The Vent and Rant Thread

[DMcCunney]

Windows 10 has been a learning experience, and the recent events made me wonder if I'd angered a deity who was punishing me in consequence. The punishments were new and different Blue Screens of Death.

When I get them, Win10 presents a blue screen, with an message that it's sorry but Windows has encountered a problem and must restart, it's just gathering information, and restart will occur in a moment, with a string describing the problem I can do an online search for for more information.

The first was a spate of DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE BSODs. Googling on the message returned suggestions to make sure all drivers are current, and that USB can be an issue.

Most drivers were current. My experience has been that BSODs have usually been graphics driver related, even if the problem doesn't seem to involve video. My graphics driver (for an older AMD-ATI card) is the current WHQL certified model. I did discover a firmware update for my Crucial MX-100 SSD that serves as boot drive where Win10 and Ubuntu live, and the Crucial Storage Executive would let me update the firmware without have to reboot. I also discovered a newer LAN driver and applied that.

The next was a DCP_WATCHDOG_EXCEPTION BSOD. This one is apparently triggered when an operation takes longer then the value allowed by the DCP watchdog routines. There is a hotfix for Windows Server 2012 to increase the time DCP lets things take before it bug checks as a work around. I saw it most recently while in my browser (current Firefox) poking around in Google Maps, but it doesn't seem to be browser specific.

I haven't seen either for a bit now, so stability seems to be back, but I discovered another quirk while poking in the BIOS. My desktop has a 2.4ghz quad-core Xeon X3220 CPU. The BIOS has a setting for whether one virtual CPU is enabled, or two. If that setting is OFF, the system sees one CPU with two cores. If it's ON, it sees two CPUs and four cores. It was off and I turned it on. Booting back into Win10 produced a "multiple processor operation not supported" BSOD. Win10 supports two physical CPUs, and multiple cores in installed CPUs, but is apparently fussy about just which hardware it supports it on. My Intel CPU is not on Intel's list of Win10 supported hardware, so Win10 can see and use two of the four cores.

The BIOS also has AHCI, ATA, and Legacy as supported boot configurations, and warns that changing them may produce an unbootable system. Factory default is AHCI. I was set to ATA. I changed that to AHCI and got Windows complaining about a bad configuration and starting an automated repair that didn't appear to actually fix anything. Go back into BIOS and put it back to ATA. AHCI can offer better performance, but it appears it has to be set for that when Windows is first installed. This was an upgrade from an existing Win7 Pro install, so that's not an option.

The BSODs seem to be gone, but I still have a guaranteed way to send the system to Neverland - connect my Android tablet via USB. The principal use case of the tablet is eBook reader, and I plug it in to put books on the external microSD card via Calibre.

I can connect the tablet, and do transfers. Things go to Hell in a bucket when I try to disconnect. Any further storage operation, on SSD, HD, or other USB drives fails, and I must power cycle to get the machine back. I have another older tablet here that produces the same issue when connected, so it's not specific to the tablet.

This used to work in Win10, and always worked in Win7. It also still works just fine if I boot into Ubuntu.

For that matter, AHCI in the BIOS and setting for multi-processor operation doesn't faze Ubuntu either, It just boots and runs.

The work around is "Don't connect the tablet while in Win10. Do it from Ubuntu.", but I'd be a lot happier if I understood why it was failing.
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Dennis

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

The last time I had to do that, my SO wound up in the emergency room for several hours as a consequence of the cat's reaction to being pilled. She got a tetanus shot and betadyne rince for the hand, which was SOP.

The vet who prescribed the pills said "I don't know why they do that!" about the tetanus shot. "There are lots of nasty staph infections you can get from cat bites, but not tetanus..." But she complied when I said "Can we get the medication in liquid form that can be squirted down the cat's throat instead of a pill we must force her to swallow?"
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Dennis

Yikes! Maisy would never do such a thing she just screams and tries to get away but she'd never hurt me. I've had her since she was 7 weeks old. She was adopted from Nebraska Humane Society. She is my furry daughter. I've only had to give her a pill twice. Once tapeworms because if hotels which was easy to make her eat in a kitty snack but the flea pill from last year's move was so tiny she just couldn't swallow it and it couldn't be crushed. We had to hold her till it went down. Sweetpea is smaller and easier to tricked into taking a pill but Maisy is a large cat.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Windows 10 has been a learning experience, and the recent events made me wonder if I'd angered a deity who was punishing me in consequence. The punishments were new and different Blue Screens of Death.

When I get them, Win10 presents a blue screen, with an message that it's sorry but Windows has encountered a problem and must restart, it's just gathering information, and restart will occur in a moment, with a string describing the problem I can do an online search for for more information.



The work around is "Don't connect the tablet" while in Win10. Do it from Ubuntu.", but I'd be a [l]lot[/i] happier if I understood why it was failing.
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Dennis

Windows 10 has been nothing but stable for me. Sorry to hear all the problems you are having. Now Windows 8.1 that my laptop came with was a mess. I had nothing but issues with it. I had a few here tell me it was the laptop's fault when I complained but once I upgraded last year no more problems.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Yikes! Maisy would never do such a thing she just screams and tries to get away but she'd never hurt me. I've had her since she was 7 weeks old. She was adopted from Nebraska Humane Society. She is my furry daughter. I've only had to give her a pill twice. Once tapeworms because if hotels which was easy to make her eat in a kitty snack but the flea pill from last year's move was so tiny she just couldn't swallow it and it couldn't be crushed. We had to hold her till it went down. Sweetpea is smaller and easier to tricked into taking a pill but Maisy is a large cat.

Kvetch was an adult when I acquired her. She was pre-owned and declawed, but abandoned by her prior owners. I found her in the hall in my building in the winter and took her in.

She had an assortment of ailments that medication alleviated but did not cure, including a nasty sinus condition and a tendency toward diarrhea. The pills were attempts to mend her health.

She got her name from her habit of complaining loudly about everything. When I brought her out of the examining room after one vet visit, a patron waiting with her dog said "So that's what was making noises like a foghorn." "Yes. This is Kvetch. You understand how she got her name."

I later acquired a tiny black kitten, courtesy of a feral cat who had a litter in the back courtyard of my building. My SO commented that with his sharp, pointed face and huge ears, he looked like a bat, so he got named Desmodus (the vampire bat), a/k/a Dizzy, a/k/a "Get out of there, you little bat face!"

Kvetch was distinctly unhappy when Dizzy joined the fold, and gave us filthy "Since when do you bring home things you find in gutters?" looks. She was an older, excessively dignified female cat. He was a kitten, and a force of chaos in her ordered world.

When Kvetch would use the cat box, Dizzy would follow and watch. "Whatcha doing, big cat? Taking a big messy shit? Can I watch? Huh? Huh? Can I? Huh?" Kvetch would stalk back out again after finishing, tail stiff and quivering with indignation, eyes dilated so they were all pupil, radiating "It's a kitten. I want to rip its throat out, but its a kitten!" and go off to sulk. Dizzy was quite unfazed by her anger.

Years later, Kvetch had died, and I got another kitten, who did the same thing to Dizzy when he used the cat box that he had done to Kvetch. He couldn't understand why my SO and I reacted with hysterical laughter when we saw him stalking away from the cat box in high dudgeon.
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Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Windows 10 has been nothing but stable for me. Sorry to hear all the problems you are having. Now Windows 8.1 that my laptop came with was a mess. I had nothing but issues with it. I had a few here tell me it was the laptop's fault when I complained but once I upgraded last year no more problems.

Windows 10 is stable on my SO's laptop, upgraded from Win7 Home, an older travel laptop, upgraded from Win7 Home, and a friend's Win 8.1 laptop I upgraded for her.

For the most part, the assumption every other Windows release will be a decent one is accurate. WinXP was fine. Vista sucked. Win7 was good. Win8.1 sucked. Win10 has been generally good. There were some initial problems getting it to work, solved by turning off a couple of default ways it was set up. (I had to turn off hybrid shutdown, and Write cache buffer flushing on the SSD. The former prevented it from properly shutting down/restarting, and the latter caused it to hang and require a power cycle when in use. Both defaults assumed Win10 was on a laptop where battery power was the scarce resource. This is a desktop, on 24/7, plugged into the wall.)

The current spate of problems are a recent occurrence, and I have no idea what triggered them. Things seem stable at the moment, but for a couple of days I was an unhappy camper indeed.
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Dennis

[fum]

declawed? Who would treat their pets like that?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by fum

declawed? Who would treat their pets like that?

No one that I would want to know.

In Kvetch's case, I have no idea who they were. She had been declawed when she came to me, but was abandoned by her former owners, and I don't know where she came from.
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Dennis

[ProfCrash]

Given the number of people who are adopted by their pets it is not unusual to find the pet has been poorly treated by a past owner. Declawing cats is something that has been done for an awful long time. It has only been in the last 10 years that I have heard people start to say that it is wrong. Dogs have tails docked so that they fit the breed look accepted by most folks.

It sounds like Kvetch and Bat Face found a great home that loves them for who they are. The cats did a good job adopting their humans.

Personally, we have a highly neurotic dog that we love to death. His litter mate was returned to the foster family four times. We assume that Denver had the same issues that Cooper had. It took us six months to find a food that Cooper could eat with out having diarrhea. We tried probiotics, yogurt and rice but nothing worked. We finally found the right food. He is jumpy, nervous, and refuses to leave my side when there is a hint of a thunder storm. He walks like crap on a lead, even with hours of training. But he is all ours and we love him. Give the pup a tennis ball and he is happy. When he wants attention he will bring the tennis ball to where you are sitting on the couch and push it under the couch.

I only hope that Denver found a home that accepted Denver for Denver because if he is half the love bug that Cooper is then that family is blessed.

[Rumpelteazer]

The bedroom is vacuumed and dusted. I've distributed three bowls of water with a dash of eucalyptus oil in the room (underneath the chair, underneath the bed and on the staircase next to my bed). In places where a bowl won't work I dropped cotton balls with some peppermint oil on them. A bonus is that both my rooms now smell nice and minty.

[Blossom]

Just make sure Lexie can't get near them. I'm not sure how poisonous they are to cats.

Sent from my XT1528 using Tapatalk

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Just make sure Lexie can't get near them. I'm not sure how poisonous they are to cats.

Sent from my XT1528 using Tapatalk

The catflap to my room is locked at the moment, so she can't come in without me knowing. Luckily she's never been interested in minty things, unlike another cat we had who would steal rolls of peppermint out of your bag or pockets if she's had a chance.

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by ProfCrash

Given the number of people who are adopted by their pets it is not unusual to find the pet has been poorly treated by a past owner. Declawing cats is something that has been done for an awful long time. It has only been in the last 10 years that I have heard people start to say that it is wrong. Dogs have tails docked so that they fit the breed look accepted by most folks.

Friends of mine are unhappy with the AKC because of stuff like that. Purebreds are judged on conformity to an appearance standard, but the desired appearance is one often achieved at the cost of health issues for the dog. Were I to get a purebred, it would be one of the working breeds that has not been bred into stupidity and neuroses.

It sounds like Kvetch and Bat Face found a great home that loves them for who they are. The cats did a good job adopting their humans.

Both are long since gone. Dizzy suffered kidney failure and had to be euthanized years ago. I still miss him, but am currently cat free.

Personally, we have a highly neurotic dog that we love to death. His litter mate was returned to the foster family four times. We assume that Denver had the same issues that Cooper had. It took us six months to find a food that Cooper could eat with out having diarrhea. We tried probiotics, yogurt and rice but nothing worked. We finally found the right food. He is jumpy, nervous, and refuses to leave my side when there is a hint of a thunder storm. He walks like crap on a lead, even with hours of training. But he is all ours and we love him. Give the pup a tennis ball and he is happy. When he wants attention he will bring the tennis ball to where you are sitting on the couch and push it under the couch.

There are an assortment of dogs in my neighborhood I've become acquainted with. The pick of the litter, so to speak, is likely Rory, a Poodle/King Charles Spaniel mix. Rory appears to think I'm the Best Thing Evar because I'll rub her belly and let her try to lick my face off. Her human says "I can't believe this! She's never like this with me!" "Of course not. She lives with you. I'm a special treat she sees occasionally."

Rory shares her people with Pudding, a Labradoodle. Pudding's person remarked "She has her own agenda. She found a slice of pizza under a car parked by the pizza place on the corner. Now every walk takes an extra 20 minutes because she has to check for possible pizza under every car!" "Well, yes. She's a dog, and it's food. She doesn't know if she doesn't look...

I only hope that Denver found a home that accepted Denver for Denver because if he is half the love bug that Cooper is then that family is blessed.

Few adopters knowingly adopt problem animals. My concern is that too many people simply know nothing about animals when they adopt, and have totally unrealistic notions about having a pet.

My SO likes Cesar Milan's TV show, The Dog Whisperer. He works with problem dogs as a trainer, and most of his effort isn't on the dog. It's training the dog's people to understand the basics about the breed they got and what that means in how it must be raised and cared for.

"Your dog isn't the problem, you are."
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Dennis

[5thWiggleWife]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

Few adopters knowingly adopt problem animals. My concern is that too many people simply know nothing about animals when they adopt, and have totally unrealistic notions about having a pet.
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Dennis

I totally agree with you. Too many people choose pets based on how they look and don't seem to do basic research into the traits of the individual breed.

We adopted the lovely boy in my avatar from our local animal shelter. He is a cross between a wheaten terrier and a poodle; both energetic hunting breeds. He is high strung and needs to run and play. He was still a puppy (all teeth and chewing) when he was literally dumped over the fence at the shelter by his former owners. He did not take well to being in a cage and wasn't very nice to a couple of perspective families.

We have had dogs before (duck tollers) but still hesitated at adopting this rough guy. We finally decided to take him because we were worried no one else would.

Eight years later Lukey has mellowed into a cherished and loving member of our family.

[Cinisajoy]

My rescue dog is laying beside me sleeping. We got him when he was 6 months old and teething. The people that had him couldn't afford rawhides for him so he was chewing on whatever was handy. He is now almost 14. The other problem is he was being fed spicy foods so he will NOT eat dog food. He usually has rotisserie chicken. Tonight he will have tacos with everything but onion.
Now he did eat wet cat food once. Mom was doing her feeding frenzy and since he was in there with the cats she gave him a bowl.

[wodin]

Perhaps a bit of chili powder mixed in with the Alpo?