I Often Need to reboot to get SDR# working - Can This be Prevented?

[dragon48]

My setup:

Windows 10 laptop.
RTL-SDR Blog V3 R820T2 RTL2832U 1PPM TCXO
AIRSPY SDR# Studio Version 1.0.0.1855

Often, instead of outputting the actual signal, the software just emits a tone on whatever frequency I enter. A reboot fixes this 100% of the time, but not for long. I don't often use the SDR, but I need to reboot almost all of the time to get it working. It has occasionally worked without a reboot, but when it did, I wasn't keeping track of the time since the last reboot.

With the same SDR and a recent SDR # version, I never had this problem with my previous Surface Pro 4 Tablet running Windows 10. What is causing the problem now, and how can it be avoided? If the root problem can't be avoided, is here anything less drastic I can do (perhaps restart a service, or kill a rogue process) I can do to get the software working?

 

[a417]

If a reboot fixes it, then I would start leaning towards it being a Windows 10 driver issue. If the problem can be solved by closing the program/unplugging the SDR, I would think it's the peripheral hardware as the culprit.

If you can run the airspy on another machine for a bit to diagnose by subsitution, you can see if the problem follows the PC or the SDR. If it follows the PC, (personally) I would nuke it from orbit and reinstall windows 10. You could spend days downloading new drivers, and reinstalling stuff, or you can nuke/pave and start over from scratch in an hour. YMMV.

Without seeing logs or dumps, it would be almost impossible to diagnose the issue with the information presented so far.

 

[PDXh0b0]

this got me using SDR# again

Testing Keenerds RTL-SDR Drivers

Keenerd (aka Kyle Keen) recently ran a fundraiser to support him to work on improving the RTL-SDR driver and related software. A few months ago he released an update to the driver which made some improvements including some tweaks by another programmer teejeez that optimized the R820T's filters...

www.rtl-sdr.com

download this to your SDR# folder and then run it

install(Keenerd)rtlsdr.bat

drive.google.com

 

[MELERIX]

this should fix your issue: airspy@groups.io | [MOD] install-rtlsdr.bat but with Keenerds RTL-SDR Driver and a more recent Zadig version

 

[dragon48]

The crash just happened again, but I was able to get the software working without a reboot. I took @a417 s advice and closed the program, took the SDR out of the USB slot, put it back in the USB slot, and then restarted the software. Then, the software worked as expected, proving that AIRSPY SDR# Studio isn't to blame. As I had earlier mentioned, with my last Windows 10 device, I had this setup working without the crashes, so I can't be certain whether the SDR is to blame. I did have the SDR in a powered USB hub with my Surface 4 Pro, but I currently have three powered USB hubs chained together, and I had far fewer things going on with the previous setup, so maybe Windows is having issues with resources, that a simple re-seat of the device fixes.

So, allow me to rant about Microsoft Windows false advertising. In theory, one can connect 127 USB devices to a PC, however, this is false advertising, as eventually, you will run into the dreaded "Not Enough USB Controller Resources" warning, and some USB devices will stop functioning or have problems. I do get that annoying error once in a while and am wondering whether when this happens, if this is causing the SDR problems.

Sorry if the rant went a little off topic, but I abhor false claims.

In any event, re-seating the SDR is much more convenient than rebooting, and this is a perfectly acceptable solution, so I no longer need assistance with this.

 

[a417]

I did have the SDR in a powered USB hub with my Surface 4 Pro, but I currently have three powered USB hubs chained together, and I had far fewer things going on with the previous setup, so maybe Windows is having issues with resources, that a simple re-seat of the device fixes.

So, allow me to rant about Microsoft Windows false advertising. In theory, one can connect 127 USB devices to a PC, however, this is false advertising, as eventually, you will run into the dreaded "Not Enough USB Controller Resources" warning, and some USB devices will stop functioning or have problems. I do get that annoying error once in a while and am wondering whether when this happens, if this is causing the SDR problems.

Sorry if the rant went a little off topic, but I abhor false claims.

Ahhh, a Surface 4 Pro, that essplains it.

My neighbor has a Surface 4 Pro that has multiple USB devices chained thru a docking station that he uses for remote teaching and monitoring. He's replaced it at least 3 times under warranty, reinstalled/formatted/started-a'new at least 5 timesand gets periodic blue screens and system crashes. This behavior was not duplicated under any of his prior Surface devices, and the hardware does not do the same thing when chained up via a different system hardware.

Glad you got it somewhat sorted, and good luck with it in the future.