obobski

This sounds fairly similar to how Siri/Apple Dictation work in their default mode, using a "Cloud Service" to improve reliability and consistency. Of course, both Siri and Apple Dictation can have this feature 100% disabled (its a single setting) for full local execution; iirc Siri does not require an additional download, but if you do this for the first time on an OS X machine Apple Dictation will download some additional library files. AFAIK the vast majority of this data never touches human hands/eyes on the receiving end - it's all used for heuristics, and they've backlogged many features to the cloud in order to improve performance (especially for lower-power devices). That said, it is still a lot of data that's potentially going back and forth and explained under very vague terms (which is problematical imho). I don't understand the big to-do about permanently suspending real-time protection from Windows Defender though. I would assume that if you have a third-party AV Windows Defender will turn itself off permanently (actually, the DoJ and EU regulators will basically have assured this to be the case), so if you don't like their service, don't use it. I can't think of any scenario in which you'd want to suspend all real-time protection though - temporarily makes complete sense, and having it turn back on (it'd be nice if it specified exactly what "a while" was) is a convenience safeguard imho. The thing on "reading your emails to prevent you from breaking the law" is not Microsoft. That's all ISPs and email providers; at least in the US (may be different elsewhere). This has been true of email and ISPs for over twenty years now - law enforcement with a valid court order can access your email account and many other online services (and this isn't limited to Microsoft, but if I recall this was first (legally) tested with a Hotmail account in the early 1990s). That's "clause #1" of their disclosure policy. "Clause #4" is basically saying if you use Microsoft's products to circumvent their EULA/rights they won't be complicit/helpful towards you, and may use the evidence (if their products gather/collected it) towards prosecution. Again, this is fairly standard, this is not just Microsoft, and it has been around for many years. Overall there's nothing really "stand out" here that I'm seeing - many of these things have existed in this form for decades, and the changes brought by Cortana are fairly similar to what OS X/iOS implement for Siri and Dictation to work properly. It would be nice if there was a "full local" option (Apple offers this primarily as an accessibility feature), for both technical and privacy reasons, but otherwise I'm not seeing the Enemy Of The State end of the world here, but perhaps I'm not reading it right. :geek: LadyMilla: Do you have a citation/source for a permanent lockout of genuine Windows devices from Windows Update? I know that they will restrict devices that fail WGA from some components of Windows Update, but they've done that since the Windows XP days, and it only really affects pirates anyways.

Did you install it as an administrator? Does your normal user account have administrator priveleges? Sounds like this is just a privelege escalation issue based on what you've posted. As far as mods "not going to the manager" - as long as they're downloading somewhere, you can point NMM at them with no problem, but if NMM expects priveleges that your user account and web browser don't have in order to operate, it would very likely explain "Download with Manager" not working properly.

kk so will be better If I use a intel I7 no? and a intel motherboard Idk what use should they guy that sell me the computer chose the motherboard for a intel I7? -I keep the video card and ram i5 or i7 depending on budget and use. The i7's big "add" is HyperThreading, which doesn't do much for games, but it can help with stuff like video-encoding and heavy multi-tasking. Newer i7 models are also available with >4 physical cores, which again won't do a whole lot for games, but can help significantly with some multimedia tasks (and you might be wondering: "but isn't the AMD 8 cores? doesn't that mean its ahead of the quad core Intels?" - the AMD is and isn't 8 cores; it uses AMD's Clustered MultiThread (CMT) design, and as a result can do some tasks 8-at-a-time and some only 4-at-a-time (you can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulldozer_%28microarchitecture%29#CMT)). As far as the motherboard, with the Intel platform you have two choices currently - 1150 or 2011-3. The i7 is represented on both 1150 and 2011-3, while the i5 only exists on 1150. For gaming there isn't a huge difference and you can build a top-tier machine with 1150 (which is less expensive), but 2011-3 can have advantages in other usage scenarios (e.g. support for more than 32GB of RAM; not really useful or needed for gaming, but if you're also doing music production on the side or something it may be). It really comes down to what-all you need to do and what your budget looks like. If you go 2011-3 you'll also have to switch to DDR4. It is also worth noting that Intel is currently preparing to launch the successor to 1150, with the Skylake platform, that will bring DDR4 to more mainstream platforms. This is probably going to happen later this year or early next year. From what I've seen in reviews, DDR4 isn't much of an advantage for many tasks, but it is the "new standard" so as times goes on it will become more common. I wouldn't worry about DDR3 becoming unavailable though, based on previous observation/experience with DDR to DDR2 and DDR2 to DDR3. It's more of a compatibility thing to keep in mind than anything else. Overall I'd probably start looking at motherboards from Asus, ASRock, BioStar, Gigabyte, MSI, or Intel. As always, looking at reviews can be very useful, and generally doesn't cost you anything, so I'd do that.

Did you recently add or change a mod? That's where I'd start in troubleshooting.

If the character is loading improperly I'd lean towards a conflict/issue with installed mods or plug-ins. Short of some obvious "I changed/updated/moved this recently" it may not be very fun to troubleshoot that out though.

Radeon R9 390 is good, 16GB of RAM is good, 990FX is fine (it's the best of the best for AM3), FX-8350 (and honestly the rest of the AMD FX platform) are fairly dated and will generally perform behind current and semi-curent Intel platforms (e.g. Ivy Bridge, Haswell, Haswell Refresh, Devil's Canyon, Broadwell, etc). This is a bigger problem for older games that are more single-thread-performance bound. Switching to a Core i5 or i7 may be advisable, and shouldn't be too much difference budget-wise unless Intel is just insanely expensive in Uruguay. You'll also want to make sure you have a decent power supply and good case airflow - especially if you go with the AMD FX. This doesn't have to mean an AX1500 with Delta Grand High Speeds. Just look for something that largely comports with the Intel ATX specification (or otherwise has a decent/logical airflow layout) and pick high quality fans (again doesn't have to be megabucks).

Do old saves work? Does a new game work? If yes, top of my head: savegame corruption. IIRC TES5Edit (may not be TES5Edit may be some other util) can attempt to clean it; I've had mixed results with this in the past. If no, top of my head: issues with load order or something got moved/deleted/involved in an x-file/etc - see what LOOT/NMM/etc have to say.

No idea on FarCry whatsoever - maybe someone else has experience with that and will comment. I've installed UPlay a time or two but always for different games, so I'm not very familiar with it overall. I just know it seems to be relatively stable and stays mostly out of the way of Steam. On FO3 - the GFWL disabler (the base dll) has worked properly since it was released (I honestly don't remember exactly when, I know I was using it by the time Operation Anchorage was released though, so its not a "new" mod by any means); the automated file moving features are newer though (I re-downloaded it to see recently) - it saves a bit of digging but otherwise it looks like the same mod with some more polish (I remember the original was basically just a dll that you had to drop into the right folder). Good luck with everything, and update on what you learn about UPlay if you can. :blush:

With Origin I've found that if a game doesn't work, the "check for problems" (right click and its one of the options) usually fixes it - it seems to work better than Steam's "verify files" feature at least. Granted I only have maybe 3-4 games in Origin, and they're all from EA, so maybe its just that Origin and EA games work well together, like Half-Life 2 and Steam. The GFWL activation code probably won't work on Steam, but I would be surprised if saves generated by the DVD (GFWL) edition of Fallout 3 couldn't be read by the Steam edition of Fallout 3 (you'd ofc have to buy the game twice) - should be the same thing assuming all the mods/patches/DLC/etc line-up properly. I don't own a second copy of the game on Steam to test and confirm this though. I have no idea how GFWL-downloaded/purchased DLCs would align or not align with Steam though. What I'd probably say is if you want to move to Steam, get a Steam copy that aligns with the DLCs you have thru GFWL, install it via Steam, and then just copy your mods and savegames over as needed. As far as running GFWL and Steam together at once - I do not suggest it, even if it is technically a valid configuration. BioShock 2 "works" that way, and it crashes and locks-up very often for me (the overlays seem to conflict with each other). It isn't as seamless as say, UPlay + Steam where you "launch" the game in Steam, and it just fires up UPlay in the background and then the game is good to go.

If you have the DLCs "thru" GFWL you can actually just move them from the GFWL folder into the Fallout 3/Data folder (just like a mod - remember to grab their bsas too!) and the saves do exist locally (I forget where, but they aren't in the typical My Games/Fallout 3/Saves thing - probably some other GFWL sub-folder) so those can be moved "out" of GFWL and then it can be sunk into the ocean with the GFWL-disabler. AFAIK the newest version of the GFWL-disabler will automate this migration too. IME removing GFWL helps stability some too (I've seen the "you just got [achievement]" and other info pop-up thing crash the game, at least this happened to me back when FO3 was new).

Re: 970/980 - on the first page he/she said this was on a GTX 980; should be good to go. I agree with everything else you said. Really? Aliasing is sooo noticeable and distracting on 1080p, shimmer everywhere, jagged faces, guns, lamp posts, hills etc. Ugh it's so gross. Unfortunately, that method didn't seem to work. I've tried forcing AA through only Inspector, I've tried forcing AA through Control Panel and I've tried doing both like you suggested. Nothing's worked. I guess I'll just stick to ENBs, Enhanced Shaders is the most vanilla ENB out there... The shimmer may also be related to texture filtering - do you have AF enabled? Also if you don't have it ticked-on, transparency AA will help too. This is kind of sad to hear - I honestly did not encounter these kinds of problems with nVidia cards for Oblivion/Fallout 3, and have not seen them with my newer Radeon cards in New Vegas or Skyrim. The GTX 660 had some minor issues in NV but I did get it sorted - it had no problems in Oblivion or Skyrim. I'm not trying to say AMD is better or anything - it's just kind of unfortunate that newer nVidia drivers seem to be causing problems that were "fixed" years ago.

It does take a little while to load in all the resources from the base game and (if applicable) whatever you're working on. If you get impatient and start madly clicking on things it can crash at that stage.

+1. Thanks for sharing.

ForceWare = nVidia drivers. DSR will be activated there too - see this article for more information: https://techreport.com/review/27102/maxwell-dynamic-super-resolution-explored Ok, thanks now I understand what you mean a little better.I've already tried forcing AA through both Nvidia Control Panel and Nvidia Inspector if that's what you mean. No effect had taken place in-game so I ditched that idea, tbh I always though that forcing AA and enabling AA in-game is the same thing? Is that true? I guess I'll try DSR, but without guidance I am pretty terrible with these 'ForceWares'. See MotoSxorpio's answer for the guide on nVidia Inspector as well. As far as the rest: In theory AA from the drivers and AA "in-game" (from whatever configurator or in-game menu or whatever) should be the same, however it is not always, depending on the game. Some games are incompatible with MSAA or other conventional means, which is where DSR comes from (you have the GPU render at an even higher resolution than your monitor and scale the output back down, which should be compatible everywhere), and some games also add support for things like FXAA (e.g. Skyrim) which requires developer support to work properly. There's also other forms of AA that most games won't expose, like SSAA and CFAA, which you would need to configure externally. I've had mixed results over the years with creating profiles for New Vegas with nVidia or ATi driver (from what I've seen, both nVidia and ATi ship an application profile of their own and it seems to sometimes conflict with the profile you may create yourself), and usually what I do instead is just go into the control panel and make whatever settings I want as a global setting (e.g. just set 8x AA on all the time) and then remember to turn it off if I'm going to play another game where it may be a problem. This has worked much better, but you may run into a situation where a game that previously had worked suddenly is lagging, and you have to remember to go back and turn off the AA/AF settings you had ticked on earlier. TheSleepwalker: There's no "requirement" for AA at any resolution, nor is there any resolution where AA becomes entirely unnecessary (that is, jaggies will always exist, and are still likely visible at 1080p, especially depending on monitor size). The argument that a given high resolution will negate AA is more based on pixel density than static resolution, but even having seen very high density displays, AA can still have some visual advantages.

ForceWare = nVidia drivers. DSR will be activated there too - see this article for more information: https://techreport.com/review/27102/maxwell-dynamic-super-resolution-explored

HDR and AA work just fine togther in Fallout 3 and beyond thru the default configurator, and should default on with sufficient hardware during the auto-detect. They were disabled in the configurator in Oblivion for performance and compatibility reasons, but can be forced to work together via the .ini on later SM3.0 and DX10+ cards.

If I'm understanding what you're seeing/saying properly, I've seen this on my GTX 660 too. If I remember right turning off AA via the Configurator and enabling it via ForceWare (e.g. create a profile for the game) was the fix; I don't have my GTX 660 hooked up right now though, so I can't double-check that for you. I do know it is a "stupid simple" fix though, for what that's worth. The "in-game AA" is just MSAA iirc, so that's easily enough grabbed from ForceWare. Alternately you could try DSR (since that will bypass AA methods entirely), since the GTX 980 will support that too.

You can check to see if the computer views the gamepad as just another keyboard (e.g. open up Word and push buttons on the gamepad) - it very likely does, in order to ensure compatibility with games/applications. So remapping would work then, but it would affect both devices. Remapping in-game, e.g. changing W for some other character to move forwards, would also be an option to align things with the gamepad. But again, would have to be done for every game.

You can remap key functions in Windows (examples: http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/remap-keyboard.htm and http://www.technorms.com/31627/how-to-remap-your-keyboard), however if I remember right that's a global setting, so remapping "Q" to "A" would also likely impact your normal keyboard as well. Alternatively, you could remap the controls in whichever game(s) you'd like to use that gamepad for, which should achieve the same results. Depending on how many games this is, however, it may be a considerable time investment. If the gamepad has its own software it may offer this kind of functionality as well (I've seen this on some gamepads/controllers over the years).

Reference AMD cards will be spec-height for PCI/PCIe expansion slots - it's just the XFX and some other aftermarket cards that are larger, to accomodate non-reference heatsinks. The same thing exists for nVidia cards. Upgrading the power supply would likely have no effect on your current machine - while the Dell PSU is "smaller" than spec, the system will have been designed with that in mind, and its safe to assume everything that came pre-loaded from the factory is appropriate. The PSU "sizing" guidelines for cards are based more on retail customers, and always include a given safety margin because the manufacturer (obviously) cannot know everyone's configuration - IOW they're trying to account for different peripheral/etc configurations as opposed to a system from Dell where the manufacturer knows exactly what's contained within, and what the actual power requirements are. The 5770 itself does not require an exceptional amount of power (TDP is right around 100W max), and if it has worked flawlessly for five years it should not be considered a problem. As far as waiting for a Windows 10 system - in your case that would likely have benefits, as AMD have stated the cutoff for DirectX 12 support to be with GCN, leaving the HD 5000 series out. The Core i7 is unlikely to be an issue, but if the case and other components are limiting your upgrade paths, a new machine may be an easier choice. Ensure that if you do go that route, you pick something that will support DirectX 12 (AMD GCN or nVidia GeForce GTX 400 series or higher for graphics), and has a processor of comparable performance to the i7 you are replacing (this doesn't have to mean an i7 - there are Core i5 models that are generally comparable to modern i7s for gaming, such as the i5-4690). Something else to think about, if you don't want to wait a year or more, would be to get a Windows 7/8 machine today (or soon-ish) and then use the free upgrade token for Windows 10 sometime before next summer. As far as "machines geared for the new OS" - Windows 10 has very similar system requirements to Windows Vista-8, so apart from DirectX 12 support and peripherals to support things like Smartglass or Xbox features, it should run without problem on a modern Windows 7/8 system. Tim says "hi" back. :laugh:

Its a Dell XPS 8100 with a Core i7 (from the original post) - it is not going to be "over 10 years dated" and given that it has an HD 5770 already installed it has a PCIe x16 slot available once that card is removed. There's really no other alternatives there. It won't matter if the slot is 2.0 or 3.0 with the possible exception of some of the later Kepler cards with early OEM BIOSes (e.g. early production GTX 770) but since we're looking at AMD cards that's also moot. :blush:

+1 to what soupdragon1234 said. I will add that IME I've successfully just re-installed FOMM or Wrye on the "new machine" without doing any additional steps - just point it at the Steam/game directory and it worked. I would still have the load order exported and available just to be double-sure. Also remember to move your save games - they are not kept within the Steam folder, they're kept within My Documents/My Games/Skyrim (or FO3 or FNV etc)/Saves - again I've never had a problem drag'and'dropping those from machine to machine as long as the game install is the same (IOW move the install via Steam). For FO3 you may also have to bother with GFWL (e.g. disabling it again if you don't want it, or updating/patching it to use it if you do want it).

It's likely the Courier's Stash items - I have one of the plug-ins from buying the game at launch (I think Caravan iirc) and it adds some items that could be considered "cheats" for Hardcore playthroughs; especially the canteen that automatically regens your H2O and health needs. If you wait long enough in-game it will restore you from any degree of injury - it's almost like playing Skyrim with that loaded (where the character heals over time). That "weightless ammo" plug-in may also be causing problems (I'm unfamiliar with it, but it may be altering the Hardcore game-mode and creating a conflict). I'd also suggest a LOOT sorting of your entire load-order for good measure.

The XFX Double D cards are indeed wider than standard card dimensions (I own one) - that can be a problem in some slimmer cases or other situations where space is at a premium. Thermaltake's modern PSUs also tend not to be as great as they once were - I'd suggest looking for quality reviews of those specific models if you're set on a Thermaltake, or consider another brand (e.g. Antec, FirePower (PC Power & Cooling), Seasonic, Delta, etc). Depending on the space restrictions imposed by your computer's case you may also not be able to go with the XFX Double D cooler - look for the XFX "Core Series" (which use standard size heatsinks), or check another manufacturer (e.g. Sapphire or PowerColor) for something that may fit better.

I'm almost wondering if that quest's glitch was causing the problem, because some script/scripts were running and failing in the background, and after waiting and allowing it to "clear" that load went away. Just a guess though - would probably be hard to definitively nail things down without a step-thru debugger.