Windows 7 can't find my STF-8300M

Discussion in 'STF Series CCD Cameras' started by Patrice Amyot, Sep 9, 2016.

  1. Patrice Amyot

    Patrice Amyot Cyanogen Customer

    Joined:
    Sep 7, 2016
    Messages:
    3
    Location:
    12 ch. du Petit-Québec, La Patrie, Qc. J0B 1Y0
    Good day, I,ve installed my STF-8300M years ago on my 1st laptop on WinXP, than I changed for a laptop on Win7. I remember I had hard time and I also requested SBIG support assistance. Today, I installed a desktop in the observatory and again I'm struggling with the installation. I can't see anything happens after I run the SBIG DRIVER CHECKER64. I choose the ST Pro Model with the RGH connector in the CONFIGDRVR interface. I tried everything I know. The cable is ok since the camera still works on my laptop. Can you help please?

    Patrice
     

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  2. William B

    William B Cyanogen Customer

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2015
    Messages:
    548
    Location:
    Christchurch, Dorset UK
    Patrice,

    While you wait for a response from the guys at Diffraction Ltd you could check the following steps.

    Did you download the latest SBIG driver checker or run the old one supplied with the camera?

    First delete your current version of the SBIG driver checker and download the latest version from the SBIG website:
    https://www.sbig.com/support/software/

    Download

    Assuming you have a 64bit version of Win 7, right click the .exe icon for the SBIG driver checker (64 bit version), > "Properties", and under "Compatibility" > "Privilege" you must have the box "Run this program as an administrator" ticked (picture attached for an earlier Windows version but principle is the same).

    Run the driver checker again, ensure the camera is not connected at this stage.

    Hopefully now the drivers will be installed correctly.

    I am guessing your new desktop PC has USB3 sockets at the rear, although USB3 is supposed to be backward compatible with USB2 it practice there are still occasional problems with some devices, especially USB2 devices on long USB cables connected to a USB3 computer port.
    The success or failure of detection of a USB device by the computer is subject to small differences in the USB hardware and signal timing so if the driver checker runs ok but the camera is not detected by Windows then first thing to try is a shorter USB cable, no longer than a 6ft, to eliminate a marginal cable from the equation. Power up the camera before plugging into the USB port and then confirm that windows has detected the camera by looking in the device manager screen.

    If the camera has been successfully detected by Windows it will appear somewhere in the Device Manager list, if Windows can not identify the camera then a warning yellow triangle will appear with an "Unknown Device" displayed.

    As of today many desktop PC's have USB3 sockets only at the rear of the chassis but many still have USB2 sockets at the front of the case for keyboard and mouse, if you camera is not found by Windows on the rear USB3 sockets try swapping the camera from the rear USB3 ports with the one of the front USB2 ports (use the current mouse port otherwise you will have to set up the language and keyboard options again if you move the keyboard from USB2 to USB3).

    Lastly, couple of things, check in the computer BIOS settings that USB Legacy support is enabled, where (and if) it appears differs from one BIOS to another so you will have to read through the BIOS documentation to find it, or just check through each BIOS tab until you find it and ensure that it is enabled, then after you boot up the computer go back to the "device Manager" screen and right click each of the USB root hubs that are listed and un-tick the "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" under the "Power Management" tab otherwise Windows may try to turn off the USB port when the computer idle, often while acquiring an image, and this causes the camera connection to drop sporadically.

    William.

    64 bit driver checker.png USB Root Hub Power Management Off.jpg
     
    Tim Puckett and Bill like this.
  3. Tim Puckett

    Tim Puckett Guest

    William, thanks for posting.

    Patrice, did that fix the error?

    Cheers
     

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