Windows Update 1903 + DAX = migraine and "broken" rig; upgrade compatibility issue?

NK9B

I spent my entire day and evening trying to get DAX to work on 1903. I've opened a ticket, but have yet to hear back.

There seems to be some sort of enumeration problem - the audio endpoints end up munged and named incorrectly. To be fair, I'm still using old code - v1.11.12.

I'd simply like to know if upgrading to 3.x will resolve the migration errors and enumeration...if so, I'll plop down the money to make it happen. However, DAX is so squirrelly with Windows 10 Updates that I don't want to spend money for no reason. I've not had a compelling reason to upgrade, as I run only digital modes. Still, 1.x code is ancient and I'll bail if it'll fix these DAX woes.

I'd appreciate getting my rig back up and running. I also don't want to revert back to previous version of Windows, as Windows Updates will happen at *some* point without my permission, and then it'll break  everything again. I also don't want to have to rebuild Windows. I had to do this last time because I got tired of dealing with DAX.

Again, assistance appreciated! :-)

-Jason, NK9B

peter

v3 wont help the dax issues, my, and many others,  windows update did the same, so I rolled back to previous win10 version.

also opened a help ticket yesterday and waiting for reply

Steve

Just finished the latest Windows update using Version 3.0.27.  DAX drivers still corrupted.  I just opened a ticket to have them fixed.  Just an FYI

Joe N3HEE

It's fairly easy to fix.  Follow directions in this post. 

https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/problems-with-dax-followin-g-update-to-2-5-1-and-wi...

NK9B

I spent HOURS on this item yesterday...I deleted HUNDREDS of "ghosted" endpoints. I even scrubbed the Registry of any reference to "FlexRadio" and uninstalled with Revo Uninstaller. Whenever DAX installs, the endpoints complain of "not being migrated". This is some low-level driver issue, and I'll be darned if I can figure out what/how to name the endpoints. The names seem munged, and appear in the wrong place (IN vs OUT).

None of my system apps (WSJT, Audacity, etc.) can attach to an endpoint since it's corrupt.

Ken Hansen

Ironically, it is the latest version of Windows 10 (1903) that allows the average consumer the ability to defer/delay/better manage how and when updates are applied - a feature previously only available in enterprise deployments.

Rolling back to earlier releases leaves your windows machine susceptible to 'surprise' updates and upgrades.

K0FLY

Same here, DAX drivers messed up,  After trying to manually install the drivers, Windows told me that the best drivers were already installed and terminated the operation.  Video card was given a generic driver, I tried to reinstall the AMD video card driver, Windows indicated that it was corrupted, operation terminated.  Printer driver was not installed, again Windows indicated that they were corrupted.   I reverted to the previous windows update, things got worse.

I finally used the nuclear option and reinstalled Win 10 and other software.  I have since found that Windows has a somewhat primitive Drive image application.  I now have a drive image and a boot CD ROM to reinstall the software.  My data was backed up so I didn't lose any of that .  I'm going to order some better Drive image software.

Gayle K0FLY

Joe N3HEE

The image backup in Windows 10 has officially been depricated and is no longer in development.  Do not rely on it for backups.  It is recommended to use a third party application for imaging and backups.

Ken Hansen

Image backup has been deprecated? I think you mean the registry backup has been deprecated:

https://www.pcmag.com/news/369325/mic...

Ostensibly they dropped registry backups "to save space." Perhaps you were thinking of this feature from Windows 7, which was deprecated before Windows 8 was released, and seemed to involve something other than 'image backups': https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wind...

Bill -VA3WTB

This is why I still stay with win 7,,never ever have these sort of problems. I also do not allow for updating. My computer only runs SSDR.

Joe N3HEE

System Image Backup (SIB) Solution has been deprecated as of Windows 10 1709.  It will be eventually removed.  There has been reported issues with SIB and Microsoft recommends using a third party vendor for system imaging. 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4034825/features-that-are-removed-or-deprecated-in-windows-10-fall-creators-up

K0FLY

Don't worry I have a copy of Acronis True Image on the way.  My image came from the Dell factory load.  I wanted a copy before things got to corrupted from updates.

Gayle

Pat N6PAT

fyi...Windows 10 1803 latest update 7/9/2019 with no driver issues that I know of. 

DH2ID

There is absolutely no reason for me to "upgrade" to Windows 10.
I'm staying with Windows 7, and my Linux firewall runs on a
Raspberry pi between my router and all my Windows 7 pc's.
So no worries until some software I really need runs only
on Windows 10.

Steve K9ZW

RE: 1803 - that upgrade has its own issues.  - check out https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/most-common-fix-for-dax-driver-errors-in-windows-spring-update-1803-you-can-do-this
https://community.flexradio.com/flexradio/topics/important-notice-windows-10-update-1803-precautions

Now if you FIRST installed SmartSDR with Win10 1803 you should be okay.  Ditto if your first install is on a fresh Win10 1903 machine.

Where it gets unsettled is if you let your machine update Win10 with DAX (and the rest of SmartSDR) in place.  Some machines update without a hitch, while others have varying levels of distress.  

The self-help FRS provides us often works, and pretty much avoids asking users to take actions that could trash their OS install completely.  It is worth remembering that all of us have differing abilities and comfort levels working "under the hood" of Windows 10.  I know I am limited by time/patience and training/familiarity in dealing with Win10 nuances.  YMMV, as it seems like those who are good under the hood of Win10 usually get their problems fix by themselves.  Of the five machines I had one that a decent DAX fix eluded me, and I needed FRS's help.  

With Windows truly YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary) is the only constant between machines!

73

Steve
K9ZW

Blog:  http://k9zw.wordpress.com  

Pat N6PAT

I installed SSDR on a "fresh" Windows 10 1803 Home Edition months ago and have not had the corrupted DAX driver issue even after numerous updates including 7/9, 6/21, 6/11 , etc.

Steve K9ZW

Faced with the collective experience that some systems have experienced DAX driver corruptions since build 1803 you dodged the problem, but is vacuous to suggest starting with build 1803 is a panacea.

The "Patch Tuesday" mainly security updates have largely left DAX unaffected on systems - they are the lightest touches of updating.

The major build updates (like this recent 1903 update) are more challenging to DAX integrity.  Some systems come through the update okay, more come through okay when best practices are followed, and then again some fail to update correctly despite the same best efforts.

Given the collective experiences it is not possible to generalize from one experience - the collective dataset includes way too many problems to make any assumptions.

Very glad your didn't have problems with "Patch Tuesday" issues, hopefully you will fare well when you upgrade your system to a future major build as well.

73

Steve
K9ZW

Bob G W1GLV

I hate reading about all of these Windows problems. I made a decision 18 months ago to not upgrade Windows. My philosophy is, if it's not broken don't mess with it. I realize that the Windows officiates are going to say that I'm asking for trouble - I don't think so. I'm running 1803 and I have the "metered connection" selected, consequently I'm not bothered with updates.

My SSDR version is 3.0.27. Very happy with that version, DAX has run without issue since using it. 

NK9B

I ended up needing to reinstall Windows. This is the second time I've had to do this as fallout from a botched Windows Update w/DAX. Tim gave it his best, but at the end of the day, the audio subsystem was borked beyond our ability to repair. Going forward, I'm keeping all of my user data on separate drives/partitions/cloud, and will just reinstall if some issue takes longer than a couple of hours to resolve.

Delaying OS patches and updates isn't an option. The risk of ignoring bug fixes and security vulnerability patches far outweighs the inconvenience and aggravation of a rebuild. There's a name for folks that ignore good software update practices - they're known as "victims". :-)

bahillen

I have a shack desktop computer Thad one has my ham radio applications on it. The other computer is an older laptop with I5 processor. I had a problem with a logging program after the spring update. For last year I had a 3rd party software to block Microsoft updates. I manually updated non Microsoft drivers with Drive Booster. No issues for a year. With my logging problem it was suggested finally to restore before the update. That was a total disaster because of different OS versions. We decided to do a clean rebuild of the computer. My computer tech support was able to recover most of my data but had to reload all of my applications. All software was installed and functioned well. Shortly later I had an issue with my laptop. When we looked at the computer we found a hard drive failure with bad sector found. We replaced the hard drive with a SSD and again did a clean rebuild of the computer. UGH. The SSD drive not only reduced boot time but dramatically increased its speed performance. I learned a number of things. 1) Keep a record of all applications you put on your computer. It took two weeks to finally get all the programs back as I had forgotten how many different apps I really use. 2). Get an external drive that you backup images on regular basis. I got a 2TB USB drive for $89. It plugs into my desktop but I now backup 3 computers on my network to that drive. 3) Be prepared to learn a lot about you computer tools. 4) It might make sense to plan a clean rebuild of your computer operating system once every year or two. 5) Get a free app that tells you when your drivers are not current. This has solved driver problems that can slow your computer down. I run a 6600 with 4 receivers on CW, CW Skimmer, FT8 and multi remote. SSDR 3.0.27 has improved memory leak type problem that I had to shut down and restart my SSDR every day or two. 73 Bill W9JJB

KM6CQ - Dan

Consider using the media creation tool from MS. Then do a fresh install. Choose not to keep anything. Dan

Wim

I just did a full uninstall of smartsdr and dax before doing the windows update, then reinstalled smartsdr but my second DAX channel was not functioning properly, as I went to windows control panel sound settings I got a blue screen in windows ...  not fun these updates ...

Phil N3ZP

Apparently after an update, my Windows 10 PC which was already version 1903, had the BSOD and could not be repaired by a restore or reset. I used the media creation tool to create a USB install for Windows 10. I was able to do a clean install but do need to reinstall a lot of apps. SSDR and other apps seem to be working well are fresh installs.

Phil N3ZP

NK9B

Did the BSOD happen to reference "portcls.sys" or similar? Just before rebuild, I BSOD a couple of times and saw this "portcls" as the offending library. MS really jacked things up this update!

Wim

yep I got a bluescreen in the portcls as I was browsing in the windows sound control panel ....

John Wagner

I have a 6400 and WIN10. I shut off any updates from the Windows Security and Update screen Been fine for quite some time. Stuck on build 1803, no issues. When I decided to update to 2.5.1, I uninstalled everything SDR per Tim's memo. I let Windows update itself, then reinstalled everything SDR. So far, I've had no issues

Pat N6PAT

I'm sure glad I still have my 8.1 computer in addition to my 1803 box. If the 1903 update crashes then I can always revert back to the 8.1 computer

It sounds like this upgrade is a real nightmare for the computer and DAX