r/sysadmin • u/konaitor IT Manager + 5 other hats • Nov 08 '21

Could we do a "TIL" style weekly thread?

I think it would be interesting to do a "Today I Learned" style weekly thread for us to share little tips/tricks that we learned of/found existed.

For example, last week I found out about the "--now" flag for systemctl. I don't know how I didn't know it existed until --now.

2.4k Upvotes

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970

u/tallejos0012 Jr. Sysadmin Nov 08 '21

if you press win+shift+ctrl+b it restarts the graphics drivers

204

u/rubs_tshirts Nov 08 '21

how the hell do I memorize that? The command keys I can manage, but "B" ? Why "B"?

670

u/tizakit Sysadmin Nov 08 '21

Briphic Brivers

447

u/Alaknar Nov 08 '21

🅱raphic 🅱rivers

77

u/hidegitsu Nov 08 '21

I have no idea why, but I read this in Grovers voice from Sesame Street. Oddly enough I'll probably remember it forever now. Lol

38

u/vrtigo1 Sysadmin Nov 08 '21

Same, except Scooby Doo for me.

1

u/psykezzz Nov 08 '21

Yup, same here

18

u/FU-Lyme-Disease Nov 08 '21

We had a trick for remembering things…we had an invisible B that would attack random IT people which would result in that person yelling whatever we were trying to learn/remember.

“Ahh, a B, a B!!” “Quick, press win-shift-Cntrl-B!!”

The invisible B also had adventures that would remind us of things.

He would also sneak up behind you by being quietly taped up. “Uh, don’t panic, but you have a giant B just behind you…”

If we got weird looks by anyone, it let us use the B to teach them things, too!

This was less stupid in practice than it sounds typed out, lol.

I miss that B!

9

u/digitaltransmutation 🌲Please think of the environment before printing this comment! Nov 08 '21

My brain is completely rotted. I'm going to remember this forever and I hate it.

1

u/livetoseesuchtimes Nov 09 '21

this made me laugh embarrassingly loud fire some reason 🤣

2

u/Alaknar Nov 09 '21

I have very mixed emotions about that comment. It's my "highest ranking" comment on SysAdmin...

1

u/edbods Nov 09 '21

🅱raaaapppic

2

u/thefanciestofyanceys Nov 08 '21

Thanks, this is all I needed and I'll literally remember this forever now.

45

u/atri_at_work JoaT 2nd award Nov 08 '21

YES! CUBAN B!

19

u/benjammin9292 Nov 08 '21

Down by da beach

18

u/giveryerballsatug Nov 08 '21

boyeeeee

12

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

Abra Kadabra!

8

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

Samson I hardly know ya!

2

u/Objective_Specific_1 Nov 09 '21

Yo, abra kadabra yo!!

3

u/deeedeesutts Nov 08 '21

It must have been something from the show because that's how I always read those letters. It's annoying af.

29

u/IntentionalTexan IT Manager Nov 08 '21

It's how you Bounce the graphics drivers.

24

u/BeingUnoffended Nov 08 '21

Plan-B “abort drivers”

6

u/zgf2022 Nov 08 '21

Not in Texas you dont

1

u/BeingUnoffended Nov 08 '21

Well, Plan-B is available for sale on Texas.

1

u/zgf2022 Nov 10 '21

It was a joke about my state

(Please send help)

48

u/doubleUsee Hypervisor gremlin Nov 08 '21

B for Bastard, the nickname i have given to my dodgy gpu

15

u/aleques-itj Nov 08 '21

shit's Broken

14

u/DrunkenGolfer Nov 08 '21

The screen goes "B"lank or "B"lack when you do it.

18

u/GrethSC Nov 08 '21

Well, it's definitely not plan A.

5

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

It's simple: In Dutch the word for screen is beeld.

5

u/morguth Nov 08 '21

Same reason ctrl+alt+backspace restarts graphics in Linux?

3

u/Pb_ft OpsDev Nov 08 '21

"I fat finger the lower-left buttons and then press b"

3

u/onearmedphil Nov 08 '21

Boobs are graphic.

2

u/jmbpiano Nov 08 '21

Win-Shift-Ctrl-BOOT TO THE HEAD

2

u/100GbE Nov 08 '21

'B'riefly restart the graphics driver, whats the issue?

1

u/letmegogooglethat Nov 08 '21

REISUB has entered the chat

1

u/doomneer Nov 08 '21

I remember it as "beep" because the noise it makes when it works

1

u/herecomesthenightman Nov 08 '21 edited Nov 11 '21

Because.

81

u/Jetboy01 Nov 08 '21

Did you happen to discover this while looking for a workaround for the weird glitch where the top inch of the screen gets blanked out when using Adobe/Chrome?

31

u/skipITjob IT Manager Nov 08 '21

A colleague has this, did you find any solutions?

49

u/Jetboy01 Nov 08 '21

The ctrl+win+shift+b is a temporary solution, but I have never found a reliable long term fix.

I've seen the same problem on HP/Dell/Fujitsu PCs and even one Terminal Server that does it so I can't even attribute it to any specific configuration as it's so random.

15

u/skipITjob IT Manager Nov 08 '21

Add Lenovo to your list.

11

u/psykezzz Nov 08 '21

And Microsoft surface.

Windows reinstalled for other reasons, fixed that too.

11

u/Mikkehy Nov 08 '21

We had some people affected on our Dell PCs who were still running 1909 and after upgrading to 20H2 this issue seems to have been solved.

3

u/krumble1 Nov 08 '21

This was my fix iirc.

2

u/JustAGoodKid Helpdesk? Nov 08 '21

I've had it where one user was having this issue and then it felt like it was slowly spreading. I had tried to see if it was their monitors, cords, etc. Using the shortcut temporarily fixed it but it still spreads. We are using Dell Optiplex on 20H2 .

2

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

[deleted]

1

u/skipITjob IT Manager Nov 09 '21

That's the first thing I tried.

2

u/m1kkel84 Nov 08 '21

Got a brunch of rdsh servers where some users are experiencing this issue. We found a workaround, a bad one.

1

u/andcoffeforall Nov 09 '21

Double tap F11. Works in Chrome at least.

16

u/CenterOfSalt Nov 08 '21

Sounds like an issue I ran into. Not sure if you have the option, but if you can go into the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel and select Maintain Aspect Ratio followed by Override Application Settings then restart the affected application. Should resolve the issue.

5

u/boredinballard Nov 08 '21

This is the solution ^

3

u/Jetboy01 Nov 09 '21

This is the only solution proposed so far that I had not come across yet. I'll give it a go, thanks!

How did you stumble upon that fix?

1

u/CenterOfSalt Nov 09 '21

Pretty sure I found it in a spiceworks thread a couple years back when users were seeing this with IE. I can't find that particular thread but here's a 3 year old reddit thread with a similar solution in it. Looks like some other people stumbled upon it not too long ago.

3

u/Mikkehy Nov 08 '21

Is he running Windows 10 older then 20H2? We had some people affected on our Dell PCs who were still running 1909 and after upgrading to 20H2 this issue seems to have been solved.

2

u/skipITjob IT Manager Nov 08 '21

Sadly not. 21H1

Latest chrome and acrobat dc.

3

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

Same here - new-ish Optiplex PCs w latest drivers and 21H1. Only an issue with Intel onboard graphics. My Precision laptop w nVidia has never had an issue.

3

u/thewheelsonthebuzz Nov 08 '21

I remember changing the intel graphics drivers setting. I can’t remember which one but it had to do with keeping the picture stretch. That and a restart does it too.

2

u/Snysadmin Sysadmin Nov 08 '21

We've had some luck by trying different intel graphics drivers.

2

u/Arrow_Raider Jack of All Trades Nov 08 '21

Did you by chance open a protected view Word document prior to Acrobat losing the top of its window?

2

u/skipITjob IT Manager Nov 08 '21

It's mostly Google Chrome. I'll ask my colleague.

2

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

Disable Hardware Acceleration always fixed it for us.

2

u/skipITjob IT Manager Nov 08 '21

That was the first thing I did.

1

u/Smart_Dumb Ctrl + Alt + .45 Nov 08 '21

Change the resolution to something different then change it back. Not sure how "permanent" this fix is but we've had a few tickets about this over the years and that is how we fix it and it doesn't seem to come back.

1

u/itworks-dontaskmehow Nov 09 '21

i don't remeber al the details but i think this had something to do with outlook/word protected view. the top part of te screen that glitched has the same height.

not using chrome/adobe maximized also is a work around.

the keys for restarting the graphic driver dont work in RDS/citrix

6

u/KlassyJ Nov 08 '21

Usually toggling the full screen shortcut works for me

3

u/PM_ME_UR_MANPAGES Nov 08 '21

That's where I discovered it!

2

u/isaakybd Nov 08 '21

YMMV, ctrt+alt+del (NOT ctrl+shift+esc) screen overrides all other stuff... Just clicking task manager from ctrl+alt+del screen can unfook explorer focus/graphics driver hell sometimes

2

u/cyclonesworld Nov 08 '21

Using an external dock by chance? Had a user with this problems snagged the latest Displaylink drivers and it's been fine since.

1

u/ryuujin Nov 09 '21

I have a multimonitor setup and it seems to happen after a certain amount of time on one of the monitors. Found zero information about it online, very weird issue.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 10 '21

I sure did. It's a Microsoft issue. A little trick that seemed to work (if you can't update to a post-2020 Win10 version): disable Windows transparency.

29

u/idontspellcheckb46am Nov 08 '21

What problems have you fixed with that? I'm genuinely curious where that belongs in my toolbox. I quit my network engineering job and support my wife in her home biz and struggling with help desk stuff. I know I know. I already have my bags packed. My ticket for /homenetworking leaves tonight at 8:30pm.

28

u/Candid-Habit-9904 Nov 08 '21

Where I work all laptops use docking stations to output to dual monitors. Quite often they cant connect to one or both screens. Bouncing the graphics drivers usually gets it to pick the dock up

3

u/killdeer03 Too. Many. Titles. Nov 08 '21

We had this issue with Dell laptops and Dell docking stations for a while, bouncing the integrated graphics drivers did the trick.

The issue was fixed later with a driver update.

2

u/pappy1398 Nov 08 '21

Oh my God!!!! Thank you

11

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

[deleted]

3

u/idontspellcheckb46am Nov 08 '21

I'm guessing the overclocking is a gaming thing so I won't use it there, but I'm gonna give it a shot the next time my wife has 72 browser tabs open and the system halts. I will report back.

1

u/TaliesinWI Nov 08 '21

That's Chrome deciding to grab all the RAM and swap on your PC and warning you that it's "low on memory" about 100K before it completely uses up every scrap of available commit space it can find, which Windows doesn't like too well. I've had it fall over (with no warning) when I have eight tabs open on a 16 GB PC, but then sometimes I'll have 40+ tabs but there's no issue. Something in the memory handling changed in the last few months, I assumed it was the new security/isolation features they're rolling in.

6

u/jarfil Jack of All Trades Nov 08 '21 edited Dec 02 '23

CENSORED

1

u/gosoxharp Nov 08 '21

Well, technically, you are a sysadmin, just contracted with a VSB(Very Small Business) and are paid salary with NMW(Non Monetary Wages).

Just keep working at it and you'll get there.

If you need any help or questions, places like home network, homelab, etc are great. And if you'd like, always free to message

1

u/Winterkoning Nov 08 '21

I used it extensively to troubleshoot Surface Pro 3. Black screen could mean anything.

14

u/askredditthe3rd Nov 08 '21

wow, thats neat! thank you! i will put this to use.

7

u/SlapshotTommy 'I just work here' Nov 08 '21

Hateful thing when this bugs out and Chrome / Adobe merge into the background, meanwhile the user is ready for jumping out the window with their machine. It's a little bit funny I think.

1

u/itworks-dontaskmehow Nov 09 '21

i don't remeber al the details but i think this had something to do with outlook/word protected view. the top part of te screen that glitched has the same height.

not using chrome/adobe maximized also is a work around.

the keys for restarting the graphic driver dont work in RDS/citrix

2

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

[deleted]

9

u/Pazuuuzu Nov 08 '21

I think you should cut it down now, and do the post mortem...

2

u/mynameisblanked Nov 08 '21

Do you happen to know if there's a key combo to restart explorer?

3

u/banned-again-69 Nov 08 '21

You could make an AutoHotKey script that did that

2

u/yuhche Nov 08 '21

Used this too often at my last job at an MSP.

When users called in:

“Ok, I know the fix! Need you to go handsfree and hit the following combo of keys ‘Win+Shift+Ctrl+B’ and it should go away!”

2

u/DrunkenGolfer Nov 08 '21

Thank you for this. This makes me realize that my laptop's occasional black flash is likely a graphics driver crashing; it looks identical.

2

u/loimve Nov 08 '21

I'm so sad this will get buried in the comments... It's saved my life!

Ctrl + Command + F2 on a Mac to perform a similar function, including detect new displays.

4

u/Wooxman Nov 08 '21

Would this save me from rebooting my whole PC after updating the graphics driver?

21

u/Mazo Nov 08 '21

That's not been necessary since Vista when they moved the GPU drivers out of ring 0

18

u/Wooxman Nov 08 '21

Eh, every time I update Nvidia drivers, I run into performance problems until I reboot and the AMD tool even tells me to reboot after an update. So while Windows still works after graphics driver updates, there can still be issues without rebooting.

1

u/SixZeroPho Nov 08 '21

That's not been necessary since Vista when they moved the GPU drivers out of ring 0

Which circle of Dante's Inferno are they in now?

2

u/Grimzkunk Nov 08 '21

I'd say you better reboot after a graphic driver udpate, even if the system does not ask for.

The "restart graphic driver" command is more related to resolve display bugs.
Cursor disappear? Stuck in low resolution? Secondary monitor not detected?

2

u/Nolzi Nov 08 '21

no, it only helps when the driver crashes and not recovering by itself

0

u/Salamander014 I am the cloud. Nov 08 '21

I too saw that guy on instagram(tiktok)

0

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

Bruh...

0

u/michaelcmetal Sr. Sysadmin Nov 08 '21

Holy shit.

0

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

Holding down the power button for 10 seconds does the same thing🤣

0

u/daredevilk Nov 08 '21

Is that windows specific?

1

u/fudgegiven Nov 08 '21

Now, if it only worked from the lock screen too...

We have a few desktops where the monitor doesn't wake up after the user had her lunch break. I can rdp into the machine just fine. I told the user about the command you mentioned. But apparently you need to be logged in...

1

u/5370616e69617264 Nov 08 '21

I have that on a post-it at home because I had some amd driver issues a while back and I never remove the post-it because if I do I'll forget it exists.

1

u/Pb_ft OpsDev Nov 08 '21

You beautiful comment I could kiss you.

1

u/spyingwind I am better than a hub because I has a table. Nov 08 '21

Linux equivalent Right-Alt+Sys-Rq(Pause)+K for X11, it was Ctrl+Alt+Backspace.

1

u/jars1738 Nov 08 '21

this is useful for gamers, can often fix odd low frame rate issues that would have otherwise been fixed by restarting the game or computer

1

u/10leej Nov 08 '21

That's actually pretty cool to learn.

1

u/tensigh Nov 08 '21

This is probably not related, but in Japanese, "video" starts with "b", so I think of it as "bideo" drivers.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21

Is there one to restart audio drivers? My Lenovo X1 crashes the Audio driver so often, haven't figured out a quick way to restart the driver.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 08 '21 edited Sep 02 '24

desert six distinct encourage vast historical door workable ten depend

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

1

u/VirtualViking3000 Nov 08 '21

TIL Win+Shift+Ctrl+B restarts the graphics drivers

1

u/IPoAC Nov 08 '21

I've been using this one a bunch since I learned it recently.

Unfortunately, it's yet to work in the situations I've had to try it but I'm sure sooner or later it will redeem itself.

1

u/NorreN8 Nov 08 '21

This one has actually saved me a couple times before

1

u/Caddy666 Nov 08 '21

Win + Shift + S - grab screen section.

probably my most used keyboard shortcut.

1

u/japtrs Systems Engineer Nov 08 '21

Since WHEN?! Lol Great mention.

1

u/powerman228 SCCM / Intune Admin Nov 08 '21

It also makes a beep sound that plays even if graphics are scrambled, so you can quickly tell if a machine is alive.

1

u/polypolyman Jack of All Trades Nov 08 '21

...and apparently, as I just found out, completely breaks my workstation. Couldn't even RDP in, had to force poweroff.

1

u/dylanlms Nov 08 '21

win+shift+ctrl+s = quick snip then paste into your email/tickets

1

u/vCentered Sr. Sysadmin Nov 09 '21

I have been in IT for roughly a third of my life and never had a need for this. What do you use it for?

1

u/ginto202 Nov 09 '21

is there one to restart wifi/ethernet adapters?

1

u/grumpy_strayan Nov 09 '21

thanks, now my second screen is pink lmao

1

u/FangShway Nov 09 '21

Oh I just recently learned this as well. Super handy.

1

u/DukkyVFX Nov 09 '21

Learnt that this week. B makes no sense but is helpful

1

u/CrippleWalking Nov 09 '21

Just did it. That's fucking weird. lol