Category Archives: Device drivers

Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

Jabra 75 Headset Driver Disappearance

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One of my favorite things about Windows made the scene in 1995, with the debut of Windows 95. It’s called Plug and Play (PnP) and it lets the OS detect and configure hardware devices automatically. It has made using Windows peripherals much, much easier than it was in the old days before PnP came along. This strongly contributed to a sense of shock and abandonment the other day, when a Jabra 75 headset driver disappearance delayed an attorney phone call for troubleshooting. Sigh: let me explain…

What Caused Jabra 75 Headset Driver Disappearance?

USB devices, particularly audio ones, involve a whole series of nested drivers. This runs the gamut from the audio device itself, to the USB hierarchy, to the Intel Smart Sound driver (which works between the device and the USB port to manage specific audio formats and functions). Some recent update to Windows 11 on my Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Mobile Workstation broke this complex chain somewhere in the middle.

How did I know? PnP quit working. Normally, I just plug the USB cable into a USB-A port on the P16, and audio switches over from its built-in speakers and microphone to the Jabra 75. I use it most especially for video calls, where clients need to see me as well as hear me (e.g. speaking engagements, webinars, depositions, and so on). When plugging-in resulted in “no play,” I knew I had a problem. Fortunately, it was easy to fix.

Plug and No Play Means Reinstall Driver

I visited the Jabra website, where I had to figure out what I needed was a new copy of the Jabra Direct software. With that downloaded and installed, and a fresh reboot to make sure everything registered properly, play immediately followed plug-in when I inserted the USB connector from the headset base to the P16. Problem solved!

But it took me a few precious moments to figure this all out, and then to fix it. In the meantime, I switched over to my production desktop where the driver was already installed and working properly (it’s the new build, so it got a new driver after the offening update, apparently). The client couldn’t see me (no camera on that rig) but we did complete the call. They hired me for an expert engagement, too, so I guess it didn’t go too badly.

Here in Windows-World, one must always be ready to adapt and overcome. So that’s what I did.

 

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Windows 11 Does Multi-Monitors Right

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I’ve been living the life of a native Windows 11 user on my production desktop — the newer, Ryzen 7 X5800 based PC — for a couple of months now. One thing I’ve noticed is that Windows 11 handles multiple monitors with great alacrity and aplomb. IMO, Windows 11 does multi-monitors right, in several important ways. Let me elaborate…

Why Say: Windows 11 Does Multi-Monitors Right

To begin with, I didn’t need to engage in Display settings shenanigans on my dual-monitor desktop setup. At all. Indeed, Windows 11 correctly detected and arranged both of my displays during its initial bootup. I didn’t have to do anything to get them working in extended mode (to use left- and right-hand devices as a single logical desktop with proper mouse tracking all the way across). In Windows 10, this requires manual intervention and setup.

It gets better. Updating NVIDIA graphics drivers is likewise much better behaved. On Windows 10, post-install, all windows moved onto the primary display. Remote desktop sessions appeared in full-screen windows that needed to be maximized to show a top-center control bar. On Windows 11, windows reappear where they resided prior to the update, and RDP sessions remain as previously set.

GPU driver stability also seems to be improved. On Windows 10, I often had to deal with “display blink” — a phenomenon that caused either my left- or right-hand display to blink on and off every few seconds. So far, I’ve been through three NVIDIA update cycles on Windows 11 with nary a sign of such misbehavior.

All’s Well…

It may still be too early to proclaim success or improvement, but I’m doing those things anyway. So far, display handling in Windows 11 is better behaved and more predictable than it was on Windows 10. Should things change, I’ll be sure to report on issues I encounter. But so far, it’s been a refreshing breeze to work with multiple monitors on Windows 11. Fingers crossed that things keep going in the same way for the foreseeable future!

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Networking, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11

Dude! Where’s My Internet?

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Whoa! I had an amusing but vexing hiccup on the new Flo6 Ryzen 7 5800X system when I sat down to work this morning. The Internet was dead, dead, dead. I could ping localhost but nothing further. It got me thinking about the absurdist epic starring Ashton Kushner and Sean Wm Scott. That prompted the tongue-in-cheek question “Dude! Where’s my internet?” I must speculate, and laugh, at what I think is the answer. Let me explain…

Why Expostulate: Dude! Where’s My Internet?

Everything looked OK when I sat down at the machine. But as soon as I tried to access any online resources, those requests went nowhere. And, of course, they took quite a while to time out to tell me there was no there on the other side of the connection.

I checked the cable TV signal (still there, which means out inbound broadband is working). I checked the wireless PCs (still there, which means at least the fallback to the boundary device WAP is working). Soon it became apparent: the Flo6 PC was the source of my woes. I’m not seeing any errors in Reliability Monitor so I’ll make an educated guess.

Waking Up Is (Sometimes) Hard to Do

The Flo6 had been asleep when I sat in front of it this morning. My best guess is that yesterday’s update somehow mucked with the wake behavior for the unit’s Realtek Gaming 2.5GbE Family Controller. So I reloaded the driver, and then unchecked the box under Power Management that reads “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power.” From sad experience, I’ve learned this can turn into “LAN doesn’t work after waking from sleep” errors.

And gee: doesn’t that sound just like what happened to me this morning? It also demonstrates quite convincingly that here in Windows-World, some mornings start better than others. I’ll let you decide what kind of morning I was having today. I think I already know!

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Nvidia App Upgrade Comes Later

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I have to chuckle. As I’ve been using the Flo6 5800X build as my production desktop things keep popping up I hadn’t foreseen. It’s been 10 days now, but omissions and oversights are still appearing. This morning, I saw a note on NeoWin about a new NVIDIA driver, so I figured I’d check status on this PC. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was still running GeForce Experience. In this case, somewhat to my chagrin, the NVIDIA app upgrade comes later rather than sooner. Even so, it went without a hitch and I’m running Studio version 580.97 now.

If Nvidia App Upgrade Comes Later, Then What?

I had been amazed when I brought this PC up for the first time with two monitors attached. Windows 11 picked up both monitors on its own, and even extended the deskop so that I can read on the left-hand display, and write on the right-hand one. I’d read for years that Windows 11 was better at handling displays than 10, but hadn’t really understood what that meant. Now I’m getting a better idea…

No Doubt, There’s Still More to Come…

I just installed Hyper-V and the Sandbox on this desktop, and need to reboot to conduct some experiments. I’m sure I’ll be finding missing or needed items for weeks or months to come, as I truly make my working Windows home on the Flo6 5800X PC.

That should be fun and interesting. As things move forward, I’ll keep you posted. One thing’s for sure: there’s never a dull moment, here in Windows-World!

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog

GeForce 1070Ti Nears EOL

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I’ll admit it: I’m a cheapskate. Case in point: both of my 5800X PCs still run NVIDIA GeForce 1070Ti GPUs, scavenged from long-retired older builds. Reason: the Antec 200 cases in which they resided couldn’t accommodate the longer, newer cards available at the time. In a surprisingly cryptic “Deprecation Schedule” document, however, NVIDIA reveals that GeForce 1070Ti nears EOL. In fact, the 580 series of drivers will be the last to support Maxwell, Pascal and Volta architectures. The 1070Ti was one of the last Pascal-era devices to go to market, so its days are officially numbered. The brief announcement that seals its fate appears as the lead-in graphic. Sigh.

If GeForce 1070Ti Nears EOL, What’s Next?

Looks like I’ve gotta buy two new GPUs for my pair of 5800X systems. Copilot recommends the NVIDIA RTX 4060 Ti as a logical replacment. It still works with the same 8-pin power connector, costs US$450-500, and is supposed to be 20-30% faster. For about the same money, however, AMD RX 7700 XT costs the same but offers a 10% performance bump. I’ll have to ponder those diffs and do some competitive shopping analysis.

That said, the last 58x driver drops in October of this year, concident with EOS for Windows 10. But Copilot says NVIDIA will offer security-only updates for another two years after that (until October 2028). So maybe I don’t have to hurry too fast to make that switch. After all, procrastination is my middle name here in Windows-World when it comes to spending money on enforced updates.

But as the technology base keeps changing, and my hardware keeps aging (along with your humble author, who no longer even qualifies as a “summer chicken”), switchovers are inevitable. I hope to hang out here in Windows-World enough longer to survive a couple more major technology turnovers. We’ll see!

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

HP Aces Samsung Printer Driver Handoff

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I went to print our latest proofs of car insurance yesterday, only to find my 2008 vintage Samsung ML-2850 printer stubbornly offline. After the troubleshooter didn’t help and a remove/reinstall didn’t either, I knew it was time for a new driver. But in 2017, HP bought the Samsung printer division, so I had to head there for a download. Not only did I find what I needed but IMO HP aces Samsung printer driver handoff in that the installer and driver were easier to find and faster to download and install than before. Good-oh!

Use Proves HP Aces Samsung Printer Driver Handoff

By default, the printer came up showing both a pre-defined device name AND its IP address. As old as the device is, its IP address is the key to accessing and maintaining its driver and software. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, HP has redone the printer device page with a realistic device image, and more colorful iconage for tasks and activities. Plus, the new driver came up without any issues, and its status changed from “Offline” to “Online” so I could use it unimpeded.

Alas, reloading print drivers has become something of a routine here at Chez Tittel, especially for the Samsung/HP device. The Boss has the color laser next to her desk upstairs (an amazingly reliable Dell 2155CN, purchased in 2013 or 2014). It had a similar hiccup a couple of years ago, but is less subject to driver gyrations.

Hopefully, this new iteration of the Samsung ML-2850 driver will prove solid and trouble-free. The printer itself still works like a charm (though I’ve learned to buy Samsung toner cartridges, as many knock-offs caused smeared or ghosted print-outs).

A Funny Thing About Laser Printers…

As long as you keep them clean, and don’t work them too hard, laser printers can last a long, long time.  I bought my first laser printer in 1987, an Apple LaserWriter 1. I gave it away to one of my former employees in 2009 or so. The last time I chatted with him, I asked him if the old printer was still working — this was probably 2018 or 2019 — he said “Yes, it’s still on the job.”

I guess that means I’ll happily keep solving driver problems on these old printers, as long as they keep doing what I need them to do. That’s what I call longevity and service, here in Windows-World.

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Device drivers, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11

Going Old School: X1 Extreme Driver Repair

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In making my rounds this morning, I found the touchpad driver MIA on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme (8th-Gen i7 CPU, c. 2018). On a machine of this august vintage, that could mean only one thing. Its driver must have gotten corrupted or gone sideways. That’s how I found myself going old school: X1 Extreme driver repair became my mission. Let me tell you what I did, and how I fixed that problem.

Going Old School: X1 Extreme Driver Repair Manuevers

No cursor from the touchpad meant some kind of driver issue, if not device failure. Hoping for the former, and dreading the latter, I started down the troubleshooting trail, as follows:

1. Reboot the PC. On a new boot-up and login, keyboard works fine but still no cursor.  Still no touchpad cursor, so I plug a wired mouse into the USB-A port to shoot more trouble.

2. Inside Device Manager, I find the touchpad driver as a Synaptics item under “Mice and other pointing devices.” I try reloading same via Driver > Update Driver > Browse my computer for drivers, then take what I’ve got from the “Let me pick from a list of available drivers…” branch. Reboot again: still no touchpad cursor.

3. Visit the Lenovo Driver Support page, grab the latest Synaptics Touchpad driver, and install same. Reboot PC again. Voila! Touchpad cursor appears and is working properly. Problem solved…

Final diagnosis: the on-disk touchpad driver had gotten corrupted. Downloading and installing a new one got the touchpad working again. Good-oh!

What’s (or Would Have Been) Next?

If the driver replacement hadn’t done the trick, my next move would have been to visit Settings > System > Recovery, there to hit the Reinstall now button to perform an in-place upgrade repair install. Note: this replaces all drivers as part and parcel of rebuilding the running OS image.

Had that failed, it’s pretty likely I would have had to decide if I wanted to fork over the money for a new touchpad and get it repaired, or attempt those repairs myself. I’m glad things didn’t go that far. Replacing a driver costs only time and effort, but no money. Touchpads aren’t free (Copilot says replacement cost is US$50-70, and if I had to take it to a shop that would add at least another US$100 or so). Again: glad no such repairs were needed. Case closed on a high note: it’s a good day in Windows-World.

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Thoughts & concerns, WED Blog

Why Run NVIDIA Studio Driver?

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The question in the blog post title — namely: “Why run NVIDIA Studio driver?” — means considering the alternative. That’s the Game Ready Driver, which gets updates 2 or more times every month. Look at what new Game Ready Drivers bring to the party. New games (and game versions) keep coming out, and GPU drivers need matching tweaks. Thus, the answer is “To play (new or updated) games.”

I just saw news that NVIDIA had released new cards (and drivers, presumably). Checking the NVIDIA app, I quickly saw no new Studio version available. But a new version of the NVIDIA app installed itself when I went to check. Indeed, its “About “banner headlines this blog post.

Why Run NVIDIA Studio Driver — Not?

If you don’t game, you don’t need to track the game-focused updates. Game Ready Driver users get new bells and whistles (NVIDIA calls them “optimizations and performance enhancements”) and a faster update cadence. Studio driver users get more stability and reliability, including more “extensive testing with professional software to ensure consistent performance.”

Interestingly enough, PCs can switch between the two drivers at will to exploit those trade-offs as they see fit. Because I don’t game (at least, not the kinds of games a GPU can impede or assist), I choose stability and reliability over optimizations and performance enhancements.

Indeed, I’ve been bitten when I’ve succumbed to the temptation to switch from Studio to Game Ready drivers upon various occasions. If you run this Google Search, you’ll see that I’ve blogged about NVIDIA stuff (drivers mostly, though occasionally about the app and its GeForce Experience predecessor) 9 times in the past year. That makes it a pretty regular thing for me to watch and report about.

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

Ghost in the Machine Needs Printout

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I have to chuckle when I read about these kinds of things. For much of the week I’ve been reading online (see list of articles near the end) about printers waking up and printing stuff on their own. On  Windows 11 PCs running Build 2263.4825, it seems that those with specific printers may start printing garbage output spontaneously. ICYMI, “ghost in the machine” is a British philosopher’s shorthand phrase for Descartes mind-body dualism. In this case, I’m twisting that metaphor further to impute independent action to a Windows print driver gone wrong. That’s why I aver that the Ghost in the Machine needs printout.

Why the Ghost in the Machine Needs Printout…

Newer printers (mid-2010s and afterward) that support driverless printing technologies such as Mopria  (a printer maker alliance that includes Canon, HP, Samsun and Xerox) and AirPrint (an Apple technology widely used by printer makers, too) also support dual-mode printers. For the ghost to start printing on its own, such devices much support both USB print and IPP over USB protocols (IPP is the Internet Printing Protocol). After updating Windows via KB5050092 (release 1/29/2025) such printers may start spewing pages, no user print requests nor print spooler files needed.

You can read about this specral phenomenon from a plethora of sources including:

BleepingComputer Recent Windows updates make USB printers print random text (March 12)

Windows Forum Windows 11 Printing Glitch (March 13)

PC Gamer Haunted printers turning on by themselves and printing nonsense (March 12)

I’m not the only industry follower who’s picked up on the “ghost in the machine” metaphor, apparently. And you thought Windows was a brute and soulless beast, I’ll bet…NOT! Anybody who works with the OS for any length of time knows full well it’s possessed of a host of spirits that range all the way from the most angelic to the deepest of deviltry. I’ll let you decide how magnificent or malefic this particular haunt might be for yourself.

One more thing: the uber-cutesy graphic that starts off this blog post is Copilot’s response to a prompt that reads “show a PC printer possessed by a ghost.” Another clear case of you get what you pay for, IMO.

 

 

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Waiting On Next NVIDIA Studio Driver

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Oho!  A new NVIDIA Game-ready driver is out. As you can see in the lead-in graphic this one’s numbered 577.42. But if you’ve been reading this blog of late, you already knew that both the January 30 Game-Ready AND Studio drivers gave my dual monitor rig fits (get the gist from this Feb 5 item). Hence, my response to the new driver is below tepid. Instead, I’m waiting on the next NVIDIA Studio Driver to come along. I hope my optimism that it might fix dual monitor gotchas is justified. We’ll see…

Why I’m Waiting On Next NVIDIA Studio Driver

The January 30 update included both Game-Ready and Studio driver version. Alas, both also exhibited the same unwanted behaviors on my dual-monitor setup. The left-hand monitor didn’t want to wake up from sleep, and I had to use a combination of two techniques to bring it back to life:

  1. Use the WinKey-Ctrl-Shift-B key combination (shortcut) to reload the graphics driver
  2. Use the Ctrl-Alt-Del “three-fingered-salute” to bring the desktop back to life

Shoot! I like it a lot better when I just hit a key, or click the mouse, and the PC wakes up on its own shortly thereafter. Neither of the preceding 572.16 versions were so obliging, which is why I rolled back to version 566.36. I don’t plan on updating until a new Studio version comes out (and I’ll be sure to back up 566.36 for re-use, should I need it back).

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