[RTTY] 4-port serial card for Windows 8.1 results

[Dave Greig]

Joe,
Thank you very much for this information. I did not realize 8.1 had this
capability.


Thank You!
Dave Greig N3BUO
*801 Tactical*
Phone: (682) 422-6667
http://www.801tactical.com
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On Thu, Apr 24, 2014 at 11:08 PM, Joe Subich, W4TV <lists at subich.com> wrote:

>
> Part of the problem with installing drivers in Windows 8/8.1 is the
> new hybrid sleep (fast boot) capability.  In essence, Win 8/8.1 closes
> any running applications then saves the operating system and hardware
> drivers image to disk just like hibernate.  When rebooting that old
> image is reloaded complete with all the drivers that were previously
> installed - even if the hardware changed.  If the previous image had
> drivers for hardware that was no longer present or drivers that were
> to be replaced, that conflict can cause page faults and other (BSOD)
> errors.
>
> When installing new hardware the best thing one can do is to hold the
> shift key while shutting down Windows 8/8.1 before making any hardware
> change, install any new drivers, then restart Windows 8/8.1 before
> trying to run anything new.  Shift-shutdown and restart both force a
> complete (fresh) reload of the operating system and all drivers.
>
> Another little known tip ... when installing new USB devices, always
> disconnect any previously connected devices and restart before
> connecting a new USB device for the first time.  This allows drivers
> for the new device to be installed with a "clean slate" and prevents
> older drivers and drivers from hardware no longer present from
> interfering with the installation of a new device.
>
> 73,
>
>    ... Joe, W4TV
>
>
> On 4/24/2014 11:36 PM, Don Hill AA5AU wrote:
>
>> Thanks to everyone who sent information on the serial cards they were
>> using in their Windows 8 computers. I purchased a new Dell
>> 3847 desktop PC with Windows 8.1 and it arrived this past Monday.
>>
>> On the serial card, I decided to go with a suggestion from Joe, W4TV, on
>> the Syba model SD-PEX15011 for three reasons. One is that
>> Joe is usually good about suggesting hardware (I purchased two USB sound
>> cards he recommended and they work great), secondly because
>> this particular 4-port board is the sister of the 4-port board I have
>> been using in my XP Pro machine for many years, and thirdly
>> because of the price. It is cheaper than any of the others. Although the
>> manufacturer is listed as Syba, it says "Best Connectivity"
>> on the box.
>>
>> I purchased the SD-PEX15011 from Newegg on Monday and it arrived today.
>>
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124075
>>
>> I installed the board this evening using the instructions that came with
>> the board. I'm sorry to report that nothing worked as it
>> was suppose to but in the end, for reasons I can't explain, all four
>> ports magically started working.
>>
>> The instructions said to install the board, turn on the computer and
>> Windows would recognize it - it did not. Windows did not like
>> the board being installed and kept giving an error that it had to shut
>> down and restart because "page fault in non-paged area".
>>
>> I decided to remove the board and install the driver on the disk that
>> came with the board, then re-install the board. There were
>> Windows 8 drivers on the disk. Windows still did not like the board being
>> installed. On occasion it would give me the "page fault"
>> error and restart, but I did notice that COM 1 was showing up and the
>> other ports were also showing in Device Manager but Windows
>> didn't know what they were. I tried re-installing the driver but it
>> wasn't working. I went online to find updated drivers. The
>> drivers on the Syba website were actually older than the ones on the disk
>> and I didn't see any for Windows 8. I did find a set of
>> instructions for Windows 7 that suggested to "Disable Driver Signature
>> Enforcement". I finally found instructions on how to do this
>> in Windows 8.1 because the instructions for "Disable Driver Signature
>> Enforcement" on Windows 8 are totally different. I am finding
>> out that Windows 8.1 is different than Window 8 in many ways.
>>
>> Rebooting after "Disable Driver Signature Enforcement" helped keep the PC
>> from wanting to restart. I re-installed the drivers as
>> Administrator but the ports did not show up in Device Manager. So I
>> switched over to my non-Administrator account for no good reason
>> other than to check the Device Manager; lo and behold, all four ports
>> showed up in Device Manager.
>>
>> I went ahead and tested all four ports and they all work for radio
>> control and FSK/PTT. I restarted the computer several times and
>> have not gotten the "page fault in non-paged area" error and everything
>> seems very stable.
>>
>> I don't know if I would recommend this board to anyone other than to
>> someone who has time to play with it to get it to work. I think
>> it's going to be OK, but if you want to spend a little more money, maybe
>> something like a StarTech would install better. I don't
>> know.
>>
>> I will give it the smoke test in SPDX RTTY this weekend. I'm just not a
>> fan of USB-to-serial adapters for FSK. Especially with the
>> BARTG 75 coming up on Sunday. Definitely need a legacy COM port for 75
>> baud on a homebrew transistor FSK interface!
>>
>> 73, Don AA5AU
>>
>>
>>
>>
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