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This installation manual is based off the YouTube video by 77Vids about installation on Windows 10 (This installation manual is based off the YouTube video by 77Vids about installation on Windows 10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFWGGR97w3Y) , however there are some differences, which I will mention here.

Differences:

1. Download the Widescreen fix by selecting \/ -> Developer Build (untested). The final release (aka “Direct Link”) did not work for me. The Developer Build was from early 2024, which would be executed under Win11 just fine, while the final release would simply not activate, so no changes were made to the game.
2. The options of the .ini file slightly differ from the suggestions in the video, but nothing too major that one would be confused. Activating all re-sizing options (1) as by default was however worth It, the FMVs were not in a wrong aspect ratio as claimed in the video, at least not on an Nvidia GTX 1070 in FHD.
3. A No CD Patch was required, so you can forget about putting it into compatibility mode.
4. The download for the patch to the latest version of the game can be found at: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1067-need-for-speed-carbon-patches/
5. If you have a version that supports multiple languages, you can set that in the Windows registry as described here: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Need_for_Speed:_Carbon

Even though I kept mine to German, I had to enable to skip intro FMVs in the widescreen fix.

Enjoy playing this 18 years of jewel in gaming history in Full HD (any higher res will crash)  😊

This installation manual is based off the YouTube video by 77Vids about installation on Windows 10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFWGGR97w3Y) , however there are some differences, which I will mention here.

Differences:

1. Download the Widescreen fix by selecting \/ -> Developer Build (untested). The final release (aka “Direct Link”) did not work for me. The Developer Build was from early 2024, which would be executed under Win11 just fine, while the final release would simply not activate, so no changes were made to the game.
2. The options of the .ini file slightly differ from the suggestions in the video, but nothing too major that one would be confused. Activating all re-sizing options (1) as by default was however worth It, the FMVs were not in a wrong aspect ratio as claimed in the video, at least not on an Nvidia GTX 1070 in FHD.
3. A No CD Patch was not required if you use the Black Edition release of the game (US Markets only)
4. The normal release of the game can be upgraded to the Black Edition by adding these files to the game directory: https://www.nfsplanet.com/download_sel.php?file=http://ftp.gamesweb.com/pub/nfs5/nfsmw/files/be_patch.zip&key=b012e4bf975d86c07688b280ca8836a7&lang=eng

Enjoy playing this 19 years of jewel in gaming history in Full HD, (any higher res will crash) 😊

After fighting for 2 years to hav e my Toshiba TV not automatically turn off on me despite sleep timer and power saving are both off. (see suggestion 1, 8 and 11), it keeps giving me a warning after a while that the TV is powering off if I am not pressing a key on the remote. This is especially annoying as I connected it to my PC as a 3rd monitor.

The solution is found in the developer mode of the TV as described here.

It is perhaps done to avoid burn-ins (which isn’t just a CRT thing as Linus Tech Tips describes here)

Still this sucks if you don’t know about it and usually nothing much happens on your 3rd screen if ever.

Android Developer Mode for the win!

Street Fighter IV is a game that really connects certain events and memories in live, so when I found a way to get a Steam key, I went for it, and then the challenge of getting it to work in the latest Windows 11 was on.

There are basically 2 ways:

Solution 1: with GFWL (“Games For Windows – Live”) already installed
Requirements: You already have GFWL installed from a time back then (e.g. when Windows 8.x was still around, and then updated your installation to Windows 10 and then to Windows 11).

Steps:
– Block StreetFighterIV.exe’s accesss to the internet in your local firewall
– When the game starts GFWL overlay will try to connect but fail and ask you to enter the game’s serial key.
– Hit Escape to exit the prompt and overlay and enjoy playing the game!

Solution 2: Replace the GFWL files and add a dummy

For the longest time, there was no “settings app” available for this webcam under Windows, reason for this is, that is – as the name indicates – this specific model has been certified for use with the Cisco Conference Systems and Skype. While this particular model can be used with other video conferencing programs like Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Discord, etc – anything that isn’t Cisco or Skype will result in a short flash of the picture every couple of minutes, it is not really disturbing much and only visible for a fraction of a second, but it is not certified for their use.

In 2022, The Logitech Webcam Settings App has been updated to support the C920-C!

Unfortunately earlier this year, they removed the Webcam Settings App from the download page of the C920-C and replaced it with their new universal webcam app “LogiTune”, despite it being listed in its recent release to be officially supporting the C920-C, it is not detected by LogiTune at all!

Luckily, if you check the “more” section, of the business webcam C920e, it is still available for download and can be used to setup your C920-C as well, while Logitech (hopefully?) works on releasing a fixed version of LogiTune.

If you want to check with Logitech on the status of my bug report with them, you may refer to Ticket Number : 11130729 with their tech support department.

Since 2008, I am using the this soundcard in my desktop pc. Despite Creative Labs planned to EOL the product with release of Windows 8 in 2012, i.e. even before its release, they originally planned to never fix the dolby surround bug they had in their Windows 7 drivers back in 2010 (I found the bug in 2009 and reported it to them). Despite that, they even released updates for Windows 10 build #1903 in 2019

However with the release of Windows 11, Creative Labs finally put the card to rest and since even Daniel K. gave up on it (Final updates for my Support Packs and farewell), I was lucky that upgrading Windows 10 to Windows 11 just made the soundcard keep working, however occasionally, the driver would crash and require a reboot, and even in rare occasions, a workaround was necessary (spoiler alert: it still is, I just tried it out for this post).

Thanks to the free tool DriverMax I found that there is a modified driver for X-Fi cards that even run more stable than the official Windows 8.x-10 drivers, i.e. without the occasional crashing. It finds a driver version 6.0.1.1285 dated 24th of January 2021 by Auzentech and signature by Riolin Limited (Auzentech was a Korean computer hardware manufacturer that specialized in high-definition audio equipment and in particular PC sound cards and which went defunct in 2014).

It turns out Riolin Limited fixed the driver’s stability issues, by removing the “What U Hear” feature, means you cannot anymore record what you hear through the soundcard. However I decided to keep using it, as I prefer a more stable driver than having more features.

If you need the “What U Hear” feature, I suggest getting the headphone DAC / USB Soundcard Creative Sound Blaster Play! 3 which does provide this feature, plus is one of the few USB soundcards still offering an analog line in port (No, Mic and Line-In are not the same!).

You may thank me later! 🙂

For many many years, it annoyed me to the most, that my laser printer DELL C1765nfw which I bought in 2014 would not work in Linux at all, I never found a driver it works, and even if you find one and install the cups package, it will not work in many cases, if you don’t do the setup process exactly as I describe it here.

I found out that there is a working printer driver available now via OpenPrinting

first open the printer settings program
Install it with the command line:

sudo dnf install cups-drivers-foo2hbpl

Then add the new printer using “Network printer” —> “Find network” printer and enter its IP, for me it is 192.168.1.60:

it finds the printer at port 9100 using for a connection the AppSocket/HPJetDirect.

Then select “Select printer from database” and use the Dell C1765

Then it is found and the Describe printer dialog fields are pre-defined correctly.

When it asks whether you want to print a test page, decline as first we need to setup the driver to allow printing in color, as per default it is setup to print in b/w only.

Change color mode from “Monochrome” to Color:

Once changes are applied, you can happily print a test page.

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As for the USB floppy disk drivers, it makes me mad that it constantly probes for whether a disk has been inserted, so it constantly lids up and clicks.

While searching for a way how to read SMART data from disks, I came across this article: How to Test SSD/HDD Health in Linux 1

Its suggested GUI tool “Gnome Disks” has a button on top called “Power Off”.

Silence!

Thanks to the OpenMandriva community who gave me a helping hand and for the printer issue pointing me in the right direction after I plead for help.

Despite better knowledge, I didn’t get around switching to Microsoft Authenticator which features cloud based backup and recovery. It happened that my iPhone12’s screen stopped working, and I had to send it to Apple for diagnose and repair.

I thought to myself, within a week at last I should have access to my 2FA protected accounts again. I was expecting that some services will give me some issues, as some don’t offer backup codes, alternative 2FA options if your App installation is no more, etc.

In this blog post I want to describe my experiences. In all cases, I contacted their English Support staff when help was needed to re-gain access to my account (and re-enable 2FA via Microsoft Authenticator on the repaired phone).

domaindiscount24

based on my last time when I switched iPhone models and before the Google Authenticator App support exporting and re-importing accounts, I knew that a “password reset” form has to be filled in which I declare and put my signature in a form that I am the legal owner of the account and I need to gain access again. I enclosed a letter that indeed I need 2FA to be reset as my iPhone broke.

Base Country: Germany
Duration: 7 days and I was informed about 2FA being deactivated from my account via email.

Wargaming.net

I managed to login and disable 2FA, but in order to re-enable 2FA via Authenticator App, I had to confirm a code sent via SMS (why?), but that code never arrived. Their Player Support answered within 12 hours, asking for the following:

• Try using a different browser
• Empty the cache and cookies of the browsers and try again
• Switch to a different language setting on our website and ask for the message again
• Check if your message inbox on the phone is not full
• Contact your phone provider to check if premium services are enabled

Luckily, my mobile phone network provider O2 by Telefonica offers chat support, so it was easy to check back with them.

After I made sure everything is okay on my side, they sent me the code via email instead.

Base Country: Cyprus
Duration: 22 hours

Gameforge

Why I’d even have an account with them looking at what kind of games they offer?Well, they over Frogster and I had a support matter with one of the Frogster games years ago, since without an account one can’t send in a support question, I registered myself an account there. Since I got hacked from Turkey last year, I took the security of this account serious.

Re-enabling the GameForce 2FA Authenticator was however not possible due to “invalid username/password” or “invalid login” error messages.
I was accused of having used a 3rd party tool on my iPhone while setting up the 2FA Authenticator again to manipulate it, and this is against their TOS, the ability to re-enable 2FA is blocked and support won’t help me any further.

I replied by this not to be true and also virtually impossible on an non-jailbroken iPhone and sending them proof of my iPhone having been with Apple for repair, I received the next day an email that they had a 2nd look and found I was hacked again and therefore removed the block. (not true however, but easier for them to make something up than admitting their anti-fraud detection is BS).
I then was able to re-enable 2FA again.

Base Country: Germany
Duration: 2 days

Etsy

After successfully having logged into my account using Backup Codes, I noticed I cannot disable 2FA as it requires codes generated by the authenticator app installation that is no more (exactly same issue, as Trovo, which will follow later). Normally, one would expect that the backup codes would be seen as valid but I was mistaken.

Emailing support resulted in receiving a personal reply within 20 minutes, being asked the following questions:

• What is your email address associated with your account?
• What is your billing/shipping address?
• What was the last item you purchased on Etsy?
  
  I shortly thereafter I received a reply that 2FA was removed in my account and that the feedback will be forwarded internally to improved the flawed 2FA Recovery procedure.

Base Country: USA
Duration: 5 Hours

Rockstar

They don’t have any recovery method of the 2FA system, no backup codes, just a support form, which will instantly answer you asking for you to reply to this email from your account’s email address and to state that you are the owner of this Rockstar account. Shortly after 2FA was removed from my account.

Base Country: USA
Duration: 7 Hours

Trovo.live

Trovo offers no backup codes in case you are locked out of your account. However, luckily, I could still reach settings of my Trovo account due to active session cookies in my browser. However, disabling 2FA requires entering a generated code. (same problem as with Etsy mentioned earlier).

For initial point of contact I used their “Contact Us” form that can be found on their Support Page.

Unfortunately, I never received a reply, so I did some googling and found that according to their faq reddit page, it normally takes 5-7 day to get replies. Hence I re-sent my inquiry to them via their support email address, which resulted in an auto-responder:

Dear trover,
We have received your message and we will answer in 3-7 days.
Best Regards,
Trovo Team 🙂

(that was on a Friday), the following Monday, I received a reply apologizing for not getting back to me earlier and asking for the following:

You need to provide

• your trovo name,
• phone number,
• password, and
• any legal information to prove your identity and that you are the owner of this account.
  
  The last in the list I covered by enclosing a letter which I signed stating that I am the legal owner of my account and a copy of my national ID.
  

Then, I was told that “other staff” has been informed and will take care of the case.
The next day I was sent a screenshot asking whether I tried disabling 2FA in my account myself. (Yes, I did and that it doesn’t work was the whole point of contacting them for help!) . After that, my emails no longer triggered the auto-responder and as I received no replies anymore, I went to LinkedIn, had a look for Trovo employees, found a community manager in the Netherlands and asking him for help, he got back to me telling me he has forwarded it to the “the security team to further assist.“

another 7 days later, I received a customer support email reply stating that 2FA has been disabled for my account and they apologize for the experience.

Base Country: China
Duration: 3 weeks

The people who know me well, know, that I am not a completionist, I barely complete any game at all, even not racing games, despite I am a sucky gamer in general, racing games are my go-to and I am generally good at them. Recently, I posted about Need For Speed – The Run and the challenge of how EA shutdown the Autolog servers and how to get it to run nevertheless.

I have completed the game, yes, I really did and it was the most joyful Need For Speed Game I ever played and game I ever completed (the other moments I really cheered it was completing F-Zero on the SNES and Danger Freak on the C64).

I loved the action, the risk of dying in this game because of too much speed and bluntly crashing into something because of it and totally smash the car and the challenge against the AI racers and beating them all and ultimately the game.

I am also a fan of “Detroit: Become Human” and therefore loved the quick time events they put in “Need For Speed – The Run”, all in all a perfect game. Looking for similar games, I found Split/Second to be my current action racer to go to.

In the Discussion Forums of Split/Second on Steam, I found Blur as a similar action type racer to go to.

After my challenge with Driver: San Francisco, here came another one!

More info about the “Why”:

Challenge accepted!

(Just to make it clear, I am always trying to go the most legal route to play an EOL game, anybody can just download a crack and play it, that’s no challenge)

In general I prefer Steam (as they stated multiple times if the service ever shut down they will release a patch to make all purchased games still playable) and physical releases as I am a collector.

However unfortunately, even when buying the game sealed on PC DVD (Only the German version is left available as new and sealed on Amazon), we know that due to print or label glue and other chemical issues, the DVDs begin to rot (even if not visible to the naked eye) and barely readable by DVD / BluRay drives or not readable at all anymore) after the 10+ years those optical medias are old.

So trying to install my German version I bought sealed from Amazon I gave up after trying for over an hour!

(often, even if the discs are readable still, Windows 8.x and later do not support used copy protection anymore and since it’s a grey area or even illegal in many places of the world, I never link to no-CD patches) , so what I looked for was an ISO that I could download just for the sake of installing it on my Windows 11 (as it is delisted from Steam, getting a digital copy was no option either), and I found that archive.org has an ISO with a re-packed installer!

Getting it to run was easy, just compatibility mode set to Windows 7 and run as admin and you are good to go.

Then I was created with a dialog asking to create a new account and enter my serial key to register my game, I was almost certain, this could be the end.

I was mistaken!
The key was confirmed, my account created and logged in and now I can play the game on my PC in Windows 11, 12 years after it was created!

Thanks to the team who re-packed the game files, thanks for archive.org for offering it for download and thanks to Activation for caring about your customers and not shutting down servers for EOL products!

And I didn’t have to dip into grey areas for this one!

Let’s be cheerful for not all companies being mindless and making it impossible to play EOL games!

I have tried a loot of ways to get my Dell C1765nfw to print from my iPhone, unfortunately it is not AirPrint compatible.

Rather by accident, I still have Netgear’s Genie program installed on an old Windows 7 installation (from the time bedore I had a Fritz!Box), and just noticed by accident that it comes with an AirPrint functionality, which also works if your router isn’t a Netgear one.