Category Archives: Device drivers

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

Driver Upgrade Fixes 0xC1900101 Errors

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I’ve seen it  before, and I’ll probably see it again. When I first ran the Beta Channel upgrade to Build 26220.7051 on Friday, it failed during the post-GUI install (aka SECOND_BOOT) phase . Basically, it hung at 10% complete for half an hour or longer, and I force-rebooted the X380 Yoga. When the rollback process completed, WU/Update History showed me an error in the 0xC1900101 range. From long experience I recognized this as some kind of device driver issue. Fortunately, a driver upgrade fixes 0xc1900101 errors. Let me tell you more…

Why Say Driver Upgrade Fixes 0xC1900101 Errors?

Alas, I didn’t record the exact error code string yesterday. I simply grabbed the latest version of Snappy SDIO from PatchMyPC Home Updater, and used it to upgrade the drivers on the X380. (TMI: That’s version R817, as far as I can tell.) This took about half an hour, give or take 5 minutes, and replaced 17 drivers.

The next go-round on the update process took quite  a while to complete (probably a bit over an hour). But it went all the way through, and resulted in a successful installation. The table you see in the lead-in graphic here comes from Copilot after I asked it to tell me about 0XC19001… Windows 11 install errors. It’s pretty informative, so I figured I’d share it.

Here in Windows-World, when a Windows 11 install goes wonky, it’s nice when prior experience retains its relevance for current troubleshooting. Again: I’m glad the tried-and-true technique for this kind of error code still works.

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

Intel DSA Remote Follies

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OK, I found myself in a familiar pickle yesterday. I was working my way through the mini-fleet of PCs (10 units: 6 lappies, 4 desktops) here at Chez Tittel, doing updates and cleanup. I noticed the Lenovo Yoga AIO9i (Copilot+ PC with Intel Core Ultra 7 258, 32GB RAM, etc.) was hanging on the Intel Driver & Support Assistant (DSA). Half an hour in, I gave up and tried re-installing the app. Thereupon I got an interesting error “Cannot install a product when a newer version is installXXXX.” Only slowly did it dawn on me: I had a case of Intel DSA remote follies. Let me explain…

Going Local Fixes Intel DSA Remote Follies

As I figured out, my problem was not that DSA wouldn’t run, nor was it borked. My problem was that DSA didn’t want to run remotely. That is, it didn’t want to run to completion via Remote Desktop Connection from my primary desktop. I was updating the NPU and GPU drivers. So apparently DSA wants to do either or both of those things locally, not remotely.

Once I walked over to the AIO9i, rebooted, and re-ran DSA, everything worked just fine. I’ve noticed over the years that some driver updates work well remotely while others do not — or won’t work at all. On the plus side of this phenom, it always tickles me when DSA updates LAN or Wi-Fi drivers and the remote session dies briefly, then picks back up where it left off and the session resumes.

AFAIK, this issue with NPU or GPU is intermittent. Indeed I’ve never had a problem updating either built-in or Intel ARC GPU drivers remotely, now that I think back on Windows 11 era experiences. Thus, it must be something about NPU driver on a Copilot+ PC that occasionally makes DSA hang interminably.

But hey, it’s just another day’s work here in Windows-World. If you hang one way, you have to find a way to un-hang, and make the update some other way. And so it turned out, yesterday afternoon. Problem? What problem? Operator error, most likely…

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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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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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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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