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Benchmarking, Copilot+ PCs, Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Dynabook Tecra A60-M2 Intake

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I guess Sharp/Dynabook must’ve liked my coverage of their Portege X40-M2 unit. Why say so? Because about 2 days after I sent that unit back, they sent me another more powerful laptop to look at. Today’s blog post describes my Dynabook Tecra A60-M intake experience (Model PNL21U-017004). It’s a bigger beast, but a little less sturdy (it’s got what feels like an all-plastic lower/keyboard deck) albeit with minimal flex. For the first time, ever, it comes with Windows 11 24H2 Enterprise loaded as well.

Describing Dynabook Tecra A60-M2 Intake Process

Again and suprisingly, Dynabook uses closed-cell plastic foam inserts to enshroud the unit in an otherwise all-cardboard set of nested shipping boxes. It comes with exactly two parts: the laptop itself and the power brick/power cord. Initial setup was absurdly easy. But, for some odd reason, Intel BE201 802.11 Wi-Fi 7 adapters won’t let me log into the 5GHz band on my Asus router. I have to use the 2.4 GHz band instead. If I need to go faster than that, I can plug my trusty StarTech GbE USB 3 adapter into one of its two 5 Gbps USB 3.2 version 1 ports.

It took me some time to get all the bits and pieces in place for my usual setup. I used Patch My PC Home Updater to bring in 7Zip, GadgetPack, CystalDisk mark & info, CPUID, Everything, Chrome, and more. Because this is an Intel-flavored Copilot+ PC, I also installed Intel Driver and Support Assistant as well, along with the Dynabook Support Utility to check for vendor UEFI, firmware, and driver updates.

A Clean, Clean, Clean Machine

I’ve got to say this is one of the cleanest review units I’ve ever gotten. It required very little by way of update or clean-up to bring entirely up to snuff. It’s also got the fastest and most accurate fingerprint scanner I’ve ever used (Device Manager identifies it as a FocalTech Electronics device). So far, it’s fast, has a nice 16″ display, and does everything I’ve asked it to in short order.

The Tecra A60-M2 Components, Listed

According to the vendor web page, this unit goes for US$1249 (MSRP). I don’t see any major discounts available online but it’s pretty new still, so they may be coming. Here’s what’s inside:

  • CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 225U
  • OS: Windows 11 24H2 Enterprise (26100.4946)
  • 16.0″ WUXGA display (1920×1200)
  • 16 GB DDR5-5600 (Samsung)
  • 0.5TiB Samsung OEM PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD
  • Ports: 2xUSB4/TB4 USB-C ports, 2xUSB3.2 Gen 1 ports, HDMI, RJ-45 GbE, microSD, mini-RCA (headset) jack
  • 60 Wh Lithium polymer battery; 65W USB-C power brick

What it doesn’t have that I might want? Offhand, I’d say a Hello-capable IR camera, and a touch display. Other than those things, and a bigger SSD, it’s pretty well-equipped. What one gets for US1,250 for this unit isn’t at all bad.

All in all, I like it pretty well so far. I’ll report further as I spend a bit more time with it, and learn more about what it can and can’t do. I’m curious about its SSD speed, USB-C performance, and general processing oomph. Expect to hear more from me on all of those topics, soon. In the meantime, I’m having fun playing with this new toy.

 

 

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

Thunderbolt 5 Era Is Finally Dawning

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It was nearly two years ago — September 12, 2023, in fact– that the Thunderbolt 5 specification made its debut, including a prototype. But the road from prototype to “tech for sale” has proved long and somewhat fractured. Cables, docks, and peripherals started to show up about a year later (e.g. Kensington SD5000T5 Dock). Gaming laptops blazed the way on the PC front, with the Razer Blade 18 the first to offer TB5 ports as an optional upgrade (April 2024). And as I write this screed in August, 2025, it looks like the Thunderbolt 5 era is finally dawning for real. Let me explain…

Why Say: Thunderbolt 5 Era Is Finally Dawning?

When Thunderbolt 5 (of which USB4 v2 is a subset) first showed up about 12-16 months ago in shipping products, it was a kind of exception. Initial offerings were costly, or provided as added-cost options. Now, they’re starting to appear as standard ports on higher-end  laptops. That still means gaming devices, mostly, though business/developer platforms and high-end mobile workstations are also getting in on the fun.

You can see the specs for the MSI Vector 16 HX AI A2XW in the lead-in graphic. It retails for right around US$3,700 at Amazon. Its CPU goes to 24 cores (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores), includes 64GB RAM, a 4 TB NVMe SSD, and various mobile NVIDIA GPU options. It also offers 2 Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports. It’s even Copilot+ capable. Kind of a beast, actually…

I see another MSI model available similarly equipped, plus one each Gigabyte and ASUS laptops (all offer 2 TB5 ports except for the ASUS, which offers a singleton). What’s missing from this picture? How about HP, Lenovo, Acer, Dell or Microsoft Surface models?

When Will Things TB5 Heat Up for Real?

When the aformentioned bigger players jump firmly onto the TB5 bandwagon. I expect that could happen later this year, or early next year, after vendors get the OEM bits from Microsoft for Windows 11 25H2. It’s coming soon — probably in October — so we may see more than a dawning in the near term.

I’m surprised that it’s taken this long, and that uptake hasn’t been what I would call either aggressive or enthusiastic. Could it be that most ordinary PC users and laptop buyers simply don’t care about or don’t need the higher performance and greater bandwidth that TB5/USB4 v2 provide? Maybe so.

I’ll keep watching, and keep chiming in on what I see. I’m still waiting for somebody to send me a review unit with TB5 ports, so I can put an entire device chain to work, including dock, monitors and external NVMe storage devices. Will somebody at MSI, Gigabyte, or ASUS take the hint? I reviewed all your stuff back in the day when I was building PCs and sussing out laptops for Tom’s Hardware. Why not let me pick up where I left off now, with a TB equipped laptop?

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Insider stuff, Remote Desktop (RDP), WED Blog, Windows 11

Copilot Unpicks Local RDP Access

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On my sole remaining 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad X380 Yoga, I’ve been fighting RDP connectivity issues. It’s running Windows 11 24H2 Insider Preview Beta Channel Build 26100.4946. All of a sudden, I couldn’t RDP into the machine at all. MSA-based access is still stuck on a Local Security Authority (LSA) access problem. But just now, Copilot unpicks local RDP access so I can use a local admin account to access it remotely. Phew!

Grinding Through as Copilot Unpicks Local RDP Access

Something was odd about the local account setup that didn’t sit right with RDP. Even though I’d set the account up with a password, that selfsame account did not have the PasswordRequired value field set to “True.” Turns out that RDP requires this setting before it will allow any account to connect.

Copilot cheerfully took me through some PowerShell syntax that didn’t work. Then it had me run the Command Prompt alternative that finally did the trick:

net user Actname YourSecurePassword123! /active:yes
/passwordreq:yes

Obviously, I used the actual account name for the Actname placeholder, and the real password for that string. But indeed it worked. And when I made my next login attempt, I was finally able to get back into that machine.

A Word of Warning

When I asked Copilot why this might have happened it informed me that this build “introduced a wave of under-the-hood changes” into Windows 11. Specifically, in the area of identity handling where “Insider builds often tweak how MSAs and local accounts are handled — especially in relation to login tokens, SID bindings, and credential providers.” That’s confirmation of what I’ve long suspected, because I’ve found myself unable to login to RDP using an MSA numerous times.

But this is the first time I’ve also been blocked for a local account as well. I’m just glad Copilot could steer me in the right direction to get a local connection working again. Even though my test and experiment PCs are mostly in the same office as my production desktop, it’s so much more convenient to access everything from the same keyboard, mouse and display setup. For me, RDP is an essential work tool. Bugs me to no end, when it doesn’t work right, as it does occasionally break down here in Windows-World. Sigh.

 

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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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Cool Tools, Hardware Reviews, Insider stuff, WED Blog, Windows 11

So Long Dynabook X40M2

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It was nice while it lasted, but my time slot has expired. I’m shipping the Dynabook X40 M2 PC back to the maker’s PR group this afternoon. It’s been an enjoyable month working and playing with this handsome, sturdy, compact laptop. Though it’s no longer a Toshiba, it’s still called a Portege (a well-known and long-lasting laptop moniker). When I reviewed PCs for Tom’s back in the 2000s, I had a quite a few Toshibas pass through my hands. This new model is very much in the same vein. But now, alas, I must say “So long, Dynabook X40M2.” Let me conclude my adventures with some closing thoughts and observations…

Not Copilot+, But That May Not Matter Much

I was initially disappointed when I got this PC, to understand that it didn’t meet Copilot+ requirements.  Indeed, its Core Ultra 5 225U doesn’t hit the minimum TOPS number (40). That said, this unit has done everything I’ve asked it to with reasonable performance and battery life.  I chose to model typical productivity work involving Office, Adobe Acrobat, email, and so forth (no gaming or heavy creative workloads here) to reflect what students or office workers might demand of such a machine in the classroom, on the job, or on the go.

Small digression: I wondered how many PCs being sold these days are Copilot+ capable. Interestingly, Copilot tells me that 1.9% of global PC shipments in 2025 (in round numbers 1 in 50) fits that bill. So it seems that most buyers aren’t looking for such capabilities anyway. Outside that realm (which is most of the landscape) the X40-M2 plays very, very well.

Dynabook rates the unit’s battery life at 12-14 hours. I was able to break the 10-hour barrier on this machine twice, but mostly it came in between 9 and 10 hours when running email, web browsing, Office apps, Acrobat and Zoom or Teams video meetings. As is so often the case, the maker’s estimates are optiimistic, but the unit brings enough oomph to last a bit longer than a typical workday anyway. That’s all to the good, as far as I’m concerned.

Pros and Cons for the Portege X40 M2

On the plus side, the unit is sturdy, good-looking, compact, and lightweight enough for easy backpack or briefcase transport. It’s also got decent battery life, a good-looking display, 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and full-size HDMI and RJ-45 GbE ports. On the minus side, mine came equipped with a modest 0.5TB Samsung OEM NVMe drive that failed to impress with its performance (on par with faster Gen3 or slower Gen4 circuitry), and its pair of 5 Gbps (USB 3.2 Gen 1) USB-A ports.  For office or home work, seems like a good Thunderbolt 4 dock would be a useful add-on, given that one USB-C port otherwise goes for charging at least some of the time.

If I were to buy one of these units, I’d probably go for the Ultra 7 model instead of the 5. Interestingly, I don’t see a 32GB option on this line’s product pages. Here’s my final net-net on this beast: a good choice for college students or office workers. Not enough oomph for developers or knowledge workers, though (the lack of Copilot+ support may not yet be telling for such folks, but will weigh more heavily in 2026 and 2027 as AI comes more into its own at the OS level). Check it out at the Dynabook Portege X40-M Series home.

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

Jabra Headset Goes MIA

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Sometimes, I have to wonder about Windows. For the past three years and more, I’ve  unplugged my Jabra Engage 75 headset from my production desktop. (FWIW, I’ve also recently upgraded to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X running Windows 11 24H2.) I then plug into my Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 instead, whenever I need video for an onlne meeting. Today, when I did that very same thing, the device worked locally but would not engage with Zoom. While my Jabra headset goes MIA, I made three expensive attorneys wait for me to get my act together. Sigh.

When Jabra Headset Goes MIA, Then What?

It seems I never installed the Jabra Direct software on the P16. All of a sudden the device stopped interacting with Zoom. It was easily fixed — I visited the Jabra site, and downloaded and installed the latest Direct version, then made sure headset firmware was up-to-date. Now, everything is working OK.

What I don’t understand is why it stopped working in the first place. I have to guess that some recent Windows Update made a change to the way audio works, and somehow orphaned the headset running entirely on its own. But with its controlling software installed, and firmware updated, all is back to what passes for normal here at Chez Tittel.

Too bad I had to waste a no-doubt costly 20-25 minutes trying to make my headset work, when I should’ve been talking to the interviewing attorneys instead. If it wasn’t my birthday (just turned 73) I might be inclined to sulk. But I’ll simply say instead: that’s the way things go sometimes, here in Windows-World!

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AI, Backup/Restore, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Copilot Leads Me Astray

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I couldn’t leave it alone. I had to worry at the RDP problem between my old production desktop (i7Skylake) and the new one (Flo6). So I asked Copilot for help. Big mistake! It led me into an account replacement exercise that is still underway, 8 or 9 working hours later. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t ever spend that much time on fixing things. This time, I decided it was OK if Copilot leads me astray. And by gosh and by golly, that’s exactly what it did.

No Sense of Effort, As Copilot Leads Me Astray

I started following Copilot’s advice when we discovered that my user account primary directory differed from my login account name. It led me into deleting a bunch of registry keys and folders, to try to force the login process to restore my primary account. I was OK with all of this because I have a daily image backup to which I can always revert, if things go sideways.

But what I found so interesting was that Copilot had me do a bunch of stuff, without informing me how long it was going to take, and how much work was involved. Copilot may know how to solve technical problems — and I learned some useful stuff about how MSAs and local accounts work in the Registry Hives along the way –but it has no sense of balancing time and effort against the rewards that may or may not come, at the end of the day.

Copilot Offers Good Info, But It’s a Lousy Boss

I learned a valuable lesson. But I spent a lot of time learning it. Here ’tis: Copilot is a good source of info, and can guide you into and through all kinds of technical changes and tweaks to Windows. But it has no sense of how much time things take, nor how much work is involved.

Lesson learned: I can ask Copilot to tell me what needs doing, but I still have do decide if and when I want to do it. Others who let Copilot lead them into the briar patch should bear that in mind, as they lose sight of the clear fields around its edge.

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Chasing New Windows 11 Features

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Just had a new piece come out over at AskWoody. It’s entitled Reinstall now — Windows recovery’s secret sauce.  As the title should lead you to expect, it’s about the new feature in Windows 11 that first appeared generally in 23H2, Build22631.3447. If you visit Settings > System > Recovery, you’ll find a “Reinstall now” button under the heading “Fix problems using Windows update.” Once that story went live, it immediately became obvious that numerous Windows 23H2 and 24H2 users had applied the updates that should have resulted in the button’s appearance. But, for a variety of reasons, it did not. Although I haven’t seen this happen personally, I have no trouble believing it, especially given my long history in chasing new Windows 11 features. Let me explain…

Gradual Rollouts and Chasing New Windows 11 Features

Apparently, this button has been part of what MS sometimes call a Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR). In the MS update blogs, it often refers to these as “gradual rollouts.” My special case for Murphy’s Law when it comes to the arrival of new stuff is “If it’s on gradual rollout, my PCs will be among the last to get it.” I’ve also seen this same phenomenon with regard to Quick Machine Recovery, where my older PCs and laptops didn’t get the feature, while my newer ones did. In fact, Intel 12th Gen (Alder Lake) and Ryzen 7 (Zen 4) is as old as such machines get that reliably offer QMR, and its test scenario.

That said, I just fired up a 2018 vintage ThinkPad X1 Extreme (8th Gen Intel CPU) and the “Reinstall now” button appears where it should. So either MS has pushed out this feature as far back as I can see (I don’t have any 7th Gen machines to check) and it really is generally out there, or my AskWoody readers are unlucky enough to own PCs or laptops that are still on compatibility holds for “Reinstall now” for some reason or another.

Note: MS has been busy, because the lead-in graphic from the 8th Gen X1Extreme also shows the QMR facility is now available there. It’s been a long time coming, but it just made it to the older machines recently. Good-oh!

Other Reasons Reinstall Now Might Be MIA

The other cool thing about the AskWoody forums is the weight of expertise that flows like honey from its knowledgable members. You’ll see this only display if you read the Comments on my article.

Among the useful possible obstacles that have emerged from discussion include:

  • For “Reinstall now” to work, reagentc /info needs to show its status as enabled, so that the feature can contact Windows Update and then hand off control to the recovery image it downloads.
  • Numerous GPOs can block or stymie the appearance of “Reinstall now” on Windows PCs and laptops. The threads mention a good handful of same, with the general observation that managed PCs in workplaces and schools are likely to fall under those policies. Also, at least one of AskWoody‘s own recommended end-user policies for Windows 11 could also get in the way.
  • Patch Lady and AskWoody Editor-in-Chief Ssuan Bradley pointed to an MS Learn Q&A item Win 11 Doesn’t Show Reinstall Now, Fix Problems Using Windows Update Greyed Out. This includes useful tips and tricks for fixing the issue.

As always it’s fascinating to see how entirely predictable problems lead various communities to offer support, information, suggestions and fixes. Given that at least half-a-billion users run Windows 11, pretty much every feature is likely to hit a snag for some user(s) on some PCs and laptops. Here in Windows-World, I enjoy learning from such experiences. They’re often better experiened with sympathy second-hand, than with frustration and discomfort first-hand.

 

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Insider stuff, Remote Desktop (RDP), Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Chasing RDP Login Takes Too Long

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OK then, I’ve hit my troubleshooting time-out. Now that I’ve switched over to the Flo6 5800X build for my production desktop, I’m keeping the i7Skylake up and running in parallel. Why? So I can grab or look up things I discover I need on the new build that are only available on the old. So far, that’s included some logins that didn’t make it into the Norton Vault (only stored in Firefox on the old PC, as it turns out), various files and some app configuration data I didn’t know I’d need. Only one small problem: I can’t RDP into the account where all the stuff I need lives. I can RDP into the i7Skylake on a local admin account, but I get an LSA error when I try to log into my primary account. Alas, chasing RDP login takes too long, so I’m using TeamViewer instead. Indeed, it came up on the first try.

Why Chasing RDP Login Takes Too Long

Something has gone weird with NetBIOS and/or Domain Name resolution for RDP into the i7Skylake. That’s why I can get in using a local account, but not the MSA for the primary account. I’ve tried everything Copilot and Google can tell me about fixing that, to no avail, including:

  • Flush DNS name cache
  • Editing hosts file
  • Turning off browse service
  • Trying cmdkey explicit access in Command Prompt

And a whole bunch more. At present, I’ve spent at least 4 hours trying to MAKE it work. But RDP stubbornly refuses to let me use my MSA to log into i7Skylake.

The TeamViewer Alternative: Armadillo Time

TeamViewer doesn’t use RDP for remote access. It’s got its own set of protocols and services to manage LAN and Internet-based connections. It took me all of 15 minutes to get everything downloaded, installed, configured and running. I was able to access i7Skylake using the MSA I wanted on the first try. Go figure!

Sometimes, the best thing about beating your head against the way is how good it feels when you stop. Here in Windows-World this is not an unfamiliar sensation. If anybody knows how I can fix my RDP issue, I’d love some added insight and info. But for now, I have lots of other things to do — including a big deadline tomorrow on a writing project — so I’m taking the alternate route. If you’re not familiar with Jim Franklin’s wonderful armadillo image of that same name, check it out courtesy of Coast Monthly (it serves as the lead-in image for a terrific story).

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