Dear All, I bought a used Flex 3000 two weeks ago. It was working fine until yesterday when the RX and TX audio started becoming distorted. Initially the problem was intermittent but eventually became permanent and so bad that Power SDR started crashing. Many times I battled to reload it. I reinstalled the factory settings - but no help. I uninstalled all software, reinstalled and recalibrated - but no help either. I'm operating Windows 7 and have found the device manager icons for the Flex/Firewire sometimes disappear and reappear. Everytime they disappear, Power SDR crashes. I am therefore suspecting a problem with my Firewire communications. I have a short, double screened Firewire cable which tests fine. I'm worried there might be a problem either with my ST Lab 1394a Firewire card or perhaps my Flex 3000. Has anyone experienced the same problem please? If so please can you offer some advice? Thank you very much. 73's Kevin ZS6KAT
Posted 6 years ago
Thank you Bill. Is it possible for an incompatible Firewire card to work for a couple of weeks before playing up though? Shouldn't the problem have come to light immediately? Regards Kev
Tim - W4TME, Customer Experience Manager
Probably not. You are most likely experiencing excessive latency from DPCs (deferred procedure calls). This is always due to software or hardware updates that were done to your computer. Did you do a Windows update, configure new services or load a new program lately? If so, that is probably what is causing the excessive latency which is shutting down the data stream between the radio and the PC. I suspect if you immediately reboot after a freeze, that will allow the radio to work for a while, eliminating the suspect thermal failure.
(Edited)
Hi Guys,
For anyone who has been following this post, over the past couple of days I have slowly managed to completely get rid of the distorted audio by removing all unwanted software from my computer - especially the stuff that repeatedly searches for new updates over the Internet. I also removed everything possible from MSCONFIG - Start-up. No use in having programs running in the background and taking up unnecessary CPU time..
The only issue I have now is that sometimes Power SDR crashes out of the blue. For the most part, this is only during transmit and not during receive. RF feedback perhaps? Your comments would be much appreciated please.
Thank you for all your advice thus far - I would never have been able to manage without it.
73's Kevin ZS6KAT
I would suspect RF in this instance.
Check your station grounds and make sure you have a good RF ground, not just a DC/safety ground, especially if you are running much power.
THen make sure your cables into and out of the rig and computer are protected from common mode RF.....31-mix RF beads are your friends! Buy a bunch and use them all over.
Check your station grounds and make sure you have a good RF ground, not just a DC/safety ground, especially if you are running much power.
THen make sure your cables into and out of the rig and computer are protected from common mode RF.....31-mix RF beads are your friends! Buy a bunch and use them all over.
Thank you for the advice Ken, I have subsequently made up a brand new RF fly-lead using RG 213 and placed clamp-on ferrite chokes at each end. I have also placed ferrite chokes on either end of my double screened Firewire cable from Flex. The good news is that I can no longer hear any trace of RF on my external speaker system whilst transmitting. Sadly though, Power SDR crashed several times whilst I was simply listening to some shortwave stations this evening, leading me to believe that there is still a hidden application butting in somehow. I wonder if there is a way that I can give my Firewire card a different interrupt request number? For your info, CPU usage at the time of the crashes was around 11% - not particularly high. I can hear the MS Windows sound effect for the connection and disconnection of a link every time Power SDR crashes - so I assume the Firewire link is still dropping out for some reason or other. Please would you let me know if you can think of anything else I can possibly try? I'm beginning to think this Firewire interface is a fussy little so and so... I wonder if everyone else has had to go through an episode like this before getting everything up and running?... Regards Kev
Do you possibly have something going into sleep mode on your computer causing it. like the computer putting the fire wire card into sleep or standby mode in your power settings
(Edited)
I haven't seen you mention trying a new Firewire card (unless I missed that). That would be the best way to rule out another possibility.
Also, how old is your power supply in the computer. I have seen them take dips when they get older when a hard drive spins up or some other power transient happens.
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