A few weeks ago, a friend asked me what the problem might be when all browsers stop working. More specifically: Whenever they tried to launch either Microsoft Edge or Mozilla Firefox, they only got an error message saying they didn’t have sufficient permissions. It was a strange error – why would permissions suddenly be missing after years of trouble-free operation?

After some back-and-forth, we managed to install a new version of Mozilla Firefox with step-by-step phone instructions and finally installed AnyDesk using a working browser, which allowed me to take a look at the problem myself. That’s when a surprise came to light: The PC has been running Windows 8.1 Home, 64-bit, just as it always has!

Having gone without any updates for quite some time (end of life was on January 10, 2023!), the problem ultimately came down to expired root certificates. Continuing to run 8.1 wasn’t a viable option anyway, so I performed an in-place upgrade to Windows 10 22H2 remotely via AnyDesk. That took hours because the factory-installed 3.5″ WD hard drive with 1 TB capacity* is still the boot drive. The already very underpowered fourth-generation dual-core i3 is further severely hampered by the now very limited 4 GB of DDR3 RAM in the form of a single memory module. All in all, a significantly outdated system, but one with the potential to be upgraded very cost-effectively. That’s exactly what I did today, a few days later.

After a deep clean, everything looks so much brighter:

Upgrades

The PC is used solely for viewing photos and occasional web browsing. So there’s no reason to switch to the very latest and most expensive hardware. For a reasonable price, you can still get a lot out of this 2014 Acer Aspire, here’s a comparison of the current components and the planned upgrade:

The UEFI was already up to date; I checked that before taking anything apart. The reason is that newer processors within the same generation are usually only supported by updated microcode in the form of a newer BIOS or UEFI version. The planned i7-4790 is actually a refresh within Haswell-DT, so it’s even newer than the original i7 release models and incompatibilities cannot be ruled out.

Here are the components; everything except the CPU is from my own stash:

Processor replacement

This is incredibly easy thanks to the FC-LGA 1150 socket:

For thermal paste, I used the tried-and-true MX-4 from Arctic* and 99.9% isopropyl alcohol* to clean the components. I added the two new RAM modules, and lo and behold: POST was successful, and it’s running. Everything is recognized correctly in the UEFI. Now I just need to shrink the partitions, clone the hard drive to the SSD, and put everything back together.

Success?

For comparison purposes, I ran Cinebench R23 and the PassMark Performance Test v11.1 on the original hardware at the beginning and then again after the upgrade. Both tests were run on the same Windows 10 Home 64-bit system. This makes it easy to see the performance gains:

The performance gains are consistently very substantial and extremely noticeable. In particular, the integrated graphics unit – which is slightly more powerful in the i7 than in the i3 – benefits further from dual-channel operation with two memory modules (instead of just one as before). However, due to the patches addressing Spectre and Meltdown as well as other factors, the results do not quite match the reference scores. Here are the Cinebench screenshots:

Next, the PassMark results – though, due to a lack of internet connection at the time of testing, these are only available offline:

Last but not least, here is the HWiNFO overview of the respective configuration:

Der Beitrag Acer Aspire XC-605: A Late Upgrade in Times of Skyrocketing Storage Prices erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

PTM or “Phase Transition Material” has been a recurring topic in the PC industry since at least 2022. Some manufacturers now use it as standard in their products (for example in certain Lenovo laptop models and in servers).

The reason to seek an alternative to traditional thermal paste* becomes particularly apparent in devices with high to very high power density (e.g. modern GPUs): the so-called “pump-out effect” occurs. Due to the cyclic heating and cooling of the silicon, the IHS and the heatsink, the simultaneous expansion and contraction of the material over time forces the thermal paste out, resulting in progressively poorer contact between the two components over time and a decrease in cooling performance.

This is why many recommend replacing the thermal interface material at least once a year if a device runs frequently and at its limits, as cooling performance noticeably and measurably declines. Thermal interface material therefore has the lowest thermal resistance immediately after it has been freshly applied or shortly thereafter. After that, cooling performance gradually deteriorates slightly with each cycle.

The other advantages and disadvantages of common TIMs, including PTM, can also be easily compared in a table:

Just give it a try!

Just like with liquid metal back then, I’ve wanted to try out this PTM from Honeywell ever since I first read about it. The advantages are obvious:

• No pump-out
• Theoretically no future maintenance required
• Slightly better heat transfer than thermal paste
• No risk of short circuits or the high effort necessary for liquid metal (or surface corrosion over time)

There are also some drawbacks, though; for example, you need to run through a few full temperature cycles to reach full performance. That should be the least of your worries, though. It’s also not exactly convenient to use.

I recently purchased two units of the 40 x 40 mm version at a good price from a reputable seller on AliExpress*. This size fits the heatspreaders of all older and newer Intel and AMD desktop processors (but not the large server or workstation CPUs!).

The whole thing came as a set with everything you need:

Intended Use, or: The Victim

Ideally, the PTM would be used with direct-die cooling, meaning the silicon die is in direct contact with the cooler rather than through an additional “Integrated Heat Spreader” (IHS).

Since desktop and server processors typically always come with an IHS, I’ll have to test the PTM in this suboptimal scenario for better or worse:
The processor in the “Küche-PC” – a max overclocked, air-cooled Intel Core i7-7700K – will be the first test subject. First, because I could do without this system if necessary and second because access to the hardware is very easy right now. By running it at the limits of voltage and cooling I should be able to see and measure significant differences, despite the IHS.

First off, it should be noted that this CPU was delidded some time ago, treated with Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut* and resealed with Elring Dirko HT* to replace the very poor-quality thermal paste used by Intel at the factory between the die and the heat spreader. I wrote a series of posts back then about the entire “Küche-PC” project, which also describes the delidding process in detail. So this post is about the second interface between the heat spreader and the cooling solution.

Currently, the hardware is temporarily installed in a used Corsair Graphite Series 230T case without any internal fans:

To remove the Thermalright Peerless Assassin 120 SE* I had to take out the motherboard – there just wasn’t enough room. As it turns out, that was a wise decision.

Removing the cooler and cleaning it

Now that accessing all the components had become much easier after removing the board, I took out the cooler and carefully cleaned all the parts first dry with paper towels and then with isopropyl alcohol* (instead of the wipes that came with the kit):

Let’s go…

First, I unpacked the entire PTM kit and used a pair of sharp scissors to trim the 40 x 40 mm pad so it would fit the IHS of the i7-7700K a bit better, then I attached one of the included removal aids to one side:

Next, I attached a second peeling aid to the opposite side of the pad, peeled off one layer of film, carefully aimed, and “positioned” the pad on the heat spreader – if you can call it that, since it was essentially just dropped in place and has to stick there permanently because the adhesive bond is very strong right away and the risk of damaging the pad is very high. Then I peeled off the second, upper protective film, where you can see from the slightly damaged corner of the pad that this was anything but easy (second photo, bottom left).

At this point, it would have been advisable to cool the pad beforehand, as is often recommended, but I deliberately wanted to try it without doing so. It worked, but it wasn’t fun. Next time, I’ll cool the PTM for 10 – 15 minutes beforehand. The “holes” were visible air pockets, which I pricked with a needle so I could squeeze the air out:

After that, I carefully reinstalled the cooler, attached the fans, plugged them in and put everything back into the case.

First impression

I actually wanted to start recording with HWiNFO right from the first 45°C phase transition: However, the cooling performance was a few degrees Celsius worse than before, which resulted in several blue screens as soon as the system was under full load. The hottest core reached between 90°C and 100°C; previously, I had never seen 90°C or higher under the same conditions.

So, over the course of two days, I ran 5 cycles consisting of the following steps on the side to get a proper “burn-in” – after all, it’s well known that the PTM7950’s full cooling performance can only be achieved through burn-in:

• 10 minutes of idle time
• 30 minutes of Cinebench R23 Multicore
• 10 minutes of idle time
• 10 minutes of Prime95 without AVX (overclock is not AVX-stable)
• Turn off the PC and let it cool down for at least one hour

In the end, I ran Prime95 without AVX for several hours, and there were no further issues, crashes, or similar problems. This shows how the cooling performance has improved, but also how close this overclock is to its limits, both thermally and in terms of voltage (5.2 GHz under load on 3 – 4 cores, 5.3 GHz under load on 1 – 2 cores at just under 1.40 volts Vcore with air cooling!).

The differences in detail

Before upgrading to the PTM, I used HWiNFO to record several 10-minute runs of Prime95 without AVX, each with a 20-second pre- and post-run to clearly see the ramp-up and ramp-down phases. I repeated this after the upgrade and the burn-in phase. In the end, I selected the most representative and average result from each set of three recorded measurements, and here I am comparing the various relevant values of an MX-4 run (blue) and a PTM7950 run (red). The system was warmed up for at least half an hour beforehand to achieve values that were as close to realistic as possible (Cinebench R23 Multicore, 30 minutes).

The thermal paste* had already been in use for several months at that point but had undergone significantly fewer than 100 cycles. If anything, there shouldn’t be much difference from freshly applied paste, especially since the system is normally operated far from heavy loads. As can be seen in the photos, there was also no significant “pump-out” visible yet (which occurs more frequently and intensely with direct-die cooling anyway).

I created the following comparisons from the graphs generated by HWiNFO logs using “Log Visualizer”:

Temperature comparison of the first core

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in degrees Celsius.

Temperature comparison of the second core

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in degrees Celsius.

Temperature comparison of the third core

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in degrees Celsius.

Temperature comparison of the fouth core

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in degrees Celsius.

Temperatures of all cores combined

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in degrees Celsius.

Temperature of the entire CPU

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in degrees Celsius.

Interim conclusion

Temperatures have improved across the board – slightly but measurably – and are outside the measurement tolerance range. What stands out is the nearly identical temperature distribution across the individual cores, regardless of which thermal interface material (TIM) is used between the IHS and the cooler: The liquid metal* is likely not distributed perfectly even on the die beneath the heatspreader, whether using paste or PTM. Even if it were, exactly identical values are likely never achievable for a variety of reasons, starting with the fluctuating silicon quality even within the die itself.

Next, we’ll move on to comparisons of power consumption and fan speeds.

Total CPU power consumption

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in watts.

Fan speeds (2 x 120 mm from Thermalright, PWM)

The three values in the table, from left to right, are: Minimum, Maximum, and Average. The values stated are in revolutions per minute.

Conclusion

Since I’m not testing under laboratory conditions, the measurements won’t be 100% accurate because I can’t control factors like air pressure and room temperature. Nevertheless, I can draw a clear conclusion:

Even when used on a heatspreader, the PTM7950 is at least as good as high-quality thermal paste. In the measurements it was generally slightly better. Of course, there are also significantly more expensive thermal pastes and ones that are at least slightly better on paper than Arctic’s MX-4*. But regardless of which one, my primary goal was to prevent pump-out and, as a result, avoid maintenance on the cooling system (other than regular dusting).

Of course, I can’t say anything about the PTM’s medium- or long-term performance at this point. Also, the product I bought on AliExpress has the correct specs and a genuine-looking Honeywell logo but the pad inside could still be one of the many knockoffs out there now. It’s very hard to verify that with tools at home.

Personally, I’m satisfied with the result; if the cooling performance doesn’t decline, the change to this pad has done exactly what it was supposed to. If the opportunity arises, I’ll eventually apply the PTM to a very high-performance GPU die, where the results should be significantly better, especially in the long term.

Der Beitrag Honeywell PTM7950 – A pad instead of paste or liquid metal? erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

FAT32 is essentially the “standard file system” for many devices, especially embedded and older ones. The Nintendo Wii, for example, only supports FAT32-formatted SD cards, just as many media players (car radios) can only read USB sticks with the FAT32 file system. It has been supported by Microsoft operating systems since Windows 95, but with some limitations – Wikipedia lists these very nicely.

One of these limitations is that Windows only allows formatting with the FAT32 file system for drives with a storage capacity of up to and including 32 GB when formatting via the GUI (context menu in Explorer). Above this, only NTFS or exFAT are offered, both of which are incompatible file systems for many devices.

This is incomprehensible, as significantly larger volumes are supported depending on the selected sector size (up to 2 TiB with the universally compatible standard sector size of 512 bytes!). However, the limitation of individual files to a maximum of 4 GiB cannot be circumvented.

There are several ways…

…to format a drive as FAT32 in Windows anyway. For example, using the command line, where there is no 32 GB limitation:

format S: /FS:FAT32 /Q

format S: /FS:FAT32 /Q

The most convenient way for me so far has been to use a small program from “Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd“: small, free, standalone, and available with or without a GUI.

A description of the application can be found here, and you can download it directly from the developer as a console version here (archive.org). My preferred GUI version is described here (direct download of the EXE, archive.org).

Usage

The application is very easy to use – connect the drive to the computer, ensure that there is only one main partition (Control Panel -> Administration -> Disk Management) and run “guiformat.exe” (as administrator, like requested).

Select the appropriate letter from the drop-down list, set the sector size (for a total size of less than 2 TiB, select 512 bytes to ensure maximum compatibility) and format.
Done!

The file explorer also displays everything correctly as expected:

Der Beitrag Format drives with a capacity of over 32 GB as FAT32 under Windows erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

This ATX motherboard with TR4 socket forms the basis for our “TR server”, a high-performance Proxmox server for virtualizing Windows 10 and 11 VMs. For a long time, it ran the UEFI version “F13a” without any problems.

After recently seeing that there is a newer version available – “F13d” – I wanted to update the board to this version. It is important to note that this motherboard has a “DualBIOS,” i.e., a second UEFI that boots instead of the first one in case of an error.

So far, so simple: save the settings in the UEFI, format a USB stick with 4 GB or less as FAT32, copy the new firmware. Plug the USB stick directly into the board, switch to “Qflash” at startup with “END” and start the update after navigating to the file. The model name is correct, and there are no other abnormalities.

And then things went downhill.

At first, the update stalled a little, but then ran through to 100% and the computer restarted on its own. There was no POST from this first, freshly updated UEFI: without any beeps or similar, it finally booted from the backup UEFI after several attempts. I only noticed this because I had disabled the LED lighting and it was now glowing red.

Surprisingly, the UEFI version that had now started was “F12” from 2019, which was older than the previously installed ‘F13a’ and also older than the latest version I had actually updated to, “F13d”. Then I thought, “I’ll update it again here too, maybe something went wrong.” No sooner said than done – I updated it again from the UEFI using Qflash. Again, it ran a little sluggishly but got through. Then the automatic restart again.

“No Boot”

Nothing worked anymore. No beeping, and according to the digital error code (luckily this board has a display for it!), the UEFI kept booting in a loop between “3E” and “C2”. At that moment, I thought the board was dead without a lot of fiddling around with manual flashing.

Many restarts later, there was still no change. So I did some research—others must have encountered this problem too. In fact, I was lucky in my misfortune: this motherboard has “Qflash Plus,” which I wasn’t aware of. This allows you to restore the UEFI if it is defective or corrupt. Great feature!

UEFI Recovery

The manual (archive.org) for this motherboard explains how to proceed on page 75. The computer should of course be switched off. For simplicity’s sake, here are the steps:

Step 1: Firmware

Download the desired firmware version from the Gigabyte website. (here, archive.org).

Step 2: Unpacking

Unpack the ZIP archive.

Step 3: Rename

Rename the included firmware file (16 MB in size) and its file extension to: "GIGABYTE.bin".

Step 4: Copy file

Use a USB 2.0 stick with a maximum capacity of 32 GB that is formatted as FAT32 and place the renamed file on it. A stick with a status LED is very helpful for seeing the activity.

Step 5: Plug the stick in

The Mainboard has a white USB-Port (archive.org), plug the stick in there.

Step 6: Flashing

Turn on the computer. If the stick has a status LED, it will light up briefly during initialization. After a short time, an orange LED will flash next to the white USB port and the stick should also show activity for a few seconds.

Step 7: Flashing finished

After a while, nothing will light up anymore. Either the computer will restart automatically, or you will have to manually switch the power supply off and on again. Remove the USB stick in the latter case.

Step 8: First POST

Start with the power button; it takes a really long time for a response to appear. If the board beeps, just ignore it. Eventually, the familiar silver “AORUS” boot screen will appear.

Step 9: Recovery

Press “DEL” to enter UEFI. This will start a recovery sequence, which will take some time. Afterwards, you will be back in UEFI and the board will be saved!

Puh.

First of all, thanks to Gigabyte for making this “headless flashback feature” available. At the same time, the UEFI is really unstable, freezes often, and the backup UEFI was more annoying than useful. But the server is up and running again.

The latest UEFI for this motherboard, “F13d”, still does not run via Qflash Plus. The 2021 version, “F13a”, no longer runs this way either! I had to downgrade to the 2019 version “F12”, which worked right away. Totally illogical, since “F13a” was previously installed and ran without any problems. Resetting the CMOS didn’t change anything. Since little has changed technically, I can live with the older version, but I still find it strange.

Even updating from the working version “F12” to one of the two F13 versions doesn’t work. Everything looks fine at first, but in the end, there is no POST again. I have read in several places that a lot of RAM could be part of the problem, but I didn’t want to take the server apart because everything is very tightly built. I’m running 128 GB DDR4-2666 @ 3000 MHz in the form of 8 sticks with 16 GB capacity each. With less, the boot might work again with the newer versions.

I hope I was able to help someone with this. I really thought I would have to find another X399 motherboard as a replacement.

Der Beitrag Gigabyte X399 Aorus Gaming 7 – Failed BIOS update, Board Rescue erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

Revision 1.1 (01/2026)  |  Revision 1 (11/2025)

Compared to the original setup, the data storage devices have been replaced: now only SSDs from Samsung and hard drives from WD. The boot drive, a Samsung 970 Evo Plus NVMe, has been reduced from 1 TB to 500 GB (it was needed elsewhere).

If you just pack salvaged components into boxes and shelves, you don’t get anything out of them. That’s why we have this “Guest PC,” which was built almost entirely from leftover parts and serves as a guest computer for LAN games. Considering the circumstances, it still looks pretty good.

The processor cooler is a Frankenstein contraption made from a Scythe Mugen 4 that originally worked for years in an AM3+ system. It was attached to the CPU and motherboard using modified LGA 1151 mounting hardware from BeQuiet. The 120 mm PWM fans are from Arctic and were left over after an AiO water cooling system failed. They are attached to the cooling tower with thick wire (bent to create tension).

Considering the cooling solution is what it is, it’s actually a miracle that the very hot-headed CPU with “multi-core enhancement,” i.e., an all-core boost corresponding to the single-core boost (5.00 GHz) with all settings on “Auto,” runs stably. This corresponds roughly to an i9-9900KS, with lower-quality silicon at a higher voltage. Of course, the whole thing runs pretty hot (around 90 °C in CB23).

Hardware:

Firmware:

Software:

Benchmarks:

Screenshots:

Photos:

Documents / Drivers

Drivers

Der Beitrag <h5>Setup: </h5><h3><b>Gast-PC</b> (Rev. 1.1)</h3> erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

When using consumer-grade hardware in a 19″ environment, sooner or later you will encounter certain obstacles. Many issues can be resolved remotely, whether via remote desktop, AnyDesk, or Teamviewer in the case of Windows with GUI, or via SSH for Linux.

Enterprise hardware offers more, for example IPMI. But how do you access the BIOS/UEFI on inexpensive consumer hardware without any peripherals?

This is where server consoles come into play. In principle, these are compact access solutions that offer a screen and a keyboard with or without an integrated mouse or replacement (touchpad). The signal sources can be switched back and forth between several devices, allowing easy access and configuration of everything.

Of course, something like this can be purchased as a finished product, but the price of the hardware is usually not reasonable. That’s why I built my own solution.

Components

Actually, not much is needed:

• A display that fits into a 19″ rack
• Keyboard and mouse or similar
• KVM switch* for switching between servers
• A base, e.g., a 19″ shelf

In my case, I continued to use the entire screen of the HP 17-by2132ng notebook, which is currently used as a low-power Proxmox server: It is controlled via eDP (LVDS used to be very common), and inexpensive controllers are available for this in the Far East.

Why this solution?
The panel is an energy-efficient and space-saving 17″ IPS LCD with a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels at 60 Hz with usable brightness, and it was left over anyway due to broken hinges on the notebook side. Especially since the entire part fits almost perfectly into a rack in terms of width.

Conceived, built.

First, I used a 19″ shelf in my now favorite color, light gray (RAL 7035), with a length of 750 mm (minimum, adjustable) as a base and determined the positioning of everything.

I ultimately used the following components:

• The entire screen of the HP notebook, webcam with ribbon cables and antennas have been removed
• Screen controller including matching power supply
• Flat stereo speaker
• Quad HDMI+USB KVM switch
• HP keyboard and mouse
• Quad USB power supply
• Double safety socket
• C14 socket
• Some Velcro cable ties and small parts (screws, nuts, etc.)

After some CAD and 3D printing, the finished result looks like this:

Thoughts on the design

• A 230V / 10A rocker switch is integrated into the left “foot” of the screen mount as the main switch.
• The right “foot” has an oval opening to allow easy access for the USB cables from the keyboard and mouse.
• All devices are fixed in housings that are screwed onto a gray-painted 20 mm multiplex strip.
• When closed, the screen also functions as a dust cover for the mouse and keyboard (the mouse is stored on the keyboard).
• The speaker receives its analog stereo signal from the LCD controller, which splits the audio signal from the HDMI input. This is convenient, saves cables, and provides sound output.
• The entire project is powered by a single power cable and switched on or off with a single switch.
• Cable management is provided in the form of printed clips screwed into the multiplex.

It is questionable whether four separate servers will be sufficient for me. On the other hand, I also own enterprise servers, and these can be managed adequately with IPMI. The current plan is to connect the three Proxmox servers and the Proxmox backup server there.

Der Beitrag Low-budget server console with a touch of upcycling erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

Revision 1.1 (01/2026)  |  Revision 1 (11/2025)

Compared to the original setup, some storage devices have been replaced with significantly larger ones. The rest remains unchanged.

This tower PC, which is by no means over-equipped and certainly not particularly heavy, has no specific purpose. It is best suited to folding proteins (Folding@Home), consuming electricity and heating the room.

Hardware:

Firmware:

Software:

Benchmarks:

Screenshots:

Photos:

Documents / Drivers

Drivers

Der Beitrag <h5>Setup: </h5><h3><b>Retro-XP-PC</b> (Rev. 1.1)</h3> erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

Here are the exact technical specifications of the two low-end tablets based on x86.

Hardware:

Firmware:

Software:

Benchmarks:

Screenshots Miix 310-10ICR:

Screenshots Miix 320-10ICR:

Documents / Drivers

Miix 310-10ICR Drivers
Miix 320-10ICR Drivers

Der Beitrag <h5>Setup: </h5><h3><b>Lenovo Miix Tablets</b></h3> erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.

How could it be otherwise when you handle a lot of hardware? Particularly low-priced devices tend to end up sooner rather than later at their final destination—with me.

The combination of mobile, inexpensive, battery life, and x86 rarely bodes well. Add “convertible” to the mix, and well… Such is the case with Lenovo’s “Miix” series. Two tablets from this series found their way into my hands, one after the other, with a little time in between. One was the Lenovo Ideapad Miix 310-10ICR and the other was its direct successor, the Lenovo Ideapad Miix 320-10ICR. Both are equipped with a 10.1″ display.

⧉ Lenovo

⧉ Lenovo

⧉ Lenovo

⧉ Lenovo

⧉ Lenovo

⧉ Lenovo

The first impression when switched off is really not bad. Glass display, the keyboard is securely docked, the workmanship is high quality. After switching it on, disillusionment sets in – the data sheets didn’t lie. Intel Atom with 2 watts TDP in combination with an embedded multimedia card as mass storage is simply very slow – but cheap. Just like the whole device, bought by different people in various Mediamarkt bargain bins on special offer.

At least both have the maximum RAM expansion, even back then (2016/2017) with 4 GB LPDDR3, which was already very small. With 2 GB of RAM, which was also available, these devices would be completely unusable with Windows 10, regardless of the version. Constant swapping to the slow eMMC simply cannot run well.

Upgrade…?

No way. As a classic ultra-mobile device, there is really nothing that can be upgraded in terms of hardware (without special equipment and soldering tools). So the only option is to try to improve the performance of the software. My somewhat hopeful attempt to improve responsiveness by replacing the factory-installed Windows 10 Home with Windows 8.1 Pro failed miserably: There are simply no working drivers, especially for the processor’s iGPU (however, the 64-bit version of 8.1 could be installed without any problems).

It’s a shame, because 8.1 works really well with a touchscreen and, although it is now less widely supported, it is also a less bloated operating system. Only ~700 MB of RAM were in use on the desktop. All it would need is a reasonably up-to-date browser.

Incidentally, 64-bit Windows 7 Ultimate with integrated SP1 does not boot even with Secure Boot disabled; it freezes with a pink stripe at the edge of the screen when attempting to do so. 32-bit operating systems generally cannot be booted; they are not even displayed in the boot menu. The UEFI only wants to load x64 EFI files.

Even Windows 10 probably runs noticeably better on such limited hardware in the 32-bit version than the preinstalled 64-bit edition. Well, well.

So Windows what?

I have gradually tested the following systems on the slightly newer Miix 320-10ICR, all 64-bit:

• Windows 10 Home (21H2)
• Windows 10 Pro (22H2)
• Windows 10 Enterprise 1607 LTSB (2016)
• Windows 10 Enterprise 1803 LTSC (2019)
• Windows 11 Pro (22H2, 23H2, 24H2)
• Windows 11 Enterprise IoT 2024

This took a really long time due to the very limited performance. With all these systems, everything ran smoothly with the drivers provided by Lenovo for “Windows 10 64-bit”. It is very important to install the driver for the “Intel Power Management IC (PMIC)” first, as some devices, such as the GPU, will only appear after this has been done.

Windows 10 Home was preinstalled and, due to certain preloaded programs, noticeably slower than the subsequent fresh installation of Windows 10 Pro. Windows 11 Pro, which was installed shortly thereafter, ran for a total of four years and was repeatedly updated with in-place upgrades. The speed of everything slowed down significantly each time until it became almost unbearable with 25H2:

In the end, it was the significantly aged Windows 10 Enterprise 1607 LTSB N from 2016. It runs best and comes debloated in the standard configuration. Even Windows Defender can be completely disabled with three clicks via group policy, and Edge is not even present. The .NET Framework in the still fairly current version 4.8 runs on it—this is a prerequisite for some applications.

Intended use

What do you do with such undersized hardware?
In this case the obvious: control, monitor, and regulate.

Both tablets run at different locations with different tasks, with the software stripped down to a minimum with Ungoogled Chromium in full-screen mode. In this configuration, it’s not as bad as you might think. I do have some concerns about “continuous power supply operation,” which can’t be good for the tablets’ relatively large batteries, but so far everything is OK.

Nevertheless, the best thing to do is simply not to buy hardware manufactured as “Day One electronic waste”. These tablets never ran well, even when brand new. Probably even worse, due to a lot of pre-installed software from Lenovo.

Technically good hardware simply has its price, and an x86-based tablet that cost less than €180 new at the time can’t be any good, no matter how you look at it. Even modern Microsoft Office runs rather poorly on it; when Windows 11 was still installed, even Cinebench R23 crashed due to a lack of free RAM. At least it can run under Windows 10 1607 LTSB N. However, there will be no more updates for this version of Windows 10 from mid-2026, so it is not recommended for everyday use. However, the two devices will probably remain in use as “monitoring screens” for a long time to come.

Der Beitrag Windows with that special touch erschien zuerst auf flohs blog.