NviGate_Systems

Some Windows 8 machines have the Windows 7 SLIC tables and some don't. It depends if the machine was ever designed to support downgrade rights. If the machine did support downgrade rights, you would have an SLIC. You want to check your SLIC tables and see, usually it should be SLIC 2.0 or 2.1 if it supports it.

The more a unit is subjected to impacts (typical movement such as picking unit up and placing down on surface) and vibration forces (if unit is equipped with optical drive) it will exert a force that slowly "unscrew" screws that are not locked down properly. I've seen this after 1-2 years on consumer models mostly on lower chassis screws. But if an internal screw comes loose, that is a short circuit waiting to happen. There are two major versions of loctite that I know of, blue and red. Blue is low temp general use, perfect for exterior screws. Red is high temperature resistance which would be more suited to inside the laptop where temperatures could be an issue. For anyone else that had this issue, perhaps you could scan the letter that TOSHIBA gave you and upload it so Op can provide this as proof of an issue to TOSHIBA, I've seen before where companies deny issues until they are told to look up a certain errata/KB. Sad but happens.

One of the consistent issues with Windows 10 is how Microsoft has gone in reverse with features like: Hybrid Power - Out of the box (Not sure about VL/EDU SKUS) If you click shutdown, it does not shut down. Instead, it closes apps and hibernates the system. This makes the system more vulnerable to memory leaks and other glitches as a result of buggy apps (and Windows!) not releasing resources or simply misbehaving. XML & Metro Apps - With Metro/Modern Apps there is a whole new slew of issues caused by permissions and generally bad coding. Add to this that you are migrating core Windows Apps to this Metro/Modern design, and this can account for huge issues. This, I suspect is the reason Start/Settings and many other apps don't always work as planned. One of these days I need to setup a VM, replicate it and inspect permissions, registry entries and figure out what really causes the apps to be so crippled. Windows Update & Provisioning - Following the model from Windows 8, Windows Update is a whole new ball of wax, running on the new Metro/Modern system. Even though Windows 10 will stage updates and postpone them, it often disrupts running services and device availability. Often times updates will appear out of nowhere at a time Windows 10 deems it "right" to install. I've seen cases where an update caused major IO devices to stop working, Wireless, USB. Tell the machine to reboot and suddenly it's doing updates then restarts and everything works. Windows 10 at it's heart is merely a public beta that you get to pay for. Rant of the day.

Does anyone have experience with doing logical data recovery on failing hard disks? I use HDD Sentinel and HDD Regenerator where possible, but there are always drives that seemingly look good(ish) then suddenly tank when you try and read or access them. I'm looking for a program that will read and skip over bad areas but log which LBS/Sectors it just in case I need to repair that sector. Most of the apps I see today are so focused on "recovering" data, few (that I saw) offer the ability to simply read what's good, abandon the rest and let me sort through what I can get. Any ideas?

Sorry, didn't mean to imply no-one could recover it, just that for the majority, it's not a skillset we have. Op did not mention any activity prior to the beeps, so if it was a failed BIOS update, yes that would require reflash or ROM swamp, but rom swap is a matter of expertise in most laptops, in which case I would say only about 20% of techs would have the needed skills to use a rework station to take the old one off and solder a new one in if it's a SMD. The CMOS/BIOS is part of the board, and any failure of a component on the board typically means board = dead. From one standpoint. Most systems I have serviced still POST if the settings are corrupted, the simply will state checksum bad. Now if the actual ROM memory is damaged and it can't start POST, then that's a different beast. Anyways, leachim, update us on what happened, we'd love to know. David

How to Use and Troubleshoot the XPS 13 (9343) | Dell Ireland This indicates board failure. Most systems *should* post even if the CMOS battery is dead/defective. CMOS battery handles storing of BIOS config, it's not like in the old days when you entered LBA's for your drive. ;-)

If it's not resource intensive work, using the onboard graphics with a simple VGA to HDMI adapter should work. I've used setups like these in the past for old laptops that don't have HDMI, they work pretty good. There is a local supplier here that gets the cheap Chinese version of these adapters for $39 each, a real steal.

I wondered where in BC you were located. North Van is an awesome place, lots to see. As far as the Cloud Books, here is what you will need: For your deployment system, you will need to create a bootable USB with USB LAN drivers enabled plus the eMMC/Storage Driver of the unit. There is a free program DriverBackup on Sourceforge that can help with backing up drivers. Always check the INF of the driver to ensure all files are present, sometimes it will miss a few but it's easy to search for the missing ones in c:\windows\system32\driverstore. Don't try to get WiFi working, it's a pain in PE. Most PXE booting is simply booting WinPE from a server, so a USB should do the trick. Pick a USB LAN card and stick with that model. I use the Best Buy brand Insignia USB 2.0 adapter as most PE's from 8 and up typically have a driver included since it uses a fairly common chip. I haven't tested the new USB 3.0 version. Always make sure you create at least one copy of the original factory OS (Win + R recoverydrive.exe) so that if and when they are retired, they are back to factory and can go to secondary markets. Once this is done you should be able to boot from USB Flash, use the USB LAN to connect to your network resources and image the unit. Voila! Job done. Here are some reference links I found while searching. Supporting PXE over USB Deployment Scenarios for tablets and ultrabooks | Plugable JaLaBlog » Blog Archive » How to deploy Windows 7 on non-PXE Ultrabooks with MDT LiteTouch… Oh, and my bad I realize that Windows 10 changed to a new compression scheme, you may want to research if this will help your deployment scenarios or if you have a 64GB model, you simply may never need to worry. I'm assuming all versions of Windows 10 support Compact, but you may find it unnecessary. Even at 32GB per unit, with the changes in Windows 10 structure it's unlikely storage will be an issue unless your users are actively downloading.

You are talking about those Acer Cloud/HP Stream devices that are in the 13" form factor? I'm not familiar with SCCM, but I do know these types of machines need to use WIMBoot unless you get the 64GB models, and even then after a healthy dose of updates, software and recovery drive, you only have about 10-15GB left. Was there specific error messages you get when deploying?

I'm working on a project and wondered if anyone who has made a Windows 10 OEM Recovery (like Acer) can provide me with the names and contents of the config files. Specifically, I'm looking for the XML/txt files inside sources folder which should have the reagentc commands and diskpart scripts. If you could do a file listing in a text file of the contents of the recovery drive that would be swell too. I'm writing a script that will allow for the creation of custom recovery drives regardless of OEM. (UEFI) I haven't had access to a new Windows 10 machine as of yet (at least not one that stayed for more than a day so I can image it and do an autopsy of the recovery system.) I find working with articles from MSDN and Technet is an exercise in futility as they often are outdated or do not contain real world scenarios or are missing info that I can quickly pick up from an OEM structure.

Hard Disk Sentinel works good with SSD's and will tell you how many blocks are replaced.

There is a firmware update for this issue apparently. Have a look on Acer's website under support/drivers and under firmware/bios it lists this: [TABLE=class: ctnResultTable, width: 694] [TR=class: alternate, bgcolor: #E9F4E6] [TD=class: txt-category noMobile]BIOS[/TD] [TD=class: txt-vendor noMobile]Acer[/TD] [TD=class: txt-description collapsible]1. Update EC to version v1.7(improve compatibility of battery charging).[/TD] [TD=class: txt-version noMobile]1.16[/TD] [TD=class: txt-size noMobile]3.4 MB[/TD] [TD=class: txt-date noMobile]2015/12/11[/TD] [TD]Download[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: txt-category noMobile]BIOS[/TD] [TD=class: txt-vendor noMobile]Acer[/TD] [TD=class: txt-description collapsible]1. add Elan touchpad support 2. update EC to v1.5[/TD] [TD=class: txt-version noMobile]1.13[/TD] [TD=class: txt-size noMobile]3.4 MB[/TD] [TD=class: txt-date noMobile]2015/08/19[/TD] [TD]Download[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: alternate, bgcolor: #E9F4E6] [TD=class: txt-category noMobile]BIOS[/TD] [TD=class: txt-vendor noMobile]Acer[/TD] [TD=class: txt-description collapsible]1.Add battery ID[/TD] [TD=class: txt-version noMobile]1.10[/TD] [TD=class: txt-size noMobile]3.5 MB[/TD] [TD=class: txt-date noMobile]2014/12/18[/TD] [TD]Download[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: txt-category noMobile]BIOS[/TD] [TD=class: txt-vendor noMobile]Acer[/TD] [TD=class: txt-description collapsible]01. add shipmode support. 02.to fix "Touchpad no function with inbo [...][/TD] [TD=class: txt-version noMobile]1.08[/TD] [TD=class: txt-size noMobile]3.5 MB[/TD] [TD=class: txt-date noMobile]2014/10/16[/TD] [TD]Download[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: alternate, bgcolor: #E9F4E6] [TD=class: txt-category noMobile]BIOS[/TD] [TD=class: txt-vendor noMobile]Acer[/TD] [TD=class: txt-description collapsible]add eMMC string after model name[/TD] [TD=class: txt-version noMobile]1.03[/TD] [TD=class: txt-size noMobile]3.5 MB[/TD] [TD=class: txt-date noMobile]2014/08/28[/TD] [TD]Download[/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: txt-category noMobile]Firmware[/TD] [TD=class: txt-vendor noMobile]Synaptics[/TD] [TD=class: txt-description collapsible]Improve touchpad performance (Windows8.1)[/TD] [TD=class: txt-version noMobile]1.17[/TD] [TD=class: txt-size noMobile]980.9 KB[/TD] [TD=class: txt-date noMobile]2015/12/07[/TD] [TD]Download[/TD] [/TR] [TR=class: alternate, bgcolor: #E9F4E6] [TD=class: txt-category noMobile]Firmware[/TD] [TD=class: txt-vendor noMobile]Synaptics[/TD] [TD=class: txt-description collapsible]Improve touchpad performance (Windows10)[/TD] [TD=class: txt-version noMobile]1.17[/TD] [TD=class: txt-size noMobile]980.9 KB[/TD] [TD=class: txt-date noMobile]2015/12/07[/TD] [TD]Download[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

We've all been there, we need to verify the status of an issue, is it hardware or software? Perhaps we want to test a new image, but we don't want to mess with an existing install. Here's what I do. I developed this at one of my previous retail jobs as the sales people would constantly sign in a customers unit for backup & reload but never gave me external media to save the files to. Our IT Policy forbid us from using store owned media for the purpose of customer backups. I created a WinPE based off Windows 8.1 that included Explorer shell among other things. You can also do this using commandline from a typical WinRE. Create a folder called "Archive" at the root of the HDD. Move these folders plus any others you may have as part of your image: Note: If you have an EFI based system, you can safely move all folders except system folders such as Recycle Bin etc. If you have an MBR system, be carefull not to move Boot, BOOTMGR etc., as you want to re-use those entries. Windows Users ProgramData Config.msi Recovery Program Files Program Files (x86) hiberfil.sys pagefile.sys Now, apply the new image using DISM from your flash/hdd or from the recovery partition. Reboot and Voila you are in a fresh install that took less than 20 minutes and retained all data. If you want to go back to your original install, simply create another folder called Archive2 and move the new install to that folder, and move the old install back to the root of C:\ and when you reboot your old install will boot again. This little trick has saved me hours of messing with backups and narrowing down issues by simply reloading while maintaining data. If you are on a domain and store data using re-directed folders or roaming profiles this may not appeal to you per say, but for those who don't use domains or who run small labs, this could be a neat trick to use for those cases when you want to try something with the option to "roll back". I found manually applying images with DISM is faster than using Windows Setup and allows me greater control.

There is a Lenovo OneKey Restore DVD that is floating around the net which will restore the ability to use the "One Key Button" if the units are equipped with it. It's in Chinese and requires patience but does work. Or if you want, I can give you the scripts required to make Windows 8 Recovery USB's with one master installation image. The scripts will ensure each machine has a working recovery partition. Even if you do a OEM install, you can still "Lenovofy" it, install drivers, sysprep then add the image to a recovery USB to reload all the machines quickly and easily.

Place the quoted text in a message.vbs and place it in the Startup folder or as a run entry in registry. At login the message will be displayed. Very low tech, it won't prevent users from ignoring it and launching apps but at least you can be sure they get the message. Worked well in my previous job, as most feared the pop-up.

Often when SFC can't repair a file, it is because the underlying Windows image has corrupt files, which is typically within the WinSXS system. (When it does fail) When using DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth without a mounted baseline Windows Image, it relies on WindowsUpdate/Online libraries to repair, which often fail. If you mount a install.wim that matches the build of Windows you want to fix, then you isue a command like thus: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /source:c:\mount\Windows In this case, you can use existing media to refresh your corrupt files. However, Modern/Metro Apps are probably the most problematic out there and often misbehave more than shoddily coded VisualBasic Apps. I'm doing research right now to try and track down what causes these issues. It's also partially related to my issues with Sysprep in Windows 10 and provisioned apps. There seems to be a bug in Windows 10 that even on a fresh install the apps are not properly provisioned, which causes issues for Sysprep as Sysprep is very picky about modern apps and how they are provisioned. I have a hunch that it may be a permissions issue, as I know certain Windows files don't behave properly if they don't have the correct permissions. But much of this isn't properly documented or at least there isn't an easy to run tool to fix these issues.

Your single WIM file still has multiple indexes. The ei.cfg simply locks the installation to a specific index to save users the trouble of worrying what to select. A typical Retail Windows 7 install can have up to 5 indexes. Each index is a unique installation. Think of it as partitions on a disk. If you want to add files to each partition, you have to add the files 5 times, to each desired partition. Just because each partition is on the same physical disk, it doesn't automatically write those files across all partitions once you add them to one partition. The beauty behind WIM files as mentioned, is it automatically de-duplicate files. So if you maintain a WIM file and add files, even if you add those files 100 times in different folders, your image will only grow by the size of the files you add plus a few kb here and there. When it saves the WIM it sees you already added those files, so it just leaves a marker which has the location of the files.

Most newer laptops use a magnetic switch for sleep control. Some have hotkey functions that can manually enter sleep. Is the battery and adapter OK? Some power schemes are very aggressive when on battery power, so a failure of DC Power and/or battery can cause behavior you mention. I know our T500's are very aggressive on battery and if we don't tweak the values users come back saying the machine has "died".

I find Google Play Music also does a decent job. CyanogenMod also has a player that is on my new CM12 phone called "Eleven", it's not too bad. Supports visuals too.

You can also throw the entire lot on eBay Buy It Now with Best Offer and put them all on a pallet. Job done!

I've always seen bad results with non standard drive sizes. I've seen it with 320GB, 640GB, 750GB and I don't doubt the 1.5TB. Time will tell with 6TB and 8TB drives. I think there are a few 5TB drives around too, though mostly consumer USB devices. Won't touch em. I do have 2 3 Year old HGST 4TB, no problems, though very seldom used.

In addition to not removing apps (Modern/Metro) I also don't do updates for Metro Apps as in the past with 8/8.1, if you updated the Metro Apps then try sysprep, it would fail. I have yet to create my first Windows 10 Image, mostly because we are still dealing with 7 / 8.1. Windows 10 is far to buggy for us to recommend as a daily driver. November Update (1511) caused way too many problems. But eventually I will bite the bullet.

If they are Windows 8 or higher the tools you need are built into Windows. See: How to Generate a Battery Health Report on Windows 8 or Windows 10

You can use the commands pushd and popd to help with that. You would need a batch script to integrate it though. How it works is "pushd" assigns a random drive letter to a mount point or folder, useful for programs that don't know how to deal with network addresses or if the usage scenario doesn't really need a dedicated drive letter mapping, or in this case when you have no control over the core system. When the program is finished, you can simply use "popd" to disconnect that association and drive letter. You can capture the drive letter using various methods in batch and then pass it on, but if it's automated backup it might not always be the same drive letter. By the sounds of it since it's running on Windows 7, you might be using XP Mode, which is limited. If you have spare licenses you can move to VirtualBox which will allow you to capture a USB drive by means of a filter driver and gives you native access to USB devices. I'm not familiar with the program you are using that needs to do backups but I can send you samples scripts I use in my deployment scenarios where I mount networks paths to a local drive letter for cmd batch use.

Some delay is normal as Windows Update will catalogue files and determine build numbers for installed files. However, Windows Update has it share of issues. Microsoft has the FixIt utilities, and you can download all the tools for offline use, which I find handy. Some things that can hinder Windows Update are Advanced Format drives and older versions of Intel Matrix Storage Manager. Common on laptops that came preloaded with OEM images.