Newsletter Archives

• Thunderbolt is not just for monitors

  Posted on March 10, 2025 at 02:44 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  When will Windows computer makers embrace Thunderbolt?

  This is not an idle question, but the answers are quite complicated, involving three different evolving industry standards: Thunderbolt, USB, and DisplayPort. Today’s Thunderbolt 5 offers the possibility of simplified and very fast connections for all manner of devices, not just monitors.

  The Thunderbolt 5 aggregate data transfer rate is up to 120 gigabits per second in both directions, providing single data channels faster than USB and in the ballpark of the speeds inside a computer.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.10.0, 2025-03-10).

  Ben's Workshop Apple, DisplayPort, HDMI, Intel, Newsletters, Thunderbolt, USB, USB 3, USB 4, USB Implementers Forum, USB-C, USB-IF, VESA, Windows

• Let your PC start the new year right!

  Posted on January 6, 2025 at 00:15 CST by Ben Myers

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  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  Service your Windows PC thoroughly to get a big-time payoff in the coming year.

  First, ask the question “How healthy is my hardware?” before considering what to do with any software. This reflects best practice, and it is exactly what happens here when a computer shows up at my shop in need of attention.

  Messing around with the software on a computer with unhappy hardware can only worsen troubleshooting, analysis, and remediation. More importantly, it can change the content of a solid-state drive or hard drive in unpleasant ways.

  Along the way, I’ll provide some guidelines for selecting or upgrading a system for using Windows 11, or even Windows 10 during its final year of unqualified support.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (22.01.0, 2025-01-06).

  Ben's Workshop Backups, Drive maintenance, Hardware, Networking, Newsletters, PC maintenance, Security, Software

• SpinRite 6.1 offers us help for solid-state drives

  Posted on December 16, 2024 at 02:43 CST by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  The latest version of SpinRite, long regarded as the go-to software to recover data from corrupted hard drives, adds testing and tuning of solid-state drives to hard drive rescue.

  Gibson Research’s famous SpinRite 6.0, circa 2004, recovers data from defective hard drives, repeatedly reading sectors to determine the original uncorrupted data with good statistical odds of success. SpinRite cannot possibly work on drives with failed circuit boards or drives that do not spin up.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.51.0, 2024-12-16).

  Ben's Workshop ClearDiskInfo, Newsletters, Performance, performance tuning, SMART, SpinRite, SpinRite 6.1, SSDs

• My printer is offline!

  Posted on September 23, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  How often have you wondered why and how a networked printer has gone offline?

  For more than a few years, I was confounded when I discovered that a client’s networked printer had gone offline. Usually, I would reinstall the printer drivers, and that would take care of it. Recently, a new client gave me a clear explanation of events leading to a printer’s going offline.

  This is a networking problem, so I need to explain some networking concepts, principles, and software for reference later on.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.39.0, 2024-09-23).

  Ben's Workshop DHCP, Hardware, IPv4, IPv6, Networking, Newsletters, Printing, Routers, Web Services for Devices, WSD

• Designed for maintenance?

  Posted on August 26, 2024 at 02:44 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  Continued advances in computer technology have had a positive effect on the gear we use — faster, less power-hungry, lighter in weight, smaller and more secure than a decade ago. But maintaining and repairing modern computers present new challenges.

  The processor chips regularly produced today have up to 10 billion transistors incorporating many and varied computing cores, on-board cache memory, and a graphics subsystem and other circuitry to talk to devices attached to the computer — all etched on silicon wafers at a spacing less than 10 nanometers, or 0.0000003937 inches. Chipsets supporting the processors and circuit traces on motherboards are smaller and closer together, allowing for smaller motherboards, too. Memory and storage have grown by multiples of two with every processor generation. Computers such as the older seven-slot Gigabyte board inside an older large tower, once state of the art in 2010, have become the province of high-end gaming and specialized use.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.35.0, 2024-08-26).

  Ben's Workshop Apple, BIOS, HiRens, Newsletters, Repairability, Repairs, UEFI

• Finding the Achilles’ heel of TPM

  Posted on July 8, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.28 • 2024-07-08

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  Eclypsium, a security firm, recently discovered a vulnerability in the system-board firmware supporting the Trusted Platform Mode (TPM) for a wide range of Intel processors.

  As described by an Eclypsium blog entry, it is “a high impact vulnerability (CVE-2024-0762 with a reported CVSS of 7.5) in the Phoenix SecureCore UEFI firmware that runs on multiple families of Intel Core desktop and mobile processors.”

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.28.0, 2024-07-08).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Ben's Workshop AMI, BIOS, CVE-2024-0762, Firmware Update, InsydeH2O, Intel, Intel Lake, Newsletters, Phoenix, UEFI

• Web-based Microsoft 365 is a win-win for all

  Posted on July 1, 2024 at 02:43 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  I never thought I would write a paean to a Microsoft product.

  Whether I pound out an article like this one, respond to emails, prepare invoices for clients, or keep track of sets of information with spreadsheets, I am most productive at the tower computer right here — with its fast multi-core processor, lots of memory, a 27-inch monitor and, most importantly, the best-ever keyboard.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.27.0, 2024-07-01).

  Ben's Workshop Excel, Google Docs, Google Sheets, LibreOffice, Microsoft 365, Microsoft 365 Basic, Newsletters, PowerPoint, Web, Word

• What can Microsoft PC Manager do for you?

  Posted on April 1, 2024 at 02:45 CDT by Ben Myers • Comment in the Forums

  

  ISSUE 21.14 • 2024-04-01

  BEN’S WORKSHOP

  

  By Ben Myers

  Microsoft’s PC Manager provides several easy-to-use tools to keep your computer running in good health, and more.

  Because I have long advocated keeping computers fit and in good shape, but not obsessively, so Microsoft’s PC Manager needed a long-overdue hard look to see what it could do for me. And for you. It was released in late October 2022, so it was high time to try it out. You can search for it at the Microsoft Store; once the store knows who you are, it installs PC Manager for you, leaving a small icon on the screen — making it convenient to use.

  Read the full story in our Plus Newsletter (21.14.0, 2024-04-01).
  This story also appears in our public Newsletter.

  Ben's Workshop CCleaner, Health check, Newsletters, PC Manager, Performance, Revo Uninstaller
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