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Windows 7 durability against power issues

Windows 7 on ThinkPads
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samveen
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Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:28 am
Location: Gurgaon, HR, India

Windows 7 durability against power issues

#1 Post by samveen » Sun May 19, 2019 8:30 pm

Today, my laptop underwent an unclean poweroff (a second time), and on the next boot up into windows, all input devices stopped working. The keyboard, trackpoint, trackpad and external USB mouse, were all unresponsive. I didn't try a USB keyboard (I didn;t have one lying round), but I expect it would show the same symptoms.

This is the second time my laptop has suffered the exact same issue:
  • The laptop turns off when the battery fails (not a windows shutdown, just power loss)
  • On startup, the trackpad and trackpoint dont respond, but the keyboard is responsive enough that I can log in.
  • After login, even the keyboard is unresponsive.

    The funny thing is that only those part of the keyboard that need OS interpretation don't work; those actions that signal the board/Bios directly work just fine. The thinklight toggle indicator shows up on screen correctly when i toggle fn+space, and the power button works fine. Other than that, everything else is just *dead*.

    The solution seems to be to use windows recovery to go back to the last restore point.

    From this, it seems to me that Windows has horrible durability when it comes to power issues. Or maybe I've not configured it properly. Whatever the issue, I know that the aftermarket battery (something that mimics a Sanyo 45N1023 **badly**) has to go, as it loses power around the time it indicates it has almost 20%.

    Is this a common issue with windows 7? How can I ameliorate it such that post such a power loss, I don't get an unresponsive system? Or it prevention the only way?

    Note. I've been off Windows for more than 4 years, but from the little I remember, the situation was supposedly much better.

Cigarguy
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Re: Windows 7 durability against power issues

#2 Post by Cigarguy » Sun May 19, 2019 9:46 pm

No OS likes instant power shutoff. Not good for the hardware either. Get a new battery.

Thinkpad4by3
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Re: Windows 7 durability against power issues

#3 Post by Thinkpad4by3 » Sun May 19, 2019 9:49 pm

Cigarguy wrote:
Sun May 19, 2019 9:46 pm
No OS likes instant power shutoff. Not good for the hardware either. Get a new battery.
You forgot to mention the human doesn't like it either :P .

+1
Thinkpad4by3's Law of the Universe.

The efficiency of two screens equally sized with equal numbers if pixels are equal. The time spent by a 4:3 user complaining about 16:9 is proportional to the inefficiency working with a 16:9 display, therefore the amount of useful work extracted is equal.

dr_st
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Re: Windows 7 durability against power issues

#4 Post by dr_st » Sun May 19, 2019 11:13 pm

samveen wrote:
Sun May 19, 2019 8:30 pm
From this, it seems to me that Windows has horrible durability when it comes to power issues. Or maybe I've not configured it properly. Whatever the issue, I know that the aftermarket battery (something that mimics a Sanyo 45N1023 **badly**) has to go, as it loses power around the time it indicates it has almost 20%.

Is this a common issue with windows 7? How can I ameliorate it such that post such a power loss, I don't get an unresponsive system? Or it prevention the only way?

Note. I've been off Windows for more than 4 years, but from the little I remember, the situation was supposedly much better.
All of my computers, running various versions of Windows, have suffered unexpected power losses at one point or another, and yet I've never encountered the symptoms you describe. I therefore conclude that it is something specific to your system.
Thinkpad 25 (20K7), T490 (20N3), Yoga 14 (20FY), T430s (IPS FHD + Classic Keyboard), X220 4291-4BG
X61 7673-V2V, T60 2007-QPG, T42 2373-F7G, X32 (IPS Screen), A31p w/ Ultrabay Numpad

samveen
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Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:28 am
Location: Gurgaon, HR, India

Re: Windows 7 durability against power issues

#5 Post by samveen » Mon May 20, 2019 11:48 am

dr_st wrote:
Sun May 19, 2019 11:13 pm
All of my computers, running various versions of Windows, have suffered unexpected power losses at one point or another, and yet I've never encountered the symptoms you describe. I therefore conclude that it is something specific to your system.
I may have a culprit, but not sure yet. I dual-boot Linux and Win7, and the bios clock value keeps flip-flopping between UTC and local time depending on whether windows booted last or Linux.

After installing the Sierra MC7710, I've got the network connecting automatically, and time configuration on both linux and Win7 is to use network time services to set the time and zone automatically. Win7 likes to live in localtime and has issues with UTC H/W time, while Linux is exactly the opposite.

I have seen the certificates of some device drivers as being declared invalid, which is sometimes a sign of certificate issues brought about by bad time configuration. I believe this may be affecting the-system.

Google helps provide some suggestions but none look good. The only thing I can think of is to add a shutdown-time hwclock command in linux to change the bios time to the current localtime. As Linux is more sane in handling clock skew and drift, this small hack may save me a lot of time and effort on recovery down the line.

axur-delmeria
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Re: Windows 7 durability against power issues

#6 Post by axur-delmeria » Mon May 20, 2019 12:14 pm

Stop using that battery. It may cause irreversible damage to the laptop over time.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
Impulse Buy: Thinkpad not named for safety reasons :lol:
RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

samveen
Posts: 47
Joined: Sat Apr 27, 2019 12:28 am
Location: Gurgaon, HR, India

Re: Windows 7 durability against power issues

#7 Post by samveen » Wed May 22, 2019 8:38 am

I've managed to trace the problem issues to 4 drivers not being loaded correctly, which leads to the failure of the input devices:
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:02 - The driver \Driver\iusb3xhc failed to load for the device PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_1E31&SUBSYS_21FA17AA&REV_04\3&42ffd25&0&A0.
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:02 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\iusb3xhc.sys failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:02 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\USBD.SYS failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:03 - The driver \Driver\SynTP failed to load for the device ACPI\LEN0020\4&840c776&0.
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:03 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\USBD.SYS failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:03 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\SynTP.sys failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:05 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\bcbtums.sys failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:05 - The driver \Driver\bcbtums failed to load for the device USB\VID_0A5C&PID_21E6\F82FA8E60686.
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:05 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\USBD.SYS failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:06 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\USBD.SYS failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:06 - Application popup: : \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\usbccgp.sys failed to load
  • 5/22/2019 16:53:06 - The driver \Driver\usbccgp failed to load for the device USB\VID_093A&PID_7352\6&259c322d&0&6.
As this shows, there is something going wrong with the USB 3x which is causing the other devices on the bus, like the keyboard and trackpad to fail as well. The trigger for this failure isn't yet clearly defined, but seems to be triggered when I install windows update KB890830 Windows malicious software removal tool May 2019.

I'll skip the updates for a bit and see if my root cause analysis is correct or is something going wrong elsewhere.

I've persistently enabled boot logging for windows to see if that shows anything the next time I am get the same issue. At times like this, I really wonder why I need windows at all... (until I hit the wall of human stupidity that is M$haft's Sales Department's clients I effing BM who started this [censored] with Dos.)

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