Newsletter Archives

• Microsoft declares that you can now safely install Win10 version 1903 on Surface Book 2 machines

  Posted on October 12, 2019 at 08:54 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Took ’em about six months, but Microsoft has finally given the go-ahead to install Win10 version 1903 on Surface Book 2 PCs. I talked about the “dGPU may occasionally disappear from device manager on Surface Book 2 with dGPU” bug in the July 22 AskWoody Plus Newsletter (accessible to everyone).

  The upgrade block which has been in effect since May was officially removed yesterday.

  The impetus? A firmware update for the Surface Book 2, also released yesterday. I’ll have a full rundown of the latest firmware releases on Monday. Suffice it to say that many people are steamed — and rightfully so — about the way MS has been steering its customers into uncharted waters.

  At any rate, if you paid $3,000 for a Surface Book 2 with a separate GPU, you’re now free to install Microsoft’s latest, greatest version of Windows.

  Just in time for the release next month of “Windows 10 November 2019 Update (19H2)” — better known as Win10 1909.

  I’ll have more about the 1909 release next week. Current obsession: What exactly do we know about the rollout?  If you think previous Win10 releases were unnecessarily cumbersome and hard to understand, boy howdy, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

  Windows News dGPU, Surface Book 2, Win10 1909

• More bugses with the July Win10 version 1903 cumulative update

  Posted on July 14, 2019 at 04:19 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft has officially acknowledged two bugs created by the May 29 “optional” Win10 version 1903 cumulative update, then sent out for general consumption in the July 9 cumulative update, KB 4507453.

  To quote the Release Information Status page:

  The dGPU may occasionally disappear from device manager on Surface Book 2 with dGPU

  Some apps or games that needs to perform graphics intensive operations may close or fail to open on Surface Book 2 devices with Nvidia dGPU.

  Yes, you read that right. The latest cumulative update for the latest version of Windows on Microsoft’s most expensive piece of hardware can leave the machine gasping for breath. Martin Brinkmann has more details on the Surface Book 2 bug.

  That Surface Book 2 bug had me feeling a bit of deja vu… About a  year ago, Microsoft had a Surface Book 2 problem where the dGPU just went missing, for no apparent reason. At least this time MS acknowledged the problem. It just took a while.

  Also from the Release Info Status page:

  Initiating a Remote Desktop connection may result in black screen

  When initiating a Remote Desktop connection to devices with some older GPU drivers, you may receive a black screen.

  Gunter Born takes the black screen bug to task on Born’s Tech.

  Don’t bother looking for a bug announcement in the KB article. Microsoft hasn’t bothered adding either to the “Known Issues” listing.

  How did the bugs make it through all of that fancy Win10 1903 beta testing?

  Rhetorical question.

  Windows Patches/Security dGPU, Remote Desktop, Surface Book 2