Newsletter Archives

• Bowman: How to update the Marvell driver for your Surface — without installing Win10 version 1909

  Posted on October 28, 2019 at 14:40 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  There’s a detailed, step-by-step explanation in this new video from Barb Bowman.

  There are quite a few folks desperate for fixed Marvell Wi-Fi drivers for Surface devices following bad drivers that were sent down through Windows Update in early August. The greatest impact seems to be on mesh type networks. You can, or course, roll back the bad driver. But if you need to test the “fixme” version, and intend to stay on 1903 until 1909 is “proven safe for mankind” (so to speak), there is an option.

  It seems possible to join the Insiders Preview Ring to get the “fixed” Marvell Wi-Fi drivers for Surface devices without being forced to download and install 1909 if you are already running 1903. 1909 “should” be offered as an optional update and I’ve made a short video explaining the steps, as there are multiple restarts in addition to the specific order of steps that need to be followed. I’ve tested this and it works for me. I can’t guarantee that it will work for you, but the worst that can happen is, if you are running 1903 and 1909 does install, you can open the classic Control Panel, Programs and Features, view Installed Updates, and UNINSTALL the 1909 update.

  Neat trick – and a safe way to get the drivers that’ll fix your WiFi.

  Hardware, Surface Surface

• Microsoft reps continue to recommend Surface Pro 6 owners install a beta version of Windows

  Posted on October 25, 2019 at 10:20 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  I started to write about this a week ago, but decided to let it ride. Now, it’s back again.

  The advice being doled out for Surface Pro 6 owners on the Microsoft Answers forum is bad advice. In a nutshell, MS moderators continue to tell people experiencing the 400 MHz throttling bug or the Marvel driver bug that they should move to the Insider Program, join the Release Preview Ring, and install the latest beta test version of Win10 version 1909.

  Wrong.

  There’s a reason why it’s called a “beta,” folks.

  Microsoft tells @Surface customers to join Release Preview Insiders to get SP6 .4GHz throttling fix and fixed Marvell WiFi driver.  Asserts it will keep them on current Windows release (NO, 1909 is NOT released & is in Release Preview). Standalone Surface Insiders Ring is needed pic.twitter.com/rQI7KCIQ5v

  — Barb Bowman (@barbbowman) October 25, 2019

  Barb’s two screenshots come from this moderator reply about the .4 GHz throttling problem and this moderator reply about the buggy Marvell driver.

  

  You may not realize it, but Surface owners who put their machines in the Insider program regularly receive firmware and driver updates that aren’t released to the public. Those firmware and driver updates can’t be uninstalled. Something else they didn’t tell you in Insider school, eh?

  As Barb says, this is no way to treat a paying customer! Telling people to install a version of Windows that’s still in testing, just to fix a Microsoft-created bug, is simply lousy advice:

  Business customers and careful consumers should NOT have to update their OS and join Windows Insiders. They need a Surface Insiders group separate from the OS where folks can test drivers or better yet, make them available as separate downloads

  16 million Insider guinea pigs, ripe for the plucking. If you don’t mind a mixed metaphor. Or a plucked pig.

  UPDATE from Bowman:

  If MS REALLY thinks that they are testing against production builds in release preview, that they are wrong and this means no one is widely testing against RELEASED builds. Microsoft needs a stand alone Insiders Ring for Surface testing so that IT folks can test on dedicated machines, etc. What is especially egregious is that the Marvel bug seems to impact Enterprise mesh networks/roaming more than consumer and you know that businesses don’t want to push to 1909 or ANY new release.

  Windows 10 Releases 400 MHz, Marvell Wi-Fi, Surface

• The sad saga of Surface problems continues

  Posted on September 19, 2019 at 04:46 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  You’re going to hear a lot about the shiny new Surface devices coming in the next few weeks.

  Should you be tempted to shell out your shekels, be aware of the problems we’ve hit with Surface devices recently — and how Microsoft has (or has not) responded to the complaints.

  Extensive details in Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  I’ve said it before… I won’t buy — or recommend — a Surface device until Microsoft cleans up its support.

  Thx Barb Bowman!

  Hardware Surface

• What I expect from today’s Microsoft Event

  Posted on October 2, 2018 at 11:24 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  As you probably know, most of the world’s leading English-language Microsoft pundits are gathered at this moment in New York, waiting for the 4 pm (Eastern) pony show, widely anticipated to be a launching ground for Windows 10 version 1809 and a handful of new Surface computers.

  Expect to see appropriately synchronized “oohs” and “aahs” from the folks who were paid to attend.

  Paul Thurrott, who’s on the scene with Brad Sams, has an anticipatory post on what he expects. My expectations are a bit lower.

  I expect to see minor upgrades to the existing Surface lineup with (gasp! ahhhhhhh!) a new black Surface. I expect Microsoft will mention, obliquely, the Consumer Reports re-instatement of the “Recommended” imprimatur for Surface, except for the totally lame Surface Go.

  Win10 1809 will likely become available to those who have the temerity to click “Check for Updates” — the Suckers, er, Seekers in the crowd. I haven’t seen anything particularly earth-shattering in Win10 1809 (although I do like the new clipboard, which has finally caught up with free add-ons that have been available for decades, and a phone notification synchronizer that works almost as well as Google Chrome’s MightyText).

  A new Surface Studio — that ultra-expensive all-in-one PC — will no doubt draw plenty of accolades, particularly if MS moves from 6th generation to 8th generation Intel chips. And some people may be able to use them. Sometimes.

  All in all, I doubt there’ll be much worth writing about tomorrow. But I may be pleasantly surprised.

  Microsoft News Surface

• Bowman: A battery depleted Surface can’t be charged from the Surface Dock

  Posted on August 27, 2018 at 16:29 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Interesting observation from Barb Bowman, on digitalmediaphile.

  The reason why this is happening is that the power supply of the dock (although it is 80W) reserves 30W of its power to the ports on the dock, this means that only 50W is available to the Surface Pro. This unfortunately is not enough to trigger the charging/booting.

  Can anyone confirm?

  Other Surface

• More confusion and obfuscation for Surface owners

  Posted on January 23, 2018 at 13:10 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Do you know when your Surface’s lifecycle will expire? Looks like Microsoft has yanked all official info about Surface support lifecycles.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Windows Patches/Security lifecycle, Surface

• Intel says STOP installing firmware updates

  Posted on January 22, 2018 at 13:35 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  In another stunning announcement, Intel now says that you should NOT install firmware updates. No specific word on Surface devices yet, but I bet the Jan. 10 updates are suspect, as well. Of course, if you have Automatic Update turned on, your Surface device is probably already updated.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows

  UPDATE: In response to an anonymous post here, I re-read the Intel announcement, and it isn’t clear (to me) if the halt has been called just for Broadwell and Haswell chips, or for all of Intel’s product line. Here’s what the official announcement says:

  Updated Jan. 22

  We have now identified the root cause of the reboot issue impacting Broadwell and Haswell platforms, and made good progress in developing a solution to address it. Based on this, we are updating our guidance for customers and partners:

  • We recommend that OEMs, Cloud service providers, system manufacturers, software vendors and end users stop deployment of current versions on the below platforms, as they may introduce higher than expected reboots and other unpredictable system behavior.
  • We also ask that our industry partners focus efforts on testing early versions of the updated solution for Broadwell and Haswell we started rolling out this weekend, so we can accelerate its release. We expect to share more details on timing later this week.
  • For those concerned about system stability while we finalize the updated solutions, we are also working with our OEM partners on the option to utilize a previous version of microcode that does not display these issues, but removes the Variant 2 (Spectre) mitigations. This would be delivered via a BIOS update, and would not impact mitigations for Variant 1 (Spectre) and Variant 3 (Meltdown).

  We believe it is important for OEMs and our customers to follow this guidance for all of the specified platforms listed below, as they may demonstrate higher than expected  reboots and unpredictable system behavior.  The progress we have made in identifying a root cause for Haswell and Broadwell will help us address issues on other platforms. Please be assured we are working quickly to address these issues.

  Then there’s a link to this list of Intel products, which includes Coffee Lake, Kaby Lake, Skylake, Broadwell, Haswell, Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge processors.

  Clear as mud.

  The spontaneous rebooting problem extends beyond Haswell and Broadwell. As Intel said on Jan. 17:

  we have determined that similar behavior occurs on other products in some configurations, including Ivy Bridge-, Sandy Bridge-, Skylake-, and Kaby Lake-based platforms.

  So it isn’t clear if the “Belay that order” order applies just to Haswell and Broadwell, or to Haswell, Broadwell, Ivy Bridge, Sandy Bridge, Skylake and Kaby Lake as well.

  Windows Patches/Security Intel, Meltdown, Spectre, Surface

• Intel Management Engine vulnerability: Microsoft says it doesn’t affect Surface

  Posted on December 12, 2017 at 08:03 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  You may have heard about the Intel Management Engine security bugs. A spate of research, publicized in the past few weeks, has left a lot of people worried about potential security holes in their processors.

  Lily Hay Newman at Wired puts it this way:

  The Management Engine is an independent subsystem that lives in a separate microprocessor on Intel chipsets; it exists to allow administrators to control devices remotely for all types of functions, from applying updates to troubleshooting. And since it has extensive access to and control over the main system processors, flaws in the ME give attackers a powerful jumping-off point. Some have even called the ME an unnecessary security hazard.

  Intel specifically undertook what spokesperson Agnes Kwan called a “proactive, extensive, rigorous evaluation of the product,” in light of findings that Russian firmware researchers Maxim Goryachy and Mark Ermolov from the vulnerability assessment firm Positive Technologies will present at Black Hat Europe next month. Their work shows an exploit that can run unsigned, unverified code on newer Intel chipsets, gaining more and more control using the ME as an unchecked launch point. The researchers also play with a sinister property of the ME: It can run even when a computer is “off” (just so long as the device is plugged in), because it is on a separate microprocessor, and essentially acts as a totally separate computer.

  Most importantly, the IME bug appears in every recent Intel chip.

  Microsoft Surface devices use Intel chips, so folks have been very concerned that their machines could be hacked using the Goryachy/Ermolov technique.

  Yesterday, Microsoft released an analysis on the Surface blog that says Surface machines are hooked up so that kind of data breach is impossible:

  1. Remote exploit of this vulnerability requires Intel Active Management Technology (AMT). Current Surface devices do not allow remote connectivity to the ME because our devices do not run AMT.

  2. Local exploit of this vulnerability requires Direct Connect Interface (DCI) access via USB, which is not provided on Surface devices.

  It looks like Surface machines are safe from this kind of breach.

  Windows Patches/Security INTEL-SA-00086, Surface

• Long-standing Surface problems get promises of a few fixes

  Posted on November 13, 2017 at 13:46 CST by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Microsoft’s customer support continues to plumb new depths, but there are a few hopeful signs. Keep your fingers crossed, or try to haggle with your local Microsoft Store.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  UPDATE: Once again, Jasmine Car says Microsoft’s working on a fix for the screen shaking problem:

  Our engineers are looking into this and working hard to get this resolved as soon as possible.

  Microsoft News flickering, Surface, Surface Pen, Surface Pro, Type Cover

• Microsoft’s defense of Surface quality problems

  Posted on August 13, 2017 at 06:27 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Paul Thurrott has seen an internal Microsoft memo that tackles the Consumer Reports Surface reliability findings.

  Interesting read on Thurrott.com.

  Pardon me for sounding like a broken record, but Microsoft’s support on its own forums has been pathetic.

  UPDATE: Michael Allison at mspoweruser has an excellent analysis of the situation.

  If one were to take the Redmond line, the Surface line is immensely satisfying to customers, Intel was to blame for the Surface Pro 4 and Book issues, and that the subsequent products were better than the last one ( as if they were expected to get worse), etcetera. Microsoft will be working with marketing and other departments to share this information with consumers (So you can expect to see certain Microsoft news blogs touting the firm’s numbers in the coming weeks), and mount a full-fledged defence of the Surface.

  This guy knows whereof he speaks!

  As much as I love Surface, the firm is doing the wrong thing here. Now that Surface sales are threatened by Consumer Reports pulling their recommendation, Microsoft is stepping in. When Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3, 4, Book and Pro 2017 users were suffering from battery problems, reliability issues, hibernation issues, hot bagging, all this passion for their customers was nowhere to be seen.

  Yes, yes, yes!

  Check it out.

  Microsoft News reliability, Surface

• Microsoft Surface reliability problem: It’s more than hardware and software

  Posted on August 10, 2017 at 10:36 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  Consumer Reports yanked the “Recommended” imprimatur for Surface devices — but Microsoft’s Surface service should be sent to the woodshed, too.

  Computerworld Woody on Windows.

  Microsoft News Consumer Reports, reliability, Surface

• HP leads Microsoft in Metro app usage

  Posted on September 25, 2014 at 09:11 CDT by woody • Comment in the Forums

  People with a choice rarely choose Metro apps.

  InfoWorld Tech Watch.

  Windows News Metro, Surface, usage
• « Older Entries

  Newer Entries »