Category Archives: Recent Activity

Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

NVIDIA Rollback Gets Interesting

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Take a look at the lead-in graphic. It shows multiple daily crashes — hardware errors mostly — on my production desktop for the past week. As it turns out, my switchover from Game-Ready to Studio NVIDIA driver did not fix my dual monitor problems. I had to forcibly reload the graphics driver (WinKey+Ctrl+Shift+B) to get both displays working after sleep even after the switch. Resolved to undo recent updates, I learned that NVIDIA rollback gets interesting on this PC. Let me explain…

Why NVIDIA Rollback Gets Interesting

It doesn’t seem to matter which January 30 version of the NVIDIA driver I try to run on this PC and its RTX 3070 Ti GPU. Both posed stability and “wake from sleep” issues. Thus, I knew I had to roll back to the previous version.

Alas, the rollback button in Driver properties was not lit up, so I had to find and download the driver from the NVIDIA website. Once I identified the next-most-recent version — namely 566.36 — I was able to download its installer file from the older drivers listing for my graphics card, filtering on the Studio Driver tab.

Just to be safe, I also told the installer to do a clean install of that driver. This flushes out all associated files and registry settings found on the PC and replaces them with clean new (in this case, older) copies.

Rollback Success?

I was able to reboot and get into  the OS with both monitors working just fine. I just put the PC to sleep, and was able to wake into both monitors without difficulty. I’d hazard the hypothesis that this might have fixed the issues I was experiencing. But after being too quick to declare victory in my Febuary 3 post after switching to the 572.16 Studio driver, I think I’ll wait and see if things keep working before calling this one “fixed for sure.”

Stay tuned! I’ll report back tomorrow and let you know if ReliMon throws any more errors. So far, so good even after “forced sleep and wake…”

Info Added 25 Minutes Later

I just came back from lunch. The PC woke up with a single keystroke (Enter) and both monitors are working as they should be. I’m encouraged.

 

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

Decoding Builds Requires Keen Attention

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Ha! I have to laugh at myself. I just tried to update my Beta Channel Insider Preview test PC (one of my two aging X380 Yoga laptops) for no good reason. Or, perhaps it was for a bad reason — namely, I read about a new beta with a lesser build number of 4870. It wasn’t until I got further into the story that I figured out the update was for version 23H2. I’m running 24H2 so my minor build number is properly at 3073 right now (as you see in the lead-in screencap). Its higher major number: 26120 vs 22635 reminds me that decoding builds requires keen attention. Oops!

Truly, Decoding Builds Requires Keen Attention

What got me this time was that I looked only at the digits after the period, rather than checking both sides. If I’d really thought about what I was seeing, it would have instantly been clear. Because I’m running 24H2, perforce its major build number (26120) is greater than the same number for 23H2 (22635). Thus, even though the minor build number is higher (4870 vs. 3073) it doesn’t signify to my test PC because it’s not the same thing.

There’s never any shortage of confusion around here at Chez Tittel for all kinds of reasons. Alas, today’s ration was self-induced. But it did give me chuckle and remind me that it’s always important to put news of changes and updates into their complete context. Other-wise, who knows what one might expect or believe? Words to live by, not just here in Windows-World but in the wider world as well.

 

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog

Latest NVIDIA Game-Ready Driver Disses Dual Displays

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Last Thursday, January 30, I installed new versions of the NVIDIA app and the latest game-ready driver (version 572.16) on my production desktop. It’s got a GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, so I generally stay on the leading driver edge. Not this time! Immediately after I installed the new driver, trouble came to visit. Indeed, I’ll claim that the latest NVIDIA game-ready driver disses dual displays because no sooner did it next sleep, monitor 2 went dark and stayed that way. Eventually, I figured out that I had to cycle power on that monitor to get it working again. Sheesh!

Undoing Latest NVIDIA Game-Ready Driver Disses Dual Displays

I’m OCD enough about Windows stuff that I can’t leave something broken for too long. So when uninstall/reinstall failed to fix my wake-from-sleep issue with Monitor 2 (left-hand, as shown in lead-in graphic), I switched from NVIDIA’s Game-ready driver to the Studio driver model.

It, too, shows the same version number and release date. But as far as I can tell, it’s not inclined to lose Monitor 2 when the desktop goes to sleep. That’s a good enough reason for me to switch and stick with that selection. If I were a gamer — I’m not — I might feel differently. But because I’m not I’m glad that the more staid and reliable Studio version of the driver meets my needs, and keeps my monitors going.

And isn’t that just the way things go here in Windows-World sometimes? But the principle is a good one: if the driver you’re using is causing trouble, and a different model is available, there’s no harm in trying to see if the trouble goes away upon switching. In my case, I was lucky that it did!

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Device drivers, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog

Resuscitate Dead Device Driver

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OK, I admit it. When it comes to buying printers, I don’t do that very often. Both of my current printers were purchased long, long ago. Oldest is the Dell 2155cn color networked laser (2011); next is the Samsung ML2850 (2012). Before that I had an Apple LaserWriter that I’d purchased in the late 1980s. Because printers last so long, I’ve learn how to resuscitate dead device drivers. At least, legerdemain aside, I’ve learned how to find old ones.

Dell 2155cn: Resuscitate Dead Device Driver

I got a comment yesterday on this site about a January 2024 post Adding Ancient Dell Printer Gets Interesting. Seems that the commenter couldn’t find or install the driver for that very same printer (Dell 2155cn) of which he apparently also has one.

First things first: I did include a link to that driver in the post that still works on Windows 11. How do I know? Because I downloaded and installed it on a 2018 vintage Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga x380 running Windows 11 Beta Channel Build 22635.4805). That’s what you see as the lead-in graphic above, in fact. I even printed a page to that device. It all still works, decrepitude notwithstanding.

Why Ask for Help, Then?

I’m guessing the commenter missed that link. And when he went to the Dell support pages — as I did myself yesterday — to check on the link, its search engine no longer proffers it for users to download. My guess: they’ve aged it out of the actively available content. This happens to most hardware as it gets so old that vendors no longer wish to give its drivers storage space in which to reside.

Interestingly, armed with the literal name of the package I was seeking — namely “Dell 2155cn/cdn color MFP” (multi-function printer) — Google took me right to its support page. The Dell engine from its support pages worked, too — provided with the exact title that I elicited from the very page itself (that’s cheating, I know). The commenter may not have looked as hard or cleverly as I did to find the info.

But if Google and vendor sites come up short, don’t forget the Wayback Machine. This public project houses historical snapshots of previous states of most publicly accessible websites (NOT the dark web, AFAIK). You may be able to use it to find old snapshots of old drivers unavailable through other methods. This is where precise or unique and relevant search strings can be helpful. It is, after all, another way to look for a needle in a haystack (or maybe several decades’ worth of same). Good luck!

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Benchmarking, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, USB devices, WED Blog

10 Gbps Flattens Device Speeds

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I’m still working and checking out the Lenovo ThinkStation M90a Gen 5 All-in-One (AIO). You can find my initial impression (and its specifications in Strange but Lovable Lenovo AIO, dated Jan 16). I’ve been playing with its many (6) USB-A ports and its sole (1) USB-C port. Because all of them are USB 3.2 Gen2, I’ve now observed that 10 Gbps flattens device speeds. That is, external drives that can run faster than 10 Gbps in a USB4, or TB3/4 capable USB-C port, all run at more or less the same speeds in a 10 Gbps USB-C port.

Showing that 10 Gbps Flattens Device Speeds

Take a look at the lead-in graphic. It shows CrystalDiskMark results for 3 USB storage devices — namely (from right to left):

1. Kingston DataTraveler Max 256GB flash drive USB-A
2. Maiwo 40Gbps USB4 enclosure with PCIe x4 NVMe USB-C
3. Sabrent 10Gbps USB 3.2 Gen1 with PCIe x3 NVMe USB-C

Notice further that the values are similar for all cells across all devices. As you’d expect the faster devices (NVMe vs. Flash) win out in the random reads and writes. Surpisingly, the older Sabrent enclosure with its slower NVMe beats the faster Maiwo/NVMe combination.

Unflattening to 40Gbps USB4 Ports

But because 10 Gbps is as fast as anybody gets to go via USB on the M90a AIO, all those values are constrained by channel speed. That’s what flattens the results on that machine. If run external an external NVMe on a USB4-equipped PC, things go faster for the bulk reads and writes (top half of CrystalDiskMark results). Check it out in the next screencap.

Bulk transfer speeds go up in USB4, but random read/write speeds decline. Go figure!

As a confirmed hardware skeptic, I’m inclined to file this under the “you win some, you lose home” heading. That said, I’ve seen better USB4 performance on the latest generations of laptops, including Snapdragon X and Intel Ultra models. Yet another reason why MS may not totally be smoking something when they proclaim 2025 as “the year of the refresh”…

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Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Troubleshooting, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

Windows.old Required For Uninstall Window Access

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Here’s an interesting Windows gotcha that affects both Windows 10 and 11. There’s an interval setting value in these OSes that controls how long Windows.old stays on your system disk before it gets deleted. It’s called the “OS uninstall window” and it’s set to 10 days by default, though any value from 2 through 60 (days) is legal. That said, you can only see and manipulate this value if Windows.old is present on the target system. That’s what the title means when it says “Windows.old required for uninstall window access.”

Why Is Windows.old Required For Uninstall Window Access?

God only knows (and possibly a few Microsoft OS engineers). That’s just the way it works. Indeed the relevant MS Learn article doesn’t comment on the why; it only documents the how. I had to go to Google to get an explanation for what you see in the lead-in graphic — namely, that when you run the DISM command that tells you the current uninstall window value for Windows.old, it throws an error if there’s no Windows.old present on your system for it to inspect. Weird.

The best explanation I found is at SuperUser.com. The short answer to “Why an error and not a number?” reads simply “No, you are too late.” That is, once Windows.old is removed, the command no longer works the way one might presume it should. In short, if no Windows.old is present, the OSUninstallWindow value is not available, nor can it be reset. Again: Weird.

Even weirder: you’d think there would be a registry value to control this. But alas, as Copilot informs me and my truth-check research confirms “There isn’t a specific registry value in Windows 10 or 11 that directly controls the OSUninstallWindow value.” It’s just another Windows oddity for the ages. Now I know (and now, you do, too). Cheers!

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Hyper-V and VMs, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

DevHome App Faces May Retirement

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It was both fascinating and a little disheartening to learn yesterday that the Microsoft DevHome app faces May retirement. I have come to really, really appreciate DevHome for two reasons — namely:

1. It supports easy creation and management of ReFS drives in both Windows 10 and 11.
2. It demonstrates that MS can indeed fully automate the creation of Windows Hyper-V VMs, even though Hyper-V Manager still includes glitches one must work around to bring up such VMs manually.

Initially, I learned about this yesterday from long-time Window developer and watchdog Rafael Rivera via X (@WithinRafael). But this morning, Sergey Tkachenko posted an item at WinAero that shows a DevHome notification to the same effect.

Decoding What DevHome App Faces May Retirement Means

I’ll be darned if I can find the notification that Sergey displays in the WinAero post (and which Rafael included in his initial X info). I made sure Microsoft.DevHome (the app’s WinGet ID) was up-to-date. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, I even uninstalled, then reinstalled DevHome using WinGet just to make sure I wasn’t missing something. No dice.

All this said, I’m guessing that the various extensions and utilities that DevHome makes available, and its ReFS and Hyper-V VM capabilities,  will show up in other parts of Windows 11 around May as well. Sounds like a pretty good platform for 25H1 updates, in fact. What I can’t say because I don’t know is if MS will decide to do likewise for Windows 10, which currently supports DevHome (via the MS Store; it’s pre-installed in Windows 11 starting with 23H1 and thereafter).

I guess it will be interesting to see what happens with these various bits and pieces, several of which have garnered my appreciation. Plea to MS: please, please, please fix Hyper-V Manager so that it will do what DevHome currently does with panache — that is, automate VM install with the added capability to point to on-disk images or ISOs. If you want to understand how things work now, and what workarounds are necessary to bring a VM in Hyper-V Manager, see my September 24, 2024 ComputerWorld story How to set up Windows 11 Hyper-V virtual machines. It’s kind of a mess, frankly…

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

Backing Off Intel Graphics Driver

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Ok then: I was operating under the belief that no harm should come to Lenovo PCs after updating to Intel GPU drives via DSA. Apparently I was mistaken: I’ll show evidence that for the ThinkStation P3 Ultra at least, the DSA-supplied Arc & Iris Xe drivers pose problems. Hence, I’m backing off Intel graphics driver on that machine.

Why I’m Backing Off Intel Graphics Driver

Check out the lead-in graphic. It shows Reliability Monitor with 2 crashes on both 1/22 and 1/23 for the IntelGraphicsSoftware Service process. Not good! Indeed, it causes about a 5-point drop in the reliability index in two sharp dips.

To me, that makes it pretty clear that — at least for this PC — the Intel driver is not working properly in its runtime environment. The notion that I picked up was that updating Windows 11 graphics drivers would not necessarily overwrite OEM customizations. FWIW, Copilot confirms this. But the evidence from ReliMon on the P3 is pretty hard to contest. Methinks Intel is still right to post its warning in DSA where such drivers are concerned (with a checkbox for users to explicitly opt in anyway), to wit:

And indeed, now that I’ve uninstalled that driver and reverted to a Lenovo driver dated 10/29/2024, I’ve experienced no further issues with Intel graphics stuff. That said I do have an APPCRASH for the IntelSoftwareAssetManagerServer.exe process. But a quick hop to the Intel Support Community shows that this belongs to PROSet Wireless stuff not graphics. So there’s a problem for another day!

Here in Windows World it’s always something. Lately, those “somethings” have an interesting number of elements with Intel’s name involved. Go figure…

 

 

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Cool Tools, Insider stuff, Recent Activity, Updates, WED Blog, Windows 10, Windows 11

WinGet Boosts Chrome Update Capability

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Here’s an interesting item. Previously, WinGet wouldn’t update Chrome on Windows PCs where it was running. Now it will, because WinGet boosts Chrome update capability. It now runs the installer with admin privileges to overcome the maxim “don’t mess with running processes.” You can see it working in the lead-in graphic, where the text reads (in yellow):

The installer will request to run as administrator, expect a prompt.

If WinGet Boosts Chrome Update Capability, Users Benefit

This means users must still Relaunch Chrome to get the update to take, though WinGet applies the update. Previously, WinGet would just skip the whole thing. Now, the next time users open that browser, the new update will take over (or, they can manually use the Relaunch button themselves).

After WinGet does its thing, Relaunch remains required to leave running processes undisturbed.

Will Other Browser Makers Follow Suit?

Here’s a shout out to the dev teams for Edge, Mozilla/Firefox (and variations), Opera, and others. Take heed of this Chrome action and do likewise. Your users — including your truly, most fervently — will thank you.

It’s just another small step for WinGet. But it translates into a big boost for the Windows user base. Keep up the good work, people!

New PowerShell Version Out, Too…

While I’ve got your eye, a new PowerShell version — v7.5.0 — is out. It’s still new enough that WinGet won’t install it yet. If you, like me, are OCD enough to want to run it before it gets into the pipeline, download it from the assets on the Release v7.5.0 page.

Note added 15 minutes later: Nevermind, it’s already showing up in WinGet. I should’ve known @Denelon and the team wouldn’t sit on their hands here. Another attaboy for that group and the PowerShell team. Good-oh.

Here, you can see the old 7.4.6 windows left, and a new 7.5.0 window right. God: I *LOVE* Windows Terminal.

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

Unexpected BIOS UEFI Update Adventures

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When Lenovo Vantage popped up a notification yesterday that the ThinkStation P3 Ultra needed a BIOS/UEFI update, I thought nothing of it. But as the process dragged on … and on …. and on some more, I started to get a little concerned. Indeed, I found myself enmeshed in unexpected BIOS UEFI update adventures as what I thought might take 10-15 minutes took about an hour, all told.

But there is a happy ending. Though it took much longer than it ever has before, the update complete successfully. And the machine continues humming along, happily doing what I ask it to. That’s a relief!

Describing Unexpected BIOS UEFI Update Adventures

This may be the third such update I’ve gone through with this machine. Across all my many Lenovos over the years, loaners and review units included, I’ve probably performed over 200 such updates. That’s a big reason why this particular one took me somewhat by suprise.

Here’s a list of symptoms:
1. After the BIOS update completed, the PC rebooted yet one more time. It usually comes back up in no more than 30 seconds. This time, it took between 1 and 2 minutes.
2. Upon restarting the machine showed a black screen — no Lenovo logo for the boot splash screen showed up for at least another 30 seconds. Normally, this pops right up.
3. After the Logo showed up center screen, it took longer than usual for the “Energy Star” and “TCO certified” logos to show up bottom right. Again, this added another 30 seconds or so to the delay.
4. During that first reboot cycle, the PC rebooted itself again (never seen this before). This time the screen stayed black even though the monitor power indicator stayed on. I had to cold start the PC (turn off the power, wait 30 seconds, turn the power back on) to resume start-up.
5. After this second unexpected restart, the P3 took well over a minute to get to the splash screen. Getting to the spinning circle took longer than usual as well, but it booted into Windows 11. It’s now showing 24H2 Build 26100.3894 (current).

Post-update, the P3 takes about 10 seconds from the Lenovo boot splash to show TCO and Energy Star logos. Another 10 seconds to get to the spinning circle. Another 15 seconds before the lock/login screen appears. Thus, total boot time is now around 35 seconds or so. That’s not too bad, actually.

Why the Kerfluffle?

Copilot tells me extended boot delays after UEFI update can arise from compatibility issues, switching all settings to their defaults, “re-learning” of hardware  (I’ve seen this with memory on the P16 but that posts an on-screen message and nothing like that showed up on the P3), and “additional error checking or diagnostics during boot.” I’m guessing this update included a bigger change delta than older ones, and that some of the final category (diagnostics and error checks) also got thrown in.

As for the cold start, Copilot says it happens when the system needs to “properly recognize all components” after a UEFI update. I can see that, particularly if related aspects in the UEFI have changed since the preceding version. That would absolutely force a complete, new device enumeration, which may have been needed in this case.

At any rate, it turned into more of an adventure than I expected. And I learned a few things along the way. Glad the machine is running now, and appears to be working well. Fun, fun, fun here in Windows-World these days!

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