Johnny,

This is valuable info and I want to Thank You for helping sleuth through this in a parallel effort.

I too, just completed my next phase of testing-debugging. To set the environment, this is my Win XP, SP3 machine using external USB sound card that I had previously worked just fine with a fresh install of WL 11.11.

My testing today was to see if I could remedy the WL failure to record CQ messages.

I let Windows un-install WL 11.11. Then I powered down the PC and re-booted. I requested an update from MicroSoft since this was the box I had attempted to take back to an earlier version of Windows that worked fine with WL 11.11. MS did the XP updates again……all 21 of them.

I again powered down the PC and re-booted. Then I again did a full install of WL 11.11

Fired up WL and began testing the recording of CQ messages…….SAME RESULTS !! Muted mic..…and I cannot un-mute it

So, the quick conclusion is something in the most recent MS updates is definitely incompatible with WL 11.11 !

Now, based on your findings Johnny, I can just see 10 sets of eye brows raised from those of us who all set around the tables in Sept. and agreed to move to WL 11.11 for the Jan contest, only to find out in the last few days that 11.11 MAY have a known failure mode when married with some recent MS update..

I haven’t checked for release notes of WL 11.14 and suppose that is the next step in the investigation to see if this specific problem was recognized and fixed with 11.14

In the meantime I would recommend to anyone that before you test your system to see if you can still record messages, copy off your known good previously recorded .wav files from a previous contest to a thumb drive so they can be copied back into WL 11.11 if need be to get us through this contest.

My next experiment tomorrow is to once again take my PC back to a set point where I know XP and WL 11.11 worked fine and shut off updates again. Then attempt another fresh load of WL 11.11 to see if I can get it back to working.

Most all of the XP and Windows 7 updates these days are focused on security issues and closing “back doors” to hackers. If you’ll remember, there’s been LOTS of discussions on TV about the security vulnerabilities of controlling personal web cams and microphones by hackers. Could it be that MicroSoft has somehow issued an update addressing web microphones and associated sound card functionality that has now affected those functions within WL ?? Just wondering…..

Ron

WW8RR

From: Fourlanders [mailto:fourlanders-bounces@contesting.com] On Behalf Of John Kludt
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 5:07 PM
To: Fourlanders
Subject: [Fourlanders] WL 11.11 & 11.14

Ron,

When I got home from the clinic I conducted the following test on my system. Please recall that when we were looking for WL11.11 I went out and bought the latest version 11.14B. So I have two test environments both running on the same computer:

Environment 1: WL 11.14B running under Windows 7 Home Premium
Environment 2: WL 11.11C running under under Windows XP SP3

I am using a computer headset into the PC with Windows Soundcard as the driver. I did hook an FT-817 up on Comm 2 although there is no connection between the computer audio out and the rig as I have no interface. At least WL sees and keys a rig. I also set up two operators K4SQC and W4ZST.

Results:

Environment 1: I was able to record and play messages for each operator. WL finds the correct .wav files for each operator. I did the upgrades and things still worked fine.
Environment 2: Everything worked fine - did the upgrades. Same result as you all got. Searching the directory, no new files. I seemed to remember from June and, indeed, when I checked "Line In" had magically become muted. I unmuted "Line In" and everything seems to work fine. I don't know why, but that is what I found and it was just like the last couple of contests I worked with you.

BTW, when I bought 11.14B I got a real CD distribution disk. If anyone would like to give it a shot, it is available.

Johnny