Win 10 creator upgrade borked FlexVSP

Jeff Shelton

Just thought I'd share that the W10 "Creator" upgrade resulted in errors on the CAT FlexVSP ports (COM4 and COM5) on my system. (Smart SDR 1.9.13, Flex 6500, W10 Home upgrades up to date as of 5/21/2017, i5-6600 PC with two Ethernet cards, one connected directly to the 6500.)

Both ports had the red ERR button showing. Could not edit them or create new CAT ports. The PTT VSP port (COM6) was ok. Tried to use the procedures discussed elsewhere here to reveal and delete "ghost" ports, was only able to get that to work after uninstalling SmartSDR, stopping the VSP service, and uninstalling VSP. Then I was able to get the VSP ports in Device Manager to come out of hiding and delete them

At that point I reinstalled the SmartSDR package - upgraded to 1.10.16 while I was at it - and everything is fine now. No real problem, except for two hours spent messing with this stuff when I could have been on the radio.

The "Creator" upgrade also messed with my network time server settings and stopped the Windows Time Service without restarting it, god knows why. I suppose I should buy the "Professional" version of W10 just so I have more control of the these things, but it feels rather like paying protection money to Microsoft...

Jim Gilliam

I wonder if someone offered Flex a million dollars how long it would take them to come up with an uninstall program before each upgrade?

Duane_AC5AA

Just installed the Creator's update this evening and SSDR, DAX and CAT were not affected.  10.16 was installed, 6500, and running Win 10 64 bit (Core-i7 Intel processor in a new Dell).  Surprised me that it seemed to go smoothly except for a Canon Selphy network printer that is generally a problem.

Michael Coslo

You'll need more than the Pro version to deal with W10 updates - You'll need the Enterprise version.

But yeah, the creator update has been messing up computers, and not just SSDR. 

Michael Coslo

Hi Jim,  I would dearly love it if Flex had what I call a refresh program. It would save the profiles, then completely uninstall everything to a deep level, SSDR, DAX, SmartCAT, and FlexVSP. Then reinstall the software, reload the profiles, and send us on our merry way. 

It isn't like I can't do this manually, but a bit of automation might be nice, and if we do it every time W10 updates, it can become a habit, and not something that is really irritating.

Most updates go okay, but too many don't. I guess we're doing something wrong, eh?