New Apple's upscaling technology called MetalFX will place iOS and macOS devices back into the gaming world. Apple had great games back in the old days and some all-time hits like the prince of Persia have been made first for apple but along the way, it just lost it.
Same as NVIDIA's DLSS and Intel's XeSS systems, Apple MetalFX also uses AI algorithms to upscale the resolution of output game frames. So, for example, the GPU inside your MAC might render the game at 1080p, but through MetalFX and AI upscaling it will look like a 4K image but have a good frame rate since it is rendered in base resolution.
The ability to make AI strike a good balance between performance and image quality is a key to technology in today's modern gaming and having this technology will help developers a ton to be able to achieve great results on Apple hardware.
The First MetalFX Games
So far three official games that will use this technology and be released natively for Appl hardware are Resident Evil 8 Village, GRID legends, and No Man's Sky. All three games have been confirmed and Resident Evil 8 Village is already sent for review people are impressed since the game can run smoothly on all Apple devices, even ones with an M1 CPU.
Apple is back into gaming
When you say Apple gaming is probably the last thing that comes to your mind but truth be told Apple makes more money from games than Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony combined. Also, Apple itself was a big player once regarding computer games as well, Myst and Prince of Persia are games that were made and have been released for Apple first. Bungie was also founded by Apple developers and Halo was originally announced as a Mac game.
Apple has been trying and pushing gaming on its platform since it kind of died down. Today all Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft controllers work without any issues with all Apple products. Apple also has its own gaming subscription service, Apple Arcade, and its Apple TV is packed with GPU that can rival Xbox ones.
MetalFX API ties and brings it all together, it is designed to get the most performance from the hardware by minimizing overhead.
Now, computers and laptops do not hold any large numbers if we look at the user base, and that could deter developers but if we look at iPad and iPhone things are different there, much different. How same CPU power these devices and how MetalFX is available across all products it is clear that there is a market for games there. No Man's Sky is coming to iPad using these technologies and bringing full computer experience to tablets.
In case you don’t know, new support has been added by Microsoft to Windows 10 that now allows users to turn off or on the Mobile Hotspot remotely. The Mobile Hotspot feature, known earlier as “Virtual Networks”, was first introduced with the initial release of Windows 10. With this new feature to remotely turn on or off the Mobile Hotspot in Windows 10, users can just use the Bluetooth on their mobile phones to turn off or on the Mobile Hotspot even when their Windows 10 computers are out of their reach.
To turn off or on the Mobile Hotspot feature in your Windows 10 computer remotely, there are two options you can try. First, you can do it using the Windows 10 settings app or using the Registry Editor. To get started, refer to the following options.
Option 1 – Turn off or on the Mobile Hotspot remotely via Windows 10 Settings app
First, you need to open the Windows 10 Settings app and from there go to Network & Internet and then go to the Mobile Hotspot section.
After that, scroll down to the “Turn on remotely” section.
Once done, make sure that the toggle button is set to ON and that the Bluetooth of both devices is turned on and paired as well. This should enable the feature to turn on or off the mobile hotspot remotely.
Option 2 – Turn off or on the Mobile Hotspot remotely via Registry Editor
Before you get started with the second option, make sure that you create a System Restore point first. Once done, proceed to the following steps:
Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box and type “Regedit” in the field and then hit Enter to open the Registry Editor.
Next, navigate to this registry path: ComputerHKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWcmSvcTethering
From there, look for the DWORD named “RemoteStartupDisabled” and set its Value data to be “0”. This will enable the feature that will allow you to remotely turn on or off the mobile hotspot in your Windows 10 computer. To disable it, just set its Value data to “1”.
If Error Code 0xc00000e9 appears on your screen, there is no cause to panic yet as there are different ways to fix this. Here, I will list down different methods to get your computer back on track:
Check peripheral connections
Check your SATA cables
Check your hard drive
Check your BIOS settings
Quick Fix 1. Check Peripheral Connections
Turn off your computer.
After the computer has been shut down, take off all the peripherals or the USB cables that are connected to your USB ports. This includes even the keyboard and the mouse. We just need to have only the monitor plugged in for this one.
Turn on your computer and see if it starts as it normally does.
If it does, try connecting back your external devices or peripherals one by one until you find the one that causes the error.
Once you trace the device that’s causing the error, you will have to change its USB cable and update its driver to support your operating system.
Quick Fix 2. Check your SATA cables
It is possible that what causes a barrier between your operating system and your hard drive from communicating is the SATA cable used. For example, if you’re using an older SATA with a SATA III port, there might not be adequate support for the transfer of data from one another. Or, the problem might be a loose SATA cable which would still require you to buy a new one to replace your loose or damaged cable. To check if your SATA cables are causing the error, simply follow these steps:
Turn off your computer.
Carefully open its case.
Check the hard drive and the SATA port where it’s connected.
Try to use a newer cable and connect it to your SATA port. (If you used a SATA II cable, you can see if a SATA III cable is more compatible.)
Replace your SATA cable with a newer one if Step 4 proves to be successful.
Quick Fix 3. Check your hard drive.
Try to use a different hard drive and see if error code 0xc00000e9 still appears.
If it works out just fine, then the problem might be physical damage to your hard drive and would need to be repaired depending on the case. Just simply take it to a technician and let him know about the issue.
Quick Fix 4. Check your BIOS settings
Restart your computer.
Once your computer starts, press and hold the ESC, F2, F12, or DEL key to go to BIOS settings.
You will then be redirected to the BIOS Setup Utility screen. From here, go to Boot options.
In the Boot Options, see if your first boot device is your hard drive. If it isn’t, press the arrow key to select the hard drive and move it to the top of the boot device list.
Save the settings.
Reboot your computer.
Note: If all the methods above do not work, the problem might be on your drivers and you might need to update them. You can update your driver in two ways: Manual driver update and Automatic driver update. You can find procedures online in updating your drivers.
Error 118 is a typical Google Chrome error. It pops up when Google Chrome fails to load websites like Facebook. It is usually displayed in the following format:
‘Error Message: Error 118 (net::ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT): The operation timed out.’
Solution
Error Causes
Error 118 may be triggered due to several reasons. This includes:
Problems with DNS setting
IP Address is filtering websites
Cookies and invalid registry entries
Further Information and Manual Repair
To ensure smooth internet browsing on Google Chrome, it is advisable to repair the error 118. If error 118 is not resolved you will be unable to load and access your desired websites.
To avoid inconvenience and resolve the issue immediately, try the methods suggested below. These are easy and effective do-it-yourself methods that require no technical skills.
Method 1 - Change Proxy Settings
If your IP address is filtering websites, then you might experience error 118 while using Google Chrome. When this is the error cause, then it is advisable to add a proxy for your PC.
To change proxy settings and add a new proxy, simply click on Customize and Control Google Chrome menu. Now click the options button. Under the Google Chrome Options window select the Under the Hood tab.
After that in the Network, section click the change proxy settings button.
Check Show Suggestions for navigation errors and Use DNS pre-fetching to improve page load performance boxes. Now under Internet Properties, click LAN Settings.
Under LAN settings you will see the Proxy Server box, check it, and enter your new proxy settings. Click OK to confirm and save settings. This will hopefully resolve the issue.
Method 2 - Change to Google DNS
When the error is related to DNS settings then try this method to resolve it. Simply set DNS to use Google DNS. Here’s how it’s done:
Go to the start menu, click Windows Control Panel, Network and Internet, and change adapter settings. Here you will see Local Area Connection.
Right click to select properties at the bottom.
Check Internet Protocol Version 4 and click properties.
Now check the ‘Obtain an IP address automatically’ box and also select the option that says ‘Use the following DNS server addresses’.
Change Preferred DNS to 8.8.4.4 and Alternate DNS server to 8.8.8.8 now click OK to confirm.
Method 3 - Remove the Bad Entries and Cookies Damaging the Registry
Bad entries and cookies saved in the registry can also trigger error 118.
To fix the issue immediately download Restoro. This is PC Fixer with multiple utilities including a registry cleaner. The registry cleaner removes all bad entries and cookies in seconds and repairs the damaged registry.
Click here to download Restoro and resolve error 118.
NVIDIA is undeniably the market leader as a Graphics Card manufacturer. Recently, NVIDIA came about a feature known as NVIDIA Share. This feature allows users to carry out a number of tasks such as streaming, recording, and sharing their gameplay with other users. NVIDIA Share allows users to take multiple snapshots of the gameplay which brings in capabilities to get the memories of the moments that happen during an awesome game. However, as of late, there were reports that NVIDIA Share is not working or responding. So if you are one of the users who are currently facing this issue, then read on as this post will guide you in resolving it. Make sure to follow the options given below carefully for a successful result.
Option 1 – Try to update the drivers from the official site of NVIDIA
The first thing you can do is to update the drivers from the official site of NVIDIA. And in case you don’t know the type of Nvidia graphics card that your computer is on, follow the steps below:
Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
Next type in “dxdiag” in the field and click OK or hit Enter to open the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.
From there, you can see what type of Nvidia graphics card that your system is on.
Take note of your graphics card information and then look for the best drivers for your operating system. Once you’ve downloaded and installed the file, restart your PC.
Option 2 – Try to roll back the driver to the previous version
If the first option didn’t work for you, then it’s time to roll back the device drivers. It is most likely that after you updated your Windows computer that your driver also needs a refresh.
Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run window and then type in the “msc” command and hit Enter to open the Device Manager window.
Under the Device Manager, you will see a list of drivers. From there, look for the NVIDIA Drivers and expand them.
Next, select the driver entries that are labeled appropriately.
Then select each one of them and double click to open a new mini window.
After that, make sure that you’re on the Driver tab and if you are not, just navigate to it then click the Roll Back Driver button to switch back to the previous version of the NVIDIA Drivers.
Now restart your computer to successfully apply the changes made.
Option 3 – Try disabling NVIDIA Share
If the first two options given above didn’t work then you might want to try disabling NVIDIA Share. In case you didn’t make any modifications to the driver, chances are either your driver is out of date or there are some issues with the installation of the drivers. For you to find out, you need to first check if your NVIDIA drivers are really up to date. Once you’ve confirmed it, you can now disable the NVIDIA Share feature. Just refer to the steps below to do that.
Search for the NVIDIA GeForce Experience in the search box and then click on the appropriate result to open it.
After you open the NVIDIA GeForce Experience, go to the General tab.
Next, scroll down to the NVIDIA Share section and then select the toggle to turn off this feature.
Now restart your computer and try to check if there are any updates available for the NVIDIA Graphics card and install them again if there are any.
In the latest Windows 11 fiasco, it is reported that the operating system is slowing down some SSD drives. Good thing is that it does not affect all of SSD on the market but the ones which it is affecting can see even a 45% of speed drop.
Microsoft has not published a solution to this issue, but users point out two potential problems. The first is a security mechanism based on disk virtualization, which is supposed to slow down the performance of SSDs.
The second, in turn, is related to the place of installation of Windows 11 – users indicate that if the performance test is performed on a medium with no files associated with the system, its performance results are similar to the parameters given by the manufacturer.
Transfer speeds were to be slightly improved with the latest Windows 11 update 22000.348. However, users are still waiting for a solution to the problem that significantly reduces the efficiency of SSD media.
More information
The details described leading to speculation that the problem could be related to drivers that Microsoft is providing. On further tests, all Nvme drives that use the Microsoft driver have this problem, but Intel 905P, which has its own driver provided by Intel, is working at full power,”.
As a digital creation of Blueis, the DownloadAdmin application peruses your computer system for programs/applications that are outdated. This program then makes the necessary updates/installation on your computer, as if it were the Administrator. While most people might consider this application harmful, scrutinizing the Digital Publisher/Creator of the application should be reason enough to remove DownloadAdmin (and any other associated program) from your computer. Why? Blueis is infamous for producing/distributing “adware type software”, according to herdProtect Anti-Malware. Is that not a plausible reason for you to remove applications associated with that publisher? Additionally, DownloadAdmin not only updates your outdated applications, but it installs additional programs - usually utility tools and search toolbars. This is a sly way to promote third-party software and to get ads loaded onto your computer system.
Technical details about DownloadAdmin include:
Digital Publisher: Blueis
Product Version: 4.0.0.1
Original File Name: DownloadAdmin
Entry Point: 0x0000234A
Assessment of DownloadAdmin
For this assessment, the DownloadAdmin file was obtained and installed on a test computer. After the DownloadAdmin/Updateadmin application was installed, it made several modifications to the computer system. These modifications may class the newly installed file as a PUP (potentially unwanted program). Outlined below is what took place after the file was installed.
Updated an outdated application installed on the computer
Subsequent to the update made by Updateadmin, I thought the PUP had run its course. However, it was not quite finished. It was after scanning the contents/programs of my Local Drive, I stumbled on an additional program, one that I did not download or install, at least not intentionally. As predicted, the DownloadAdmin application scanned through the computer system (in the blink of an eye), during installation and made adjustments to an application already installed. This program was the Mozilla Firefox. Since Mozilla Firefox was rarely used on the PC in question, the DownloadAdmin application thought it quite appropriate to revive the Mozilla Firefox browser, by replacing it with the latest or more contemporary version.
Installed a search toolbar
While DownloadAdmin did request permission to install an updated version of my Browser, it provided no warning about installing a search toolbar. This is quite shady and deceptive. In addition to updating the Internet Browser, DownloadAmin also installed the SearchProtect toolbar (Conduit). This toolbar is no stranger to the market as I’ve encountered it on several occasions during my assessment of malware.
Should you remove DownloadAmin?
That decision is totally yours to make. However, here are some reasons why most people would consider that program unwanted
It updates your outdated programs
In most cases, at least those I’ve seen, if a user has a program installed, they don’t necessarily want a new version of that program. In fact, this PUP could spell trouble since some programs, especially paid, require a license to use the software. When that program is updated/ upgraded, you might have to acquire a new license to get it to work.
Unnecessary program
If you’re totally lackadaisical and loathe the idea of doing work yourself, this program might come in handy. Many users will update their computers manually by using Microsoft’s preinstalled/pre-programmed updater in their computer’s Control Panel. This option searches for and installs all the necessary programs to keep your computer safe and secure. The DownloadAdmin program only occupies needed space and resources on your computer. However, what’s good about this program is that it doesn’t operate at the start time so it doesn’t necessarily cause unnecessary lags on your computer.
Modifies your search experience
By installing a search toolbar called SearchProtect, Updateadmin modifies or changes the browsing experience you’re accustomed to. SearchProtect hijacks your browser and changes your homepage to their choice while removing yours. This is often hard to reverse since the publisher created this software to remain once installed.
To completely remove DownloadAdmin from your computer, click here to download and install Spyhunter
If you are trying to run Windows Upgrade on your Windows 10 computer but suddenly interrupted by the error 0x800F081E – 0x20003, worry not for this post will guide you on how you can fix this Windows Upgrade error.
This particular Windows Upgrade error is a Windows status code for CBS_E_NOT_APPLICABLE which indicates that some of the update requirements are missing or the files that are installed are already of a higher version compared to the ones that are still pending. In most cases, this error occurs when you try to upgrade to earlier versions of the Windows 10 N edition to a later version.
Here’s the full content of the error message:
“0x800f081E-0x20003, The installation failed in the SECOND_BOOT phase with an error during BOOT operation”
In case you don’t know, Microsoft distributes special “N” editions of Windows in Europe and the “KN” editions in Korea. These editions are the same as the standard editions of Windows except that they do not have the Windows Media Player as well as the multimedia playback features. Thus, when the Windows Upgrade fails with the error code and error message and it doesn’t provide much information as to why the update couldn’t be installed, there is something you can do about it to fix the error. Since Windows uses generic error codes and so if you see the error code 0x800f081e, you have to check the error log first. For more details, follow the instructions laid out below.
Step_1: You need to navigate to C:$WINDOWS.~BTSourcesPanther and from there look for the text file named “setuperr.log” and open it with a text viewer/editor program like Notepad.
Step_2: After opening the setuperr.log file, you should see content that’s similar to this:
Note: From the content above, it is clear that the Windows Upgrade failed due to complete due to the Windows Media Player. It could be that the log file may contain other error messages and other error codes and if you see the error code 0x800f081e from the list, then you need to uninstall the Media Feature Pack.
Step_3: You have to uninstall the Media Feature Pack.
Tap the Win + R keys to launch the Run dialog box and type “optionalfeatures.exe” in the field and hit Enter to open the Windows Features wizard.
Next, you need to wait until the list of Windows Features populates and then click on the + sign to collapse the folder of the Media Features.
After that, uncheck the “Windows Media Player” option from the Media Features folder.
Now click on the Yes and OK buttons to save the changes made and then close the Windows Features dialog box.
Restart your computer and boot, try to run the Windows Upgrade process again, and check if the error is fixed or not.
Note: If the installation has been successfully completed, you have to go back to the Windows Features and enable the Windows Media Player again. And if you are using the Windows 10 N Edition, then you can just download and install the latest version of the Media Feature Pack for your Windows 10 N edition. On the other hand, running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter could also help you resolve any Windows Update-related problems, including the error 0x800F081E – 0x20003. To run it, go to Settings and then select Troubleshoot from the options. From there, click on Windows Update and then click the “Run the troubleshooter” button.
If you have a USB that has stopped working and does not show any signs of life do not throw it away just jet.
Hello and welcome to another great tutorial on errortools.com, today we will explore how to bring back to life dead USB memories.
Detect a Corrupted Drive:
If your computer is still able to detect your USB drive, you might want to know if it’s been corrupted. Select the Properties of the drive folder and check the device status. If it says This device is working properly this USB drive is worth saving. There’s no need to worry if you can’t see the USB drive folder.
Erase the USB Drive with Diskpart Tool
Press ⊞ WINDOWS + X top open start menu and choose Command prompt (admin)
Type diskpart and press ENTER
Type in list disk and press ENTER
Locate your USB drive by size and type in select disk#, where # is the number of removable disks.
Reallocate the USB Drive Volume
Press ⊞ WINDOWS + R to open the run dialog and type in diskmgmt.msc
Select the USB drive and Right-click on it and select create simple volume. It will lead to a new simple volume wizard window.
Once you click next, you can specify the volume size for the pen drive. Select the maximum volume, which is shown as a default unit in MB.
As soon as you see the next step, select assign drive letter which will help you view your pen drive once again.
Format the partition in the next step. This may be just an extra step because you have already wiped the data clean. But it is always better to be sure.
Click Finish to complete the new simple volume wizard which will now be allocated to the USB drive.
After you reallocate the unallocated USB drive space, you will be able to view the USB drive storage once again.
If you spend a large amount of time gaming or working on a computer gaming chair is a very important asset. One other thing that is mostly looked past but could help greatly is a good desk. A great chair accompanied by a great desk can make your long sitting sessions more pleasant and more healthy which is very important in the long run.
Hey, but it is only a desk, what is so special about having an expensive desk? Well truth to be told desk is just a desk and any kind of desk can serve the purpose of hosting a keyboard, mice, and screen. But a good desk will offer some other advantages that may not seem so important but they could mean a lot like adjusting desk height so it fits perfectly on your size and sitting position making long hours more pleasant and lower stress on hands sitting on it.
Advanced desk features
Bytezone might not be a company that will sound familiar to you, mostly because they manufacture gaming chairs and desks, now in the gaming chairs world there are a lot of competitors and Bytezone has managed to make a name for itself despite this fact. But they are more popular in their gaming and office modern-looking desk category.
The advanced desk is made from carbon steel and plastic combination, it is very durable and it weighs 27kg. Now that is not really light but it is not very heavy if we compare it to wood desks. The top layer of the table is made from easy-to-clean material and the desk comes with a large mouse and keyboard pad.
The table itself includes a cup holder, headphones bracket under the table and it has a cable management drawer in the back. The desk is sized 66x120x76 cm. Also for anyone interested desk itself comes also with RGB lights for that true gaming feel.
Stable Diffusion is a machine learning model developed by Stability AI to generate digital images from natural language descriptions. The model can be used for different tasks like generating image-to-image translations guided by text prompts and upscaling images.
Unlike competing models like DALL-E, Stable Diffusion is open source and does not artificially limit the images it produces. Stable diffusion was trained on a subset of the LAION-Aesthetics V2 data set. It can run on most consumer hardware equipped with a modest GPU and was hailed by PC World as "the next killer app for your PC".
Since Stable Diffusion is run locally and not in the cloud, as mentioned there is no limit to the number of images that you can produce but in order to use it you will have to get down a little dirty with setting your PC environment for it since it is not really an application, it is a command line text based descriptor that will use python to generate your images, so there is no install nor GUI.
In this guide, we will show you how to both install and run Stable Diffusion on your local PC so you can start producing some cool images all by yourself.
Hardware and software requirements
Make no mistake, Stable Diffusion will not run on a potato PC, in order to harvest the power of AI-generated imagery this is what you will need:
A GPU with at least 4GB of VRAM
10GB of hard disk space
Python and libraries (Miniconda3 installer will install everything you need)
The Stable Diffusion files
Git
Any OS (Windows, Linux, macOS)
Installing components
For this tutorial, we are covering the installation and running of Stable Diffusion on Windows PC. The steps presented here are presented in a way that installation can be performed on any operating system but precise instructions will be for Windows OS.
GIT
The first thing to do is to install GIT. It is a tool that will let you easily maintain and install repos from the internet. to install it go to: https://git-scm.com/ and click on download. Follow the instructions for your version of the operating system. If you are a developer you are familiar with GIT and if you already have it installed you can skip this step.
One thing that is important when installing GIT locally is to select to use it via the command line (the second option that says "Git from the command line and also from 3rd-party software").
Miniconda3
Now when we have GIT installed, next thing is to use Miniconda3 to install python and all required libraries that are needed. Get the installer at: https://docs.conda.io/en/latest/miniconda.html
Miniconda3 is basically an easy installer so you do not have to install tons of stuff manually from different websites and sources, it is nicely packaged in the installer that will take care of everything.
Stable Diffusion
After the previous two steps, we are ready now to actually install Stable Diffusion. Go to https://huggingface.co/CompVis/stable-diffusion#model-access and install the latest library (as of the writing of this article currently it is stable-diffusion-v1-4-original, the last one on the right), the library is almost 5GB in size so be prepared for big download.
Once downloaded click on the Windows start button and type in Miniconda3 and click on open. Create a folder and name it how you want on a drive of your choice. For this example, we will install it all in disk C under folder AI_art, follow the instructions below but use your own names and destination instead. Do not close Minicoda3 after typing commands!!!
cd c:/
mkdir AI_art
cd AI_art
Extract GitHub files that you have downloaded into your new folder and get back to Minicoda3 and type the next commands:
Let the whole process finish, some files are large and it might take a while. After the whole process is finished and completed, copy the checkpoint file that you have downloaded into: C:\AI_art\stable-diffusion-main\models\ldm\stable-diffusion-v1
After the file is copied rename it to model.ckpt and you are finished.
Running Stable Diffusion
The created environment is needed in order to actually use Stable Diffusion to create images. Each time you want to use it you will have to run it, so go into Miniconda3, and inside it type:
conda activate ldm
cd C:\AI_art\stable-diffusion-main
after we are inside the folder call the script with the parameters:
python scripts/txt2img.py --prompt "TXT DESCRIPTION OF IMAGE THAT YOU WANT TO CREATE" --plms --n_iter 5 --n_samples 1
and that's it, your image is created and it is located in C:\AI_art\stable-diffusion-main\outputs\txt2img-samples\samples
Microsoft has not published a solution to this issue, but users point out two potential problems. The first is a security mechanism based on disk virtualization, which is supposed to slow down the performance of SSDs.
The second, in turn, is related to the place of installation of Windows 11 – users indicate that if the performance test is performed on a medium with no files associated with the system, its performance results are similar to the parameters given by the manufacturer.
Transfer speeds were to be slightly improved with the latest Windows 11 update 22000.348. However, users are still waiting for a solution to the problem that significantly reduces the efficiency of SSD media.
Advanced desk features
