MS Windows10 Auto Update (3/2016) Warning

rich

The recent (3/10/2016) MS Windows 10 Auto Upgrade trashed the DAX settings in SSDR V1.6.  I had to do a complete uninstall of SSDR, a few reboots, and a fresh install of SSDR.  That solved my problem.  GL

73, Rich, K3VAT 

Jim Gilliam

Which complete uninstall procedure did you follow?

Jim, K6QE

rich

Hi Jim,

Using the "install" feature from the Windows control panel.  Then ascertaining that the SSDR, the CAT and the DAX were removed.

Rich

Walt - KZ1F

I actually did this once 3 months or so ago. Is this going to be a recurring theme (complete uninstall of ssdr followed by a complete reinstall)?  Frankly, I am scared to boot over to Windows now as I am sure it will want to install / break my system.

I believe I know some individual's reaction to this question but I ask it sincerely. Is this a FRS issue or a uSoft issue?

DH2ID

Because I'm wary about Win10 I have updated one of my older notebooks and kept Win7
on my main machine. I see the behaviour you describe with each Win10 update and I
sincerely hope this issue will be resolved one day. Until then: 7... Alex

rich

thanks Alex,

Yes, I too have seen lots of postings from other SSDR/FLEX users shackled with MS O/S.

That's why I'll be migrating to MAC later this year.  73, Rich,  K3VAT

DH2ID

Thanks, Rich, you made my day :-) I'm also planning to migrate to OS-X on
a new notebook and try this out...
73, Alex - DH2ID

dlwarnberg

My experience is you do not have to completely uninstall everything and reinstall everything... only the DAX drivers are usually effected.. I simply remove the FLEX VSP package in Apps and features, reboot and reinstall them... problem solved and all settings remain.

It's only happened once on my main PC and twice on my laptop.

And if memory serves me correctly... I simply ran a "repair" one time and resolved the issue.. same app package

Just my 2 cents

AA0KM

Installed Tuesdays patch and on down the road I went . No issues.

Got lucky I guess.

dlwarnberg

I didn't have an issue with this latest one either....

W9OY

I had the "update" happen to me last night.  I walked into the shack, looked at the 'puter and I was 34% into the update.  I thought O **** and sat down and let it finish and DAX was toast.  No big deal.  

1 I uninstalled every old SSDR in:  control panel>programs list including DAX but left FlexVSP alone and rebooted.  

2 I updated Win 10 to the latest updates and rebooted.

3 I reloaded 1.6.21 and rebooted.  

Took maybe 10 minutes once I had the win 10 updates completed.  My hair is intact.

I fired up SSDR and was back in business.  Switched to 40 and worked St Barts one call.  I've been running win 10 on the machine in my office since last summer and have upgraded to win 10 on several other computers and except for uninstalling and reinstalling to fix DAX have never had an issue.  I'm glad ro have all those old SSDR's off my machine.  Like every one else I was worried but now that it's over I'm glad it's over.  Worked so well I deleted the windows.old folder to free up SSD space

73  W9OY

Martin AA6E

The W10 update caused no troubles here with SSDR/DAX/etc.  It would be interesting to know what percent of users have these troubles, but it's hard to tell from reports here.

Walt - KZ1F

Martin's request,  put slightly differently, it would be interesting to know what percentage of users have repeatedly had these troubles. In other words, have you or others had them only the single time vs. multiple times.

rich

Thanks to all who replied to my posting.  Regarding the question as to " ... what percentage had trouble ...OR ... what percentage have repeatedly had trouble ...  I think a lot has to do IF you have the SSDR and perhaps other SW running when the  MS Upgrade actually takes place.  For example, I usually leave the computer up and running with SSDR, DXLabs, JTx.  Other Windows10 users told me that they often shut down and upgrades are done when they power up (without any apps besides the OS).  My guess is that users in the 2nd case may be more 'protected'.

thanks, 73, Rich, K3VAT

Martin AA6E

Yes. But my point is that on any forum like this, you're likely to hear about any problems (no matter how few there are) while happy campers usually don't write in. So it's hard to tell how widespread the problems are.

Martin AA6E

This sounds right. W10 generally reboots when it does a big update. Maybe it will wait until 3 am for you, but that's no help if your big app runs continuously. If you have W10 Pro, you can delay things more. But you're eventually going to have to reboot, and it's probably better to shut down SSDR etc first. I wouldn't expect to have to reload any software.

Walt - KZ1F

While that is a point Martin, I don't know when someone complains about a W10 update breaking SSDR whether they are new SSDR customers, new to 1.6.x, or new to a Win7 to Win10 upgrade or it is a recurring event. I would guess if this happens to people with every Microsoft update it perhaps is a FRS issue. If it only happens with the first update after a win7 to win10 upgrade it could ultimately be eithers 'fault'.

I am not 100% sure I am quoting Tim accurately but I believe so. At one point he said, to the best of my recollection,

FRS does not test upgrade scenarios as there are too many permutations to be run for every new point release.

That would certainly slow the release process, perhaps, significantly but, anecdotally, if it truly is an every Win10 update issue and it forces one to play delete and reinstall every flipping time, I'd guess testing a Win10 update use case would have been a worthwhile thing. I am not second guessing FRS business practices but, as Burt so eloquently put it, there is Microsoft and then there is FRS and Microsoft does not have a habit of blinking.

I am certain to some, assuming this is an every update event, saving off profiles, uninstalling, reinstalling, and reloading profiles may just be an acceptable cost of having the very best euphoria wave generator ever.

W9OY

I think the issue is related to how windows 10 validates and handles drivers.  I've had several drivers on things like HP printers that needed to be upgraded once I converted to windows 10.  Once SSDR is properly installed on windows 10, I've never had another problem despite multiple dozens of alpha code upgrades I've done on multiple machines.

73  W9OY

Walt - KZ1F

Thank you Lee! That's good to know.

Tim - W4TME

The issue of Windows 10 upgrade trashing DAX and sometimes theCAT drivers is not a systemic issue by any means.  It is a real issue that affects a small percentage of our user base.  Some people experience the unpleasantness multiple times, which I know is very frustrating.  There are many, like Lee and myself that do not or have not experienced driver corruption issues with the Windows 10 update.  I did experience issues with the technical preview updates, but none with the release updates.

We have and continue to investigate these issue when they arise, collecting data  in order to  determine any possible commonality that might lead to a clue as to what might be the triggering factor.  Unfortunately, to date, we have not discovered anything definitive.

DAX seems to be more susceptible for getting hosed that any other part of the ecosystem.  I believe it is because DAX is emulating hardware with software (a virtual sound card interface) rather that a driver that is communicating with actual hardware.  The Windows sound system has been notoriously difficult to deal with for a very long time.  We have been "dealing" with sound cards and sound card drivers since the introduction of the original three board stack (the precursor to the DSP-1000), so this isn't our first rodeo.

Leaving the SmartSDR ecosystem (SmartSDR, CAT and DAX) running when Windows does an OS update is not a best practice.  When Windows does a forced reboot, all sorts of things can go wrong.

Walt - KZ1F

Thanks Tim!

Reg

I had been waiting to upgrade all of my PC's to Windows 10 Enterprise when they release the next Enterprise version.  The Long Term Support Branch versions of Enterprise are still from the launch date in July 2015.  There is a Windows 10 Enterprise version dated November 2015.  I was holding out for the next major Enterprise version to upgrade.

Most of us had been receiving prompts to upgrade to W10 since the launch in July 2015.  In recent weeks I started seeing "tricky" prompts in Windows which, on first inspection, didn't seem to give us a choice other than to upgrade now or tonight.  Last week I started seeing something new on one of my laptops.  I would log in and a timer would start counting down for 1 hour until upgrade with no obvious way to cancel.  Two days ago when I received the 60 minute message I canceled it and started a StorageCraft image backup of my system so I would have a recovery image if that proved to be necessary.  When I returned from my errands my laptop was completing a Windows 10 upgrade.  My initial reaction was more than mild annoyance.

I checked to see if there were any problem icons in Devices Drivers.  The machine seemed to be happy.  I opened a number of programs and they all ran OK.  Now it was time for the real test.  I launched SmartSDR and to my shock it came up running.  I connected to the FLEX-6700 and everything was OK.  SmartSDR was fully functional.  SmartSDR CAT was happy and so was the DAX Control Panel.

Because of the new aggressive behavior of Windows Update regarding Windows 10 upgrades I am avoiding booting the other machines until I am ready to upgrade them to Windows 10 Enterprise in the coming days.

One last thing.  I am moving to Windows Enterprise because it is intended to meet the needs of large businesses which won't put up with data gathering by Cortana and Edge.  Also, it is to receive updates only every 3-4 months.  The Enterprise LTSB will only be updated at 8-12+ month intervals.  Why?  First, large entities don't want to deal with deploying constant updates.  Second, Microsoft is using their consumer users as beta testers and deploying to corporate users after updates (KB's) are proven to be stable.  Don't misunderstand, I'm not saying that is bad.  It is an interesting business model:  Give it to individuals for free and sell stable versions to large corporations.

The bottom line is so far I have involuntarily upgraded one laptop to Windows 10 Professional and everything is OK, for now.

Reg