Aaron44126

Microsoft is supporting Windows Server 2008 R2 until at least January 2024 for Azure customers, and I am assuming that those patches will be able to be shoved onto Windows 7 somehow, since the codebase and patches are largely the same?

Ha, I gave it a go with the Precision 7560 in 2021 but came up blank. 😛 (I was first/only to come up with a solution to read the fan RPM values though...) [Edit] I keep writing "last year" when I mean 2021...

I can tell you that the fans are run by the embedded controller. Dell has an all-new implementation for fan control that was introduced with the Tiger Lake systems in 2021. (I think that it is basically the same implementation in all of their laptops except for Alienware, though I have only personally used Precision laptops that have Tiger Lake or later.) AFAIK, no one has found a way to manipulate it into manual control of any sort yet. I will eagerly integrate any solution found (Windows or Linux!) into Dell Fan Management.

Huh. That is a surprise. I know that Dell has fully switched to adhesive for newer models (Precision 7X70+), but I have removed both the Precision 7530 and 7560 displays and they were just screws. In any case, if they have used adhesive in your system, at least the screw holes are still there so you can mount another display without having to use adhesive.

Starting with last year's systems (11th gen / Precision 7X60), the fans are much more hesitant to kick in; you need a sustained load for a minute or two before they ramp up to max. And at least in my Precision 7770, "max" is not that high, just around 3600 RPM (where previous systems I have seen hitting 4500-4800). For ThrottleStop to work, make sure that you have the CPU virtualization support turned off in BIOS settings. (It is on by default, I believe.) In any case, I turn off turbo boost to keep temperatures under control when I am not running a high-CPU load. (I have an "article" about it linked from my sig.)

Just saw this in another thread 😕 https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-afterburner-software-without-msi-support-project-is-probably-dead (I wonder if you can adjust power limits using any other tool, like NVIDIA Inspector maybe?) [Edit] MSI response. https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/9/23546476/msi-afterburner-abandoned-dead-unwinder-developer-russia-ukraine-war

Internet Archive has some old ISOs. I.e.: https://archive.org/search.php?query=windows+10+1607&sin=

I've been wondering about an update manager for Windows 10 (or 11) and never have really tried any of them out. Right now, I just have automatic reboots for updates disabled (by breaking the Windows scheduled task that handles this) and I also pause updates for 4-5 weeks at a time so that I know they will only come in on Patch Tuesday. Has anyone tried an update manager tool like WuMgr or Windows Update MiniTool to get an experience more like Windows 7 and 8 had?

Without registry tweaking you would need to install Windows 10 LTSB 2015 (build 10240) first. That is the only one without an upgrade block. From there you can upgrade to any later version. LTSB/LTSC ISOs are not as readily available as regular Windows 10 ISOs. My source for ISOs is a Visual Studio subscription. You can also get them from the MS volume license center if your business has access. Otherwise, you may have to resort to “shady sources” but I can give some SHA1 hashes. Again, if finding LTSB 2015 is a problem but you have a later LTSC image/license, you can upgrade to “regular” Windows 10 and then from there to LTSC using the trick described up top; as long as you are never going backwards with the major build number it should work.

If you go to my OP, I describe making a change to the "EditionId" value in the registry to allow the upgrade. This is viable and works fine, I have done it at least ten times at this point to switch from a "regular" Windows 10 edition to Windows 10 LTSC in-place. It is not officially supported by Microsoft but I have never encountered any issues with it. My two current daily driver systems were upgraded in this manner over a year ago and are still working fine. The Microsoft source that you quoted above is exactly what I am talking about. Microsoft allowed Windows 7/8/8.1 users to upgrade to Windows 10 LTSB 2015 by accident. Rather, they failed to put an upgrade block in place. It is not officially supported, but it does work without any registry trickery. If you're looking for an "officially supported" mechanism to upgrade from non-LTSC to LTSC (without a clean install), there is none. You could probably use a similar registry trick to allow an upgrade from Windows 7/8/8.1 directly to a later version of Windows 10 LTSB/LTSC. I've never done this so I do not know exactly what values would need to be changed.

I have personally done such an upgrade but I actually don't recall if I was upgrading from Windows 8 or 8.1. I thought it was 8.1 but I might be mistaken. I do know that Microsoft did not intend to allow any upgrades from old versions of Windows to Windows 10 LTSB, and it is sort of an "accident" that this is allowed for LTSB 2015. It was properly blocked for later versions. ...If Windows 8.1 does not allow an upgrade to Windows 10 LTSB 2015, you could just upgrade to regular Windows 10 (21H2 or earlier) and then upgrade from there to LTSB/LTSC using the procedure that I describe up in the OP.

For these, the CPU fan is easily swappable without removing anything other than the bottom panel and you can find new ones cheap on eBay, so I'd say just replace it if it is causing you issues.

Acronis True Image uses Volume Shadow Copy to create a storage snapshot before executing a backup. (This is also true if most or all other programs that allow capturing a drive image while the system is running.) This is what basically allows a consistent "point in time" backup to be taken while you continue to use the system. If you shrink the VSS space, make sure that your backup still works. You can also look at System Restore and see how much space is allocated to it. Old control panel -> System -> System protection -> (Pick a drive &) Configure. I generally allocate at least 10% of space. Being able to get old versions of files back through the "Previous Versions" tab on any file properties has come in very handy on more than one occasion.

Eh, something has to happen because SODIMM is not the future. SODIMM is going to have signaling issues and won't work at higher speeds (likely this will be an issue before DDR5 runs its course). Either the industry will have to settle on a replacement (...that went really well with MXM, right?...), or different manufacturers will each have their own standards with no interoperability, or it will be soldered RAM for all. Dell is pitching CAMM to JEDEC so we will see what happens.

You can upgrade in-place to Windows 11 even on unsupported hardware. You will need ISO media (it won’t come down through Windows Update). The Rufus trick to generate the image should be fine, but Microsoft also has documented steps to skip some of the compatibility checks. Do note that getting the yearly major upgrade will also require work (a new ISO and manual install). That won’t come down through Windows Update either.

Thanks, and yes, I am familiar with Storage Spaces and had been using it prior to getting the Precision 7770. Hoping that it is more reliable. I normally don't have bad data drives doing BSODs... I'd rather expect straight-up read errors or hangs. What is weird is that it was working fine for the past few months... and now it is not. (I just finished moving all of my data from the RAID array to an external drive. The transfer ran for about 7.5 hours to a USB 3 drive. I'm about to do the Storage Spaces setup, and then I will work on putting the data all back. I could have just blown it away and pulled from my NAS backup, but I think that would have taken even longer.......)

Dunno what he is using for ripping? I use AnyDVD HD and it is very good about getting around disc protections. (All it does it remove protections, still need some other software like MakeMKV to do the rip.)

The BIOS doesn't save anything with regards to the RAID arrays configured... It is all handled by metadata stored on the drives themselves. (You can move a RST array to another system just by moving the drives over and it will be automatically recognized.)

I'd also check to see if it is visible from your working Windows system as a second drive. Even if you don't have admin rights, you should be able to open Device Manager or Disk Management and confirm its presence. (It will let you see devices, just not change anything.) I'm at a loss as well, I wonder if there is some Dell BIOS security thing that has been put in place that prevents other drives from being recognized. If you put the original SSD in there and go through Windows setup to the point of picking a drive to install on, does it show up as an option? Or do you get no drives in the list in that case as well?

Got another one very shortly after rolling the BIOS back, so that's not it. (This one also blames refs.sys.) I rolled back the December 2022 Windows Update (which I did at the same time as the BIOS update). I'm working on switching from Intel RAID to Storage Spaces (so that I can disable Intel RST in BIOS) and if that doesn't fix it, I'll see about using tools like this to determine if I have a bad drive.

Got another BSOD after clearing the NVRAM. I'm now pretty sure that it is storage related. (I got one BSOD from the BitLocker driver, one from the ReFS file system driver, ...) Since I didn't start getting these until after the 1.8.0 BIOS update, I am now rolling back to 1.7.1 and I will see if the issue persists. Other things I can think of: Intel RST doesn't like my 8TB drives and I'll have to disable RAID and use AHCI/NVMe mode. (...A pain; I'll have to migrate all of my data off of the RAID array, set up Storage Spaces, and move it back.) It wouldn't be the first time someone has had issue with Intel RST running drives with "higher-than-spec'ed" capacity. ...Maybe one of my 8TB drives is actually flaky and I'll have to have it replaced.

Huh. The Intel RST driver is only required if the system is set to "RAID" mode (which is the default setting from the factory, even if you didn't include any RAID arrays in your build). I didn't have any issues getting that driver to load on Windows 10. (I've only used the stock Windows 11 image from Dell, I have not tried to install it myself.) I can't speculate as to why Windows setup would not be able to see the drives if the system is set to AHCI/NVMe mode. I've never encountered that before .....

Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty To Federal Fraud Charges In New York https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/03/sam-bankman-fried-pleads-not-guilty-to-fraud-charges-in-new-york.html I guess "swift justice" isn't a thing.

You need the Intel Rapid Storage drivers from Dell. The generic package from Intel's web site does not work with newer Dell systems. Go to dell.com/support and find the RST package that applies to your model. Extract it and find the "f6flpy" folder -- that contains the driver files for Windows setup. Alternatively, you can go to BIOS setup and switch the disk controller mode from "RAID" to "AHCI/NVMe" (if you do not plan to use a RAID array). Then Windows setup will be able to find the drives without an extra driver needed. Note that the existing Windows install will not boot after switching the disk controller mode unless you take extra steps.