SmartSDR and CAT port problems moving from Win7 to Win8

Ron - K1RE

I've been using SmartSDR Beta 1.0.24 with my FLEX-6700 on a Windows 7 machine pretty successfully for the last two weeks (I haven't quite figured out transmit using Fldigi). I just bought a fast I7 processor, Windows 8 (8.1) machine and am having SmartSDR CAT difficulties. DXLab apps report "incorrect" ports even though they've been configured to the indicated "Connect 3rd party program Port". Has anyone else experienced port problems when moving from W7 to W8? Thoughts? 73 and thanks in advance, Ron, K1RE

Dudley-WA5QPZ

Ron, If you performed an upgrade, then you may need to re-install SmartSDR to get it fully running again .. Have you tried that yet?

Ron - K1RE

Hi Dudley, Thanks for the quick reply. It was a brand new Dell XPS 8700 with Windows 8 installed. I did upgrade it to W8.1. I'm now thinking that I might want to downgrade to Win 7 which has worked quite well (I dislike W8 immensely!) Ron

Ken - NM9P

I have a new Lenovo Desktop that came with Win 8 and upgraded it to Win 8.1. I had problems until I uninstalled SSDR, CAT and DAX and reinstalled them. Something about the upgrade did weird things to the COM ports and DAX. It didn't take long to do the uninstall-remove COM ports-reboot-reinstall-add back COM ports, routine. It didn't require reinstallation of the firmware in the 6500 itself, so it went pretty quickly. Now it is working great. If you like Win 7 better, just run everything from the "Desktop" instead of the start screen. Then convince yourself that the "Start screen" is simply an expanded version of the pull down start menus in the older versions in Windows. Good luck.

Ron - K1RE

Hi Ken, I'll try the uninstall/reinstall process when I get back to the home QTH on Friday. I specifically upgraded from 8 to 8.1 so I had a "look-alike" START by right clicking on the lower left icon under Desktop. It does look/act somewhat like START in W7 and I've convinced myself to get used to the new OS. However, if W8.1 proves to be problematic, I'll take the downgrade route. Appreciate the suggestion, Ken.

Bob G W1GLV

Ron, when I updated windows 8 & 8.1, I went through the same problems you did. My solution was to uninstall all Flex software, delete every comm port and start from scratch. So far so good.

W4EY

Ron. I am running Win 8.1 and the latest SmartSDR/SmartCAT with the lstest version of FLdigi. Also, running the DXCluster FLdigi application. When I upgraded from Win 7 Pro to 8 then 8.1, I had to Uninstall all FLEX software plus the Com Ports. After Reinstalling the FLEX Software, I did a Factory Reset of the FLEX. All is working correctly at present. So far so good.

KY6LA_Howard

I UPGRADED my new W8.1 to W7... Everything works now... No longer have to deal with that abominable W8 Interface that works equally POORLY as a tablet and desktop interface... I suspect W9 will fix the impossible to use Interface as MS is usually only successful with odd number Windows and DOS releases.

W4EY

Ron. If you want to boot directly to the Desktop in Win 8.1 and bypass all those little windows, follow the instructions in this link. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2043243/how-to-boot-to-desktop-mode-in-windows-8-1.html 73 Bill W4EY

Ron - K1RE

That's one of my options, assuming the uninstall/reinstall process doesn't help. Also, the W8.1 to W7 "upgrade" isn't quite as easy as I originally thought. We'll see...

Ron - K1RE

Good news! Uninstalled/reinstalled all SmartSDR software and everything, including fldigi is working fully under Win8.1! Thanks everyone for your help. 73, Ron, K1RE