Windows 10 November 2019 Update - Here is everything you need to know - OUT NOW!

LAwLz · November 18, 2019

3 minutes ago, GoodBytes said:

Hmm intresting. This may have to do with the update being very small, and not a full on version release. It something I need to see on my work computer (as it isn't on Insider program) once the Update Assistance is released or the version is out for it.. whichever comes first.

The other option is to do a System Restore (go back in time) before the update.

That would explain why I couldn't do a rollback.

But I have good news! I unplugged everything but my mouse, clicked uninstall on the USB 3.1 host controller (this time it took like 10 seconds rather than 15+ minutes), restarted my computer and then plugged everything back in... and it works now!

So the issue seems to have been USB controller driver related, and the fix was to uninstall and reinstall it. It felt really wonky and scary though since I could have ended up disabling the only ports that actually worked. If I had done that, I would have needed to reinstall Windows.

porina · November 18, 2019

14 minutes ago, LAwLz said:

It felt really wonky and scary though since I could have ended up disabling the only ports that actually worked. If I had done that, I would have needed to reinstall Windows.

Good to hear you managed to fix it. If your mobo supports it, have PS2 keyboard+mouse just in case. Also most of my systems have some remote desktop ability as another route in.

vanished · November 24, 2019

The tool to force an upgrade is now available for me and I've tried it on my laptop. First and only issue I've noticed so far is it appears to have updated my video drivers, or at least made problematic tweaks to the settings. ~~I'll report back once I know this for certain and have rectified the issue.~~

Yup that's definitely what happened but it's all good now.

For those who don't know the background, the short story is my laptop has hardware for which an unfortunate problem exists - the latest available driver is not one that works, and I must thus use a specific older version. As such I don't imagine this will be an issue for most people but if you are also in the same boat, be aware of this behaviour during the update.

If you're still curious about the long version, here we go...

Spoiler

AMD graphics cards have (or at least had) a feature known as "ULPS" - "ultra low power state", or something like that. Essentially, a power saving feature. As a result of this feature which is on by default, the dedicated graphics effectively turn off when running on iGPU so no additional power is consumed. This is essential for a laptop since when using the dedicated 6770m, battery life is massively reduces and heat output is noticeably increased, even when just sitting at the desktop.

The problem with the latest driver is it introduces an issue with the ULPS system. In the enabled state, you will be greeted by a black screen upon booting and this will remain unchanged for roughly a minute before the computer "wakes up" and continues operating normally. This is of course rather unacceptable. There is a "solution", but it's far from perfect. The other option is to disable ULPS using a registry tweak, but this causes the unpleasant behaviour I described above, so also not acceptable.

Due to the switchable graphics and other issues including but not limited to drivers not wanting to install older versions over newer ones, this computer has always been an issue for getting drivers working, but thankfully I have a working, reliable, and pain-free installer package that takes care of both the AMD and Intel side of things made by a third party (Leshcat).