Lost CAT control

Dougrea

Lost CAT control! Wanted to get some FT8 in this afternoon and got this error. Nothing changed. Work FT8 all the time but this just showed up. Searched all the groups I could find with no joy. Ideas?

ka9ees

@Dougrea

I had the same problem! The ports I had before. They showed up in Device Manager, but were no longer available in SmartSDR. I finally had to add another port. Works fine with the new port.

Mike-VA3MW

Can you post a few screen shots of your SmartSDR CAT and WSJTx Radio setup screens please.

ka9ees

@Mike-VA3MW This was how I fixed mine.

Mike-VA3MW

Hi Ed

There is a proper way to reset those. Mapping COM125 to COM104 will work, but it will only cause possible corruption/confusion in the future as you may end up with conflicting ports.

Here is the proper procedure. https://helpdesk.flexradio.com/hc/en-us/articles/205665325-How-to-Repair-the-FlexVSP-Virtual-Serial-Port-Driver

ka9ees

@Mike-VA3MW

Thanks! I'll give it a go.

ka9ees

@Mike-VA3MW

I followed those instructions. It never prompted me to restart the computer. I powered it down. Restarted it. No joy. I did it again. This time I did a restart. No joy. I deleted VSP com125/com104. Did it again. No joy. As shown previously. I can see Comm26/126 in Device Manager, but not in SmartSDR CAT.

Jim K4JAF

Happens here all the time, perhaps once per week. Flex should address this problem.. But as usual, no help.

Jim K4JAF

ka9ees

@Jim K4JAF

I don't believe it's a Flex issue. I think it's Windows issue.

Mike-VA3MW

I commented this on last week on a different thread.

This sort of issue happens to a very small percentage of customers. Nonetheless, it does happen.

At the moment, we have not figured out the root cause or why this is happening on just a few Windows computers - maybe 1% of the install base. There is something unique for those that this happens to. To resolve such a problem, you really need to be able recreate this in a Lab environment.

@Peter West, a good friend of mine had the same problem and between the 2 of us, could not figure out 'why'.

The good news is that he solved it (and I guarantee you won't like the answer), but it is a fix that does work as a few have done it. He re-installed Windows and the problem was resolved. (I hesitate even saying this as I know I will get yelled at by those who have experienced this issue.)

What is apparent, that for some reason, Windows decides there is an issue with this com port hardware (VSPs) and in some weekly cleanup mode, it disables VSPs. It could be related to the Windows version/build and a combination of the Antivirus, etc.

Believe me, we really wish we had a better 'quick' and not so drastic permanent solution.

(I don't take mentioning this as an option lightly. I had an issue once with an OEM radio driver and there was no way I could get the USB CAT ports to function and after a few weeks of very DEEP internals debugging with myself and a specialist, we would not resolve it. Rebuilding Windows from scratch solved it).

ka9ees

@Mike-VA3MW

That all makes sense. My machine is a direct upgrade from Win7 to Win10. At least a year or two after Microsoft allowed a free upgrade (Ya just gotta know where to look).

My question is. Can I make a bootable device that'll allow me to install Windows from scratch?

Geoff AB6BT

Here is the Misrosoft site where you can download and create installation media:

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

ka9ees

@Geoff AB6BT Thanks. I have the bootable drive created on a Flash drive.

@Mike-VA3MW I'm assuming I can't just reinstall Windows over what I have. Without affecting what I have?

Mike-VA3MW

Depending on your computer, some of them have the option to reboot with a clean install. It will be described in the manual(s) you got when you bought it. You could start searching about clean install and your computer model number.

ka9ees

@Mike-VA3MW If I ever decide to write a manual for it. I will refer to it. HAHAHAHA! Sorry. I couldn't help myself. I built this several years ago. It originally was used as a Win7 gaming machine. When All the games surpassed it. I built another machine for Win10.

I went to Microsoft's website to upgrade it to Win10. At that time I didn't build any bootable media. Not sure I want to do a clean install. I have thousands of pictures and documents on here. They are backed up to an external drive. I have never had to restore anything from it.

I think I might try to repair Windows 10 with the flash drive. I did a check this morning. It did need an update. That has been done. I am starting to yammer. Thanks Mike!

Mike-VA3MW

Ed

I get it!

This is what I always do. You may have a different idea.

What I do is go buy new media. Hard drives have an amazing shelf life of 3 years and then they start to degrade (this is from a person who I used to work with on designing hard drives). Sadly, we have no way of knowing this is going on as that information is not shared with the operating system.

• buy a new drive (SSD or spinning)
• buy a copy of Windows Pro on USB (this might work https://www.microsoft.com/en-ca/software-download/windows10)
• Install new drive and build from scratch
• Install old drive in a carrier or as a second drive
• Migrate pictures as required (I have over 700,000 pictures)

This way you get new media and new media performance and now you have a backup drive.

Butch

I also lost my CAT control recently, and cannot create a Port. Everything worked fine one day, boot the PC the next day and it's not. I submitted a Trouble Report and have been working with Ken. Ken made several suggestions on how to repair the problem but so far the suggested procedures have not worked. I've owned my Flex for approximately 6 years and this is not the first time I've experienced CAT problems. From what I understand CAT issues can arise from not shutting down the program properly, or when Windows upgrades occur. It's a safe bet CAT issues will continue to occur. I'd really like to see some sort of automated fix or routine developed. This is very frustrating.

Duane_AC5AA

Ditto here, Butch. I still haven’t recovered. Getting ready to try SliceMaster and see if that helps.