Break It Better.
I was trying to install Windows 10 Education on my 2020 Spectre X360 14 (which is preloaded with Windows 10 Home), and I realized there’s a few things to watch out for to make your reinstallation successful — particularly a lack of AHCI mode preventing the installer from seeing the internal SSD. Here’s how you can do it.
These steps are based on the Spectre X360 14 but should also apply to similar HP laptops.
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Unfortunately, double-sided SSDs do not fit in the 2020 Dell XPS 13’s (models 9300 and 9310). The M.2 connector is not raised high enough from the motherboard, so there is not enough space for the SSD’s bottom chips.
As of writing this post, all 8TB and 4TB M.2 SSDs, as well as several 2TB models, are double-sided and therefore would not fit in the XPS 13. This includes the Sabrent Rocket series and the Corsair MP510, whose 2TB version is single-sided but 4TB version is double-sided:
Back side of the 4TB Corsair MP510
When you enable Equalizer APO to process the audio input from your Motu M-Series audio interface, the audio crackles or glitches.
Equalizer APO is super useful for changing your microphone’s frequency response or applying VST effects to the audio input system-wide. This picture shows my setup for panning my single mic (left channel only) into dual mono, and then gating out background noise, and then volume equalization using a compressor.
The 2020 MateBook X Pro still has Thunderbolt 3…
…Even though Huawei deliberately removed the Thunderbolt symbol next to the port, and no longer mentions Thunderbolt 3 on the 2020’s product page.
Installing a clean copy of Windows on the 2020 Huawei MateBook X Pro is more complicated than on previous generations. Follow these steps set up a clean Windows installation of your preferred language and edition. English speakers who are getting your 2020 MateBook from China will need this.
If your CPU frequency is being reduced under load, even at low temperatures (below 90°C), then you probably have power limit throttling. Here’s how to disable those power limits.
Warning: disabling your power limits may cause your computer to run at levels of power beyond its design. Make sure you keep BD ProcHot on. If BD ProcHot kicks in, your VRM is not getting enough cooling and you need to decrease the power limit or improve the VRM cooling.
You try to open Precision X1, but it closes itself after the splash screen, and the main window won’t open at all.
Do you have multiple GPUs in your system? Graphics cards of different models? eGPU? Ever since version 0.3.1, Precision X1 breaks in face of GPU diversity.
Go into Device Manager and disable the other GPU you’re not currently using. In this case, it was my laptop’s own MX250.
If you’re connecting your laptop to a TV and the black in the image is gray instead, your laptop is not outputting the full 8-bit-per-channel color range. Instead of sending values between 0 and 255, it’s sending 15-255. You could compensate for this in some TVs’ settings, but you’d be losing color definition.
Intel defaults to 15-255. There is a setting for this in the Intel Graphics Control Panel (In Video > Color Enhancement), but it doesn’t seem to take any effect… unless you do the following:
You have to do this every time you restart the computer or reconnect the TV.
My new Twitter account is @radbling. Follow me for more behind-the-scenes, in-progress updates, and discussions!
Another wave of cooling mods is coming! Stay tuned at https://t.co/z4FAxPI9Bd pic.twitter.com/hIrdpwT1Z2
— Brad Ling (@radbling) June 14, 2019
I will outline what Huawei has and has not fixed in the 2019 MateBook X Pro compared to the 2018 model. You can find the more obvious talking points on The Verge and other normie sites, but here are the small engineering changes that I noticed during my teardown and testing.
Screenshot from my teardown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sxf_bU6OZXE&t=11974s
