Category Archives: Recent Activity

Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11, Windows Update

Copilot+ PCs Hit 25H2

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OK then, yesterday was Patch Tuesday. It included amidst its offerings the eKB enablement package KB5054156. All (both) of my current Copilot+ PCs got the upgrade. The Intel-based AIO got it automatically, with an after-hours upgrade. I just used the self-installing upgrade package (.msu) for ARM64 on the Snapdragon X based ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 laptop. The whole process: download, GUI install, post-GUI install and reboot to desktop took less than 2 minutes. I’ve been waiting for this for some while, so I’m glad that, finally, my Copilot+ PCs hit 25H2 version levels.

When Copilot+ PCs Hit 25H2, Then What?

Time to poke around in Settings (and elsewhere) to see what’s different and potentially new. I just learned that because the AIO doesn’t have a battery I don’t have access to the new Power Mode settings under Settings > System > Power & battery. Go figure!

On the Snapdragon X PC, however, the new “Best Power Efficiency” and “Best Performance” options do indeed appear. I opted into the latter (“Best Performance”) to see what impact it might have.

Learned something else amusing: because I’m remoting into the AIO, I can’t mess with Recall settings (nor, presumably, other AI stuff as well). Apparently, I need to set up Windows Hello authentication locally to make that happen… goes off to do so … OK now it’s working through RDP.

Adventures Ahead, For Sure!

Copilot tells me it’s gained new capabilities (as have other MS app) especially via Click to Do. There’s a new “help agent” in Settings that can actually manipulate Windows configurations and settings to some degree. All kinds of AI stuff all over the place. Now, I just need to find the time to actually DO this. And wouldn’t you know it? Right now, I’m swamped in paying work, so I have less time to learn and play. A welcome change of pace in Windows-World, but one that may frustrate me for a while…

Stay tuned: as soon as I have more time, I’ll share what I’m learning.

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 11

Beta Build Resets Browser Default: Edge

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Notifications started popping like snack food when I logged into my Windows 11 Insider Preview Beta Channel PC this morning. You can see a whole string of them in the lead-in graphic. The generic and interesting error message is some variation of “An app caused a problem.” And bam! this Beta Build resets browser default: Edge is now in charge. Ask me if I’m happy about this. Answer: NO!!

Why Beta Build Resets Browser Default: Edge?

Good question! Google AI says:

An automatic default browser reset is a known issue in Windows 11 Insider Preview build 26120.6760. A potential workaround for this specific bug is to use the Settings app to manually re-select your preferred browser for all relevant file and link types.

But hey! I don’t have to like it, do I? I also went looking for a one-click reset tool, but couldn’t find anything useful. So off I hared to Settings > Apps > Default Apps, where I picked anything that came up Edge and changed it to Chrome. Sigh.

Here in Windows-World, it’s always something. Today it was an involuntary Edge default reset. I dealt with it, but I’d rather not have Windows 11 do that again for a while…

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Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

P3 Ultra Shows Amazing Interior Design

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Yesterday, I upgraded the Lenovo ThinkStation P3 Ultra with mixed success. I was able to install and use a Samsung 990 EVO Plus NVMe SSD 4TB. I tried to boot after installing a pair of G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR5 32GB SO-DIMMs. Alas, the PC wouldn’t POST, so I had to send them back. I’ve ordered a pair of matching SK Hynix HMCG88AGBSA095N modules instead, and hopefully they’ll work when I stick them in next week. Throughout this in-and-out process, however the P3 Ultra shows amazing interior design. Let me explain…

How P3 Ultra Shows Amazing Interior Design

I was able to take this SFF PC apart and access the ports for M.2 SSDs and for the lower 2 memory slots without using a single hand tool. All the areas I needed to access, while covered with other components — fan housings, in fact — were easily accessed by releasing latches and swinging items out of the way. You can see this in the lead-in graphic for the NVMe fan housing.

I’ve worked on hundreds of PCs and laptops, including a dozen-plus SFF PCs. This particular model is nearly unique in making itself easy to work on and understand. Indeed, Lenovo has posted short videos that show how to access the chassis, M.2 drives,CPU fan, lower memory modules, and a whole bunch more. Combined, they made it dead easy for me to get things out of the way, and install/remove the components I was after.

The whole process took less than 2 minutes for each action (install NVMe, install 2 SO-DIMMs, remove 2 SO-DIMMs). It’s been an amazing trip so far.

Half-Way Benefits, with More to Come?

I’ve got the new NVMe drive working. I was able to create a full C: drive image backup — using Macrium Reflect X — on that new D: drive. Total time required: 00:37 (yes, that’s thirty-seven seconds, total, disk size of image: 45.57GB). SSD-to-SSD backup is definitely the way to go, and even better if — as is the case here — it’s from the primary (boot/system) internal SSD to a secondary internal SSD. Again: 37 seconds! Wow!!!

When the matching memory modules show up next week (I couldn’t get the PC to post using the G.SKILL Ripjaws DDR5 SO-DIMMs I ordered) I’ll try again. By ordering the same part number as what’s installed, I hope that the next try will succeed. Stay tuned: I’ll let you know.

Here in Windows-World, it’s always nice to find a great design that makes it easy to get in, add or remove components, then get out and back to work. Kudos to Lenovo for a truly magnificent design. I love it!!

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog, Windows 11

WTC = What the Clunk?

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I bought my first hard disk back in the late 1980s. If memory serves it was a 300MB drive with 8″ platters. It cost about US$1,000. It attached via SCSI to a Macintosh SE desktop, with its 9″ CRT (512×342 resolution). Why tell you all this? Because that old drive was literally a clunker: as it started, or read data, or shut down it would emit a series of thunks and clunks you could hear in the next room. I just added a Seagate IronWolf 12TB NAS drive to my production desktop. This morning as I booted up I found myself saying WTC = What the Clunk? as it started up for the day.

Why I’m Saying WTC = What the Clunk?

I just looked up the innards of this new spinning disk. It’s got 8 platters, each with 2 heads and a total of 1.5GB of capacity. And  those heads and platters are sealed into a helium filled chamber to keep them as quiet as possible. Even so, spinning up apparently takes some mechanical oomph because I heard at least a trio of discernible clunks as the unit spun up this morning.

It had been so long since I’d heard those sounds, I’d forgotten what they sounded like. Now, I’m reminded of what I used to listen to all the time nearly 40 years ago: a steady series of thumps, clunks and thunks as big disks went about what — by today’s standards — can only be called “small business.” Fortunately, as the IronWolf goes about its much, much bigger business it only emits an occasional sound. If I use my imagination, I can hear it as a chuckle at the depth of my disk drive recollections.

I won’t even go back to the earlier days when I worked on Data General and DEC PDP minicomputers that used 14″ platters. Those came (and went) as removable disk packs. They made some industrial strength noise, for sure, in the days before Windows-World came along. But that’s a whole ‘nother story…

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

Wi-Fi Kernel Dump Error Is Neutrino-Like

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Here’s something interesting I’ve never seen before. The other day, I was trying to update the recently re-awaked ThinkStation P3 Ultra. Among the many items in the queue, through Lenovo Vantage, was an Intel Wireless LAN Driver. Indeed the same driver also showed up in the Intel Driver and Support Assistant. Despite repeated efforts through both facilities, the driver update always failed. This morning, I observed traces of those failures in Reliability Monitor. This Wi-Fi Kernel dump error is neutrino-like in that it registers in Relimon, but doesn’t diminish the Reliability Index (see the lead-in graphic).

More on Why a Wi-Fi Kernel dump error is neutrino-like

The error code in the Relimon details cite to the following string:LKD_0x41A1_Netwtw08!unknown_function. Online research tells me two useful things about this info:

1. It’s tied to Intel’s wireless driver (confirms what I’d suspected)

2. the LKD stands for Live Kernel Dump, indicating that Windows detected a hardware-related fault serious enough to provoke a snapshot of the error, but that it did NOT crash the system

The lack of a crash explains why Relimon imposes no charge on its Reliability Index even though the event is labeled “Critical” of type “Hardware error.” Shoot! I didn’t even know this was possible. Very interesting!

What About that Wi-Fi Driver?

A quick peek into Device Manager showed me that the Wi-Fi 6E AX211 160MHz driver was throwing a “device cannot start (Code 10)” error. Because both Lenovo Vantage and Intel DSA weren’t fixing things, I decided to go clean and start over. I right-clicked the device in DevMgr, then selected Uninstall from the pop-up menu. After a reboot, I visited the Lenovo Downloads & Software page, entered the Serial# for the P3 Ultra, and grabbed the latest Wi-Fi driver package. After installation, DevMgr obligingly reports that “The device is working properly.” Problem solved!

I figure when two update tools both choke on a driver, it’s time to remove the offending software, download, and try again. Here in Windows-World, even drastic measures need the added protection of “fingers crossed.” Thus, I’m glad that strategy worked.

 

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

Generic Keys Speed Clean Install

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I just wrote a story for the AskWoody newletter. It’s entitled Why Starting Fresh with Windows 11 Beats an Upgrade. It’s premium content, though, and behind a paywall so you can only see it if you sign up for a subscription. I think that’s worthwhile. but you’ll have to decide for yourself. But in thinking through what’s involved in a clean install, a key early screen demands a valid key to continue (there are workarounds). In this context, I recall that generic or setup keys also work. See the lead-in graphic.

If You Have Them, Generic Keys Speed Clean Install

Generic product keys, aka, default setup keys — may be used during a clean install of Windows. Indeed, the same keys work with 10 and 11. These keys are generic because they won’t activate Windows. But if you’re clean installing on hardware that’s already been granted a digital activation, the Microsoft activation servers should recognize your machine after you get to the desktop, and take care of that automatically.

Here’s a list of generic keys, courtesy of Copilot:

Of course this is an image so a link is helpful to actually grab such 25-char strings. MS doesn’t maintain them in one place, but you can find them at ElevenForum.com through their tutorial “Generic Product Keys to Install or Upgrade Windows 11 Editions.”

Handy to have around, so good stuff indeed. Hats off yet again to the master of Windows mysteries, Shawn Brink (chief MVP and maven for the ElevenForum site). He’s a real treasure for those of us who live in Windows-World. Thanks again, Shawn!

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

MS Mouse Driver Delirium Done

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I’m still finding my way into a more perfect configuration on my “new” production PC . It is actually built around nearly 5-year-old technology, recently updated and expanded into a new NZXT Flo 6 case. Yesterday, I noticed something minor but annoying that I’ve seen before: my wireless mouse cursor was lagging, which means the tracking followed behind my hand movements. I *HATE* that. I also know that when it happens, it’s mostly owing to transceiver interference or driver issues. Because I’ve placed the transceiver high above my desk, I keyed in on driver issues. And sure enough, activating the MS Mouse and Keyboard driver put paid to my MS Mouse driver delirium.

How I Cured My MS Mouse Driver Delirium

I’d already downloaded and installed the MS Mouse and Keyboard Center drivers on this PC. What I hadn’t done, based on what I first saw in Device Manager (see lead-in graphic) was to make sure that the Mouse and Keyboard Center’s mouse driver was actually in use. Indeed, when I checked, it was running the generic “HID-compliant device” driver in the first position in the driver list on display in the screencap. Go figure!

To my surprise, the system asked for a reboot after I updated the mouse driver. Copilot tells me it’s because

The HID-compliant driver is a low-level, class-based driver. [That means r]eplacing it with a vendor-specific driver…often involves swapping out kernel-mode components that are actively in use.

That totally makes sense. And after said restart, the mouse lag problems disappeared completely. Thank goodness things sometimes work the way they should. That’s enough of a novelty here in Windows-World to earn my genuine gratitude. Now I can work and play without waiting for the cursor to catch up with me. What a relief!

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

Safely Eject Gets Weird When Swapping Drives

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Go figure: I had to grab some or all of 7 different SATA drives to complete file transfers from the old production PC to the new. Mostly, this meant waiting for Teracopy (a bulk transfer utility I highly recommend). It aced the job of moving files from my old drives to the new 12TB Ironwolf. Along the way I learned something interesting — namely, that Safely Eject gets weird when swapping drives. At least it gets weird when using dual-drive caddies. Let me explain…

How Safely Eject Gets Weird When Swapping Drives

Safely Eject appears in the System Tray (aka Notification Area) of the taskbar as a teeny-tiny USB Flash Drive icon, as you can see in the lead-in graphic. Turns out it’s a quirk of the chipsets used to bridge multiple SATA drives through a single USB connection that coming back after an eject doesn’t always work.

Here’s what happened on my 5800X Flo6 production rig and the ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 Mobile Workstation. No drives in the caddy showed up after ejection, then disconnect/reconnect of the USB cable. As Copilot says “After eject, the bridge may not reinitialize that port properly.” A reboot typically fixes such problems, but that got vexing given that I had to work my way through 7 drives in all.

Suggested Mitigations

Courtesy of Copilot, I worked my way through a couple of possible mitigations. Turns out the ASMedia driver wasn’t in use, so it wasn’t a possible culprit, either.

The right technique involved a multi-step combination of commands and physical actions:

Step 1: Unmount the drive to be removed from the caddy using the mountvol <drive-letter> /p command (e.g. mountvol e: /p)

Step 2: Turn off the power on the caddy. For one caddy that meant using the power switch, for the other it meant unplugging the power input from its brick.

Step 3: Wait 5-10 seconds for the device to reset completely.

Step 4: Power the caddy back on, possibly with one or two new drives inserted, after removing one or two old ones. Wait for those drives to get initialized, then show up in File Explorer. Proceed.

This worked properly on both the P16 and the Flo6 PCs. Safely eject is fine for single-drive devices (of which I have more than a dozen). But I now know that using the mountvol command, plus cycling the power around drive swaps, is the right way to keep my dual-drive devices working as they should.

Here in Windows-World, the path to proper device function has its occasional twists and turns. For my dual-drive caddies, this particular turn is worth making…

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Copilot+ PCs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 11

SFF Copilot+ PCs Remain Scarce

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Last year, I really got my hopes up when ARM announced a developer’s kit version of a small form-factor (SFF) PC with Snapdragon X. Alas, it never materialized. I’ve also read about plans from numerous vendors to offer mini but mighty PCs of this type, including Geekom and ASUS. But right now, SFF Copilot+ PCs remain scarce. In fact, I can find only two for sale presently: the Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo50q Tiny (Snapdragon) and the MSI Cubi NUC AI+ 2MG (Intel).

Why Do SFF Copilot+ PCs Remain Scarce?

I speculated about this when ARM announced, delayed and then canceled its own SFF SnapdragonX based model. Looking at the enclosures for the 2 aforementioned models, I’m still leaning that way. Mostly, in fact, it has to do with support for only 1 or 2 USB-C ports (typically 40Gbps/Thunderbolt 4/USB4).

Thus, there’s a nearly inescapable add-on expense when buying such a unit — namely, a TB4 or TB5 dock, most of which cost from US$350 to over $500. That’s a big bump in cost, cubic volume, and complexity for PCs designed to be affordable and, above all, compact.

I’m Interested, But Is the Market?

Because of the need for more ports, power, connections and displays, I have to believe the general marketplace finds current Copilot+ SFF PCs unappealing. It’s one thing to get useful capability in a compact and reasonably powerful package. It’s another thing entirely to have to turn around and spend from 44 to 63 percent of the purchase cost on a TB4/5 dock to get all the ports and connectivity modern office workers need.

If these OEMs build such SFFs, will buyers come? Initial excitement and plans said “Yes.” Subsequent actual product offerings, options, and limited choices say “Maybe” at best. Too bad: I like the category and what it brings to the desktop. I may be in a (small) minority, though…

Note Added 9/24: Oops! Wrong One..

As you can see in the lead-in graphic, I’d originally landed on the Lenovo ThinkCentre M75q as a Copilot+ SFF PC. Closer examination researching this topic yesterday showed me, it’s not. It lacks sufficient NPU oomph to qualify as such. But that’s when I discovered that indeed Lenovo DOES have an SFF Copilot+ PC — namely the ThinkCentre Neo 50 (Snapdragon) Tiny now mentioned at the head of this story. I guess I got my minis mixed somehow. Glad to fix it, though…

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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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