PowerSDR KE9NS v2.8

If your having Blue screen crashes (PFN fault) when you run a Flex-3000 or Flex-5000 FireWire connection on Windows 10 or 11, I strongly suggest downloading and installing the FireWire (LEGACY) driver. This is a signed Windows 7 FireWire Driver updated allow it to be installed on Win 8,10, and 11

The Legacy driver not a 100% fix, but does cure some cases.

Microsoft stopped support for 1394 FireWire, which means that when they add security updates to Windows, they dont check those updates to make sure of compatibility with FireWire.

Aside from the security updates to Windows, It is not known as to why Some FireWire cards & some PC motherboard combinations works, and some do not?

I do know that settings and configurations from older Windows versions do carry over to newer Windows versions, so if your starting out with a brand new hard drive with Win11, you may have a harder time with FireWire then someone who puts a Win10 hard drive into a new PC.

Last year my Ryzen 7 MSI B530 motherboard running Win11 died. I originally started out with Win10 years ago on the same motherboard.
I Moved the FireWire card and NVME Hard Drive over to a new Ryzen 7 ASUS B550 motherboard, and PowerSDR continued to work perfect.

So, there is a possibility that some internal FireWire settings or configuration from Win10 have carried over to Win11?

But also there is a chance that some FireWire cards (even if they have a good TI or VIA chip) are poorly designed or manufactured?
Or that Some FireWire cards are using Counterfeit TI or Via Chips?


go to my webpage ke9ns.com/flexpage.html and click on the "FireWire" left side quick link
Follow the Legacy driver download/install procedure.



73

Darrin

Darrin,

Working on a new set up here @ N8EM Loaded Flex 5k and new computer is a Dell Inspirion I7 all in one running Windows 11. I just did the firewire adapter into the M2 wifi slot with the StarTech 1394 card.

I have PowerSDR running just tested a little bit moving frequency and bands etc RX works on and off BUT when I stop RX1 OR in other words turn off the PowerSDR radio I get the BSOD. I have installed the legacy drivers from your page a couple of times and also went in and turned off the Memory Integrity and Vulnerable driver in the core isolation features menu.

Not sure what else to try. Still doing research on the various sites.

73
Jon N8EM

Jon,

I assume it was crashing with the default FireWire driver, but I am surprised its still crashing with the Legacy driver.

What you did the Full PowerSDR install, did you use Win7 compatibility? I am not sure this really helps, but I am curious to know?

Make sure the control panel power options are set to High performance.

And all the power saving / throttling features found in the BIOS are turned off.
You may need to google each feature you find in your BIOS to determine what each feature does.
Treat your PC like its a Gaming PC, you may be able to google your specific Dell model to see what Gamers turn off and on for gaming performance?

In PowerSDR setup what is the PFN crash value currently set to?

What is the PowerSDR audio sample rate running at? Is it crashing at 96khz or 192khz?

When you go into device manager and look at the Legacy 1394 driver, what is the driver date and version?

Did you check to see if the IRQ for the FireWire card has any conflicts?



Darrin

Jon:
Are you closing PowerSDR with "Spotter Map" enabled and visible on your screen, and with VOACAP enabled as well? If so, disable Spotter Map first and only then turn off PowerSDR.
On my Windows 11 system, if I turn off PowerSDR with Spotter Map/VOACAP enabled, the database isn't updated upon closing.
PowerSDR has been working perfectly well for several weeks on my new Windows 11 PRO, 12th Generation i5 system. No issues except the issue of the database not updating if closed with Spotter Map/VOCAP enabled.

Jon:
Look if Windows 11 PRO is 24H2 or older (23H2 or 22H2) ?

Darrin,
I won't have time till tomorrow or the weekend to check your suggestions. One thing that is nagging me is on the Startech card If I purchased the correct one. Mine has 3 fire wire ports 2 are "mini" size and rated at 800 the larger size port that matches the Flex ports is only rated at 400. I checked the Flex site and that is the spec they list. But is it? Could that be the issue?

Jon

Q. When you did the Full PowerSDR install, did you use Win7 compatibility? I am not sure this really helps, but I am curious to know?
A. No I did not. After the fact I went into properties and under compatibility selected run in W7 compatibility mode. I also selected run as admin.
Q. Make sure the control panel power options are set to High performance.
A. Yes it is.
Q. And all the power saving / throttling features found in the BIOS are turned off
A. Will have to work on how to do that.....
Q.
In PowerSDR setup what is the PFN crash value currently set to?
A. Was at 450 I upped it to max 1500 still the same issue.
Q. What is the PowerSDR audio sample rate running at? Is it crashing at 96khz or 192khz?
A. Cannot run 192k at all, can get 96 khz to run for a bit then crashes and 48khz runs longer but still locks up. Even with buffer as low as 128.
Q. When you go into device manager and look at the Legacy 1394 driver, what is the driver date and version?
A. Driver Date 6/21/2006 Driver Version 10.0.26100.1150
Q. Did you check to see if the IRQ for the FireWire card has any conflicts?
A. Under resources it says No conflicts.
Q. Are you closing PowerSDR with "Spotter Map" enabled and visible on your screen, and with VOACAP enabled as well? If so, disable Spotter Map first and only then turn off PowerSDR
A. No this is a new install on a new computer. I have not been running anything extra yet.
Q. Look if Windows 11 PRO is 24H2 or older (23H2 or 22H2)
A. Windows 11 Home 24H2

DE: N8EM

Another thing I just realized checking the specs on this new computer.

Processor: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1355U (1.70 GHz)

Pen and Touch: Touch support with 10 touch points

I realize now I purchased a computer that is not what I should have for the Legacy radio's. Should have gotten standard unit with PCIE slot and put a card in it.

Now I wonder about the touch screen being an issue.
I do have it working now using 96K Sample and 1024 Buffer. Everything seems normal and working well, one exception is on CW still getting an AGC Pop.
Other than that it is FB. Set up Transmit profiles for all my mics and listened on local SDR and they sound good to great. Just as before on my old Dell Precision T3600 Xenon computer.

Side note doing research on my old computer I found a you tube explaining Windows 10 IOT Enterprise LTS that is supported until 2032. I could purchase that for much less than a new computer and be good for another 7 years! At this point I think I am going to do that. All my radios work great on that system including the 5k.

The all in one was appealing due to limited desk space, so having it in the monitor is nice.

Not disconnecting it yet so if you see anything else worth trying let me know.

I did go through all the setup screens and adjusted everything to suggested except of course the 192k and 2048 which instantly crashes here.

73
Jon

The Card manufactures like Startech (at this point) can use either a TI or VIA chip. And each manufacture has a bunch of chip numbers. The only way to know for sure is to look at the chip on the board (or use HWInfo64 and drill down the PCIexpress ports until you find the card and chip listed)

But due to all the security updates Microsoft has made to Windows, I am not sure what causes some chips and motherboards to work and others to not? If you look at my FireWire video I recently put up on YouTube, I used hwinfo64 to list my motherboard and the TI FireWire chip I use.

Darrin

n8em wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 07, 2025 6:59 pm

Darrin,
I won't have time till tomorrow or the weekend to check your suggestions. One thing that is nagging me is on the Startech card If I purchased the correct one. Mine has 3 fire wire ports 2 are "mini" size and rated at 800 the larger size port that matches the Flex ports is only rated at 400. I checked the Flex site and that is the spec they list. But is it? Could that be the issue?

Jon

So I suggest you try installing the Legacy Driver (it has a 2013 date) and see what happens? I have this under "FireWire" on my webpage.

Type Systems Information in the windows search box Then Hardware resources -> "Conflicts/Sharing". Look for 1394. If you see 1394 listed, you have a problem. 1394 should never appear on this list. Also, you dont want your Video card or network device, to have an IRQ conflict either.

Then click on Hardware resources -> "IRQs" and you should see the 1394 IRQ listed towards the top of the page


Darrin

n8em wrote: ↑

Fri Aug 08, 2025 3:56 pm

Q. When you did the Full PowerSDR install, did you use Win7 compatibility? I am not sure this really helps, but I am curious to know?
A. No I did not. After the fact I went into properties and under compatibility selected run in W7 compatibility mode. I also selected run as admin.
Q. Make sure the control panel power options are set to High performance.
A. Yes it is.
Q. And all the power saving / throttling features found in the BIOS are turned off
A. Will have to work on how to do that.....
Q.
In PowerSDR setup what is the PFN crash value currently set to?
A. Was at 450 I upped it to max 1500 still the same issue.
Q. What is the PowerSDR audio sample rate running at? Is it crashing at 96khz or 192khz?
A. Cannot run 192k at all, can get 96 khz to run for a bit then crashes and 48khz runs longer but still locks up. Even with buffer as low as 128.
Q. When you go into device manager and look at the Legacy 1394 driver, what is the driver date and version?
A. Driver Date 6/21/2006 Driver Version 10.0.26100.1150
Q. Did you check to see if the IRQ for the FireWire card has any conflicts?
A. Under resources it says No conflicts.
Q. Are you closing PowerSDR with "Spotter Map" enabled and visible on your screen, and with VOACAP enabled as well? If so, disable Spotter Map first and only then turn off PowerSDR
A. No this is a new install on a new computer. I have not been running anything extra yet.
Q. Look if Windows 11 PRO is 24H2 or older (23H2 or 22H2)
A. Windows 11 Home 24H2

If you watch my recent FireWire YouTube video
You can download and run LatencyMon. You can see if other things are causing hard page faults.

And also make sure to open windows "Core Isolation" and turn it all OFF. Since your running Home and not Pro (like I am) , I am not exactly sure of the differences.

Darrin

n8em wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 09, 2025 7:37 am

DE: N8EM

Another thing I just realized checking the specs on this new computer.

Processor: 13th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1355U (1.70 GHz)

Pen and Touch: Touch support with 10 touch points

I realize now I purchased a computer that is not what I should have for the Legacy radio's. Should have gotten standard unit with PCIE slot and put a card in it.

Now I wonder about the touch screen being an issue.
I do have it working now using 96K Sample and 1024 Buffer. Everything seems normal and working well, one exception is on CW still getting an AGC Pop.
Other than that it is FB. Set up Transmit profiles for all my mics and listened on local SDR and they sound good to great. Just as before on my old Dell Precision T3600 Xenon computer.

Side note doing research on my old computer I found a you tube explaining Windows 10 IOT Enterprise LTS that is supported until 2032. I could purchase that for much less than a new computer and be good for another 7 years! At this point I think I am going to do that. All my radios work great on that system including the 5k.

The all in one was appealing due to limited desk space, so having it in the monitor is nice.

Not disconnecting it yet so if you see anything else worth trying let me know.

I did go through all the setup screens and adjusted everything to suggested except of course the 192k and 2048 which instantly crashes here.

73
Jon

Hi:
in my device manager shows that legacy firewire is 6.1.7601.22370 version and dated 04/01/2013

py5vb wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 12, 2025 5:15 am

Hi:
in my device manager shows that legacy firewire is 6.1.7601.22370 version and dated 04/01/2013

Yes... That is what device properties will show if your running the Legacy 1394 FireWire driver.

So N8EM was not running the Legacy driver.
I hope the Legacy driver might work for him.

Darrin