Audio device / tone / tx audio issue

[zs6cr]

Hi all,

I am experiencing problems with audio device detection as well as some issue with the tone function.

My pc (dedicated to operating QO-100 satellite) was working in May, since then it was switched off until the past weekend. I tried to transmit a tone via QO-100 yesterday, it was working fine. Audio devices were also selectable.
Thereafter I upgraded vara-sat for winlink operation via the sat, I reboot the system, and since then the tone function as well as audi rx/tx device selection does not list any devices except 'default', although I can see it in dev manager.

All rx functions and interfacing to my lime mini seems to be working as normal. I upgraded sdrc to latest version today but no change.

I had the same problem at the end of last year, but it was not a dediciatd PC so re-installed everything on a new pc, which has been working well until yesterday.

Anyone else came accross this problem before?

[Max]

I am experiencing problems with audio device detection as well as some issue with the tone function.
My pc (dedicated to operating QO-100 satellite) was working in May, since then it was switched off until the past weekend. I tried to transmit a tone via QO-100 yesterday, it was working fine. Audio devices were also selectable.
Thereafter I upgraded vara-sat for winlink operation via the sat, I reboot the system, and since then the tone function as well as audi rx/tx device selection does not list any devices except 'default', although I can see it in dev manager.

Firstly, you will not get Tone or Tune function out of SDRC if there is not a stable, ideally 48kHz, audio source selected to the TX DSP audio input as SDRC uses this to clock the audio. So given you have no audio source available then it's no surprise you have no Tone function.

So the question is why no audio devices shown even though they seem to be there in the device manager? My guess is they've all been disabled somehow when you installed Vara-Sat (although no idea why this would happen).

Press Start Menu (or Windows Key on the keyboard) then type "Run" (without the quotation marks). Then in the Run text box that should come up, type "mmsys.cpl" (again, no quotation marks). This should bring up the Audio Devices panel. You should see your audio devices in the list in the panel, or some at least (we hope). Firstly go to any showing and right click on it then in the dialogue box, tick "Show Disabled Devices" and also "Show Disconnected Devices". Then go through each one audio device in turn, right click on it and select "Enable". My guess from your description is that they have been set to "Disable" for some reason.

If you get this far and you now have enabled devices they should then show in the SDRC audio selection drop-down.

If you can't get even this far and get any devices Enabled, I suggest going to Device Manager, right click each audio device in turn and delete them (don't check "also remove driver for this device" or whatever the exact expression is) then reboot and Windows should find and install suitable Windows drivers for each device you deleted and hopefully also enable them in Audio Device panel. Then proceed as before (select device in SDRC drop down etc etc.

If none of this works report back with some more information!

73

Max

[Max]

Then go through each one audio device in turn, right click on it and select "Enable". My guess from your description is that they have been set to "Disable" for some reason.

I should have said you will need to enable all of the devices you want to use in both the Playback tab and also the Recording tab of the Audio Devices panel.

AudioDevices.jpg (47.83 KiB) Viewed 710 times

73

Max

[zs6cr]

Max, Thanx a lot for your detailed reply.

When I run mmsys.cpl, there are no devices listed "No audio devices are installed". So I deleted all the audio devices in devmgr (two headsets and vb-cable). Rebooted, devices again listed in devmgr but still nothing in mmsys.cpl.

Definitely a windows issue, I will spend some time on google to see what I can do.

Thanx again for your help, it steered me in the right direction!

73
Cor

[Max]

Definitely a windows issue, I will spend some time on google to see what I can do.

Hi Cor

Did a quick Google and this seems to be very common. It seems particularly so with some models of Dell laptop for some reason. Be interesting to know what is you PC and which version of Windows?

I would say on the whole it looks very much like a corrupted Registry key. It's "just" a question of finding out which one.

Maybe before that, just one last thing to try would be go to Device Manager and delete all the audio devices but this time, tick "also remove driver" for each device. Then see what happens on reboot. If red crosses against the audio devices, then go and manually find the most up to date drivers for the devices and install the drivers manually. If it's Dell (and quite a few others) then it may be only one driver package needed, most likely from Realtek. HOWEVER if you have several audio devices all from different manufactures (like some outboard USB devices for example) and they are all missing, then I doubt it's a driver issue. Much more likely need to find a registry key to repair manually.

Good luck. Post back here if you find the answer. It's always interesting to know a resolution. Personally I'm not a great subscriber to the "rollback" or "full re-install" methods. I always think if at all possible try and fid the issue and make a note of it for when it inevitably happens again in the future!

73

Max

[zs6cr]

Hi Max, I also found it is a common issue. PC is a Dell Optiplex with Win 10 Pro (and Realtek).

have tried most of the proposed solutions online but I also think it is regstry related. I will spend some more time on it tonight, but if I can not find a solution, I will revert to backing up my contact logs, screencap all the software setings and then restore disk image made some months ago after I installed all the sw and had it all working.

Thanx again for your help, I will report back when I have things running again.

73
Cor

[Max]

Hi Max, I also found it is a common issue. PC is a Dell Optiplex with Win 10 Pro (and Realtek).
73
Cor

I've owned many Dells in the past. Still got two laptops in the house including an XPS15 and even on that running Win11 it periodically has sound issues which I've always tracked down to some bit of the highly irritating Dell "extras" that they seem to insist on supplying these machines with. I've also changed out the super-cheap wifi card in that machine. They do seem to make stupid decisions, like making a "premier level" fast laptop and then penny pinching on a cheap wifi card when a good "proper" Intel one only costs marginally more. With Dells I've had my biggest success in curing issues by totally fresh install of Windows, totally stripping out all of the Dell so-called "help programs" and "control panels" and just install the barest minimum correct drivers downloaded from the Dell support site. Sometimes (often!) I've ended up replacing the Dell drivers with the generic driver from the manufacture's own site and this has solved the issue.

I also see this specific problem seems to plague the Dell Optiplex with no one sure answer to the issue. It's all very frustrating and I feel your pain. I think Dell do still make some impressive and good value laptops but I ditched them for my desktops a long time ago and never regretted it. I have now self-built two "beast" desktops using Asus motherboards, Nvidia GPUs and good quality PSUs and never really had any issues at all since then. Probably a very stupid thing to say because no doubt will turn on to a black screen tomorrow!

Good luck anyway. Keep us posted. If you don't have much to backup on the machine in terms of files/documents as seems the case I'd be tempted to buy an SSD to replace the C Drive and do a full Win 10 install from scratch with as little as possible of the Dell "add-ons"!

Not wanting to teach to "suck eggs" but I now can do fresh re-installs really quite quickly because I store all of my documents/files on Veracrypt virtual drives and only the Windows system and installed programs on Drive C wherever possible. Veracrypt makes full drive backups of whole "virtual" encrypted drives a total breeze because each encrypted drive (or Volume File as they call them) is simply one large multi-GB file and so dead easy to copy with no need for "clone drive" tools and the like. And Veracrypt is solidly reliable and open source and of course (the main point) keeps all personal files totally secure in the unfortunate event of theft etc. Anyway, there to take or leave as you wish.

73

Max