Solved Win8 upgrade experience

[lehnerus2000]

To solve issues like these, set your vmware players services to manual start up, and then use this tool/bat I wrote here:


http://www.sevenforums.com/free-dev...ram-but-great-people-using-vmware-player.html

You will also have a little slightly faster startup time without those services.

Nice.
I wrote a batch file to do the same thing on my PC.

I hate having lots of "useless" services constantly running when I don't need them.

It's a potential security risk (larger "attack surface") and it makes it more difficult to track down "rogue" processes.

 

[andrew129260]

You stated it perfectly lehnerus2000

 

[Slartybart]

Did you ever find a USB sleep setting in BIOS?

Checked BIOS on the last boot - the only USB reference is in Boot order. It was worth a shot looking though.

This was an early 2TB USB 3.0 drive, so I'm not going to sweat it. A new drive has been on my mind anyway. This one will be fine for cold storage data, but not connected all the time. I might go a completely different route than USB ext drives - USB is convenient, but I'd rather have speed and reliable data transfers (not saying USB isn't reliable....)

edit: There was no firmware update as expected - drives rarely have updates.

Thanks again Greg.

 

[gregrocker]

Go with an SSD. Next to a perfect Win7 install it is the best Upgrade you can have, even better than a new PC. I have 10 second boots and instantaneous performance on everything. It's a chip!

 

[DavidE]

I've been playing around with running 8.1 in a VM with Win 7 as the Host.
As of now it seems installing VMware Player broke my auto Sleep in Win 7
Win 7 can still manually sleep.

For you something sleeps that should stay awake, for me something stays awake that should sleep

I finally figured out it was a video/monitor issue.
The screen resolution changed to something unsupported on my LCD TV (monitor) that I haven't used from the PC in a long time.
I updated the GPU driver and that fixed the issue.
Sleep is working perfectly again.
I wondered what would happen if I have a VM running and the Host (PC) goes to sleep ... will it work?
Both the Host and Guest OSs work correctly on PC wakeup !

 

[DavidE]

To solve issues like these, set your vmware players services to manual start up, and then use this tool/bat I wrote here:


http://www.sevenforums.com/free-dev...ram-but-great-people-using-vmware-player.html

You will also have a little slightly faster startup time without those services.

Nice.
I wrote a batch file to do the same thing on my PC.

I hate having lots of "useless" services constantly running when I don't need them.

It's a potential security risk (larger "attack surface") and it makes it more difficult to track down "rogue" processes.

Thanks for this - much appreciated.
I wondered about all those services, but found my problem was a video issue.
I'll try these out as I also don't like unneeded processes and services always running.

 

[Slartybart]

Go with an SSD. Next to a perfect Win7 install it is the best Upgrade you can have, even better than a new PC. I have 10 second boots and instantaneous performance on everything. It's a chip!

Thanks Greg,

An SSD is in my future for the OS, but I have over 40 years of data. For that I need storage. I started scanning paper documents and photos as backup a long time. There are still Intellectual Property, contracts, and liability issues that necessitate retention. Not to mention having somewhere to put System images and backups.

I looked at changing the base on the GoFlex to accommodate NAS, one of the reasons it was purchased. I couldn't locate the base alone, with a drive yes. I'll call Seagate and see, they might not list it on the web. There are also seller refurbs for 5-20 bucks on eBay.

---

I keep pulling this off the back burner....

Start > settings > devices > default save locations > setup
fails with connect a drive

This brings me back to how Windows recognizes the drive as a portable device (Dev Mgr) or a device with storage (Devices and Printers)

I'm sure it's something simple that I haven't recalled or it's a new phenomenon on a new OS with an old device. I'm not ready to rip open the inf files or change the registry just yet. Win8 still has that "new car" smell and I want it keep it vanilla until I understand more about it.

Sure this means that stuff that can be fixed won't be until later, but this is not mission critical work.

ext HDD to the back burner once again

 

[Slartybart]

I finally figured out it was a video/monitor issue.
The screen resolution changed to something unsupported on my LCD TV (monitor) that I haven't used from the PC in a long time.
I updated the GPU driver and that fixed the issue.
Sleep is working perfectly again.
I wondered what would happen if I have a VM running and the Host (PC) goes to sleep ... will it work?
Both the Host and Guest OSs work correctly on PC wakeup !

Great news David. Did you get the updated driver from Windows Update (WU) or did you go to the Vendor's site?

I've suspected that the USB 3.0 driver (xHCI) provided by WU might be part of the issue with my ext HD. I want to rule out the simple stuff first as a learning experience. As I said, I'm about 2weeks away from really digging deeper into driver "issues".

I'm trying to avoid "spoiler alerts" by not looking at the tutorial section on EightForums. I know where to find the good stuff when I'm ready to solve any serious issues - which there are none yet.

There are some things I'd "like" to do - mostly customization and cosmetic, but that can wait.

Bill
.

 

[DavidE]

I got the driver from an AMD site.
WU has not offered any updates for my GPU for a long time.

 

[lehnerus2000]

VMware Services Batch File

Thanks for this - much appreciated.
I wondered about all those services, but found my problem was a video issue.
I'll try these out as I also don't like unneeded processes and services always running.

Here is the bat file I use:

View attachment Run_VMware_WS_and_Services.bat​

Obviously you will have to adjust it to suit your system setup.

 

[Slartybart]

Tried a few other ext HDs - getting more clues but no solution

my very old WD drive has always had to be coaxed from time to time. A chkdsk on the drive (need to learn the new chkdsk options!) threw an error - but no event was found Probably due to the user's lack of knowledge of the system

But... I did find what the USB troubleshooter did - event 137 system firmware has changed the processor's MTRR across a sleep state transition (S4). Clicking Event Log online help on the expanded event resulted in page not found.

Well it's good to know that some things haven't changed A search of TechNet turned up a Vista 64 hotfix that talked about mice and keyboards. Hey maybe that will make my MS wireless KB & Mouse work - nah! already replaced that HW.

Anyway, I know where to look if I need to pursue it.

I tried a few things that I thought should work with different drives attached - system image, file history, backup to ext drive - nada. But when I was trying to resolve the quirky old WD drive I right clicked the partition in Explorer and selected autoplay.....Hey, why was set drive up for file history there?

Ok, so I have to figure out File History.

But in all of these trials and errors, the ol' right click trick showed me something else.

That Start button MS put back does more than take you to the Start side

Go ahead right click it... go ahead Mike
RIGHT click the start button, I dare ya
(maybe you already found it - damn!)

 

[Indianatone]

Thanks David, as with every new system, I'll keep poking around for new or different stuff. There's always that extra bit that needs to be set

Read the manual? No way - poking things is much more fun.

I've been meaning to look a little deeper at this: Hyper-V - How to Use in Windows 8
- but that's two weeks away for me I think.

Hi, you may want to take a look at the answer provided by Adam F to add a boot entry to the Windows 8.1 boot menu if you are using any other Virtual software as I can tell you HV does not like VMWare.

Link to thread here:
Solved Hyper V and VMWare on the same machine

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks for the tip Tony. I'm not sure when I'll get to actually a Virtual machine, two weeks at the earliest is when I start digging deeper

David might benefit more at this point in time - and thank you again for adding info to / correcting a suggestion I made without any hands on.

@DavidW7incus: You mentioned the Window border width was problematic for you.
See: Border Width of Windows - Change in Windows 8

 

[Slartybart]

Pseudo Start menu(s)

I'm sure Shawn and other folks have this covered on Eightforums tutorials.

I know whs has a tut on toolbars here on SF (but my example is named Orb and it's on the left side where the Orb "belongs" )

The Start menu does provide system functions if you Right click it. I'm glad that I can shut down or sign out without having to go to Start. Having Search there is also handy. The controlling data for this menu seems to be in AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\WinX folders. I tried adding a Group 4 folder with a few shortcuts, but there must be other controls (registry?) because nothing appeared from Group 4. Anyway.... it's a start |

| Adding a new toolbar named Orb provided another pseudo start menu. It's fairly easy - create a folder to hold the toolbar objects (I first created a folder AppData\Local\Toolbars and then created a sub folder Orb, but you can put it anywhere and name it anything). Then create sub folders as pseudo groups and copy the shortcuts you want to appear in the toolbar to the "group" folders. Create a new toolbar on the taskbar and select the toolbar folder you previously made. Unlock the taskbar and drag the new toolbar to the far left. Then drag the far right end of the new toolbar to collapse it. Clicking on the >> gives you your menu items

 

[Slartybart]

I got the driver from an AMD site.
WU has not offered any updates for my GPU for a long time.

I've been thinking about how the issue on your machine was resolved through AMD. Unfortunately, I've never been able to find chipset drivers on the AMD / ATI site. If I dod a clean Win7 install - I have to load the base HP drivers to get the chipset package. Once it's on the machine I can use CIM to update them, but I can't get them directly from AMD first (SMbus and USB 30 are the two I recall giving me headaches at install time)

Since the drivers are on this machine under Win8, then I might be able to use CIM to update them, but I'm not sure. I'll play around in a few weeks with stuff like that.

As far as my sleepy drive goes, there's nothing on the web or SF or EF that has changed the status. After reading a lot, a brain cell cried out - "you're getting close it's either a powercfg command line option, or a registry change to the VEND". Then that brain cell died and I'm left with nothing about the memory

 

[DavidE]

I don't know if my link will help you, but it is where I downloaded from.
My GPU (AMD 4670) is OLD, and no longer supported as far as new drivers.
When I finally understood I had video issues, I Googled and found this LEGACY site...
Maybe I could have re-installed MY CURRENT driver to fix the issue, but I decided to try the "The Latest available" ...
I have a home-built, so no OEM PC manufacturer for me.
I don't remember what I Googled to find this but maybe this site will help you search

Legacy (AMD Catalyst™ Display Driver)

 

[Slartybart]

sleepy Seagate ext HDD "resolved"

The following did NOT help
select balanced power plan
set HD to 240 minutes
disable set selective USB
disable Link state

Set HW policy to write behind cache
toggle it back to quick removal

Hours of reading about power states and related subjects
-------

What did work?

Installed an older USB printer (which failed - the install just quit after I selected the USB port - just vanished)
- not worried about that though, the Minolta always gave me problems.

So now my drive stays awake and my system doesn't lag when that drive has to be accessed. I can save files to it with waiting 10-20 seconds for it to spin up.... Yay!!!!!

But why?????? - I don't care!

 

[ThrashZone]

Boy y'all have been busy,
I haven't seen any issues yet,
I don't like flash being built in but at least it can be disabled using normal methods,
All prior restore points are still in tact
I'm still glad I did dual boot instead of vm
Cheers.

 

[Slartybart]

Boy y'all have been busy,
I haven't seen any issues yet,
I don't like flash being built in but at least it can be disabled using normal methods,
All prior restore points are still in tact
I'm still glad I did dual boot instead of vm
Cheers.

Thanks for the update.

I've been wondering about Flash being built in. I'm thinking the built-in is only for IE Modern.
I have Flash in Control Panel, so that must be for IE Desktop.

Good to know about the RPs. I personally don't use them - images can be stored on another drive.

 

[ThrashZone]

Yea restore points are for the most part created by windows after loading important updates,
I've found them to be the most reliable,
But yes I've read the most reliable system image is best located on a different drive/ partition than the os,

The only thing that is bugging me is the win-8 boot manager,
It's really slow,
Last shut down coming from win-7 is the fastest mostly because if you/ I were last on win-7 and shut down,
Restart would use win-7 boot manager not win-8 boot manager,

But if you/ I were to shut down from win-8 restart would use win-8 boot manager on startup,
It's still only a couple of minutes but win-7 going either 7 or 8 only takes seconds to complete the transition,
Very odd,
Might have something to do with disabling fast start in win-8 as Brink's tutorial recommends disabling fast startup on win-8 side ?
Cheers.