DAX Drivers Manual Install Problem v. 1.8.4

Monk - K5HP

I recently purchased a new computer for the shack running Windows 7 Pro and 6300. When installing SmartSDR v. 1.8.4 I received errors regarding the rejection of unsigned DAX drivers. Research on the community forum led to Win 7 updates needed. After updating and two complete un-install and re-installs per Flex instructions, I still received the same errors. At this point, a manual install of DAX drivers seemed to be the final solution. Performed a manual install per Tim's instructions on the website and all seemed to go well up to items 10 and 11. When either of the two copied and pasted .bat command lines was entered I received this message??

C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.8.464-bit DriversRXAudio_DAX>SmartSDR_RXAudio_DAX_uninstall.bat
'SmartSDR_RXAudio_DAX_uninstall.bat' is not recognized as an internal or external command,
operable program or batch file.

I have entered a ticket on this but it being a weekend and my leaving town for a week tomorrow morning, I thought I would throw this out there to see if anyone had run into this problem.

Thanks,
73 Monk

Chris DL5NAM

Start Installer as Admin is the key !

Monk - K5HP

Did that as well, but thanks!

James T. Whitehead

Monk - I would perform a clean install of Windows 10 Anniversary Edition and install SDR - I feel that Windows 10 is the best Windows Product and I have lived with them all - Windows 7 is pretty old now!!

Monk - K5HP

I considered that but I have run both in the shack and am resisting win 10 for now. I may cave before long. We'll see how convoluted this fix gets and go from there LOL. With Win 7 support going away in October it may be time. Thanks for the reply. 

WA2SQQ

Windows10's updates cause too many issues. Stay with 7. If this is a dedicated shack PC, it should not cause any issues. I still have a dedicated XP machine running just fine!

Monk - K5HP

I agree at this juncture.

Tim - W4TME

The SmartSDR for Windows installer elevates rights to the administrator level when it is run, so this is not necessary.

Chris DL5NAM

No always ! If you install DAX  again  - after a full SSDR installation (i have Dax deinstalled after some USB port trouble) you MUST do it with Admin rights. I have two times run into this problem. Now i have burned into my brain for ever. Driver installing needs mostly Admin rights. For SSDR install no Admin needed.

Tim - W4TME

That is correct, but your statement "Start Installer as Admin is the key !" is misleading.  If you had stated to run the batch file that installs the DAX drivers with administrative rights, which I suspect is what you really meant, that is 100% correct.

Your statement as written indicates that you must run the SmartSDR for Windows installer as admin, which is not true.  I was clarifying your statement.

Chris DL5NAM

Your right

Monk - K5HP

Update: I do have a reply to my helpdesk ticket however I am in the oil patch until I return home Monday so any troubleshooting will have to wait until then. Thanks for the replies and we'll keep you posted on the outcome. 

73 Monk

Monk - K5HP

This is my somewhat lengthy and possibly confusing attempt to update the outcome of my original post. I have placed the email string here containing my back and forth communication with tech support and have recorded my feelings regarding the handling of this support ticket.

This will (hopefully) explain what was done to solve my problem and by leaving out the name of the tech provide an anonymous critique of the handling of this trouble ticket. This is not provided as fodder for a lynching or bashing of tech support but hopefully information for those who may need it and maybe a nudge to the tech for a little more "supportive" support

My trouble ticket submission:

Did two uninstalls per instructions with reinstall with no joy. Then read of windows updates. Updated win 7 (which is new on a new machine) to the point of no new updates found. (found out later this is common problem with windows update) Still no joy with rejection of unsigned drivers. Attempted manual install and all points in manual install went well except item 10 and 11 which I received the following note after running the uninstall .bat command line.

C:Windowssystem32>cd Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.8.464-bit D
riversRXAudio_DAX

C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.8.464-bit DriversRXAudio_DAX>Sm
artSDR_RXAudio_DAX_uninstall.bat
'SmartSDR_RXAudio_DAX_uninstall.bat' is not recognized as an internal or externa
l command,
operable program or batch file.

C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.8.464-bit DriversRXAudio_DAX>sm
artsdr_rxaudio_dax_uninstall.bat
'smartsdr_rxaudio_dax_uninstall.bat' is not recognized as an internal or externa
l command,
operable program or batch file.

C:Program FilesFlexRadio SystemsSmartSDR v1.8.464-bit DriversRXAudio_DAX>

Support Reply:

Sorry you are having issue installing the DAX drivers.. You might want to disable your anti-virus / firewall or make sure that you have exception in them for SmartSDR ..

There is an update for Win7 , that needs to be installed and it may take up to 30 hours to complete, being left on the Internet. Here are the instructions for this update. If you are just running Windows Update, you will have to keep repeating the Windows update to make sure that all have been installed, reboot when it says to reboot.

Here is how to check for the installation of the update for installation of KB3024777 for SmartSDR 1.8.4

The PC that is having problems with errors indicating missing digital signatures is having the issue because it does not have an updated root certificate. Normally, if you install all mandatory and optional updates using Windows Update, this will resolve the issue.

However, there has been reports that some systems (Win7 and Win 8.x) are not getting their root certificate updated properly. If this is the case, then I recommend installing Microsoft Hotfix KB3004394

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3004394

This hotfix is not an updated root certificate, but is a patch to ensure that the PC will get the updated root certificate. Once this is installed, it may take 12-36 hours before the root certificate updates on the PC.

If you do some investigations on this hotfix, you will see that when it was initially released (Dec 2014), it caused a lot of issues with people's PCs. This hotfix was subsequently re-released in Feb 2015 and it works. The like above is for the corrected hotfix.

However, if people on Win7 and Win8.x have trouble installing KB3004394, then this is the procedure to correct it.

1.) Check your MS Update history and see if KB3004394 is installed. (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/which-windows-updates-installed#1TC=windows-7)
2.) If it is, manually uninstall it.
3.) Check to see if KB3024777 is installed on the PC. If not, install KB3024777 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3024777)
4.) Now install KB3004394 (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3004394)


My reply:

I looked into your suggestions on KB3004394 and it was not installed on my OS, so did not run KB3024777. I chose not to run KB3004394 again since I didn't like what I researched on this particular update.

I instead ran WSUS v. 10.7.3 http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/ with the autoboot option rather than fool with Microsoft Windows Update which as you know entails babysitting hours to activate reboots and loads a lot of extraneous updates I don't want or need not to mention the MS update hangup problems.

After installing WSUS updates which I had downloaded when this problem developed but had not installed.(see attached update file) I did complete uninstall of SDR 1.8.4 and Flex VSP from control panel as well as removing Flex folders etc. from programs.

I then ran 1.8.4 installer and everything went like clockwork and everything works perfectly.
I don't see any change in my certs using Certutil store after running updates (see attached) and KB3004394 is still NOT installed.

Let me know if you have any questions or need any further information.

Thanks for your help,

73, Monk

P.S. I have one more observation/question. When running the batch file. it was not recognized (SmartSDR_RXAudio_DAX_uninstall.bat' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.) Doesn't this indicate a problem with the batch file?

Supports reply:

There may now be another update that corrected the Root Certificate , which is what KB3024777 did. In either even , you ran on line long enough to update the Root Certificate and now you recognize the latest updates to the .NET Framework..

Glad that it finally got through that update, you might now have the 1607 windows update or called the Anniversary Update.. of Win10 ..

I will close this open Support Ticket..

Since your issue regarding this support ticket has been addressed, I am changing the status of your HelpDesk ticket to "solved" in order to close it in 4 days. If you have any additional questions regarding this incident, you can re-open this ticket by replying to it or open a new HelpDesk ticket.

Thanks for using the FlexRadio HelpDesk.

My sources of consternation with this experience is:

1. The fact that I told support I was runnng a new machine with WINDOWS 7 and he replies back that I may now have the Anniversary Update 1607 for Win 10?????

2. I told support I ran WSUS update which is an offline update so supports statement (In either even , you ran on line long enough to update the Root Certificate and now you recognize the latest updates to the .NET Framework.) seems a little off base considering the info provided.

3. I asked a question about the alert given when I tried to execute the uninstall batch file command (SmartSDR_RXAudio_DAX_uninstall.bat' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.) and received no acknowledgement of the question much less an explanation and even though I sorted through my problem I'd still like to know why the batch file command was not recognized.

4. The reference made to installing an update that is still NOT installed in the final analysis, was not needed is somewhat bothersome.

5. My being told to run Windows update (There is an update for Win7 , that needs to be installed and it may take up to 30 hours to complete, being left on the Internet. Here are the instructions for this update. If you are just running Windows Update, you will have to keep repeating the Windows update to make sure that all have been installed, reboot when it says to reboot.)  and then finding out through research (trying to get Windows update to work without hanging up) about WSUS offline update which is much quicker, efficient and has the ability to auto reboot as needed during the updates amounting to a push the button, hands off update is disappointing since I would expect the "gurus" to know of these things and recommend something of this nature vs fighting Windows update for days.

 

Basically, I did not feel like the tech assigned to my problem was truly tuned into my problem or valued my communications with him, but it's all good. I learned a lot and am back on the air. For anyone having to update your machine, I highly recommend http://www.wsusoffline.net/docs/ for it is a very handy tool. I burned the ISO image and will keep for any future calamities.

73, Monk

Dudley-WA5QPZ

Monk, 

I do want to thank you for posting your entire Help Desk ticket here on the large community forum,  everyone has the excess bandwidth to absorb this.     While you did not take the recommended solution,  you were able to resolve by running  some 150 additional updates to eventually resolve the issue,  and were able to get the latest released version of SmartSDR to run on a less than optimally updated OS .    While we deal with many different PC setups ,  various OS versions, at all varying states of Windows update compliance along with all the different HW configurations,  we try to provide the most immediate solution for the very limited information of the setups given to us.  Solution given addressed that exact issue in other installations,  with the limited system information given.   There usually more than one way to resolve,  in this case running all the Win7 updates did in fact correct the issue that was originally submitted, rather than the one .. 

We value all our customers,  and do the very best we can possibly do to address all issues,  some are just not addressable , but we do have a very high success rate..  

Sincerely ,
Dudley
FlexRadio Customer Support

Ian1

This has been a problem known to Flex with update 1.8.4 I also had the same issue . Dudley is right many ways to solve the problem and all of them still had the support of Flex community and Flex Radio. Ian KM4CQG

Peter K1PGV

OP... With all due respect, your problem is here: --quote I looked into your suggestions on KB3004394 and it was not installed on my OS, so did not run KB3024777. I chose not to run KB3004394 again since I didn't like what I researched on this particular update. --end quote I bet this is all that you needed to do. In terms of WSUS... I would not recommend you let an arbitrary piece of software perform privileged operations on your system. Personally, if I download something from MSFT at least I know my system will be subjected to MSFT's wishes. If I download software like this from some web site in Germany.... Who's to say it's legit (unless you build it yourself from source after thoroughly examining the code). Glad your system is now working in any case... Peter K1PGV

Monk - K5HP

Thanks, Dudley, I appreciate your comments.

Monk - K5HP

I read quite a bit on the latest version of KB3004394 and didn't like what I saw and I have several professional programmer friends who recommended WSUS so I went with it. Not being a computer **** kid, it seemed the way to go.Thanks