If you have a brand new Windows 8.1 tablet, never update to Windows 10, and if you do, make sure you create a system recovery image of Windows 8 before you do. This is not just yada-yada, I did not create a backup and now I am stuck with Windows 10 to the point of me considering just getting an Android tablet to take over the functionality of my Windows tablet.
The thing is, Windows 10 was never made for tablets. It was created to appease the mouse and keyboard crowd, not that I am not one of them. I am clinging to Windows 7 on my Workstation, but I do have a Windows 8.1 computer that acts as a media center with a TV attached to it, and it is not going to have Windows 7 or 10 installed on it any time soon.
Windows 8 is perfect for touch-oriented devices, and believe it or not, it had better battery life compared to Windows 10. The 8.1 media apps are okay, and it plays those extra Apps just fine - Asphalt 8 anyone?
Continuum just seems to be a pretty fancy name for having HDMI out and being able to attach a keyboard and mouse and a bigger monitor. I could do all that with Windows 8.1.
What makes me cringe is the dismal battery life. I do not really know what's wrong there, it just drains the battery of my device, even when it's in stand-by mode. It is absolutely unbelievable!
I wish I could get my Win 8.1 back without paying the price of a new tablet as a price for it. Too late now.
Note: Windows 10 gives you a time Window to roll back, but I missed that time period. My mistake.
Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Generic VGA cable issues
A lesson learned the hard way, and after spending a very good amount of money. Never, ever, ever buy generic VGA cables.
None of my operating systems could recognize my monitor or its native resolution, which led me to use a very nasty combination of tricks on Ubuntu (xrandr) to get the monitor to work at its native resolution over the gold plated $10 cable (it was actually a branded cable, but worse than OEM cables), and just setting the next best resolution in Windows.
When you need a good VGA cable, buy an old one that came bundled with a monitor over ebay, or try to convince the salesperson to try it for you at the store (almost impossible to achieve, I know). I wasted > $30 over this issue and an old $2 cable fixed the whole issue.
None of my operating systems could recognize my monitor or its native resolution, which led me to use a very nasty combination of tricks on Ubuntu (xrandr) to get the monitor to work at its native resolution over the gold plated $10 cable (it was actually a branded cable, but worse than OEM cables), and just setting the next best resolution in Windows.
When you need a good VGA cable, buy an old one that came bundled with a monitor over ebay, or try to convince the salesperson to try it for you at the store (almost impossible to achieve, I know). I wasted > $30 over this issue and an old $2 cable fixed the whole issue.
The Nightmare of Resetting Windows 10 on a Baytrail Tablet (Archos 80 Cesium)
It was innocuous enough. The reset functionality that comes with Windows 10 promised to make most problems go away and keeping your device snappy at the price of losing your files and apps, that was a price I was willing to pay, or so I thought.
I am having huge battery drain issues with my Archos 80 Cesium tablet since I upgraded to Windows 10. I thought that doing a full reset may fix the problem, and so I decided to go for it.
An hour later, I was greeted by a tablet with no drivers and a non-functioning touch screen that is stuck on the language selection screen of Windows Setup. I had to insert a USB keyboard and mouse through an OTG hub, and my quest for drivers began right there and then.
The things that were not working:
Like any honorable quest, it starts with a search engine. Here are the drivers I managed to get online:
1- Intel Chipset Drivers for the Z3700 Series: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverid=2121Y
2- Kionix KXCJ9 Driver: http://www.kionix.com/downloads
Installing the Chipset Drivers fixed the touchscreen not working issue, and made the tablet run a little bit cooler.
As for the graphics, we will just go to Device Manager, choose the Microsoft Basic Driver, and choose update driver, then let it search automatically for updated driver software online. This fixes the graphics being sluggish issue.
As for sound, do the exact same thing with device manager, this time make it search for the driver for the Intel SST Audio Device and the Generic Loudspeaker. This fixes the no sound issue.
The Kionix driver fixes the accelerometer problem and made Windows add the rotation lock to the settings menu. However, the portrait orientation was reversed, or upside down. This needed to be fixed by doing the following:
This fixes the auto-rotation issue.
I am having huge battery drain issues with my Archos 80 Cesium tablet since I upgraded to Windows 10. I thought that doing a full reset may fix the problem, and so I decided to go for it.
An hour later, I was greeted by a tablet with no drivers and a non-functioning touch screen that is stuck on the language selection screen of Windows Setup. I had to insert a USB keyboard and mouse through an OTG hub, and my quest for drivers began right there and then.
The things that were not working:
- Touch.
- Sound.
- Graphics were sluggish - Windows was using a generic driver.
- Auto-rotation.
Like any honorable quest, it starts with a search engine. Here are the drivers I managed to get online:
1- Intel Chipset Drivers for the Z3700 Series: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/19/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverid=2121Y
2- Kionix KXCJ9 Driver: http://www.kionix.com/downloads
Installing the Chipset Drivers fixed the touchscreen not working issue, and made the tablet run a little bit cooler.
As for the graphics, we will just go to Device Manager, choose the Microsoft Basic Driver, and choose update driver, then let it search automatically for updated driver software online. This fixes the graphics being sluggish issue.
As for sound, do the exact same thing with device manager, this time make it search for the driver for the Intel SST Audio Device and the Generic Loudspeaker. This fixes the no sound issue.
The Kionix driver fixes the accelerometer problem and made Windows add the rotation lock to the settings menu. However, the portrait orientation was reversed, or upside down. This needed to be fixed by doing the following:
- Click on the start button.
- Choose All Apps -> Windows-System -> Run -> regedit.exe
- Go to HLKM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\ROOT\SENSOR\0000\kxfusion
- Add a new binary value (from the edit menu), call it Orientation
- Enter the following: 0000 01 00 00 01 01 00 02
- Restart the tablet
So, everything seems to be fixed but the dismal battery life, but that seems to be a problem with Windows 10 itself, rather than a problem with the drivers.
Monday, September 21, 2015
Installing Windows 10 on a 16 GB Windows Tablet
Not enough disk space, that was the message that the installation process gave me when I tried to update my tablet using the Windows 10 update App. It just said that it needed 6GB of disk space, then I just kept getting an error in Windows Update.
After my best cleanup attempts, and removing almost all the apps, programs, and Windows update files, I was left with just 2GB of free disk space. Certainly not close to the 6GB that the installer required.
What I did to get it to work was to refresh Windows, keeping my apps and settings. This left me with 3GB of disk space, still not enough.
I decided to download Windows using the Windows 10 media creation tool to give it a try - make sure to choose the 32-bit version, and chose the SD card as the target media. I had to do this using my desktop computer as it still required 6GB of free space on the C: drive.
I then inserted the SD card into the tablet, started the installer. It still asked for 6GB of free space, or an external medium with 8GB. I chose the SD card as the external medium, and it worked!!
I now have a brand new installation of Windows 10 on my Archos 80 Cesium tablet.
After my best cleanup attempts, and removing almost all the apps, programs, and Windows update files, I was left with just 2GB of free disk space. Certainly not close to the 6GB that the installer required.
What I did to get it to work was to refresh Windows, keeping my apps and settings. This left me with 3GB of disk space, still not enough.
I decided to download Windows using the Windows 10 media creation tool to give it a try - make sure to choose the 32-bit version, and chose the SD card as the target media. I had to do this using my desktop computer as it still required 6GB of free space on the C: drive.
I then inserted the SD card into the tablet, started the installer. It still asked for 6GB of free space, or an external medium with 8GB. I chose the SD card as the external medium, and it worked!!
I now have a brand new installation of Windows 10 on my Archos 80 Cesium tablet.
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