DAX Driver Error

dlwarnberg

So I decided to go back to SmartSDR 1.5 with a clean install instead of just installing over the previous version... now I'm hosed, no matter what I've tried I am getting the dreaded DAX Driver Error.  Tried clean uninstall, cleanup, reboot, make sure default sound devices are selected and on and on.. same issue.. opened a trouble ticket and sure hope I get to the bottom of this soon..  Even going back to previous versions now results in the same issue..

Steven Hess

Open a support ticket.

rfoust

Did you use these instructions for the uninstall?

https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/204975589-How-to-do-a-Complete-uninstall-of-SmartSD...

dlwarnberg

Steve, yes support ticket is opened
Robbie, I did follow those removal instructions... twice

I even looked over and followed the DAX Driver remove and reinstall instructions..

thanks

Bob K8RC

When you try a manual install (i.e. "Step 7 on

https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/204017069-How-to-Manually-Re-Install-DAX-Drivers

)

watch and see if there are any "Access Denied" type errors as the batch file executes.

If there are the problem is a loss of Windows administrative privileges for the user. I'm not sure what the resolution is but it is a Windows problem.

Happened to me this weekend.

73,
Bob, K8RC

dlwarnberg

will give it a shot, Thanks Bob... it goes by so fast hard to tell..

Also found all the DAX entries under Device Manager (Audio inputs and outputs) each entry in 8 times after uninstall (hidden).. example DAX IQ RX 1 (DAX RX IQ) entered 8 times...

So cleaning all this up and reattempting an install (fresh)

Just in case you were wondering, that's 8 devices all the same times 8 entries give or take a few... so at least 64 entries I had to delete that were all hidden, all DAX related

dlwarnberg

no luck, same issue... this time I installed fresh, rebooted, then started SmartSDR, then started radio, it sat for quite a while, actually thought it was going to work then up pops the error

Peter K1PGV

Just FYI: The way you wind-up with those extra entries (8 complete sets of DAX ports) is by having done the install either successfully or unsuccessfully 8 times.  Because DAX isn't associated with a specific piece of hardware in the machine, each time you install it, you'll get a new set of DAX ports.

The extra sets won't necessarily WORK, but they get instantiated nonetheless.

Peter
K1PGV

Rick Hadley - W0FG

Try using Revo Unistaller instead of the one from Windows Control Panel , uninstall SSDR and have it do an advanced scan for leftover items.  Delete EVERYTHING it finds and then reinstall.

Bob K8RC

WOW! That's a lot!

BTW, if you run the .bat files from a CMD box (a.k.a. "DOS box) instead of
Windows Explorer the results will stay visible.

I have found that with my Win8.1 box, at least, copying and pasting a path name into a CMD box only works occasionally.

So, it's kinda a pain to hand type the looong path & file names, as in "CD C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.5.064-bit DriversIQ_DAX"" and then execute "SmartSDR_IQ_DAX_uninstall.bat", for example, but it will give you a better understanding of what's going on. If you just do that one example it will tell you what you need to know.

I'm going to work on my machine some more this afternoon to see if I can resolve the administrative rights thing.

(Man, I miss my XP!)

73,

Bob, K8RC

dlwarnberg

Rick... tried that as well now, same issue... even after a complete uninstall / cleanup and going back to 1.4.16.142 I still get the error

dlwarnberg

Trying this Bob.. thanks... used to be a way to "open a command prompt here" but not under 10

dlwarnberg

So now I see this..

C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.4.1664-bit DriversRXAudio_DAX>SmartSDR_RXAudio_DAX_install.batA subdirectory or file C:UsersDavidAppDataRoamingFlexRadio SystemsInstLogs already exists.
        1 file(s) copied.
WDREG utility v10.40. Build Oct 17 2011 12:38:06

Processing HWID FlexRadioSystems_DAX_Audio
Installing a signed driver package for FlexRadioSystems_DAX_Audio
Error: Failed to install the INF file (C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.4.1664-bit DriversRXAudio_DAXSmartSdr_Audio_DAX.inf)
LOG ok: 1, ENTER:  DriverPackageInstallA
LOG ok: 1, ENTER:  DriverPackageInstallW
LOG ok: 1, Looking for Model Section [DevSection.NTamd64]...
LOG ok: 1, Installing INF file 'C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.4.1664-bit DriversRXAudio_DAXSmartSdr_Audio_DAX.inf' (Plug and Play).
LOG INFO(1): error 3, Could not open file C:WINDOWSSystem32DriverStoreFileRepositorysmartsdr_audio_dax.inf_amd64_47a8288205eb00e3smartsdr_audio_dax.inf.
LOG ERROR(3): error 3ee, PnP Install failed.
LOG ok: 1, Attempting to rollback ...
LOG ok: 1, No devices to rollback
LOG ok: 1, RETURN: DriverPackageInstallW  (0x3EE)
LOG ok: 1, RETURN: DriverPackageInstallA  (0x3EE)
 difx_install_preinstall_inf: err 3ee, last event 3, last error 3ee. UNKNOWN
Error: Failed trying to install the driver

C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.4.1664-bit DriversRXAudio_DAX>

Peter K1PGV

Error 0x3EE means "FIle Invalid"... could the downloaded driver installation file you have be damaged in some way?

Peter
K1PGV

Bob K8RC

Those failures could also be as a result of denied access. That's why I suggested looking at the Batch files executing in a DOS box. The log file you quote doesn't say WHY it couldn't open the file.

Now then, as far as my personal version of the problem is concerned, I started the festivities this afternoon by uninstalling the partial (no DAX, no CAT) install of version 1.4.16. When I rebooted, the machine installed some pending updates.

I re-installed 1.5 and it went well and complete but it still had an audio distortion problem so I uninstalled 1.5 but it didn't uninstall the DAX drivers even though I requested that be done. I uninstalled DAX manually in Device Manager.

Then when I reinstalled 1.4.16 it loaded everything and I'm good. I'm 24 hours too late for the CQ WW RTTY Test but, oh well...

I think maybe the Windows 8.1 Update last week hosed me originally and the one that installed today fixed the problem. Dunno.

73,

Bob

dlwarnberg

This directory / file does not even exist...
C:WINDOWSSystem32DriverStoreFileRepositorysmartsdr_audio_dax.inf_amd64_47a8288205eb00e3smartsdr_audio_dax.inf.

That would be an issue

dlwarnberg

Well.. after much research and discovery I have resolved the issue.. little tricky but I found it.  What happened was there is a registry entry that was not removed and could not be removed by the normal user or even regedit running as administrator.  There are some tools out there that will allow you to remove entries regardless.

Here is what I found, there are 3 DAX drivers that need to be installed. smartsdr_audio_dax (the one I had issues with), smartsdr_iq_dax and smartsdr_tx_dax.. you can see if there are any erros by following the "How to Manually Re-Install DAX Drivers" in the support area.  So to resolve my issue I followed the how to remove smartSDR from your PC and rebooted, then I went through all Devices (have to show hidden) and removed all DAX stuff there as well as COM ports left over from SmartSDR.. I then went trough the registry and found the below key that was not removable.  I used a program called "Registrar Registry Manager, home edition" to locate and remove that key.

Here was the leftover KEY:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINEDRIVERSDriverDatabaseDriverPackagessmartsdr_audio_dax.inf_amd64_47a8288205eb00e3]"Version"=hex:00,00,09,00,00,00,00,00,6c,e9,36,4d,25,e3,ce,11,bf,c1,08,00,2b,
  e1,03,18,00,80,51,91,bb,10,cf,01,00,00,00,00,01,00,01,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,
  00,00
"Provider"="FlexRadio Systems"
"InfName"="SmartSdr_Audio_DAX.inf"
"OemPath"="C:\Program Files\FlexRadio Systems\SmartSDR v1.4.16\64-bit Drivers\RXAudio_DAX"
"SignerName"="Bronze Bear Communications, Inc D/B/A FlexRadio Systems"
"ImportDate"=hex:d0,83,c7,6e,dd,e8,d0,01
"SignerScore"=dword:0f000000
"StatusFlags"=dword:00000112
@="oem202.inf"

I then did one last search in the registry looking for DAX and removed anything obviously related (196 keys approximately).  Modifying your registry in windows is NOT recommended or for the faint of heart... however after installing the software from a fresh install all is working perfectly.

I will be passing this information on the support.

Thanks all..

David

Peter K1PGV

Just for the archives:  These registry entries are designed NOT to be removed.  They are part of what I was referring to earlier when I noted that "once you install a driver, you can never really completely UNinstall it."

These registry entries can be "orphaned" on *very* rare cases if an install fails, usually due to a disk error. It's MORE likely, however, that these entries no longer correlate to a driver package in the "driver store" because some files have been manually deleted.

I'm very glad removing this and the other registry entries worked for you and you're now able to install and run DAX normally. YAY!  However, your course of action isn't a solution I would recommend to others in a similar situation.

Peter
K1PGV

dlwarnberg

I completely agree... that's why I stated "Modifying your registry in windows is NOT recommended"... 

k3Tim

Would multiple runs of CCleaner clear this sort of reg problem?  I have good success with that app cleaning up after an uninstall.  Last app I removed took about 4 passes of CCleaner to remove everything.  It was as if removing one thing brought to the surface other defects, not really surprising.

BTW: For Win 10 conversion I had to remove the ports, ran CCleaner several times and installed CAT (admin level) then it worked fine.

Thanks for the help..
Tim

Peter K1PGV

@K3TIM:  I don't recommend running any registry "cleaner"... ever. The Registry isn't like a car.  It doesn't get dirty and need to be cleaned regularly.  If there's a *specific* issue you need to fix, you're usually better off getting help from somebody than taking the generic "cleaner" approach.

I know some people swear by some of these Registry cleaner tools.  I'm just not one of them.

Peter
K1PGV

k3Tim

Very good and thanks...

Tim

KC8P

David, 

Thank you so much for the tip! I had the same issue. I could not even remove the registry keys....due to permission issue, I had to take ownership of the keys first.

Mario
KC8P