So... It's been a while, hasn't it. Fallen off the radar for a few months with no updates or anything. Yeah... odd how that works. Believe me, nothing extinguishes the fire in your belly like being fed serving after serving after serving after serving after serving after serving after serving of non-stop fail. This will be lightly condensed, but still long...

I last mentioned I had put the motherboard inside the cabinet, and things were still working. That bit of victorious speech was premature. Things were anything BUT working. I'd boot the system, play a game or two, then the VPin program would crash. Or more commonly, the computer would blue screen. Most times when it was just idling! The "error code" explanations weren't very helpful, either. Like the cause of the blue screen was part of the NTFS system, or memory errors, or driver errors, or graphic errors, or processor errors... literally all over the damn place! Like snowflakes, no two blue screens were the same!

Ran MemTest 86+ overnight. No issues. Checked memory seating. All good. Checked processor seating. Good, too. Chip cooling fan doing its job. Replaced the thermal compound on the processor. Checked the hard drive connection. Good... but the blue screens kept on coming.

I will admit at this point, I did not wipe the drive and reinstall Windows 10, and I'll tell you why. I removed the motherboard from the cabinet to do a lot of my testing, and the blue screens became less frequent. I put it back inside, and they came charging back with more frequency. Removed it again, and they were less frequent.

OK... So the motherboard obviously has claustrophobia or something. The biggest problem is it's mounted in the ONLY place inside that has room for it.

Looking for another solution, I read about these mini PCs that were tiny, and could run Windows 10 on two monitors. Thanks to a friend, I managed to secure one of these little marvels. It WAS small. It could fit inside the cabinet with lots of room to spare. So, I eagerly set it up, and got Windows 10 up, running, and fully updated. Then I installed the VPin program and tested out a game.

My heart sank when, while it was able to run the program, the controller delay was VERY noticeable, and made the game unplayable. We're talking about a quarter- to a half-second delay from hitting the flipper button to getting a reaction from the flipper. Totally unusable.

I only had one other usable motherboard in the house that I hadn't tried yet, and that was from my old computer before I built the one I'm using now to type this entry.

Got it set up, Win 10 installed, updated, all the drivers, got two monitors working, then installed the VPin program... and for WHATEVER reason, the playfield would appear in the backglass, and the backglass would be in the playfield in the upper right corner of the screen.

Went into Windows 10 Display properties and made sure the playfield was Monitor 1 and the backglass was Monitor 2 and in the right order. Reinstalled the backglass program and made sure the configuration and resolutions were correct. Tried to tweak every other setting I could think of that dealt with the displays. Same result.

Posted in a Vpin forum about this problem and was told to try a monitor swapping program. Got the suggested one and followed the instrux to set it up properly... and it just wouldn't work... unless I wanted both the backglass AND the playfield in the backglass monitor.

So, I walked away from it in frustration for most of November.

...

Fast-forward to a this past Monday. My mind wanders to that abysmal wreck of a VPin machine. Why is something like this giving me so much grief? What am I doing wrong? It seems to be fighting tooth and nail against me. Every avenue I take to mitigate a problem just comes up with a new, unexpected problem.

It then hits me; I'm trying to turn it into something it's really not. What I mean by that is, my vision of that pinball machine is to have the computer and everything inside the cabinet to make one, easy portable game system. And everything from the first few steps into making it told me it all wouldn't fit inside. From the original computer/video card issue onward, it's been me trying to bend reality to my will. A sort of a "ten pounds of sugar in a five-pound sack" thing.

So, let's say I give up that vision. What's currently inside the cabinet (audio amplifier and speakers, two monitors, USB controller board for the cabinet buttons) all seems to be working out fine. It's just all the cables would be sent out the back of the unit to plug into power or a computer. So, find a small computer case to house your computer and leave it at that. It won't be as elegant, but it'll still work and I can play pinball.

And with that, I'm starting again. I have the original motherboard and graphics card I wanted to use in the first place. Today, I wiped the drive to have a fresh, brand new install of Windows 10 using the latest ISO file from Microsoft. But if anything, this taught me something. I DIDN'T connect the backglass monitor during the install process, so Windows will see the playfield monitor as the ONLY monitor (i.e. Monitor 1). After Windows was up and running and updated, I connected the backglass monitor, reset Windows, and made sure the main monitor was STILL the playfield monitor. Downloaded the latest installer for Visual Pinball and got that properly set up and configured to use the backglass monitor. Installed a simple pinball table and backglass, and ran the program.

The backglass appeared in the backglass monitor, and the playfield... was in the playfield monitor, but in desktop mode. OK, this is something I can work with. A few tweaks in the settings, and the playfield was in the correct orientation in the appropriate monitor. Played a few rounds to test everything out, and it all worked properly.

SUCCESS! And trust me, after all the garbage I had been through on this over the past couple of months, it feels really good now.

So what's next? I'm really not out of the forest yet. The last piece of the puzzle is to get a case for the computer. Now, I really have to temper what I'm looking for with my expectations. If I can at all help it, I don't want to mail-order a case... mainly because with all the times I've been bitten with this project, I am REALLY shy about trusting a case description on NewEgg or Amazon with the motherboard I'm using. Because it was a specific Dell motherboard from a machine that was MADE for that motherboard, the components aren't really in the usual places. Meaning things like hard drive cages will interfere with the RAM sticks, and no backplane for the outputs at the back. I had a small mini tower case that I thought would work with it, but it didn't because of the hard/floppy drive cages. It's one of those things where I'll have to bring the motherboard with me to make sure it'll fit properly. Which means planning a trip to Boston to MicroCenter, the only real computer store in the area that isn't a Best Buy or other "big box" store.

But that's an issue for another time. This entry is already monstrous.

For now, I'll be slowly adding in tables, testing them, and hoping for the best. Then I'll install the front end (PinballY) and set that up. Hopefully by that time, I'll be confident enough to find an appropriate case for the computer and I'll call it as done as it could be (short of adding more pinball tables to play).

I thought this was supposed to be fun, not supremely aggravating. But, I'm better now.

Well, I had sent off the motherboard back to the online store, and I received the replacement on Friday. I was smart this time, I tested it for power before I did anything else... well, after I installed the processor, memory, and hard drive on it, that is. Fortunately, this one works. Woo!

While I was waiting for the replacement to be processed, I took the original motherboard I had initially planned to use in this build and hooked it up to the monitors and buttons. It was placed outside the case along with the power supply. I wanted to see if everything else worked. Both the buttons and the monitors lit up. After some more experimentation, I set up part of the pinball software to get a feel what this would potentially look like once it's done. It wasn't too bad. I even played a few games with the handful of "boards" I set up.

The only minor grump I have about the monitor setup, is that the backbox monitor is considered "widescreen," and it stretches the backglass design to fit it. It's not really all that bad but I tend to notice it. Not that it matters in the end; my attention would be mostly on the main playfield anyway.

Back to the replacement motherboard. After a successful test run, I hooked it up where I had the other motherboard... USB plug for the buttons and lights, the two HDMI cables for the monitors, audio cable for sound, WiFi dongle, mouse and keyboard, and powered it up. The playfield monitor soon displayed the BIOS for the motherboard and allowed me to set it up properly.

Now comes the fun part... installing an operating system. Since all of the pinball software I'm using to run this cabinet is MS Windows based, Windows 10 was the obvious choice (the other system I was using was Win10 as well).

Fun Fact: I was going to get Windows 10 on the computer by first installing Windows 8.1 and upgrading it (long complex story). So, during the install on Win8, I had noticed something. That something being the backglass monitor continually going through its "no signal" test... meaning it filled the whole screen with a solid color (a different one every few seconds) with an info box giving such info as resolution, connection type, frequency in Hertz, etc., slowly moving around the screen. This concerned me, since I specifically landed on this motherboard because it had two video connections, and the packaging said it was for "multiple displays." So, why wasn't it working? I switched the monitor cables around, and the backbox display worked, but not the playfield. To say I was livid would be an understatement. I pored through the BIOS settings to figure out what I was possibly doing wrong. Finding no answers that I could see, I wrote a customer support letter to the motherboard manufacturer about the issue.

Anyway, as for the OS, using that method to get Windows 10 on my computer was not working (much like nearly everything else on this build), so I just installed Win10 directly and linked it to my Microsoft account. I really wanted it separate, though, but I didn't want to pony up the money for another license.

It's not enough to have a fresh install of the OS, you also have to go through UPDATE HELL. That was Saturday afternoon through night. The updates made my internet slow to a CRAWL! My DSL connection is slow enough without Microsoft hogging up every last bit of my bandwidth, so I paused all the updates, did my usual website cruising before bedtime, then restarted the updates and went to bed. Let it go to town overnight when I'm not trying to use the internet.

Well, this morning, after all the updates (except two quick ones) were installed, I reboot the computer to see if there were any more updates coming, and the second monitor started working! I guess Windows 10 just needed to do some driver updates to get both monitors up and running at the same time. I was quite relieved.

After all the rigamarole over the past two days just to get the base system up and running, I took it easy today. I tried doing a little research on virtual pinball front ends (essentially, a glorified menu of the tables installed on a virtual pinball cabinet). The three most popular ones are HyperPin, PinballX, and PinballY. I keep hearing that PinballY is the easiest of the three to set up, so I'll have to read up on it.

So that ends this entry. There were a few other things that I didn't mention (like hooking up the 2nd monitor to a graphics card to see if I could get both to work, no dice), but I figure I've gone on long enough about this for tonight.

MASSIVE SETBACK!

It seems that the brand new motherboard I got for this build is defective. Either that, or the processor.

I wired up all the buttons and monitors, plugged them in to their respective places on the board, got out my camera (phone) to record the first bootup, hit the power switch... and nothing happened. Well, by nothing I mean that the monitors and buttons lit up, but the computer wouldn't start. I checked all the connections, no dice. Went online to get the real manual for the motherboard (they only gave me a "quick start guide" in the box) and found where the "case power switch" connection was located. Tried turning it on that way. Nope. Checked the power supply by connecting it to the original motherboard I was going to use. It started. Tried it again on the new one. Nope. Got another known working power supply from a spare machine and tried it on the new motherboard. Still no response. Since the button lights are connected via USB to the motherboard and they came on when power was applied, I know that at least that subsystem was working.

Looks like I'm going to have to get an RMA from Newegg and send the board back for a new one. I'll get that started tomorrow. I'm tired right now and want to not think about this whole project for a little while.

Punk's Pinball Universe is now officially ooooooon hold for the time being.

I got the cabinet kit today, the last part of my puzzle, and began the laborious process of putting it all together. For a single page of instructions with pictures, they were still a bit odd. No numbered steps. I didn't know if I should read them along the top, or in columns (turns out they're in columns). It's all a post-and-cam assembly (like most pre-fab furniture).

A few things stood out. Taking a good look at the depth of the cabinet (when completed) filled me with a sinking feeling, as it's not very deep. There was something I said (predicted?) when I first made an entry about my concerns on this nearly two weeks ago: "Like, if the graphics card is a bit too tall with the amount of room I have between the motherboard and the play field monitor that might have been alleviated if the monitor was a quarter-inch thinner."

Turns out that was exactly the case. Well, not a quarter-inch thinner... it needed more than that.

So! Where does that leave me? I need to do a little more research. There's a range of AMD Ryzen processors that have a GPU as part of the chip itself; not quite as good as a high-end graphics card, but it'll do the job. However, that now means I have to get another motherboard... and the memory to go with it. I can part with a few more savings bonds to cover it, but I wish I didn't have to.

That's really the only problem I'm having with this build (well, that and being a single screw short. A quick trip to the hardware store sorted that out).

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Interwebs and see what I can get for parts.

As referred to in my last post, I warmed up my cold feet and charged ahead getting the virtual pinball kit. Frankly, it’s about time. After ordering the kit, I went through my list of all the other parts I have and mail-ordered the rest of the parts I needed. That’s when the fun started.

It’s all the little things that make things work that you tend to forget. For instance, the computer I’m using for the vpin (a Dell Optiplex 790) isn’t staying in its case; just the motherboard is needed. The cabinet I’ve ordered isn’t deep enough to have the whole computer inside. Fine. On removing the motherboard, a couple of things made themselves clear: both the chip cooler and power button were secured to the case. Those were two things I didn’t really think I needed. I did some research on chip coolers and found one on NewEgg for about $20. Yes, it’s inexpensive, but I’m only running pinball sims on this machine. It shouldn’t stress out the processor that much. It arrived a couple of days ago. It installed without a lot of drama, but things can’t go smoothly (what fun would THAT be?) as I discovered that the plug for the cooler is different than the plug on the motherboard. MOAR RESEARCH! Found a 4-pin to 5-pin adapter made just for Dells and chip coolers on Amazon for another $8 (plus shipping).

Now, for the power switch. The original plugged into a socket on the motherboard, but I’m not going to look around online just for that. I know that shorting the green wire on the power supply to ground turns the machine on and removing that short turns it off. A SWITCH! and I don’t mean Nintendo. Rummaging around in the basement turned up a usable old push button on/off switch. A little cleaning and a little continuity testing found it in fine working order, and is by far the oldest component used in this build (probably from the 1950s or 60s).

I’m expecting the last two component parts of the build today (the 24” monitor and the chip cooler adapter) so I can finally test the system to see if it’s still working. The actual cabinet will get here either on Tuesday (15th) or Wednesday (16th), and then the fun can *really* begin.

Earlier this year at a Flea @ MIT, I found an original Xbox with all the cables, two controllers, and the box for the princely sum of $10. I took a quick glance at it and it seemed like it was in decent shape, so I bought it.

When I got it home, I gave it a good lookover. It was very clean, and all of the labels were intact. While I was at the flea, I picked up a copy of Halo (it only seemed right to go with the console). It booted right into the game and ran well. Well! Success!

I then went out to do a little research in case there was anything I should look out for on this nearly 20-year-old console. I was immediately clued-in on the "TIME CAPACITOR OF DEATH!!" Since the OG Xbox doesn't have the usual button cell to keep the time when the system is unplugged, it relies on a special capacitor that keeps the clock active for about three hours. UNFORTUNATELY, this component was made during the Capacitor Plague era, meaning it's liable to leak out electrolyte onto the motherboard over time, and destroy nearby components and traces if left unchecked. Much like the leaking Varta batteries destroying motherboards that the Amiga community is dealing with. I checked if my Xbox is one that has that particular problem capacitor, and it does.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago. After viewing one more video on the OG Xbox saying "OMG! GET RID OF THAT CAPACITOR BEFORE IT KILLS YOUR SYSTEM! GET OFF YOUR KEISTER AND DO IT NOOOOOW!!", I decided to just go ahead and do it.

It made me sad to partially cut some holes in two of the otherwise unmolested labels to access a couple of screws, but it needed to be done. I cracked open the console and was totally surprised at how clean it was. I mean REALLY clean. No dust in the rear vent fan, no dust in the chip cooling heat sink, not even a trace of dust. It looked PRISTINE. Made my way to the motherboard and looked for the offending capacitor labeled "POWERSTOR AEROGEL" and... it was totally clean. No electrolyte, no bulging, no rot or debris, the capacitor looked just as clean as the rest of the board. I removed it and looked beneath it... nothing. Everything looked brand new. That console must have had absurdly low hours of play on it.

I put everything back together and tested it out. It all worked without a hitch. Granted, I have to reset the time every time it's unplugged, but small price to pay to know I don't have that potential issue anymore.

Hey there! It's been about a year since I've last posted here, which only goes to show how things go around these parts. Get yourself a cup of tea; this be a long one...

Yes, I went with the iPhone 5S. I like it, but the screen is kinda small. I also went with RoboKiller for my spam call/text blocking software. I like it as well. So, that part's over. Now for the rest...

Still jobless, but there's a tale or two about that. I had alluded that I was in line for getting a job with the state. The past few years has made me convinced that there's some sort of Malevolent Force out there that's preventing me from getting a job. Well, that MF didn't like it one bit when I was hired nearly on the spot for a temp position, and it went into a frenzy. Mass went into a hiring freeze, so there were no new hires until the end of the fiscal year. Not only did the MF do that, it also got about 30 people fired from the department that was going to hire me.

Yeah... that job fell through spectacularly.

Now for some REAL fun. Because I was still waiting for word on whether that job was going to be created or not, I had to do my yearly sign-up for health insurance (because of my disability, I have to choose a Medicare supplemental plan for drug coverage). The plan I chose (since I THOUGHT I was going to have some sort of income over and above my disability payment), I chose a plan that was a bit more expensive than my last one... so my disability payment was about $50 less to cover for the more expensive plan (the premiums for the plan are taken from my disability payment; thus I get less money because of a higher premium).

So, when the job fell through... yeah, not good.

On top of that, at the end of last year, my finances were destroyed because of a real estate tax bill I thought I had paid, but turned out I didn't... which came to a total of over $1700 I had to pay by Feb 1st. I found that out well after I received my disability stipend for December. Considering I was getting $1325 a month... oops, make that $1275 a month now, and had a $300 deductible for medications due in January because of that new plan... Suffice it to say, I wasn't in a good place financially.

That "not in a good financial place" thing continued until August when things started to even out (thanks to cashing in nearly $5000 worth of savings bonds over the course of the year that I was keeping for my "retirement"). -= sigh =-

In July, the employment rehabilitation people I had been working with mentioned that they were having a little course in conjunction with CVS to train people to work behind the pharmacy counter as a Pharmacy Technician. It was a 6-week course that by the end, you would be able to interview and get a job with CVS as a pharmacy tech. The course was free, and out of sheer desperation, I signed up for it.

The course seemed simple/easy enough, but as time went on, I came to the realization that I had less than zero interest in the pharmacy tech job. I had to argue with my self every day -- multiple times a day -- that what I was doing was to get a job "for now"; to get something new on my resume, to get some money back in my pockets, and to stick with it because working in a pharmacy is far better than looking fruitlessly through the latest job offerings for zero dollars an hour. I had actual shouting matches with myself over this. I did stick though it, however, and I completed the course at the end of August.

Shortly after filling out the appropriate (online) job applications, I got a call from a local CVS about an interview. I went to my interview with the Pharmacist, all prepared on what to say and how to say it... and it absolutely wasn't like the "normal" style of interview I was expecting. To make a long story short (I know, it's far too late for that), the pharmacist said she would call me the following day and let me know about the job.

I have yet to hear back, and that was a month ago. Something tells me that I didn't get the job, and to be honest, I didn't want it to begin with.

Anyway, at about the time I was preparing for that CVS interview in September, a couple of other job offerings popped up in my job searching. A Tier 1 IT Help Desk person for Amazon, and a holiday clerk position with the Post Office. Both looked pretty good to me.

I had worked in an IT help desk position at AT&T, and enjoyed it, so that seemed like a natural fit for me. The other side of that coin is it's for Amazon. I've heard a lot of stories about the appalling working conditions at their distribution centers, and that job would be at a distribution center in the next big city over from me. That said, I'm presuming the IT position would be different from a picker position, so I threw an application their way for it.

As for the Post Office clerk position, well, it's a federal job... or at least as close to a federal job as I could go for. Although it's just for the holiday season, this could get me a foothold in getting a more permanent job at the post office... and I would really like a federal job (except TSA... friggin' wank stains)... or a state job... either would be great, truth be told. So, I tossed an application their way as well.

And a week or two after the CVS interview, the Post Office contacted me about an interview for the job.

Turns out the job wasn't for the clerk at the window, but behind the scenes, scanning packages into their tracking system. You mean, I get to scan packages all day, wear comfortable work clothes, and don't have to deal with the general public? SIGN ME THE HELL UP!

I know I say this after almost every interview, but I felt really good after the interview. I know I can pass a CORI (criminal record check), my driving record is very good, and the only drugs I take are prescribed to me. So, after double checking my driving license, they sent me a few more emails last week: the consent for a CORI, consent to check my credit history, an appointment for a drug screening... and a job acceptance form. I gave an affirmative answer for the job acceptance form, I took the drug screening the same day I received it at the local clinic they suggested, and now all I'm doing is waiting for the results of everything. I don't foresee any problems, really.

I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but it's looking like I'm finally about to break this jobless curse on me.

Here's to hoping!

Yeah, that was quite a bit of meandering, wasn't it? I know I glossed over (and even omitted) one or two things that happened -- like the serpentine belt in my car's engine committing Seppuku as I was driving home from the final CVS training session -- but this entry was getting too long.

Until next time!

I've had this song playing in my head for the past three days. It's one of those earworms I can't shake. I'll have to wait until it goes away on its own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFfVp6rSWHA

Yup. Par for the course. I just found out a little while ago that the Pinball Wizard arcade in Pelham, NH closed down sometime in April. So, no more pinball getaways for me. This week's been kinda lousy, and the arcade closing was the dingleberry on top of the shit sundae.

I'm at a loss. A friend suggested another course of action for tomorrow, but I don't know if I'll take him up on the offer. I need some time to figure if I'm able to change gears.

Well, it's that time of year again. Time to think about heading up to the Pinball Wizard Arcade for my yearly sabbatical of pinball and aging. My birthday (2 September) falls on a Saturday this year. These days, that usually means nothing to me, as one day blends into the next. But apparently, this increases the chances of something else showing up to the arcade instead of a crushing lack of enthusiasm, crippling depression, and another day of solo playing (it's more boring than it sounds, honestly).

What, as they say, ever. It's my "party" and I'll tilt if I want to. These plans are set in cream cheese, so who knows at this point if I'll even make the half-arsed attempt to do it again this year.

This journal is just serving as a heads-up for those who might be interested (not that there's many).

More later... perhaps.