Hi, just wondering if anyone has had a similar problem when trying to use the PR3 to what I'm having.
I followed the directions, put the Soundloader disk in then connected the USB cable to the PR3 and then the PC (running Vista). It's says it's supposed to pop up with a "New Hardware Wizard" but nothing happens. I try to follow the other steps for installing drivers, but it doesn't work.
The PR3 lights up when it's connected so it must be getting some connection (i.e. the cord probably isn't bad) but all I get is the red light on all the time and the green blinking once per second indicating "USB error". Anything else I plug in (like my digital camera) gets picked up right away so the ports should be OK.
I'm going to contact Digitrax too but thought I would ask here too just in case someone else has a similar issue. BTW it's an HP "Pavilion" PC.
p.s. I tried it on my wife's PC which runs Windows 2000, same result.
You may already have some drivers installed, if at any point you let Windows install drivers, it's not going to work. Go into device manager and plug and unplug the PR3 and see if you see anythign change. If anythign shows up when the PR3 is plugged in and it's green, not the missing drivers warning, delete whatever drivers are there and start over.
Also try another USB cable, sometimes they are bad. It's a standard USB A to USB B cable, of the type used for printers.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
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Thanks I'll give that a try. I never had the opportunity to let Windows add drivers as it never recognized anything was plugged in. I'm sure I have a cord around somewhere to test if that's the issue, but probably will not find it and will end up buying a new one. O well. One oddity is it seems like the software (JMRI decoder pro and Digitrax soundloader) talks about COM3 but I don't seem to have one, only a COM4.
I do get an error message in Device Manager saying "This device cannot start. (Code 10)"??
Does COM4 go away when you unplug it? If so, and you never loaded the drivers, then it DID get Windows drivers loaded.
Remember ot use the same USB port all the time, a different port = different COM port number. The error sounds liek it might possibly be a bad cable. There are TWO driver installs, the actual hardware driver and the virtual com port driver. Are you using the latest version downloaded form the Digitrax site, instead of the mini CD that comes with the PR3?
wjstix One oddity is it seems like the software (JMRI decoder pro and Digitrax soundloader) talks about COM3 but I don't seem to have one, only a COM4.
That's because many computers use COM1 for the modem and COM2 for the serial port.
Or COM1 for the first serial port and COM2 for the second serial port (which very often is just a header on the motherboard, so folks don't even know they have two.)
Or maybe, on a laptop, a modem and bluetooth. Or a modem and a serial port.
Or... Well, you get the idea.
In short, it's very common for a computer in it's stock configuration to have COM1 and COM2 already used, so COM3 would be the one assigned to the next device. So that's the assumption that's often made - That "it" will be COM3. But that's certainly not always the case. I've heard of folks who test devices with virtual com ports working their way up to Com-one-hundred-and-something!
If you're using Windows, there's a registry hack you can use to display all those "unshown" devices, if you really want to know what they are. But suffice it to say that every time Windows needs to assign a COM port to what he thinks is a "new" device, he uses the next available one in sequence.
Hi, unplugging it and re-plugging seemed to have no effect on anything. I will look into the Digitrax website to see if there is a newer version of the driver download. I will see about the cable too - would hate to think I spent all this time trying to get it to work and it's just a bad cable, but that's usually how things work. Thanks.
Hi again, YUP, went and bought a new $20 cord, that was the problem.
I was able to do as suggested and uninstall the Windows drivers and install the correct Digitrax drivers. I was able to get into Soundloader and it successfully read the CV's off a decoder so it looks good from here.
THANKS VERY MUCH for responding and being so helpful guys !!
UPDATE: Talked to Digitrax, they're sending me a new cord...guess eventually I can use it for something. O well at least I got a good price on the PR3 so it plus the new cord I bought work out to about the list price.