Question about Microsoft Support Structure
My Surface Pro 9 needs what I think is an easy firmware repair. Is it possible to avoid shipping it to Microsoft? The part of the firmware that contains the SKU Model Number is corrupt. It shows as "OEMLO Product" instead of Surface Pro 9. That part of the firmware is protected. It can only be accessed by a Microsoft employee using internal tools and physical access to the Surface Pro. Microsoft Device Support offers only a mail-in program, which would mean a lot of work for everyone that's probably not necessary. I don't know much about Microsoft support structure. So I don't know if it's flexible enough for a kind-hearted employee with access to the right tools to fix this. I live near several large Microsoft facilities in the Washington DC area. I think it's a quick easy repair. It could save me and Microsoft Device Support a lot of work that's probably unnecessary. The corruption may have occurred either as a result of participation in the Windows Insider program or during a Surface Pro 9 firmware update in late August 2025. The absence of a valid SKU Model Number prevents Microsoft's driver package from repairing drivers. It also prevents both business and consumer versions of the Surface Diagnostic tool from running. Meanwhile the SMF Core Driver is not loading. I could probably fix that with the correct driver package, but the driver package won't run without the correct SKU number. Otherwise, the Surface works fine. So I can afford to wait until December 2025 to send in for a complete overhaul. That's when I'll be able to lose access to it for an extended time. The rest of the firmware seems to be okay. Other than the SKU model number the information, including the serial number, appears correct.Does Surface Diagnostic Toolkit fail to recognize my Surface because of its Insider OS version?
My Surface Pro 9 Surface "SMF Core Driver" does not load. In troubleshooting it, I discovered Surface Diagnostic Toolkit does not recognize my hardware as a Surface device, and the downloadable driver package will not install for the same reason. Is any of this a consequence of my having the current Insider Release Preview OS?
VIDEO DXGKRNL FATAL ERROR After a Recent Feature Update
Hello, I have been getting the VIDEO DXGKRNL FATAL ERROR after the feature update Windows 11 Insider Preview 10.0.26220.5770 (ge_release_upr). I noticed that this error is only happening when my laptop is connected to an external monitor and is not outputting any audio. For now, using an external monitor requires me to disconnect my laptop from the monitor first and keep it playing music before I reconnect it. I tried upgrading and reinstalling the graphics driver and installing a driver for my monitor; none of them solved this issue. My graphics card is NVIDIA Quadro P10000, and the driver version is 32.0.15.8115. Glad to provide more info if anyone has a clue about this issue. Thanks!Unable to reset my PC
Hi Insider Community, Hope y'all doing great! I am currently facing an issue while trying to reset my PC. After clicking on the reset my PC button from the recovery menu, I am redirected to the system permission dialogue box. After clicking yes on it, I choose the keep my files option but it shows an error right after that saying someone could be controlling/modifying my files. It seems really odd to me after seeing this error here so I am reaching out for a solution now. Thanks & Regards Siddhartha Sharma
Windows Insider Program Issue
I was exploring the Windows Insider Program settings and noticed a channel called Canary. Out of curiosity, I switched to the Canary channel, which prompted an update. After completing the update and restarting my PC, I noticed some things seemed off, and certain features weren’t functioning properly. When I tried to switch back to the Dev or Beta channels, I realized I wasn’t allowed to change channels from Canary. I’d appreciate your help in resolving this issue without resetting my PC.
Green screen Inaccessible_boot_device
Hello, I have a problem with my computer since I launched a update yesterday evening I can not start my computer again. When I’m starting it I have a green screen saying that my computer with windows insider did not start well and it will restart. The stop code is « INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE ». Then it restarts and show a blue screen with for the title I have « Recovery » (« recuperation » in French) with 3 options (code error : 0xc0000001) Enter to try again Esc to launch the recovery F8 to go to other 10 options (start in safe mode with command prompt for example) but each option gives the same thing a freezing black screen with the brand of the computer and sometimes one « please wait » depending which option I choose before that I had problems but I asked ChatGPT to help me and it did not help but I don’t have the same option as before. ( before I could do advanced settings and launch the comand prompt but now I’m not even able to access the command prompt even when I chose « safe mode with comand prompt ») can you help me please ? kind regards Tom
Microsoft will release a UI modification apps built specifically for Windows 10 2004 and later
For Windows 11 users, don't like the Windows 11 style Start menu, taskbar, search menu, window switcher, task view, file manager, notification center and operation center, and they don't like the transparent tile in the Windows 10 Start menu. Microsoft decided to launch a personalized UI modification apps for Windows 11 and Windows 10. You can reproduce the Windows 10 style Start menu (Includes options to show more tiles, enable theme-aware tiles, show recently added apps, show most used apps, show suggestions occasionally in start, use start full screen, show recently opened items in jump lists on start or the taskbar and more), taskbar, search menu, context menu, snap assistant, window switcher, task view (timeline), file manager, news and interests, flyout (Includes options to Network, Sound, Clock, Battery, Language switcher and more), notification center and action center. And you can also reproduce the Windows 8.1 style Start screen (Horizontal Scroll Only), Windows 7 style Task View, classic style, right-angled window and so on.Windows Insider 26100 Crashes with iaStorE.sys Upon First Reboot
Manufacturer: Dell Model: Precision 7820 Tower Current Build: 10.0.26100.1 OS: Windows 11 Pro for Workstations ---- After a clean install of Windows 11, 26080, and an upgrade to Windows Update, 26100, the system would always crash upon the first boot. The first crash was a "green" screen with iaStorE.sys as the failing component. Subsequent reboots were blue screens with the same error. Since the crash happened following an attempted upgrade to 26100, there were no restore points to which it could revert back. Each crash resulted in having to do a clean install. . In an effort to troubleshoot, I set Windows Update so that it does not provide drivers when checking for updates via LGPO. However, the update to 26100 does not adhere to this setting, thus resulting in a crash during the first reboot following installation. . The only way I could get build 26100 installed in this system was to do the following: Install 26080 to a Hyper-V VM and upgrade to 26100 Do a sysprep (generalize) Capture the wim via DISM and split the WIM into install.swm and install2.swm Install to the target system using a USB drive with the updated install.swm, install2.swm Once the target physical system was clean installed with build 26100, I created manual system restore points. Then, when doing a Windows Update and accepting the drivers provided, I could recreate the same crash with the same faulting driver. However, in this case, I could boot into the install media and revert to the system restore checkpoint. When I visited the Intel website and manually downloaded the drivers for the afflicted storage device, all worked normally. The Windows Update driver I believe to be causing the issue is "Intel Corporation - SCSAdapter - 7.7.0.1260 (failed)," and it is still being offered via Windows Update. I will, again, configure Windows Update not to provide drivers, but this is undesirable behavior. It is important to note that when this system had Windows 11, 23H2, build 22631.3447, it experienced the same crashing behavior with this device driver.
