#windows guides

How to Enable and Use Wireless Display in Windows 11?

How to Enable and Use Wireless Display in Windows 11? We all wonder if it is possible to connect your Windows 11 PCs to an external device such as a TV screen or your smartphone to your laptop. By connection, we mean that the screen of the laptop should be visible on the display screen of another device. The wireless display function in Windows 11 is capable of doing so. By using the Wireless…

For years I used a MSI FM2-A55M-E33 in my work computer at my home office. From the first time I started the machine and installed drivers from MSI’s website I was always missing the “SM Bus Controller” driver. Everything seemed to work fine so I just ignored it for the few years I used that motherboard.

However, I recently upgraded my work computer to a different motherboard and put the old MSI FM2-A55M-E33 into my media server. The media server still runs Windows 7, but again the SM Bus Controller driver was missing just as when I ran Windows 10 on the motherboard. Generally, I only get drivers for devices from the device manufacturer’s website but I decided to google this missing SM Bus Controller driver issue and see what I could find.

Fix Missing SM Bus Controller driver for MSI FM2-A55M-E33

So what’s the solution to a missing SM Bus Controller driver on a MSI FM2-A55M-E33 motherboard? It turns out it’s technically just a Windows Driver to be used on all newer AMD chipsets that for some reason isn’t offered from the MSI website. Perhaps Windows Update used to install it, I’m not sure, but it’s called “Advanced Micro Devices, Inc driver update for AMD SMBus” and can be found for various Windows versions here: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=amd+smbus

Apparently missing “Bus Controller” drivers happen with Intel based chipsets as well, and the fix for that is an Intel install called “Intel INF Utility” that lets Windows Update find the correct driver: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28182/Chipset-INF-Utility?product=1145

By: John

For years I used a MSI FM2-A55M-E33 in my work computer at my home office. From the first time I started the machine and installed drivers from MSI’s website I was always missing the “SM Bus Controller” driver. Everything seemed to work fine so I just ignored it for the few years I used that motherboard.

However, I recently upgraded my work computer to a different motherboard and put the old MSI FM2-A55M-E33 into my media server. The media server still runs Windows 7, but again the SM Bus Controller driver was missing just as when I ran Windows 10 on the motherboard. Generally, I only get drivers for devices from the device manufacturer’s website but I decided to google this missing SM Bus Controller driver issue and see what I could find.

Fix Missing SM Bus Controller driver for MSI FM2-A55M-E33

So what’s the solution to a missing SM Bus Controller driver on a MSI FM2-A55M-E33 motherboard? It turns out it’s technically just a Windows Driver to be used on all newer AMD chipsets that for some reason isn’t offered from the MSI website. Perhaps Windows Update used to install it, I’m not sure, but it’s called “Advanced Micro Devices, Inc driver update for AMD SMBus” and can be found for various Windows versions here: https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=amd+smbus

Apparently missing “Bus Controller” drivers happen with Intel based chipsets as well, and the fix for that is an Intel install called “Intel INF Utility” that lets Windows Update find the correct driver: https://downloadcenter.intel.com/download/28182/Chipset-INF-Utility?product=1145

By: John

Some time towards the end of 2017 my mothers HP Envy 5640 stopped printing via USB – apparently she never got it printing wireless and had just settled for USB. She told me about the problem a few weeks ago but she’s pretty good with computers so I figured she would get it all worked out. Then, while dealing with a Windows 10 random freezing issue of my own that started after the Fall Creators Update, I realized that my mother’s issue was probably related to the updated as well.

After asking my mom some questions it was pretty clear that the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update screwed up my her printer, and that she probably wasn’t going to get it fixed if she hadn’t by now. I got on TeamViewer and tried uninstalling and reinstalling her printer. The install would always get close to the end but then fail with no connectivity whether trying to print by USB or Wireless. After the second try, I decided to send an error report and it said there was a solution I could try.

No USB or Wireless Connectivity on HP Envy 5640 Printer after Windows 10 Fall Creator Update

I downloaded the HP Printer Install Troubleshooter and spent a good hour and a half working my way through it.. it was basically just this process: Full uninstall, Clean up with HP printer cleanup utility, Turned startup programs, Disable firewall, Check/Reset router. After following the entire troubleshooter, the HP Envy 5640 still failed to install properly on my mother’s Windows 10 PC. Of course I ended up at the first result Google gave me when I searched for answers to my problem – a support thread on the HP forum. Unfortunately, the post was a dead end with basic cookie-cutter responses that just fix bad/corrupt driver installations.

The reason HP 5000 series printers, and other HP printers, won’t print after Fall Creators Update

As a last resort I decided to extract the files from the HP 5640 install executable and install the drivers manually using Windows Device Manager. The installation seemed to be working until the end when it failed with this error: “The Printer drivers not compatible with a policy enabled on your computer that blocks NT 4.0 drivers“. And BAM! By dumb chance the problem is found..

Of course I Googled that error next and found another HP Support thread. A person was having the exact same issue as me and another member of the forum named ShlomiL had the solution. I should note that ShlomiL is a volunteer and is not even employed by HP.

How to Fix HP Envy 5000 and 4000 Series Printers with blocked NT 4.0 drivers on Windows 10

Uninstall the HP Software from your PC.

Backup your registry prior making any registry changes: https://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c03485724

Update your registry using the Reg file below (that will change some printer related policies for your PC): https://www.dropbox.com/s/avbv56zdgwv7600/kernel.reg?dl=1

Right click the Start menu and select Run.

Type Services.msc and press OK.

Locate and stop the Print Spooler service

Browse to c:\Windows\System32\spool\drivers

Rename W32X86 to W32x86.old

Rename x64 to x64.old Note: if any of these folders fails to delete reboot your PC and then repeat the steps starting from Step 4…

Restart your computer.

Reinstall the HP Software and check for any difference

Thanks ShlomiL! My mom can finally print from her desktop again. Apparently she’s just been printing everything from her laptop for months. Woops, sorry mom! 🤣

Note: In case the above kernel.reg file is removed from Dropbox, this is it’s contents:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers] "KMPrintersAreBlocked"=dword:00000001 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint] "Restricted"=dword:00000001 "TrustedServers"=dword:00000000 "ServerList"="" "InForest"=dword:00000000 "NoWarningNoElevationOnInstall"=dword:00000001 "UpdatePromptSettings"=dword:00000002 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\Printers\PointAndPrint] "Restricted"=dword:00000001 "TrustedServers"=dword:00000000 "ServerList"="" "InForest"=dword:00000000 "NoWarningNoElevationOnInstall"=dword:00000001 "UpdatePromptSettings"=dword:00000002

By: John

One of my testing/sandbox computers, that’s not running on a UPS, was unexpectedly powered off the other day when a falling tree branch in my neighborhood took out a power line. Hours later when the power was back and I turned on my computer, one of my virtual machines running on VMware Workstation 12 wouldn’t start and had an error that mentioned “Failed to Lock the File” and “Module Disk Power on Failed”.

Of course, the first thing I did was a search on google that lead to quite a few promising results.

I ended up on this VMware Community forum post and after a bit of reading I found the answer. It involves some .lck files that must be deleted, which are “Lock Files” that are created while Virtual Machines are running so that the filesystem is only edited by the controlling Virtual Machine and not outside sources. When my computer’s power was cut off unexpectedly, the Lock Files weren’t automatically deleted as they are supposed to be when a VMware VM shuts down.

How I Fixed the “Failed to Lock the File” and “Module Disk Power on Failed” Errors

First thing to do is open up the directory where your virtual machine’s files are stored. I used poorly named folders for my VMs like an asshole, so I had to look at my VM’s “Virtual Machine Details” dropdown on it’s Workstation tab to see which directory it was in.

After getting into the correct directory for my Scrapebox VM, I looked for all the folders with .lck ending and made a backup of them before deleting. The backup was just in case deleting the files didn’t fix the problem and I needed them back, you can see the backup .zip highlighted in the below screenshot.

However, thankfully my backup wasn’t needed because deleting all of the .lck files fixed my “Failed to Lock the File” and “Module Disk Power on Failed” error. My virtual machine started up without any issues with the .lck files removed!

By: John