Using RTL_TEST.exe

Sigh - read back on this list. I've posted several times how to use rtl_test.exe to determine if your dongle is installed correctly. I also explained how to get that program, at least two different ways.

One piece of advice is to not work the way you are working.  If you uninstall whatever is installed for the device you will still tend to get balled up periodically by the OS with Windows-7 and perhaps Windows-8.  If you uninstall in device manager tell the OS to search for new devices.  Let it install whatever it wants or report failure.  In extreme cases you may have to get Zadig manually.  (If you do that generally means you screwed up from the gitgo [very beginning] and did not use the install script - but not always.)

Windows-XP and Windows-7 require different Zadig drivers for the most recent Zadig versions.  Goggle for Zadig, find the download site, and get the appropriate version for your OS.  Uninstall what you have installed.  Then install the correct version.

Run it.  List all devices.  Replace any existing drivers for the device as I explained in my most recent previous email to this list.

Then dig up RelWithDebInfo.zip.  Take it apart.  Open an unelevated (normal) command prompt.  CD to the newly created RelWithDebInfo directory.  Drill deeper to the X32 directory.  Run rtl_test.exe.  It should spit out some information then go quiet.  If it is quiet with no more than one lost bytes report the dongle is working just fine.

Then install .NET 3.5, not 3.0, not 4.0, not 2.0, not 1.1, not 1.0.  (If those are already installed that's OK. But you will likely have
headaches with SDRSharp without 3.5 installed.)

Then run the SDRSharp automatic installer and do not rerun the Zadig operations since it is already installed OK.  SDRSharp should work just fine.

Prior emails by me explain this in more detail if you still have trouble.

{^_^}   Joanne, W6MKU

Alan's notes on RTL_TEST and  RTL_EEPROM

I have notes on RTL_TEST and  RTL_EEPROM here https://sites.google.com/site/g4zfqradio/test_configure_rtldongle

I could not get Joanne's RtlTool to rename, maybe I'm missing something...

73 Alan G4ZFQ

Joanne's comments

If you did not use my rtlsdr.dll with it you have to pull the dongle and reinstall it to get the old data out of cache in the system.  My rtlsdr.dll goes out and spends the relatively enormous amount of time to actually read the names from the dongle periodically.  It caches data in the registry.  So at the moment for about a half hour you get data from the cache.  My rtlsdr.dll knows this cache is a problem with renames and fixes the name in the registry so that it reads correctly.

So if you used my rtlsdr.dll - I'm surprised.  If you used the stock rtlsdr.dll then I'm not surprised.