Problem getting Sentinel to access the 536hp in mass storage mode

[ka4vmp]

Ok, then, it isn't a Sentinel or even scanner-specific thing. Can you open any file (or write any file) to the card?

I just tried to put an excel file on the SD Card and get message 'the destination already has a file named "ka4vmpUV82.cvs" then the usual replace, skip, or compare the info for both files. I had never put that file on the SD card before.
I click the red X to close that window, close the folder window, reopen the SD card folder and see the name of the "ka4vmpUV82.cvs" file there with a size of zero.
This is really strange.

I agree it's not a Sentinel or scanner-specific thing.


Ed, ka4vmp

 

[UPMan]

Try a different SD Card? One of the failure modes of SD cards is that the write-protect flag gets permanently set. Not exactly what the symptoms are showing, but...

 

[ka4vmp]

Try a different SD Card? One of the failure modes of SD cards is that the write-protect flag gets permanently set. Not exactly what the symptoms are showing, but...

I have tried that. I have two 16gb Class 10 micro-SD cards and the orginial 4gb card that came with the scanner. they all work just fine in the scanner and with only one of my windows 10 desktops and my Windows XP desktop.


I just booted up my Dell laptop into Mint Linux, put the SD card in the card reader and can open the scanner.inf file in Linux.

I do see another folder listed in addition to the BCDx36HP folder that I could not see with windows.
..It's called System Volume Information and has two files one is IndexerVolumeGuid file size is 76 bytes
The other is WPSettings.dat file size is 12 bytes.

Ed Taylor, ka4vmp

 

[ka4vmp]

I am able to add files to the SD card while running Linux Mint.
I put the BCDx36HP Sentinel folder on the SD card with no problems.

Ed, ka4vmp

 

[buddrousa]

Start looking on google or Bing for the win file issue and see where to turn off what is causing this. windows file sharing the pc that works did you install the sentinel software you all users or just you. That may have locked the file to the one pc.

 

[UPMan]

Sounds like your Mass Storage driver is messed up. I would try the troubleshooter:

Step 1:I would suggest you to run “Hardware and Devices” troubleshooter to diagnose the exact issue.
Follow these steps to run the troubleshooter:

1. Right click on the start button.
   
2. Click Control Panel.
   
3. Select Troubleshooting.
   
4. Select “Hardware and sound”.
   
5. Next select Hardware and Devices.
   
6. Follow the onscreen instruction.

Also you can update drivers from the Device Manager and check if it helps.

Step 2: Follow the steps to update drivers from the Device Manager:

1. Right click on Start button, type Device Manager and Enter.
   
2. Find the drivers which needs to be installed and also see if there are any warning symbols. If yes update the drivers.
   
3. Right click and click on Properties, and go to Driver tab and click on Update driver.

(above stolen from MS Help forums)

 

[ka4vmp]

Sounds like your Mass Storage driver is messed up. I would try the troubleshooter:

Step 1:I would suggest you to run “Hardware and Devices” troubleshooter to diagnose the exact issue.
Follow these steps to run the troubleshooter:

1. Right click on the start button.
   
2. Click Control Panel.
   
3. Select Troubleshooting.
   
4. Select “Hardware and sound”.
   
5. Next select Hardware and Devices.
   
6. Follow the onscreen instruction.

Also you can update drivers from the Device Manager and check if it helps.

Step 2: Follow the steps to update drivers from the Device Manager:

1. Right click on Start button, type Device Manager and Enter.
   
2. Find the drivers which needs to be installed and also see if there are any warning symbols. If yes update the drivers.
   
3. Right click and click on Properties, and go to Driver tab and click on Update driver.

(above stolen from MS Help forums)

No Warning symbols found. This is becoming like a mystery novel. The Windows XP computer takes over an hour or more to reconstruct the full database for Sentinel.....talk about a slow computer..

eventually we will get this worked out so it will work on all of my Windows 10 computers.


Ed, ka4vmp

 

[darunimal]

RUN SD FORMATTER on these cards with FAT32 you have basically made these cards locked into the Computer System that you originally used them on, there is info in the card headers, that you discovered outside of a Windows environment, ans since Windows uses those headers to determine what and which way they are suppose to be utilized, it seems something in their respective Volume Information seems to be have been corrupted or locked to a specific system or device,

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

 

[ka4vmp]

RUN SD FORMATTER on these cards with FAT32 you have basically made these cards locked into the Computer System that you originally used them on, there is info in the card headers, that you discovered outside of a Windows environment, ans since Windows uses those headers to determine what and which way they are suppose to be utilized, it seems something in their respective Volume Information seems to be have been corrupted or locked to a specific system or device,

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

Just tried that with my Windows 10 Dell laptop.
I did a FULL overwrite with SDFormatter V4.0 with the one of the new 16gb SD cards in the card reader slot.
Started Sentinel as administrator,
Selected 'Display all drives' then selected the drive for the SD card, then selected 'clear user data'
Sentinel started clearing user data then I get an error that the 'Database is corrupt"
I then looked at the card on Linux and deleted all folders on the SD card and did another full overwrite with SDFormatter on Windows 10 and got the same "database is corrupt' when running Sentinel again on the laptop.

I then connected to scanner to the Dell desktop that it works with and everything went fine.

This is puzzling to say the least.

Ed, ka4vmp


Ed

 

[ka4vmp]

It is some setting issue with my laptop.

I took the SD card and plugged it into my wife's laptop that runs Windows 10 and can look at the BCDx36HP folder contents, and can open the scanner.inf file with no problem.

Ed, ka4vmp

 

[ka4vmp]

Took a USB flash drive and plugged it into my Windows 10 laptop and started Sentinel, tried to clear user data and got the same error message 'Database is corrupt" that I got with the SD card.
The flash drive is formatted as FAT32.
plugged it into my Window 10 desktop and was able to clear user data and click write to scanner just like it was an SD card.

Now, to figure out what the issue is with my Windows 10 laptop and other desktop computers.

Ed, ka4vmp

 

[darunimal]

First Check to see you are running program as Sentinel as Administrator under Properties and then under the Compatibility; Also, the SD card files may be blocked, try to unblock, under Properties for the respective mini-SD cards, if all else fail on the computers where things don't work: Try searching your 'favorite search engine' for "GOD MODE".

Despite some peoples firm belief Windows does not automatically allow/run in Admin Mode, since at least Vista came out, most users can check and see, in their own Window's, and see they have never actually ever had their computer logged-in as Admin. But that is where God Mode comes in handy, giving you a more complete access to permissions and allowances, than normal modes allow. This isn't for everyone but can be one of the easiest ways to access every setting the Windows Operating System has to offer.

 

[ka4vmp]

First Check to see you are running program as Sentinel as Administrator under Properties and then under the Compatibility; Also, the SD card files may be blocked, try to unblock, under Properties for the respective mini-SD cards, if all else fail on the computers where things don't work: Try searching your 'favorite search engine' for "GOD MODE".

Despite some peoples firm belief Windows does not automatically allow/run in Admin Mode, since at least Vista came out, most users can check and see, in their own Window's, and see they have never actually ever had their computer logged-in as Admin. But that is where God Mode comes in handy, giving you a more complete access to permissions and allowances, than normal modes allow. This isn't for everyone but can be one of the easiest ways to access every setting the Windows Operating System has to offer.

Ok, I have tried running Sentinel as Administrator and tried Compatibility mode and still get the same error message;
Unhandled exception has occurred in your application
Access to the path 'E:\BCDx36HP\scanner.inf' is denied.

I did create a folder on the desktop for the "GOD MODE" Still shows me as administrator.
I hope I don't have to spend a week reinstalling Windows 10 and all my programs on my Laptop to get this to work. I have my laptop setup as a dual-boot system with Windows 10 and Mint Linux.


I even took one of the SD cards with me to work Monday night and could read the scanner.inf file from the SD card with no problem.

Ed, ka4vmp

 

[ka4vmp]

Solved ( Problem getting Sentinel to access the 536hp in mass storage mode)

I discovered that the problem I was having regarding getting Sentinel to access the 536hp in mass storage mode was due to a software program I had on two of my computers called CREDANT EMS 64-bit.
It's an encryption program that we use at work ( I work in Health Care) that you have to install on a flash drive if you want to put files on that flash drive from a work computer. Then when you plug your flash drive into your home computer it makes you install a smaller version of CREDANT EMS 64-bit onto your home computer so you can access the encrypted files your flash drive.

I removed the CREDANT EMS 64-bit program from the two computers it was installed on and now I can access the SD cards with Sentinel with an SD card adapter or directly to the BCD536HP in Mass Storage mode on all of my Windows 10 computers.

So If anyone has problems accessing their SD cards either in Mass Storage mode or with the SD card in a reader, check to see if you have any flash drive/portable external drive encryption programs running on your computer. They run in the background when you start you computer.


Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions.
UPman or any of the moderators, feel free to close this thread as Solved.

Now back to scanning with my BCD536HP with the latest DMR firmware.

Ed Taylor, ka4vmp

 

[UPMan]

Wow. That was a solution that was beyond obscure. I would never, ever, have been able to give enough assistance to find that one.

 

[darunimal]

Wow. That was a solution that was beyond obscure. I would never, ever, have been able to give enough assistance to find that one.

I can second that one !

 

[ka4vmp]

At least I did not have to resort to reinstalling Windows 10.
The Windows desktop that I never put the CREDANT EMS 64-bit encryption on, was the one that I used to setup my bcd536hp with. Originally, that desktop had Windows 8 until I did the Windows 10 upgrade last year. I did remember trying to install the encryption program after the Windows 10 upgrade and it was not compatible with Windows 10 at that time so I never tried to install it anymore.
I had installed it on the other desktop before I upgraded it to Window 10 and apparently it stayed there, which was the same issue with my laptop when I upgraded it from Windows 7 to Windows 10. Basically it was leftover from the previous version of Windows prior to upgrading all of them to Windows 10. And somehow Windows 10 left it there. That's why I figured it had to be doing something with permissions.
Talk about an interesting challenge for sure and the moment of success when I figured out that my two Windows 10 computers that I was having the issue access the SD card, both had the CREDANT EMS 64-bit encryption program on them.
When I removed it from the laptop first, I was also making sure the Sentinel program permissions were the same as the only working Windows desktop. So I made two changes and when I was able to access the card, I thought, what did I just do that fixed it? Then I went over to the other desktop and started adjusting permissions first, trying to recreate the correct fix. Once I removed the encryption program.......SUCCESS!. everything worked like it should.

So, feel free to to add any of this information to the BCDx36HP or any Home Patrol series scanner wiki's regarding... that some encryption programs can interfere with, and cause permission problems for Sentinel tying to access the micro SD card even if the SD card is in a card reader.

It has been a very interesting few weeks since my first post about this issue on July 6th figuring out what was causing the problem.
I hope this information will help others.

Thanks again,
Ed Taylor, ka4vmp