU that supports my current motherboard when researching online, or vice versa.

I may not replace anything now, though, and wait until either Cyber Monday to do it so they'll hopefully be on sale, or my computer kicks the bucket completely and I'm forced to replace something. I have been wanting to upgrade my CPU and motherboard anyway, ever since learning that support for Windows 10 is ending late next year and that my motherboard is incompatable with Windows 11, and have even already picked out a replacement CPU and motherboard that I'll buy then.

The unfortunate part about that is that the motherboard I picked out doesn't support DDR4 RAM, which is the kind that's installed in my computer, so I'll need to replace that too. The good news it that all the parts are all pretty big upgrades compared to what I have now, and under the $400 budget I gave myself for this, as I knew this would be pretty pricey.

For the fellow tech nerds out there that are interested, if I need to replace my CPU or motherboard, I'm going to be going from a 2 core hyperthreaded 3.7GHz CPU and 16 GB of DDR4-2400 RAM to a suprisingly-cheap 10 core hyperthreaded 3.7 GHz CPU and either 16 GB of DDR5-5200 RAM or 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM. I honestly haven't decided on which yet, and will probably wait on deciding until I actually buy everything. They should both still be pretty big upgrades, though, and the 32 GB option is currently only an extra $25 over the 16 GB option (though I don't know whether or not the price will change much by November or the time my computer dies, whichever comes first).

Other Updates

Site Update

That's still happening, though tbh I've been slightly preoccupied with above's issue and below's update, so I haven't really gotten aroung to doing much. The next update, when I get around to it, will be FINALLY putting together the About page, as that's been a long time coming at this point.

Gamedev

I've fully decided that I'm going to start making games somewhat soon, probably sometime next month at the latest. I probably won't put any of my "practice" games on this site, but once I start making games I feel comfortable actually releasing they are definately getting a spot on this site. I've also been doing research, compiling various tips for game development, and am honestly debating if I should also put my list of tips on this site, as they are honestly shamelessly ripped from many different videos on the subject I've watched.

Reviews

I've actually decided that my first review is most likely going to be for Animal Well. I started playing it a few days ago, and even an hour in I decided it should get a review here, a sentiment that's only grown since.

Computercraft Tutorial

Unfortunately, I ran into a bit of a problem with the world for the modpack I was using, where the game crashed as I was exploring (which may be a side effect of the computer issue in hindsight? Or just a bug in a mod?). I didn't try reloading the world yet, and I have a backup of the world from a few days before that, but that was honestly the last straw for playing that pack casually. I'm still going to use that modpack for at least parts of my Computercraft Tutorial, though, but the modpack I moved on to, FTB Skies, also has Computercraft and even has one of the addon mods I was going to cover. I'll use the previous pack for base Computercraft, FTB Skies for the addon that's in that pack, and the 1.20 Direwolf20 Pack for the rest of the addons I'm going to cover.