The Stevens Axiom
COVID Lockdown
the cause of devil tumors
Aurora from Southern Tasmania
European wasps in Tasmania
tranquil Tasmania

14 March 2024

Your B450M AORUS Elite Will Not Boot-Up - The Simple Fix

A new motherboard, a new build and yet the Gigabyte AORUS B450M will not boot or POST if the power supply switch or power cable had been turned off at any time.

I spent a lot of time investigating this. The only way to get it to start was to remove the lithium battery and jumper the CMOS reset pins.

I found this is a common problem and tried people's solutions but none worked. I thought it was power-related.

What Did Work

In the bios settings go to 'Power' and look at 'AC BACK'. The options are:

Memory  - This didn't help

Always On - Select this one.

Always Off - What I always use but not here.

This assumes the many other bios settings are workable

I've been building computers for a long time and 'Always Off' had become automatic. It's for a power outage and having a machine re-start itself can scramble the file system. 

Gigabyte is based in Taiwan and the boards are made in China. Is this a political problem? These boards are designed for gamers and over-clockers and have far too many bios settings and options that could destroy components 😀 

Maybe 'shutting-down' and 'power outage' got lost in translation? I have not seen this problem before and the solution works but now the computer is started from the power supply switch not the front panel. I'm guessing if the power supply had no switch then plugging-in a mains cable would start the computer. It's obvious these boards have a bios problem.

If you have new info on the AORUS no boot issue drop a comment below.

09 January 2024

proof of concept

The idea was runes around a rotating transparent sphere intended for larger animated content.


I did more investigation of rotating virtual spheres and discovered I was over-thinking parts of it and under-thinking other parts of it.


28 December 2023

Gimp Warp Transform Animations

 Gimp has an easy way to make simple animations.



Check-out the Warp transform tool :)


Warp transform using the 'Chekharda' font by Evgeniy Agasyanc. It was  rebirthed by Skinnyhouse at Gimp Chat.


17 October 2023

Investigating Fractal 'Embossing'

Some of my Mandelbulber fractals have a kind of surface 'embossing' and 'printing'. I've never known why...up to now.


In a roundabout process I discovered some materials can completely destroy this embossing, I found the embossing is caused by the amazing surf fractal in a hybrid mode fractal that includes 4 other fractals.

As result I made some materials that enhances the effect.

13 July 2023

Hand Of Fate Glass Vignette


An animation in webp format that goes back to something a made a few years ago. i call it the 'hand of fate' effect.

18 January 2023

Last Year The Launceston General Hospital Saved My Life

In Tasmania the hospitals struggle to keep up with demand. Almost everyday we see media stories about 'ambulance ramping' and 'bed block'. Most people just want to stay clear of hospitals.

Except when you wake-up early one random morning in severe pain. I was healthy when I went to bed but by daylight I realized I was going to need to visit a hospital.

After ringing for an ambulance I was on my way to hospital. On the way the paramedic diagnosed a kidney stone. The bed in the ambulance is on wheels and I waited outside the emergency department on it for some time. I don't know how long it was. The pain was very bad and came in waves.

Later I was given a cat scan and taken back to the ED. Some time in the early afternoon a doctor told me the scan showed a large kidney stone obstructing a tube to my bladder. I was given pain relief. Later the pain seemed to disappear as fast as it started, but not because of the pain medication. Pressure builds-up in the affected kidney and bursts the tube. The pressure is gone but now I was in a toxic situation that had to be fixed.

I went to surgery in the middle of the night and was given general anesthetic, a first for me. When I came around they had disintegrated the stone with a laser and put in a plastic stent. This had to stay for 1 month while the body repaired the broken tube. I was home after 2 nights. I found it uncomfortable for the time the stent is in place but eventually it came out under local anesthetic. This was also not pleasant.

Since then I have changed my diet, avoiding 'oxalates' which are in many foods I like such a blueberries and raspberries. Thankfully they are not in stone fruit which I also like.

Now 4 months later I feel back to normal. This experience was an eye-opener for me on many levels. Kidney stones are often recurring and at my age I can't afford to go thru that again. I now drink more water and avoid nearly all nuts. I eat a lot more dairy. 

I want to thank the staff at the LGH for the excellent care I received. It's obvious staff in the ED are under a lot of pressure beyond their control. Thank you LGH for being there to save me.