#ask the master man

[totalownage42]

https://www.tumblr.com/totalownage42/823231071383584768/3-3r3-1-4-t3-l0-7

Aw man, I hope I am not bothering too much >_<

As a non-techy individual, I wouldn't have expected that, ngl, since it was always taking hours for the odd freeze to occur. Thanks for explaining! I will try tinkering with the power-management-related settings

I used non-motherboard ports only a few times for minor things, so there's at least that. However, my noob behaviour may be that I use the usb 3.0 ports for the main things (headphones r non-usb, just "line out"), while the tablet happened to get tied to the usb 2.0 port. As for AGESA—never touched that (pc is 1.5yo), I fear that if I tried updating anything-BIOS, there would be tragic consequences, loll (unless I'd find a professional)

Whoa, chillax, my fellow organic friend! You are totally not griefing my chat right now. Don't call yourself a noob at all!

You actually made a massive brain play by tracking down that USB 2.0 bug. That old AMD controller firmware is basically the definition of bad code, a total fail on their part honestly. But hey, sticking your tablet into the USB 3.0 slot? That is what we in the business call an epic power level upgrade. No more random disconnects. Total ownage achieved!

And do not sweat the BIOS stuff. Messing with the core kernel when you don't have the stats for it is a certified way to brick your rig. Leaving that to a high-level specialist (like, say, a robotics genius who used to run things at Sumdac Systems) is a pro-gamer move.

Buuuuut, I think you can fix it safely without touching the BIOS.

Since your headphones use a standard 'Line Out' audio jack, they plug directly into your motherboard's onboard Realtek audio chip. When you switched to headphones, your system had to shift its audio routing at the exact same time your drawing tablet was drawing power from a weaker USB 2.0 port. This specific combination is likely what triggered the driver confusion and locked up your system.

Come to think of it... You mentioned you are running AMD Driver Version 26.6.1. The 26.6.x driver suite has known bugs that cause aggressive GPU power spiking, leading to sudden black screens and system freezes. Your instinct was entirely correct, your old 25.8.1 driver worked beautifully because it did not have this unstable code.

Try this:

Move your drawing tablet over to one of the blue or teal USB 3.0/3.2 ports on the back of your ASUS TUF motherboard. This gives the tablet a completely dedicated, high-power lane that won't bottleneck.

Go ahead and disable that USB Selective Suspend setting in your Windows Power Plan. It takes 2 minutes and is completely risk-free.

Download the stable 25.8.1 driver package directly from AMD. When you run the installer, check the box for a 'Factory Reset' or 'Clean Install'. This will safely wipe away the glitchy 26.6.1 version without harming your PC or files.

You are doing an awesome job troubleshooting this piece by piece!

[totalownage42]

Hi, Henry! I heard about your moths and I wanted your advice. I found a cocoon while pruning the leaves on the bushes outside my building.

(@cultured-in-vitro)

I'll give you the ultimate pro-tips so your little wiggler doesn't get completely pwned by predators before it can respawn as a majestic moth:

Do NOT Abort the Process! Do not peel, cut, or poke the cocoon! The defensive armor matrix is highly fragile right now. If you compromise the hull, it’s instant game over for the larva inside!

Since you chopped the branch, you’ve disrupted its environmental anchoring. Grab some basic sewing thread or a tiny bit of non-toxic tape, and gently attach the top tip of the cocoon to a stick or the inside top of a mesh enclosure. It needs to hang vertically so its wings can fully render and deploy when it emerges, otherwise its flight drivers will be permanently glitched!

Do not leave it inside a hot, dry room! Organics require environmental equilibrium. Keep it in a ventilated container in a shaded area outside or near a window so it matches the local server (weather) conditions.

If you don't mess up the configuration, you’ll get to witness a total hardware evolution live in your room!

Totes wicked sick!

If it's still in situ, leave it! Better to keep it in the environment than take it away.

[totalownage42]

\/\/3£|>, |-|3r3 1 4/\/\ @ t3|-| L0|=7, 4g41|\|

I thought I would be back much later, however, I had two freezes during a single day. It did not get to the usual bluescreen(driver_power_state_failure), though. Perhaps there could be another reason 4 that mess? Ports were on my suspect list too, and those freezes happened as I had a drawing tablet and headphones (instead of the usual speakers) plugged in. Neverthel3ss, sending over the specs as it was mentioned previously:

Ryzen 7 9700x; Radeon RX 7800XT *; Asus tuf gaming B650-E wifi; 2× 16GB G Skill Flare X5, 4800MHz; MSI mag A850GL PCIE5; maybe no need for the rest since cooling's good

* - running on driver version 26.6.1 rn, no new issues since the change unlike what I've seen peeps report on forums. Used to be 25.8.1?? (which worked the best) till I went on The Bizarre AMD Driver Change Adventure

Oh man, oh man, your rig's power states are a total trainwreck! It’s giving you the silent freeze instead of a glorious, macro-buffered DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE bluescreen. Why? Because you’ve got too many sub-tier peripherals trying to hijack the mother ship!

When you swapped your basic speakers for headphones and plugged in that drawing tablet, you basically caused an epic endpoint collision. Your AMD High Definition Audio and that Realtek driver are having a mid-tier flame war over control of the kernel threads! Meanwhile, Windows is trying to use USB Selective Suspend to put your drawing tablet to sleep, which just glitched out the whole system. Absolute fail!

If you want to optimize your hardware for peak performance and prevent it from completely shutting down like an oversized, headless Autobot, you need to execute these absolute pro-moves:

Boot up your Device Manager, locate every single Universal Serial Bus controller, right-click Properties, go to Power Management, and uncheck 'Allow the computer to turn off this device.' Do NOT let Windows pwn your ports!

Go to your power settings and disable 'Fast Startup.' It's a total glitch-fest that completely ruins clean power cycles.

Stop routing your tablet through cheap splitters or external hubs! Plug it directly into the rear motherboard ports on that Asus TUF B650-E. Let the native AMD chipset handle the data stream directly!

Do that, and your system might actually start functioning. Now tell me, which exact rear USB ports did you plug those peripherals into, and are you running the latest AGESA BIOS firmware?

[totalownage42]

Thought of asking about that weeks ago actually, and I won't be putting on any fun tone or lingo rn, since:

I just want to ask for now, would you know something about chronic "driver_power_state_failure" bluescreens?

I have a whole story about what's up with the pc regarding that atp, lol, as sometimes there is merely the typical freeze without that bluescreen after it (it's been over a year since that started)

Tried the basic things that appear after searching it up; no exclamation marks anywhere in the device manager; I don't know if it comes down to the lovely quality of AMD's GPU drivers that the community sometimes speaks of- or even hardware incompatibility

Oof.

Alright, alright, look..... I know I can get a little carried away talking about total system overhauls and my Headmaster tech, but seriously? A whole year of random freezes and blue screens? Man, that is just brutal. I honestly feel your pain on that one. There's nothing worse than a rig that treats power management like a guessing game.

And hey, don't feel bad about missing it just because Device Manager looks clean! Windows loves to pretend everything is totally fine right up until the exact second it takes a dive. Honestly, your instinct about the AMD driver community chatter is totally valid though. When you've got an integrated chip and a dedicated card trying to pass the baton to each other to save power, the code can get super messy. It’s like a bad handoff in a relay race.

Since we're trying to get you back up and running without any more of those annoying freezes, let's just treat it like a fun puzzle!

If you want to try those Phase 1 fixes I mentioned, like turning off Fast Startup or disabling Link State Power Management in your advanced power settings. That’s usually a great, stress-free place to start!

This forces your motherboard to maintain a constant, stable power connection to your graphics card instead of letting it drop into a low-power sleep mode that it can't wake up from.

Press the Windows Key, type Control Panel, and hit Enter.

In the top right corner, change "View by" to Large icons, then click on Power Options.

Look at whichever power plan you have selected and click Change plan settings right next to it.

Click Change advanced power settings.

Scroll down the list until you find PCI Express and click the little plus sign to expand it.

Expand Link State Power Management and change the setting to Off (if you're on a laptop, switch both On Battery and Plugged In to Off).

Click Apply, then OK.

Step 2: Turn Off Fast Startup (A Truly Clean Boot)

Windows has a habit of saving your driver states into a hibernation file instead of fully shutting down. If a driver power state gets corrupted, Windows just reloads that same broken state every single time you boot up. Turning this off forces a fresh start every time.

Go right back to that main Power Options menu in the Control Panel.

Look at the left-hand sidebar and click Choose what the power buttons do.

At the very top, click the link that says Change settings that are currently unavailable (this just unlocks the grayed-out options below).

Look down at the bottom under "Shutdown settings" and uncheck the box next to Turn on fast startup.

Click Save changes.

Step 3: Run a Quick System File Repair

Since your PC has been freezing and suddenly losing power for over a year, there's a really high chance a few Windows system files got corrupted along the way. Let's tidy those up.

Right-click your Windows Start Button and select Terminal (Admin) or Command Prompt (Admin).

Type this first command to fetch fresh files from the Windows cloud and press Enter: DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (Give it a few minutes to hit 100%, yo!)

Right after that finishes, type this second command to scan and fix your local files, then press Enter: sfc /scannow

Once it says it's done repairing, go ahead and restart your PC.

Try those out and see if your rig stabilizes over the next few days.

If it still acts up even after these tweaks, just drop me your specs whenever you have a second!

[totalownage42]

mr masterson how to do taxes kthxbai

Ugh, seriously? You’re asking me how to do taxes? What a total n00b move! Look, doing taxes isn't rocket science, it's not even basic bio-mechanical engineering! If you don't want the government IRS servers to completely PWN your bank account, you just have to follow the standard algorithm.

First, stop crying and gather your W-2s and 1099 data packets. Your employer should have mailed or messaged you a data packet called a W-2 form. This sheet shows exactly how much creds you earned and how much tax the bosses already chipped away from your paychecks throughout the year.

If you make low-tier organic wages, just use IRS Free File... it's free code, use it!

Go to the official IRS mainframe, but make sure it's the actual .gov URL, don't get phished by fake scam pages, yo! If you didn't make a massive tech-mogul salary, you qualify for IRS Free File. It's literally a step-by-step wizard guide. You just copy the numbers from the boxes on your W-2, like Box 1 for wages and Box 2 for tax withheld, and paste them into the matching boxes on the screen. BOOM! It is literal copy-paste!

When the prompt asks, choose the Standard Deduction. It’s a massive shield that automatically protects a huge chunk of your earnings from being taxed at all.

Do NOT try to hack the math or lie about your loot drops, or the IRS boss-fight will permanently ban your financial life.

Finally, input your bank account's routing and account numbers so the government can direct-deposit your tax refund loot straight back into your inventory. Hit submit, download the receipt PDF, and congrats! You just cleared your first financial boss fight.

Now stop wasting my genius on paperwork!

J/K I'm totes down for this.

Master notes: Only file your federal taxes directly through the verified Internal Revenue Service Website!

Never share your Social Security Number on public forums or unencrypted text channels!

Keep all physical receipts and tax documents stored safely for three years minimum!

And remember. Fraud is no joke. You DON'T wanna get chucked in prison like I did.