Aaron44126

The Windows VM performs fine but I'm not doing anything especially intensive. I use Quicken and some office-type apps. I wouldn't expect any graphically intensive to perform great in a VM. It is Windows-on-ARM, which has an x86/x64 emulator built-in that works well, but it doesn't support emulating any device drivers or low-level system apps. So, for example, I have an old Canon printer/scanner that I can't use in Windows on ARM because Canon hasn't provided an ARM driver; and, apps like Macrium Reflect or AnyDVD HD install kernel modules which won't work on Windows-on-ARM until/unless they produce an ARM version of those modules. (You'd have the same limitations on an ARM-based Windows systems like Surface Pro X.) My more intensive tasks, I have been able to run natively in macOS. (Photo work, video encoding, and gaming.) Not saying everyone should go and switch to Mac. There are notable pros and cons for sure. You'd have to examine your workload and see if it is even workable at all to start out with.

I have sworn off Windows as a personal OS since April. (Still use it for work; don't really have a choice.) I was on Linux for two months before getting the MacBook Pro. I am still using a Windows VM to run a few applications, though. The MacBook Pro has downsides for sure (lack of upgradeability, no numeric keypad, and generally having to get used to a new OS with new ways of doing things, different keyboard shortcuts, etc). I bit the bullet and just got a max-spec system and I think I'll be good for six years or so. I'll say that "as a laptop" it is a league above anything that I have seen from a Windows-based laptop. The mini-LED display is brilliant; the system can offer high performance when needed but is silent doesn't operate as a space heater when doing office-type work; and, it can operate on battery power three or four times longer than my Precision could, and without any throttling. I don't see myself going back. I do use Lightroom Classic and I have found the performance on macOS to be much more consistent than I'm used to on Windows, where the app always seemed to be struggling for no apparent reason. Adobe Acrobat, on the other hand, seems to behave notably better on Windows than on macOS to me.

My understanding is that they are the same battery, physically. The "long life cycle" battery disables some fast-charge functions and in exchange it gets a longer warranty. ...Though I would think they'd be different parts because something in the battery would have to tell the system whether it should be using fast-charge functions or not.

I’ll still be hanging out here. And I’m still using Precision for my work system. But, my workplace is looking at Lenovo systems. I am due for a refresh next year and I’m not sure what will happen yet. I recommend that you use the latest version available from Dell unless you have a specific need for something newer from NVIDIA. You can check the latest one for your system at dell.com/support. Note that NVIDIA maintains multiple driver branches for business GPUs. A driver may appear to be “old” by version number but still be current on security updates.

Yes, it will run, but obviously you can’t move it around…

Battery error. Fully disconnect the battery until the replacement arrives.

That, I believe, is the dGPU power cable. He'd only have to unplug that because it is "in the way". The two small ones would have been the fan power/sensor cables.

I think re-seating the battery cable is the correct first choice. Replacing the heatsink assembly and bottom cover should not have messed anything else up... the problem likely came from messing with the battery cable. The battery cable can indeed be detached from both ends but I have never messed with anything other than the motherboard end. I would start with that end first and leave the other one alone unless the problem is still occurring after a re-seat. Holding the power button down for a long time will reset the BIOS settings to default. (It also might not work at all if you have a BIOS password set.) I don't see why this would be necessary if things were working fine before the parts replacements.

If there is not a heat pipe in the way, you could probably just drill a hole where you need to put a screw ...? I don't know the details of this situation. I was under the impression that high-end NVIDIA GPU heatsinks were cross-compatible between the 7730 and 7740. If the two screws that line up happen to be opposite from each other, it might be fine; you just need "good enough" contact with the GPU die, these GPUs are so power-limited that it is pretty hard to overheat them. You can try calling Dell spare parts dept. in your region and see if they will sell you a heatsink. They sometimes have parts like this for very reasonable prices. When I got a M6700 heatsink "upgrade" (two-pipe version for the CPU vs. the one-pipe version that mine came with) the price I got from them was something low like $12. Granted, that was like ten years ago... I believe the phone number in the U.S. is 800-372-3355. Otherwise, you are looking at aftermarket sites like eBay, PartsPeople, TaoBao, ...

So I have been able to get nvlddmkm.sys to calm down before by going to NVIDIA control panel and setting the power management mode from "automatic" to "prefer maximum performance", not globally, but for a specific application that I was using. This would be under "Manage 3D Settings", then the "Program settings" tab. This would potentially slightly increase power draw (+ heat, noise), but I think the NVIDIA GPU constantly changing power states is part of what causes DPC latency from its driver. Wondering if you still have the same issue with an external monitor connected, because at least based on the screenshots that you shared above, that seems to cause wdf01000.sys to calm down a lot.

Yeah, I am/was a Dell Precision guy and I fought with this on and off for years, thinking I had it sorted only to have it crop up again after a driver or Windows update. Sad to see it seems to impact many high-end laptops. Also, I started typing "wdf0" into DuckDuckGo search and the first suggestion that popped back was "wdf01000.sys latency", so must not be a standalone issue! I ran across this thread, and on the second page someone suggests making sure that certain audio processes do not run on cores 0 or 1, maybe that will help. I myself have sworn off using Windows for my personal system about six months ago and I have never run into anything like this on Linux or macOS. (My work system is still Windows, but I do back-end dev work, audio doesn't really matter.)

Looks like they have now closed the loophole more fully, server-side. Windows 7 & 8 keys will not activate even if you can use them to install. https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/11/23913107/microsoft-windows-11-block-windows-7-8-keys-upgrade-activation

Classic DPC latency causing audio drop-outs... In a nutshell — Background processes running at the lowest level (mostly device drivers, but also perhaps OS processes or security software) can grab hold of the system to do work, causing everything to freeze. They should "release" control quickly enough that you do not notice that anything happened (1ms or less). You might notice something visually if such a process keeps the system held for, say, 2-5ms (since a 60 Hz monitor needs frames generated at 16ms), but that is enough time to run the audio buffer dry and create a noticeable audio blip, especially if you are trying to do real-time audio work. The whole system freezing issue might be a more extreme version of this. To get a hint as to what is causing this, download "LatencyMon" and run it while you work. (The text at the top of the linked page sort of explains this issue.) Just hit the "Play" button and leave it running in the background. After some time has passed (or you observe one of your audio blips), hit "Stop" and then go take a look at the Drivers tab. They should automatically be sorted with the worst offenders on top. For a system running smoothly we would not want to see any "highest execution time" values higher than 2ms or so. Next step would be to take a look at this list (which will be a list of .sys files), figure out what the worst offenders correspond to, and then see if there is anything you can do to fix it. Example — ndis.sys is part of the Windows network stack, and if it is showing high on your list then it could be an issue with your network driver. Try using Ethernet instead of Wi-Fi, or vice versa, to see if that makes the problem go away. If so, you know which device driver you need to fight with.

Yeah, I have a six-year-old phone here myself. I haven't really seen a need to replace it — until now... I am replacing it in the next 3-4 weeks. Apple has ended "latest OS" support at six years (though it did just get another security update earlier today and I expect those to continue for a while yet), and it is starting to occasionally have some strange long-delay / lock-up behaviors when doing trivial tasks; I think the flash storage might be starting to flake out. Though really, I see the mobile landscape as having matured to the point where, unless you really like having the latest-and-greatest, constant upgrades aren't really warranted and you should be able to be fine with a phone for 5+ years, as long as you start with a good one. Sort of like the PC landscape hit I'd say 10-12 years ago or so. (All the better if phone makers can keep the software updates coming for longer!) Though on the other side, there's the money factor; The Verge notes that Pixel 8 Pro has some software features that Pixel 8 doesn't for no apparent reason other than "just because", and there will always be an incentive to limit support for new features to new phones just to prop up sales. Another example would be Microsoft who is (seemingly) trying their darnedest to prop up falling PC sales by messing with OS support. Looking back to the Windows 11 launch in 2021, they didn't offer it to or officially support any PCs that were more than ≈3 years old at the time of the launch, with no good reason given on why a 6th-gen or 7th-gen system (with a TPM even!) couldn't run it just fine, what the heck. Rumors persist that Windows 12 is coming "next year", we'll see if they pull that again .....

Eh. Cool, but "security updates" isn't exactly the same as full OS upgrades.

Regarding Pixel 8‚ I saw that Google is committing to seven years of OS support and also parts for repairs, a tremendous bump up from what you typically see from an Android phone. Maybe things are shifting. (If only Samsung would follow suit.) https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/9/23910082/google-will-stock-pixel-8-spare-parts-for-seven-years

Does no one know about the "Files" app ...? These days, you can use the "Files" app on the iPhone, connect to a file share on your laptop via SMB, and copy/paste files from the file share to the local file system. This is what I usually do if I want to move a bunch of video files to the phone for offline viewing with an app like nPlayer. (The "Files" app can also be used to deal with files on external storage like a USB drive or an SD card, if you have the appropriate adapter hooked up to your phone.) It's still a little clunky because of the small screen and touch UI for dealing with files, but I'd consider it a step up from having to use the file transfer mechanism in iTunes.

Windows 12 "subscription fee" rumor seems to have been shot down. https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/no-of-course-windows-12-wont-require-a-subscription-to-use ...Not to say that Microsoft won't look to take advantage of anything that they think that they can get away with, to make money from users running Windows. Ads, I mean "recommendations"... plus pushing people to Bing for more ad revenue, and pushing people to Edge so that they can monetize the "shopping features" and whatever other crud they are adding there. (Really, it makes sense, no one would go for a subscription fee. They can't even charge people for Windows upgrades like they used to because people just won't buy them, and then how would they start taking advantage of the new monetization features in their latest version of Windows?)

Eh. I think the number of people who actually use their phone charging port for data transfer is pretty low. I'm in an iPhone family and I know of no one who uses it for this except for me. The vast majority of people won't notice the "low data rate", and anyone who really cares about it will hopefully be aware enough to just get an iPhone 15 Pro.

iPhone 15 (non-Pro) uses the A16 SOC from last year, so that would make sense...

This looks fine. Fan replacement is what I would do. They don't send fans individually for these systems, since the 7000 series came out. You'll get a whole heatsink assembly with two fans attached to it. My Precision 7560 also has bad fan noises sometimes. When it is operating at a certain range of low speeds, it makes a kind of grindy/grumble sound. I usually hear it when it is "slowing down" from a busy load to an idle load. I will be having them replace the heatsink assembly before this thing goes out of warranty.

As an iPhone user, I think this is absolutely the right move, and it's sad that the EU had to drag them into doing it. (Though I think they would have done before too long, anyway; they've already been transitioning the iPad from Lightning to USB-C.) iPhone will join the rest of the world with being able to plug in any old USB-C thing and have it mostly just work. The worst thing about it will be the transition period. In my house, my wife and I both have iPhones, and my kids both have iPads, and they are all still Lightning devices. We have charging cords scattered around and it is nice that you can just plug one in to charge whatever device. My wife will be getting an iPhone 15 Pro in a few weeks, so we'll start the period of having both USB-C and Lightning cables hanging around until we get all of the devices transitioned (which I am in no particular hurry to do just because of the connector change). And it's not just chargers. We plug the phone into the car to enable CarPlay, and now I will have to have both a USB-C and Lightning cable in the car which will need to be swapped around depending on whose phone needs to be connected, until I also get a phone with USB-C. I have a collection of Lightning accessories (HDMI out, USB in, 3.5mm hookup for speakers, SD card reader) that will eventually need to be replaced as well.

SBF trial started today with jury selection; expected to last about six weeks. https://www.theverge.com/23894366/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-trial-updates-news His parents are also facing some legal issues. https://www.npr.org/2023/10/02/1200764160/sam-bankman-fried-sbf-parents-ftx-crypto-collapse-trial-stanford-law-school

Pretty sure you can't use a non-eval key with eval media at all. Doesn't matter where you get the key from.

Microsoft is going to stop allow people to use Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 keys to activate Windows 10/11. ...Or so they say. https://arstechnica.com/?p=1972170 It appears that this only applies to new versions of Windows 11. If you have an older version, you can still activate with an old Windows 7/8 key (for now). So, presumably you could save a Windows 11 22H2 ISO, use it to activate with an old key, and then upgrade to the current Windows 11 build with Windows Update.