Secret Windows bug/fix ?

[nukecad]

Yesterday I was tethering through my phone because the broadband was playing up again. (Rural living for you).

I noticed that although the tethering was OK the phone was not charging from the laptop as it usually does, in fact it gave me a low battery warning after an hour or so.
I plugged in my vape pen with a different lead and that wasn't charging either.
(And yes the laptop was plugged into the mains).

It was an odd one, data transfer through the port was fine, but not power.

I thought I would investigate today why the USB port didn't seem to be putting out any power.

However when I booted up I noticed that Microsoft was downloading a ton of data in the background via the 'Background Intelligent Transfer Service'.
I've no clue exactly what it was downloading, I may look for updated OS files later.

But when I then came to test the USB port it was putting out power and now the connected phone charges as usual, as does the vape pen.

Had patch Tuesday Updates 'broken' the USB drivers/ports (again) and MS quickly patched it without telling anyone?
I recall they broke some USB ports last year as well so USB mice/keyboards stopped working for some.
https://windowsreport.com/kb4103727-usb-bugs/

[Andavari]

I never once had the issue before until just today, which was later on after Automatic Updates had installed KB4023057. After the update I restarted the laptop myself, since the update didn't request I do so. Then I used the laptop for a few minutes, and then closed the laptop lid.

Came back about 1 hour later and there was some weird USB drive anomaly/failure where it wouldn't recognize or mount my USB 3.0 portable hard disk (it gave no prompts, nothing), and the USB stick plugged in only had a generic name but not the actual disk label. Oddly enough my USB mouse never had any issue during all of this.

Fully remedied by restarting the computer again!

Edit:
Didn't give it much thought at the time, but I've sent them a bug report through Feedback Hub.

[nukecad]

Interesting to see that you also noticed a problem with USB, which later fixed itself.

It's hard to tell from the logs, but it does look like on the 14th one of my USB ports was regading everything that I connected as 'idle' and so supplying no power. (Selective suspend mode).
Another port has the wireless dongle for my mouse and that was working fine like yours, maybe because it was connected at boot?
EDIT checking my laptop specs - the mouse dongle is in a USB2 port, the one with no power was a USB3, maybe that explains the difference.

I still think it was the patch Tuesday updates that did it, the port was working OK before that on the 13th - and the last thing I did on the 13th was the PT updates and then shutdown.

The background download seems to have put it right again on the 15th.

Checking around further it seems that the main function of that background download was to update UI's of the installed Microsoft Games, - Solitaire, etc.

Whether it's just a coincidence that it also fixed the USB error who knows?

[nukecad]

Spoke a bit too soon.

Today the phone is not charging, but the vape pen is charging using the same lead.

Plugged in an external drive (different lead) and that's working fine as well.

Scratch-head troubleshooting time. (Is it the phone, is it Windows, maybe it's Samsung Kies interfering somehow?).

[Andavari]

For me it has only happened that one time. Perhaps it's the charge cable, since folks nowadays will use just about any cable to charge something sometimes with hardware damaging results. I remember buying a USB Type-C cable branded by Amazon and it had nothing but connection issues but it wasn't certified (just cheap junk) so it got a one way trip into the rubbish bin, however buying a certified cable solved the issues.

[nukecad]

The cable is the Samsung one that came with the phone.

I've been keeping a closer eye on it.

The charging indicator is coming up on the phone, and it is charging if I'm not browsing.

So it looks like at certain times I'm draining it faster than its charging.
Either the laptop is not putting as much power through the port, I'm downloading more than I used to, or the phone is now taking more power to connect to the mobile mast for some reason.
(Maybe they are working on the nearest mast and I'm connecting to one further away?).

It may just be time for a new battery for the phone, it is getting on a bit.

But there again I've noticed another few strange things since last Patch Tuesday.
Take the case of another forum (vBulletin) where I have uploaded some screenshots; if I click on the uploaded screenshot in the post to get a larger view it also downloads a copy to my Downloads folder.
I can repeat this reliably with other screenshots there, click to expand and it downloads as well.
It seems to be only my uploaded images and only on that one forum? Never used to do it before.

[Andavari]

Maybe give up and get an iPad. Joking of course.

As for images on websites getting downloaded instead of displaying the full size I had something like that happen over ten years ago, and from what I remember it was either some corruption in my Firefox profile (which was common long ago after too many version upgrades), or it was mis-configured, don't remember which thought.

[nukecad]

I think I'll try a replacement battery they're only £10 or so.

The images do display full size, but download as well.
As I say it's only my own uploaded images, only jpg's, and only on that one forum.
Very strange.
I might put Firefox in safemode and try it again, and/or see what happens with a different browser.

None of this is a serious problem just oddities that seem to have arisen since patch Tuesday when both Windows and Firefox got an update.

[Andavari]

I've had it happen again two more times. Each time it has happened is I had earlier signed off and closed the laptop lid. Luckily with having only SSDs in the system a reboot doesn't take forever to fix the issue.