FireWire install for Win10 or Win11 PCs

[ke9ns]

If you find that you cannot get any FireWire card to operate under Win10/11, you can try the following:

I have verified that one possible solution to get reliable FireWire operation on a modern PC (Desktop or mini-PC or laptop) running Windows 10 or Windows 11 is to start with a new hard drive, and Win7, then do IN-PLACE upgrades to Win10 and Win11. This allows Win7 settings to carry over to Win10/11 and allow FireWire to operate without issues.

You will need a new hard drive (preferably a M.2 NVME hard drive)
You will need 2 USB Thumb Drives (preferably USB 3 capable for faster speeds)

You will need Win7 x64 (not the x86 version) with SP1 (service pack 1) to allow upgrades to WIn10/11 (the Win7 Ultimate version does not require a key.)

I found a Win7 .ISO copy at: https://archive.org/details/win-7-ult-sp-1-english-x-64
I have not used this ISO (I have my own copy of Win7 Ultimate), but this apparently has Service Pack 1 already added to Win7.

You can then use RUFUS (free) to copy the .ISO file to a blank USB Thumb drive and it also makes the thumb drive bootable.
Also copy over PowerSDR (full and incremental installers to this Thumb Drive after Win7 is on the thumb drive.

Go to: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10
Install Win10 x64 Pro installer on another blank USB thumb drive

Remove the Win10/11 hard drive currently in the PC you want to run PowerSDR and FireWire on.
Install your new blank hard drive in your PC
Boot from the Win7 Ultimate Thumb drive and install Win7 x64 (on a modern PC, its really fast)

Install PowerSDR Full and then Incremental installer.
Test to verify PowerSDR 2.8 works good under Win7 x64 SP1

Install the Win10 thumb drive and run the installer (do an IN-PLACE upgrade from Win7 to Win10 x64)
Win7 SP1 will be upgraded to Win10 and PowerSDR and FireWire should still be on your PC
The FireWire card should still run properly with PowerSDR with all the Win7 settings carried over to Win10

Google for a free Win11 upgrade (if your PC is modern enough to upgrade) and do another IN-PLACE upgrade to Win11
PowerSDR should continue to operate with grandfathered Win7 FireWire settings



Darrin

[IK8HCG]

Hi Darrin,
It's better to write here. Today I spent a bit of time figuring it out and playing around with the FireWire. It seems to work, I mean, it seems. I replaced the FireWire card with one from a friend, a Star Tech with a Via PEX 1394A2V chipset. I didn't load any legacy drivers. The flex started, but the audio was all distorted and rarely clear. To make it smooth and clear, I had to add VAC1. Why?
a litthe power speaker conneted
look a send you a video

[ke9ns]

Thats the first time I have heard of distorted audio from FireWire?

Make sure your using .320 (I had an audio issue with .318 and .319)

FireWire issues usually cause a crash of PowerSDR, loss of all RF signals, or a PFN crash of your entire PC.
I dont know your radio setup, so I cant do much.

Whenever you experience a PowerSDR crash, its possible that the database will become corrupted.

My first step would be to go into the database folder and remove all 5 database files to force a reload of the EEPROM into a fresh database
if a fresh database corrects the issue, then setup everything the way you like it and do an "Export" database as a backup for any future issues.

If you still have audio issues, then I would check for a shared IRQ and run latencymon to find out if there is any other drive causing issues.

Darrin

[IK8HCG]

I took an old PC and installed Win7 Professional. I installed Power SDR and installed an old VIA chipset FireWire card. The radio worked flawlessly the first time.
We are waiting for a decent card to arrive that will not cause problems under Win10.