Tuesday, December 24, 2019

The Rise of Skywalker (Review)

I managed to see Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker within the first week of release. That's pretty good by my standards.

I have mixed feelings about this movie. I suppose there's the usual excuse that it would be hard for any movie to live up to this kind of hype. I think this one worked so hard to top everything that had gone before that it went too far.

It's as if this story went through 100 exaggerated retellings via oral tradition before anything was written down and made into a script. That, and some aspects of the writing seem a bit lazy.

That said, the acting is great, the visuals are amazing, and there are some neat Force-related events that add interesting twists to the story.

I'm going to give it three stars and say it's worth seeing.

Spoilerish remarks below the fold (mostly focused on the things that annoy me and keep this movie from getting five stars).


Saturday, January 05, 2019

PS4 Disk Ejection Error

Are you a Playstation 4 user?

Have you ever gotten the disk ejection error? You put a game disk in the drive, you start up the game, things are going well. You're kicking monster ass or winning races or whatever. Without warning, the game crashes and the disk pops out of the drive.

Maybe you can put it back in. Maybe you can't. Sometimes it won't accept the disk. Even if it does, and you get started playing again, the disk just ejects again a few minutes later.

You can try restarting your PS4, but that doesn't work.

You can look for instructions on the internet, but I haven't had much luck with that. The Sony site will tell you to turn the PS4 off, disconnect all the cables, then hold down the power button until you hear two beeps (about 30 seconds). Leave it unplugged for five minutes. Then hook everything up and try it.

That solution is utter BS. The PS4 will never beep, because it's not getting any power. The problem isn't solved, either.

Last couple of times this happened to me, I figured out something that seems to work.
  1. Turn the PS4 off using the power management menu.
  2. Press and hold the power button until you hear a whole lot of beeps in rapid succession. It won't take long. The PS4 will not turn on.
  3. That may be enough. I unplugged everything and let it sit for a while just in case.
When I reconnected and put a disk in the drive, it started up and everything works.

No telling how long until the disk ejection error returns (seems to like happening every few months), but this solution will actually get you back to gaming.

I hope this helps someone.

UPDATE: This did not work as well as hoped. It was a matter of hours before the disk started ejecting again. Annoying. Still looking for a better solution.

UPDATE: I finally resorted to taking it to a local electronics repair shop. They replaced a sensor module for about $35. No problems since.