Finding drivers for obscure devices on Windows 10. A short walkthrough.

This post goes back to "Obscure ways to get and old hp printer driver for Windows XP".

Long story short, aka the quick-and-dirty version:

If a computer or notebook with Windows 10 has an 'unknown device' with this ID:

ACPI\CPL0002\2&DABA3FF&2

Then the Windows Update Catalog does offer a driver for it.

But the following conditions must be met:

• Windows Update is unable to find drivers for this device;
• the maker of your PC does not have drivers available for your model of notebook pertaining to this device. If the maker of your computer does actually provides a driver for this device on the particular make and model of your computer, use that driver and no other;
• you might not be able to tell the make and model of your laptop, because the labels at the bottom of the computer have faded, and so, it's hard to find the correct driver from the PC maker's official website.
• the non-availability of the driver can coincide with one or both following possiblities:
  • Your notebook is no longer supported by the manufacturer; and/or
  • the maker of your PC is not a big-name outfit that is able to reliably provide drivers on its own for this device.
    (I've decided against naming individual PC makers, as some people would specify a search prepending the particular PC makers' names with negative operators, so excluding their name[s] to get a more precise result.)

If one ore more of these conditions are met, go to the Windows Update Catalog, and search using the CPL0002 device ID. (search link here)

In this case, the device ID was the only useful piece of information, and so, searching by device ID is more likely to yield results matching the hardware installed. Searching using the name or make/model of this device may yield incompatible results.

The result is "Compal Embedded System Control" version 1.0.0.4 as 'Other hardware' (listed like that as of 2021).

I picked the latest version, dated 26.11.2015, and clicked on the Download button.

The download is a .cab file that must be extracted with an extractor program of your choice into a separate folder. I used 7-Zip to do that.

Before installing:
• have Device Manager open, to see if there are any changes during install.
• create screenshots of all listed System devices in Device Manager. This ought to help in comparing changes.
• create a system restore point. You will need this, if and when things go wrong.

The extracted contents of the .cab package include four files, among them ENFC.inf. Right-click on that, and click Install.

The Device Manager should display a change, and the identified device should be listed. Other newly-recognised devices may also be listed. Worked for me.

After that, power management in a specific old notebook I have, improved, and the fan began blowing out less hot air. At least it seemed to me like that.

Do keep in mind, that I also did a large number of optimisations in the system to switch off most unnecessary background tasks, which certainly helped to reduce the size of the system commit, and the strain on system RAM and the hard drive.

I also reduced the maximum state of the CPU from 100% to 90% in advanced power management options. It's one of those nice things to have in Windows 10.

As a coda, I cannot recommend this process for upgrading the drivers of all devices inside, or connected to a computer. Because if things work normally, one should not update the drivers like this at all. Usually, and on most computers, Windows Update is good enough anyway at finding the right driver for you. In this very particular case and device, I see Windows Update as having missed it.

Obscure ways to get an old hp printer driver for Windows XP

So, some people are stuck on Windows xp, as may be some computers. But files do need printing. This set of instructions is good for other hardware connected to a computer with Windows xp, but with that operating system no longer supported by the hardware manufacturer.

The combo printer, scanner and copier is hp LaserJet Pro MFP M28w.

Officially, hp no longer supports Windows xp, so they no longer offer drivers for it. Microsoft also seems to have shut off Windows Update support for Windows xp. Otherwise, it would have been possible to use Windows Update to automatically download and install the necessary drivers.

32-bit drivers meant for Windows 7 might not work. In my case, the installation failed because of a file certificate error.

On attempting to launch one of the files extracted from the downloaded printer driver installer for Windows 7, the said file required Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0. To be safe, download and install that component first, as did I.

When using Internet search, I discovered, that there are slightly older versions of basic hp drivers for that model of device, but download locations offering that driver version were not particularly trustworthy.

But knowledge of older basic drivers for Windows xp got me the bright idea to check out the Windows Update Catalog.

First, on connecting the printer combo via USB showed me the display name of the printer's model:

HPHP LaserJet MFP M28-M31

("HPHP" is not a mistake; this is how it was actually displayed.)

This proved useful when searching the catalog:

As with any other obscure driver, go to catalog.update.microsoft.com, and search for

m28-m31 xp

in the case of this printer combo. "m28-m31" is the device model range, as displayed in the Found New Hardware wizard. "xp" should be self-explanatory, but searching without it will yield over a hundred results, which would be cumbersome to look through in search for a driver meant for only one major version of Windows.

A helpful demonstration link for this search is here.

The search yielded 14 results with the same file size, so this meant, that the printer combo is made up of several discreet integrated devices, with a driver for each, but in one and the same package.

To be safe, pick the package that does not mention "Windows XP 64-bit" in the table row.

On clicking "Download", I downloaded a 32.8 MB .cab file with a long file name made up of hexadecimal symbols.

Using 7-Zip, I extracted the CAB file into a new folder, and browsed to that folder in Windows Explorer.

Keep in mind, that I usually have set Windows Explorer to show system files, including .inf files.

The extracted folder contains several .inf files, and these and other .inf files in the extracted bunch of files are driver installation files.

Other subfolders were the following:

• amd64
• drivers
• i386
• XPV

Right-click on all the .inf files, and click Install for each of them.

The .inf files should have correct information built-in as to bitness, so, that 32-bit drivers are installed in a 32-bit system.

The XPV folder also contains .inf files, and these pertain to the printing function. Right-click on those, too, and click 'Install' for their context menus.

Restart Windows.

On restart and login, most drivers for the affected hardware should install correctly, but getting the printer to be recognised may require more work, if the printer happens to be not listed in the Printers and Faxes Control Panel folder.

My memory is iffy here, but the basic gist is this:

In that same Printers and Faxes folder, click on "Add a printer" in the left-side Printer Tasks Explorer sidebar, or select File > Add a printer from the menu bar.

This launches the Add Printer wizard. There, click Next.

Select the 'Local printer attached to this computer' radio button. The checkbox to automatically detect the Plug and Play printer is optional (this function might not work).

Click Next to select a printer port.

The "Use the following port:" radio button must be checked. From the drop-down menu, pick the port that displays as "USB00x (Virtual printer port for USB)" (x is a number). Click Next.

After that, installation should commence, and one would then be provided with printer options.

The printer test page printed correctly, and I was happy.

Caveat: If there are two or more listed virtual printer ports for USB, repeat Add Printer routine, and click next. If the printer is already listed and shown as 'not connected' (faded out), right-click on the item, click on Properties.

In the Properties window for that printer, click on the Ports tab. In the list, pick the USB port that works.

A few hours after that, I discovered the driver installation CD for that same printer/scanner/copier combo, but if memory serves, it did not contain drivers for Windows xp when I first wanted to install drivers on Windows XP for that printer several years ago.

The thought of trying Windows Update did not come to mind, because: Microsoft had stopped issuing updates for Windows xp, and there were serious performance issues with Windows Update in that computer, as Windows Update had at times stopped working properly, and was taking up huge CPU resources. Had I not had issues with Windows Update on that computer, I'd have probably tried Windows Update, as it still supported Windows XP at the time.

The modern wonders of smartphone tech

So I watched footy yesterday between Wales and Denmark (Denmark won :), and the football pitch showed ads for some large South-East Asian brands — in non-Latin characters.

So thanks to Firefox, Android 9.0 (which is the latest version of Android that I have right now), and Google Lens, I was able to do several things.

Unlike the default ETV* apps of the Estonian national broadcaster ERR that do not allow making screenshots (in modern Android, apparently), Firefox did permit screenshots when using the browser in Android to watch the official ETV livestream.

I could then make screenshots of the ads flicking on the edges of the green pitch, and use Google Lens in Google Photos to find out what some of the ads were.

So, one was for a SE Asian brand of air conditioners with a non-Latin slogan, and the other displayed a slogan for some kind of SE Asian blockchain technology/solution.

— Google Lens offered a button to Google Translate, and another to play that text back in the original language.

Wow, I say.

Optimizing Firefox for a weak PC

This blogpost was first written as a reply on reddit.
This post applies to Firefox Quantum — v.57, v.60esr, v.68esr, v.78esr, and newer)

Instead of Lubuntu, consider BunsenLabs, which is based on Debian. BunsenLabs will run in a computer with 1 gigabyte of RAM, probably with plenty of swapping, so you'll still need at least 2 Gb of RAM. BunsenLabs LiveCD's actual commit after boot is ~200 Mb, which is equivalent to Windows XP SP3.

BunsenLabs is one of the few distros that offers a live CD (yes, a CD image), but the LiveCD edition is meant only for 32-bit systems.

As for Firefox, then off the top of my head:

In Settings:

• Disable "Check spelling as you type"

Under Performance:

• uncheck Use recommended settings;
• Play with "user hardware acceleretion"
• Set the Content process limit to 1

Under Browsing:

• Disable smooth scrolling
• Disable "recommend extensions as you browse"
• Disable "recommend features as you browse"

Under Search:

• Disable search suggestions
• Uncheck the search engines that you do not use
• Under Privacy & Security > Permissions:
  In Settings for Autoplay (new window), set the default for all sites to block audio and video. Use Ctrl+I, and in the Page Info window under the Permissions tab list for a domain, to allow audio/video on YouTube, for example.

Uncheck all under Firefox Data Collection. In about:config, set:

• browser.sessionhistory.max_entries to 25 (from 50)
• browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers to 0 (from -1)
• browser.sessionstore.max_tabs_undo to 5, 7, or 10 (from 25)
   
• browser.sessionstore.interval from 15000 *to* something greater
• extensions.update.interval from 86400 *to* something greater
• media.peerconnection.enabled to false
• media.peerconnection.video.enabled to false

Extensions:

• Install the NoScript extension, as it uses a whitelist (with some built-in entries). Set it to display full domains in settings. You'll have to permit certain domains from the NoScript pop-up menu to make a site work.
• Install uBlock Origin or Adblock Plus to block ads. While NoScript blocks most of the harmful cruft, one of the two adblockers won't let video ads pass through.

Which Gecko-based browser to choose for Android?

Published initially as a reddit post.

Much depends on what functionality you want.

There are three or four types of Gecko-based browsers, and one can have two or three, depending on desired functionality. In all cases, you'll have to switch off automatic app updates in order to prevent your device automatically moving to a version with less functionality.

If you want the latest and dark mode, there's Firefox or Fennec (the latter with a delay).

If you want automatic updates to most apps from the Google Play Store, and the latest Gecko-based browser, pick Firefox, and then Fennec or IceCat from the F-Droid app, where you can switch automatic updates off.

In this scenario, where you'd want to stick to a certain release, pick a version of Fennec F-Droid, and/or GNU IceCat. Fennec has more versions to choose from; IceCat has less versions, as it tends to stick to ESR branches.

If you want legacy/XUL add-ons, you might have to consider Firefox/Fennec 56.0 as the last version.

If you want the latest branch that still has about:config, pick version 68.x esr (extended support release). It has support for add-ons available at addons.mozilla.org that are no longer supported by the latest Firefox due to changes to the extension framework (yet again).

68.x esr also supports viewing local HTML files, as I haven't been able to do this with the latest Firefox.

Firefox 43.0 (really legacy) and older still support cookie prompting via extension, and has slightly better support certain other legacy extensions. But this is a really old version.

Коротко о поездах Эстонии

Я всегда думал, что Эстония закупала поезда Stadler Flirt за прóданные квоты CO₂, но оказалось, что это вообще не так. Бóльшую часть денег (аж 85% от 80 миллиона евро) для закупки только электричек выдал фонд Европейского Союза, а дизельные брала Elektriraudtee (видимо сама) на капитальную аренду за 96 млн. евро.

Тендер для закупки объявили в 2009. году, и выигрышем оказался Stadler Bussnang AG, с кем подписали договор в августе 2010. года.

Перед их запуском отреновировали железные дороги, и перроны, стоянки. В местах даже вокзалы.

Когда в январе 2014. года на железные дороги ввели новые поезда, оказалось, что приобрели слишком мало поездных составов: они ездили намного быстрее чем старые DR1^[ru] (DR1A, DR1B другие варианты оперируемыми фирмой Edelaraudtee). Популярность новых поездов повысилась за ночь, и настолько, что они часто сильно переполнены пассажирами.

А старые и до сих пор прочные DR1 зря вывели из эксплуатации, так как они были очень просторные и удобные. Мне бы понравилось, если старые остались бы ночными поездами, но увы.

I класс и был такой советский/восточный китч просторных DR1 с западным шиком — Wi-Fi, большие (для поезда/вагона) столы, розетки для портативных компютеров, кафе. Ну и закуски.

Вот, а у новых возможно зарядить смартфоны прям через USB порт в стене вагона (под столиком).

Источник: Delfi Forte, 20.02.2013: Stadleri FLIRT-rongid on kohal: Eesti esimene samm 21. sajandisse? (на эстонском, obv.)