Patch Lady – the battery problem

Technology and batteries have a love hate relationship with each other. We need batteries to power many of our laptops and devices. Yet we still rely on battery technology that when it’s not working right could lead to dangerous conditions. A year ago Amazon contacted me proactively about several USB battery blocks I had. The batteries could explode. So they send me prepaid shipping boxes to safely send back the batteries and refunded me in full for my purchase. I had purchased my bricks several years before so I was surprised with out Amazon handled the recall. It was efficient and quite frankly, given the age of the battery bricks, generous.

Surface devices are not immune to battery issues. There are numerous threads in various forums about bulging screens that are as a result of battery issues. While there are threads about successful resolutions with units swapped out for refurbished units, there are also other threads where customers have been given conflicting information and some have had to pay to fix the issue. The tell tale signs of an impacted system is a screen that no longer fits well with the rest of the unit.

Calling up support appears to be a bit of Russian roulette. Depending on your location, support may tell you that you have to pay for the service. Or they may fully replace the unit at no charge. Some will even tell you that there’s no problem at all with a bulging battery:

However as Barb Bowman points out, other tech companies like Best Buy inform their customers that bulging batteries are indeed a problem and they should be handled very carefully. If you are impacted by or suspect you have a unit that has a bulge, the best way to handle the issue is to immediately stop using the device. If you have a Microsoft store near you, take it back to the Microsoft store. If you do not have a Microsoft store near you (the closest one to me is four hours away), the best thing to do is to call Microsoft during business hours and discuss the issue of the bulging screens. If you receive a support personnel that does not handle the bulging screen issue seriously, call back and try with another support personnel or better yet ask to speak to a supervisor. You may also try to get service online.

Surface devices are notoriously hard to repair. So much so that the ifixit site indicates they are difficult to get into and cannot be upgraded. The Surface Pro 6 has a repairability of 1 out of 10.

Surface devices aren’t the only ones with battery issues. Even Macbooks have had to start a replacement program to deal with their bulging problems. Lenovo’s had to replace impacted batteries that failed. HP had to expand a recent recall due to battery issues.

Bottom line, take a look at your laptop. No matter the brand, no matter the price tag. If you start to see your screen bulge, or see a yellow tint on the screen, don’t try to fix the computer yourself, contact the vendor of the laptop and see what they can do for your issue. Batteries shouldn’t fail. And when they do, it can be dangerous. Sign up for notifications from your laptop vendor or keep an eye on recall notices.

If your device is under warranty, or in the case of Surface devices, less than three years old, chances are very good that you will get a replacement.

A note about newsletter subscriptions

If you’re an AskWoody Plus member — you can see the gold ribbon next to your picture – you should be receiving AskWoody Plus Newsletters in the mail on Monday morning (U.S. time). You’ll also get Alerts from time to time, as news breaks.

Plus keeps this site going.

If you’re a Plus member and you aren’t getting Newsletters, shoot me mail! CustomerSupport@AskWoody.com.

There’s a bug in our subscription renewal system that may affect people who re-registered about the time their original subscriptions expired. I can manually check to see if you’re affected and, if so, get you back on track. Meanwhile, I’m trying to track down the bug.

If you want to change your email address, it’s a two-step process (one of the joys of maintaining separate databases for the Lounge and for the Newsletters):

To change your AskWoody email address — the one that’s used primarily for password change requests — log on, then click the My account link in the upper right. Choose Account details. Change your email address to whatever you like and click Save changes.

To change the delivery address for newsletters — at the bottom of any newsletter or alert, you’ll see a line that says

Update your email address or password

Click on the link that says Update and you can change your newsletter delivery address there.

Some day we’ll have all of this tied together. Some day.

If you’re still using your email address to log on to AskWoody, you need to get that changed. Again, shoot me mail at CustomerSupport@AskWoody.com. I’ll get you a “proper” AskWoody acount and your Plus membership will continue unabated. Promise.

MS-DEFCON 2: Keep the May 2019 patches off your machine for now

Tomorrow’s Patch Tuesday and, if it’s like other Patch Tuesdays for the past year or two, it’ll be accompanied by howls of pain.

Don’t be an unpaid beta tester. Get Windows Update locked down.

We’re at MS-DEFCON 2: Patch reliability is unclear. Unless you have an immediate, pressing need to install a specific patch, don’t do it.

Full details in Computerworld.

Woody’s Windows Watch: Sticking with Windows 7? You aren’t alone.

If you plan on keeping Windows 7 beyond its expiry date, January of next year, you aren’t alone. Hundreds of millions of PCs will continue to use Win7, in spite of Microsoft’s exhortations to the contrary.

Here’s a look at how the Win10 upgrade effort is proceeding – and what I’m doing with the Seven Semper Fi machine to keep the wolves at bay.

In AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.17.0 — mailed out this morning to all AskWoody Plus members.

Langalist: Remove vendor-installed junkware, vet “Update needed” and booting a Virtual PC

Fred continues his LangaList streak, tackling three subjects:

• How to uninstall pre-installed junk on a Win10 PC
• Is that “Security update needed” popup bogus?
• Can you use a Virtual PC to boot your computer?

Interesting questions. Insightful answers.

Out this morning in the AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.17.0, delivered free to all Plus members.

Deanna’s Freeware Spotlight: USBFlashCopy

I bet you have a gazillion USB drives hanging around. I do, and I’m constantly trying to figure out which one(s) I can re-use without destroying something valuable. There’s a solution: Back up your USB drives before you obliterate them.

Freeware guru Deanna from OlderGeeks.com has a solution: USBFlashCopy automatically backs up your USB drives (and memory cards) when they’re plugged into your PC.

Full instructions out this morning in AskWoody Plus Newsletter issue 16.17.0.

Troubleshooting: Use system images to fix major PC hassles

Windows 10 has a built-in (and ancient) whole-disk backup tool called System Images. It works, most of the time, but you need to know about the gotchas. You can also use System Restore points – as long as you had the foresight to turn them on in advance.

Michael Lasky takes you through the built-in basics in the new AskWoody Plus Newsletter 16.17.0 — out this morning to Plus members.

We just went over 1,000,000 posts

And the Windows Secrets merge continues…

More problems installing the April Monthly Rollups if you have Avira antivirus

Remember the ongoing problems with the six (now nine) Win7/8.1/Server patches and the five-or-so incompatible antivirus programs? Bluescreens, extreme slowdowns and the like.

Earlier this month, when we switched over to MS-DEFCON 4, I was a bit skeptical about Avira. Here’s what I said in the Computerworld article:

In a private communication, an Avira spokesperson says that Microsoft is no longer blocking the problematic patches on machines running Avira.

And in fact an Avira spokesman told me on May 2:

Avira delivered an automatic update to all Windows users on April 17. MS also offers again all updates to Avira users. Unfortunately, MS has still not updated its KB article

Microsoft’s snazzy new Release Information page was updated on May 3 to say:

System may be unresponsive after restart if Avira antivirus software installed

Microsoft and Avira have identified an issue on devices with Avira antivirus software installed that may cause the system to become unresponsive upon restart after installing KB4493472. Microsoft has temporarily blocked devices from receiving this update if Avira antivirus software is installed.

Next steps: Avira has released an automatic update to address this issue. Guidance for Avira customers can be found in the Avira support article.

The Release Information page marks the problem as “Mitigated.” But there are many folks who would beg to differ.

@rhp52 has reported continuing problems getting the Win7 April Monthly Rollup installed while Avira Antivirus is running. Several posters have noted that Avira keeps updating versions — it’s now up to 15.0.1905.1249 — but no joy in Mudville.

For now, it seems like the best advice for those running Avira antivirus is to:

1. Make sure Avira is as up to date as you can get it.
2. Download the Monthly Rollup (which file depends on the version of Windows that you’re using)
3. Make a full system backup. I use EaseUS Todo Backup Free, but there are many alternatives.
4. Disconnect from the internet
5. Install the Rollup
6. Reconnect.

Any contrary opinions or experiences?

Alhonen: Microsoft put my Outlook account in quarantine for using iPhone’s native Mail app

Microsoft just put my Outlook account in quarantine for not using Microsoft’s own Outlook app but iPhone’s native Mail app 🙁 pic.twitter.com/SHYWYfwyyr

— Tero Alhonen💙💛 (@teroalhonen) May 11, 2019

Patch Lady – seeing Outlook authentication issues

On a private facebook group and on this thread in a Microsoft forum I’ve been seeing issues where Outlook via Office 365 is having issues authenticating.  I’m not quite sure of the trigger.  I don’t think it’s due to updates.  But the symptoms are that suddenly Outlook can’t authenticate and an error message that references a trusted platform module

“”something went wrong” error that Trusted Platform Module has malfunctioned, error code 80090016.  The server message is “Keyset does not exist Keyset does not exist”

There are a couple of ways around the issue.

1. Build a new profile.  Icky but it works.
2.  Enable multi factor authentication (which is wise to do anyway)
3. Clear out the TPM chip cache (it appears some corruption is occurring which messes up the authentication)
4. Or use this registry setting:

Shut down Outlook and set the following registry key. (Disables modern authentication)
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Common\Identity\
REG_DWORD
EnableADAL
0

Running SharePoint Server? Better get your patches brought up to date

I just got a tip from @SimonZerafa, referencing a tweet from Kevin Beaumont:

https://twitter.com/GossiTheDog/status/1126833629236215808

The exposure occurs in SharePoint Server 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019. Microsoft released patches in February and March of this year. If you’re running SharePoint Server, make sure you follow the fine print at the bottom of the Security Update Guide and install both patches for SharePoint Server 2010 and 2013.