From: Allen Mulvey <allen@amulvey.com>
To: 'Microcontroller discussion list - Public.' <piclist@mit.edu>
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Date: Wed, 8 Jul 2020 07:44:36 -0700
Subject: [OT] WIN10 upgrade de-internets a zillion older PCs.
Thread-Topic: [OT] WIN10 upgrade de-internets a zillion older PCs.
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I'm surprised no one has commented on this so far. I think the problem of
"Updates" trashing hardware is pretty common. Not all updates are
improvements.

I have a primary rack in the basement, a secondary rack in the attic, and a
"play" rack next to my desk. (I like to play with hardware.) All are
interconnected by fiber, as are the servers and my desktop. Some time ago m=
y
desktop suddenly lost network connectivity. I switched over to copper while
I tried to figure out why the fiber was dead. Several days later the same
thing happened on my servers (at the time Hyper-V Server Core 2012). I was
using Mellanon ConnectX-2 interface boards. They were not certified for
Windows 10 but they were very cheap and worked quite well. I switched the
servers over to copper and ordered the "proper" but more expensive
ConnectX-3 boards. When they arrived I put one in my desktop and it was
good. I then went to the servers where I had left the old boards in place
and discovered that they were now working. Apparently a lot of other people
with a louder voice than me had the same problem and I failed to notice tha=
t
a fix had been pushed out.

Allen

-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of
RussellMc
Sent: Saturday, July 4, 2020 7:56 AM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Cc: VHome; RossGMail; ApptechNZ; Iain; ken@elecsyn.com
Subject: [CAUTION: Failed DKIM Test][OT] WIN10 upgrade de-internets a
zillion older PCs.

This may be of value to some whose older PCs suddenly lost internet
connectivity in the last few months.

Summary: Older PCs that lose their Internet connectivity after a recent
rolling automatic WIN10 update (from about May on) MAY be able to be
re-interneterised by adding a modern USB-LAN or USB-Wifi adaptor.
It seems likely but not certain that drivers used with some older hardware
has been rendered fatally inoperable by the upgrade.

Others may wish to put this in better technical-speak, but ...

_________________________________

In May a friend's old desktop PC running WIN10 (initially WIN7) lost it's
internet connectivity.
My days of spending countless hours attempting to unravel PC woes are
generally long past. Every now and again I forget the pain and ....
Here is the gist of an email I sent to another friend:

_____________

Martin

After multiple attempts to persuade Rena's PC to 'see' the internet I
achieved this in a manner which I now know that I could have done near
instantly and for $20 many weeks ago.

While there is much on the internet about the events that de-interneted a
very large number of PCs worldwide I have seen nothing which identifies
what appears to be the cause in many cases.
It appears that a WIN10 update which started to be rolled out in May (maybe
earlier in some locations) removed the ability for drivers for many older
network devices to function.

The devices may be

 - "missing" or
 - visible to the system but declared faulty or inoperational.
 - WiFi adaptors may be visible but report "No  networks available".

On Rena's PC with various devices I managed examples of all of the above :-=
)

*The solution was to buy current network adaptors *- in this case I tried a
USB to wired LAN and a USB to WiFi adaptor and both worked instantly.
Both cost about $20 at PBTech.
(Guess: I suspect that the old drivers were 16 bit and that the system
stopped recognising these. Old 16 bit WIN apps have long not been
supported).

In the interim I had obtained a latest WIN10 image and reinstalled it
twice, with no gain but with the loss of the original installation. (I have
a copy of all files, so nothing actually lost).

The USB to WiFi Dongle that worked prior to the May upgrade will presumably
function on WIN7 or before PCs.


          Russell
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