Western Digital NVME Windows 11 24H2 BSODs

[Grogan]

This is a Windows problem mostly, but since Western Digital is mitigating it, I'll put it here.

Western Digital/Sandisk had to issue firmware updates for this. Fucking Microsoft, instead of realizing that their bullshit causes problems with hardware, they force hardware to conform with their bullshit.

https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/17/ ... _firmware/

The update "Addresses an issue with the HMB (Host Memory Buffer) for certain models of Western Digital and SanDisk SSDs, where the drive may cause a BSOD on Windows 11 24H2." The affected NVMe SSDs are WD_BLACK SN770, WD_BLACK SN770M, WD Blue SN580, WD Blue SN5000, and SanDisk Extreme M.2. All are 2TB devices.

Both of my NVME drives are affected models, black and blue.

However, they are never going to see a Windows install and Linux doesn't have that problem (wouldn't use the same methods for host buffer access). I would update them anyway, but it requires Western Digital Dashboard on Windows to update the firmware... and updating drive firmware poses a risk of data loss.

[Michael_horatio]

Thanks for that.
I do quite a few Windows 11 installs, but so far no WD NVMEs and no 24H2 versions. For a long time now I've been buying Samsung or Crucial NVME drives as they seem to have been the best deals at the time.

[Grogan]

I'm soon going to be downloading 24H2, but I'll be using it in a VM where it'll be the virtio drivers and Linux kernel on the host. (I can start working on that article again now that it's out and I can get an ISO)

[Zema Bus]

I've been hearing that removing Recall breaks File Explorer.

[Michael_horatio]

I'm soon going to be downloading 24H2, but I'll be using it in a VM where it'll be the virtio drivers and Linux kernel on the host. (I can start working on that article again now that it's out and I can get an ISO)

I've been trying to get it tonight, But it's been validating my request for 20 minutes..

[Grogan]

Right after I posted, I downloaded it. It took a few seconds for the two steps and it downloaded at 15 Mb/sec. Guess I got lucky

You'd have to hack it out somehow to remove it, but Recall can be permanently disabled and all snapshot data deleted. That's something to cover in the article too now, I guess.

[Michael_horatio]

I got it this morning no problems. I installed in a qemu vm but couldn't get any kind of graphics so did a Virtualbox VM on a windows host and once guest additions were installed it was good, runs very nice after a bit of debloating. That recall program was enabled but didn't show up anywhere that I could see. I disabled it and nothing changed with Windows explorer. I'm sure whatever it is it will come right back with an update. I would definitely want to rip that out permanently. I don't plan on updating my Windows 11 setup with 24h2. There are lots of little changes but nothing I really care about. It runs very well in the VM.
It had some silly power saving thing enabled by default so High Performance power plan had to be set.

https://mikeserv.org/coppermine/display ... play_media
https://www.mikeserv.org/coppermine/dis ... play_media

[Grogan]

Oh? I have decent graphics with Virt-manager/KVM using the virtio video driver. There isn't 3D acceleration in the Windows driver like virgl in Linux guests, but it's good 2D. I did a clean install, and even before installing the latest guest tools (which I Downloaded from here ) I had a usable display at lower res. I used the ISO to avoid having to transfer the .exe to the guest (with it mounted, simply run it etc.). The "stable" are probably too old for 24H2.

I wouldn't have expected THAT to choke on Nvidia host drivers (without trying to initialize direct rendering)

Yours, with the dark UI looks a Hell of a lot better than mine. I'm keeping mine fugly vanilla for reference. At least until later, perhaps I'll cover that.

[Michael_horatio]

Hmm, maybe I'll try it again with virt-manager KVM and the virtio driver. I'd rather use that. I don't really like Virtualbox much.

[Michael_horatio]

Did another one today on the linux host with virt-manager/KVM. I did install the virtio video driver this time and yes, much better. Actually I had fairly decent graphics the first KVM win11 vm. Main problem was not being able to get the proper resolution, but everything is working great now.
It's adequate if I have to boot into Windows from my linux setup for something. It feels like it can run pretty much any regular applications. Graphic performance is a bit better than the virtualbox vm I did yesterday. I'll keep piling stuff on it for a while and see how it does. Thanks for the help.

https://www.mikeserv.org/coppermine/dis ... play_media

[Grogan]

I like that the business end is right in the kernel (well, the KVM module). It gets updated with the kernel, and I don't have to worry about it. Before I started using virt-manager, I stubbornly used the command like Qemu client, and used it for 4+ years without so much as a recompile... because it was just a front end for launching the KVM virtual machine (with the entire virtual machine configuration in the command line)

I got pissed off at virtualbox when they stopped updating their kernel module code often enough. I got tired of getting in over my head trying to make the module compile. (as you know I always use current upstream kernel, my way). I also don't like the company that controls it, Oracle. So they were relegated to fucking off, real hard, once I discovered what I could have with KVM.

[Grogan]

Does Windows 11 24H2 ever suck. It's more dumbed down than ever. I hate it, I hate it, I hate it.

For example, it's hard to get to an Administrator Command Prompt and/or PowerShell terminal now. "Run as Administrator" is not available where you go to find it in the alphabetized start menu, and it's not available if you Pin it to Taskbar. The only place (at least in Home Edition) is if you Pin it to the Start Menu.

Copilot can't be (legimately) disabled now, because of its integration with File Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Uninstalling it reverts File Explorer back to the older style. (I don't think it's removing Recall that causes that, because most PCs won't have that... it has to be a "Copilot+ PC", like one of those Surface devices. I don't have it available at all)

[Michael_horatio]

You really do hate it..
This VM I'm in is Windows 11 pro 24h2 and it's basically the same thing. I put them on the taskbar. For PS you have to right click it to get the admin prompt, and for CMD I hold Ctl-Shift to get admin.
I uninstalled copilot and it seems to be gone, BUT, I'm not logged into an ms account, just a local account, no OneDrive, and I use office(installed stand alone programs) but I don't ever log in to Microsoft. I think if I did, copilot would come back from what I've read. It may come back anyway. I'll watch for it.
What I really hate is Edge. What an obnoxious piece of crap that is. Anyway, I've just set this vm up so I have quick change to do a few thing now and then, I do some minor book keeping and tax stuff for a few family and friends. It has plenty of resources for what I need. I can pass my brother printer through and share folders with the Linux host. I really didn't notice if the file explorer changed. The version I have works fine and has tabs. I change tabs with the mouse wheel (click).
https://www.mikeserv.org/coppermine/dis ... play_media

[Grogan]

I'll look again, but I seem to only have it in the right click menu if the terminal or command prompt is pinned to start. I have to go into More Options and then Run as Administrator is in there. I didn't now about the CTRL-SHIFT though, I'll try that. Ideally I'd like it pinned to taskbar. In that dumbed down OS, that's my UI. I hate having to use that indexed search, that shit just bugs me because it relies on databases.

[Zema Bus]

Copilot got on my Windows 10 company laptop a while back, earlier in the year. It would get annoying and in the way about once a week and I'd have to close it. I just realized today I haven't seen it pop up in months. I checked the menu, I always saw it at the top of the menu anytime I was in there, but it's gone.

[Michael_horatio]

That's real AI Zema. It read your mind.