Alexander Nachaj

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  • Battlefield 4 Mouse Not Working Bug – Solved

    Note: this post was published 10 years ago. Hopefully these issues have been resolved by DICE since then!

    Battflefield 4 is a buggy, but glorious, game.

    It’s a total blast and a damn shame the thing doesn’t work most of the time.

    The first month out of the box, I was getting a blue screen of death every couple of minutes (fortunately, the guys at DICE finally patched that problem and my video card no longer self-destructs on entry).

    However, the other problem that started plaguing me as soon as that one was fixed:

    Battlefield 4 doesn’t recognize my mouse or keyboard inputs.

    As soon as a join a server and the tactical map comes up – BAM I’m locked out of all my controls.

    The weird thing is, I know my mouse and keyboard are working because I can see my cursor move on the other monitor and they are fine when I ALT+Tab back to windows.

    So what’s up?

    The Problem:

    After some head scratching, I figured out what was causing the game to ignore my mouse and keyboard!

    The problem is rooted in some older versions of Google Chrome and the fact that Battlefield 4 has to launch through a browser.

    Whenever you have Chrome running in the background, the game will still think you are using the other browser and not register any of your inputs.

    The Solution:

    Like they say: “60% of the time, it works every time”

    1. As soon as you load to the deploy screen, ALT+TAB your way back to windows.

    2. Close every instance of Google Chrome you have running (including the one that the game launched through), and then ALT+TAB your way back into the game.

    3. Money.

    I mean it: with Chrome out of the way, Battlefield should now recognize that you have a working mouse and keyboard!

    I’ve talked to some other people who were experiencing the same thing and this solution worked for them as well, so I’m not crazy. (I swear)

    Curiously, other web browsers seem to have no problem running the game – such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. (Edge wasn’t tested, neither was brave).

    Sadly, Chrome is my default browser but I have no intention of playing around so that the game opens up in IE every time I want to play.

    So the best we can hope for is that they fix this little glitch in another patch down the road.

  • Blood of Midnight: Broken Prophecy now Available

    Montreal fantasy novelist Ethan A. Kincaid’s debut novel Blood of Midnight: Broken Prophecy is now available in e-Book format. The first of three planned works, Kincaid brings his reader into a world where magic is real, souls have twins, and an ancient force known as the White Asp is carving a path of destruction across the known world. What role does a princeling with dark blood have to play in all this and who are the mysterious, bird-like Ducal people?Fans of Jordan will find a kindred spirit in Kincaid’s world.

    The Amazon Kindle Edition and Kobo Edition are now available.

    I had the honour and privilege of working with Ethan on this project over the past few months, finalizing the editing and getting his manuscript prepped for formatting and publication. If you are a fantasy afficionado, or simply looking to support a local author going the self-publishing route, give Kincaid a read; it’s only a fraction of the cost a  of paperback!

  • Instant Coffee

    Something happened to me earlier this year, something that would cause the average coffee snob to turn their head and sneer at its very mention.

    I realized that I like instant coffee.

    (Now I’m, just waiting for that slap! to hit me in the side of the side.)

    Now now, let’s all be rational here. Yes, I drink a lot of coffee. Yes, I need coffee every morning (2 cups if you would be so kind). Yes, I’m a writer. But, do all of those things translate into coffee afficionado? In my case, no.

    I love coffee, but let’s not fool anyone: I’m no savant when it comes to blends, grinds, mixes, roasts, what have you. and I only found out the difference between Arabica and Robusta earlier this week when I somehow found myself stumbling across it’s Wikipedia entry (we’ve all been there).

    I’m just a guy who really likes hot beverages, and likes it even more when it’s coffee. I’m Canadian and what do Canadians know about coffee? Tim Horton’s is our number one destination, after all; we wear our ignorance on our sleeve and are proud of it.

    I don’t even like Starbucks. I prefer my Maxwell house. Poor me.

    I suppose things wouldn’t be so bad if I only liked it. Liking something is fine. People like things that aren’t even good. I like bad movies. I like bad wine. I like bad coffee. The problem is, I actually really enjoy the bad coffee; enjoy it to the point that I might be addicted to that wood-flavoured powder mess.

    I’ve gone out of my way to buy it, catching the bus down to the other end of the city because I suspect the Walmart at that end of town most likely has shelves of that shit stashed away somewhere. I’ve got there and left contented, I’ve gone there and left dejected. I’ve even found myself prowling the aisles of the Dollarama, hunting for dehydrated dollar grinds. I’ve found them too, they come in little glass jars with red lids and ugly graphics. They also taste like dollar coffee. For some reason, I don’t mind.

    Maybe that’s all that matters. Just me and my instant coffee against the world.