QuantAsylum QA400 Installation Problems

Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.
QA400 Calibration fail. QA400 Version 1.23 Win 10 Pro Vers 1803. With this version of QA. 1.23. When run as adminstrator, the link lights red. It will output for the calibration which is the default, 1.29 VRMS, left 1.29VRMS right. and the Left and right signal LEDs will illuminate for a second then turn off. I measure the left and right signal and input into the calibrate file, then I press next. After prompt, connect Left Out to Left input and Right Out to Right input. Press next. Then All 9 LEDs illuminate, and promptly turn off. Calibration Failed again. Rebooting, restarting all don't seem to do anything and Not sure what to do next. It used to work fine with the old software but no longer. What should I do next?

Cheers,

I thought I would download 1.23 again. So I did. Now our dear friends at MS (MicroSoft), says it cannot open the file because it's compressed. Then I managed to "uncompress" it or so I thought...and now there is a read me file. And the file extension is MD. So off to MS to find a compatible file for it to read. MS suggested EM Editor64 to open and read it, which said free. Downloaded it then MS started actiing funny and wanting signins, phone numbers etc. Then I finally downloaded the file to read the read me, there was only one sentence which read: # QA400 EXE releases for QA400. See the "releases" tab above There wasn't a release tab that I could find. This was followed by MS prompting me for a $19.95 annual subscription. WTF Over! MS has changed everything the greedy bassfishingtards, and it doesn't work right. MS lied when they told me the file was free. How do I read MD's? What are these, MD file, Microsoft Directives? Oh that's right, now we can't own software, we can only rent/lease it. I'm looking for instructions to reinstall it, as my system says I can't. Thanks again MS.

unCheers,
 
It's a text file, you can open it in anything including Notepad. MD stands for Markdown and it's not a Microsoft thing, it's an open plain-text formatting syntax. It is standard practice for GitHub repositories.

The ZIP and tar.gz are (empty) source archives, not compiled binaries...

The Releases tab is on the GitHub page linked to in the Downloads section of the QA site. Under that, there is setup_QA400_1.23.exe , which is what you want.

I don't know why you would be recommended some 3rd party software to read this file, unless you asked through the dialog to find software to open it. Nor do I know why it's asking you for $20, but I assure you it's not Microsoft doing it. You may have malware on your PC.
 
Last edited:
Hi Chris, Thanks.

No, It is not me recommending the software. It's Microsoft. And it's one of the things that MS recommended, that was free...NOT. Okay, I'm not sure where to download the file from, but I think I've done that or maybe not.... I'll try to find the drivers. My 'puter says it cannot run the applications...go figure. Any way, it still doesn't recognize any imput...even from an external source. Doesn't see the QA400 output to imput, nor a 1000 Hz tone from my HP339A Deleted the old version, rebooted.

Installed v1.23 from the tab. It installed the USB drivers. Will plug and see if it plays. Anyone recall the correct USB cable? The one I'm using is is clear, shows woven copper shielding and has the snap on ferrite about six inches down from the QA400 input. Will try it again. Calibration Failed :( Found another USB, really cheap, still didn't work. Went back to the first USB...No difference. It won't read in from the QA400 box from ANY USB port. :( When I did the latest install, I ran that as Administrator, no difference. There has to be a way to trouble shoot the USB in port, but not sure how to do that.

unCheers for now.

Still not working :( It appears the USB is working as the ports change when I move the cable to another location. From: Port_#0003.Hub_#0003 To: Port_0001.Hub_#0002 (plugged in on the other side. Windows does say it is working correctly, hmmm but now finding Input. It outputs, and monitors an input...just not FFTing it. Taking way too long to troubleshoot. And I can't find earlier versions to install any longer either.

unCheers...
 
Off topic

<snip>
I don't know why you would be recommended some 3rd party software to read this file, unless you asked through the dialog to find software to open it. Nor do I know why it's asking you for $20, but I assure you it's not Microsoft doing it. You may have malware on your PC.

Windows 10 (and 8) does this.

If an app can't be found to open a file with an unknown extension, Windows will prompt you with something like "Do you wish to look for an app in the app store?" - which of course most people will do.
So in the above case, an app was probably found, but it's not free.

So it is Microsoft providing the prompts - but what happens after that is the responsibility of the end user.
 
It is a bit unfortunate that an actual '.txt'-file was given some random/other extension.

Open the file by using <shift>-<right-mouse> and select 'Open With' from the context menu, here you can set a check-mark to always open files of this type with the now selected command/program.
 
No not removed, still works :) [just tried].

I just tried on my Wife's Windows 10 laptop and indeed it is.

I don't get it on either of my Windows 7 machines though!

If I click open I just get the dialogue offering a list of apps.
 

Attachments

  • open-with-test.png
    open-with-test.png
    10.6 KB · Views: 232
audio_Tony, FdW, phofman,

Thanks for your assistance. I did manage open the readme, by forcing an open with notepad. Nothing fancy in the file it only has the following: # QA400 EXE releases for QA400. See the "releases" tab above Of course, at the time there was no "releases" tab above, so I went back to the QA website and figured it out, downloading the file: QA400-1.23 excutable. Looking around this laptop I did manage to find and older setup version of the QA400 software, 1.0696. I'll uninstall this 1.23 version and try reinstalling the 1.0696. That was the last known version that worked on this computer. The only thing that really worries me is that on this go round, Windows reinstalled updates to itself (which I've previously disabled).

I don't know that MS has disabled or reviesed its previous functions that no longer work... ...It's hard to trust MS any longer as the "free" emEditor I uninstalled, reinstalled itself and then it through MS was demanding the 19.99 annual use fee. Anyone know of an input test for theQA400? or have one that they can open up and I can walk through the steps verifying input to the USB portion of the analyzer?

unCheers,
 
<snip>
...It's hard to trust MS any longer as the "free" emEditor I uninstalled, reinstalled itself and then it through MS was demanding the 19.99 annual use fee.
emEditor looks perfectly legit, I don't know why you're getting repeated prompts to remove it.

Regarding updates, Microsoft has made it impossible to postpone updates on Windows 10 with all but the Enterprise versions.

A good free text editor (which will open any text file - even files created on Linux etc.) is Notepad++ - additionally this is totally free.

Finally, here's a guide to uninstalling Windows 10 apps.
 
Still failed with v1.0696 installed. The bummer shared in pics, follow along as I get depressed.

one This first pic shows the "calibrate", I meaure the outputs VRMS with my meter. All with the standard QA400 values.
two Then, after I connected the output to the input channels it appears to look good after pressing next.
three As you can see about 1/2 second later completely goes dark.
four After I receive the failed message and press OK or CANCEL the Link LED turns on. This illuminates before the calibrate and after calibrate process.
summary The last two days now, the QA400 won't acknowledge any input on the software FFT screen. I've used three different versions of the software, to the last remaining input.
thoughts ? Now I'm wondering if some other program is controlling the USB port and changing it's configuration? This is a Dell laptop that originally came with Windows 8, then upgrades to Windows 10. I'm wondering what I need to do to look that the USB ports and see how they are configured.

unCheers,

===

audio-tony,

Thanks for trying. That app installed itself after I went through it and uninstalled it once. I uninstalled it again. Also, thanks for the link. Sadly I couldn't use it because I refuse to disable ad-block. I've disabled the ad-blocks before and so many pop ups and other ads invaded my 'puter it made it unusable... yes I know that I can whitelist it, and then well with each scroll down, pop-up video windows show up.

And of course, nothing is free, for $1 I can use the linked site for a month. Enjoy the image Win Club Joy:cuss: Please know that once upon a time I would have been considered a power user of PCs and Apple Macs. I've been fooling around with them circa IBM 360...and had giant floppys for the TRS-80. Also used CP/M on the 8088 chip 'puters.

Was around with early DOS and used and Apple Macintosh. Still have an Apple MacIICI and Centris along with boatloads of vintage Mac software and OSs. :) Currently it isn't worth my time to try and play catch up with all the OS stuff and the like. A Mark, A Yen, A Buck, or A Pound, it makes the world go round.
 

Attachments

  • 01.01 Calibrate.jpg
    01.01 Calibrate.jpg
    393.2 KB · Views: 157
  • 01.02 OUT to IN.jpg
    01.02 OUT to IN.jpg
    323.5 KB · Views: 159
  • 01.03 Cal Fail.jpg
    01.03 Cal Fail.jpg
    341.3 KB · Views: 141
  • 01.04 Return Steady State.jpg
    01.04 Return Steady State.jpg
    372.3 KB · Views: 144
  • WinClub Joy.JPG
    WinClub Joy.JPG
    69.7 KB · Views: 84
I'm wondering what I need to do to look that the USB ports and see how they are configured.

Hi SyncTronX, around Window10 release 1803 something changed in the way the OS interacted with the Cypress USB drivers on the QA401 and QA400 product. Around that same time or a bit before, Microsoft stopped supporting WinXP in their tool chain. By that, I mean that new OSs had changes to the DotNet framework pushed out, but they stopped doing it for XP. And so, the DotNet framework on Win10 machines was different from the DotNet frameworks on XP machines. Microsoft stopped supporting XP in 2014, 12 years after its launch in 2002.

For Win10 build 1803, we had to completely drop the Cypress drivers that had become quirky and move to the WinUSB drivers. WinUSB is Microsoft's generic drivers for USB. WinUSB has been extremely stable, and as painful as the move was, it's been good in retrospect.

The days of Microsoft putting backwards compatibility at the top of the list are gone. It's still obviously important to them, but it's not #1 like it was a decade ago.

So, how does this relate to the issue you are facing? The QA400 doesn't run on current versions of Win10 (thought it did at the beginning of Win10), and the current builds of the QA401 won't run on XP anymore. Now, with that said, there's a factory in Asia that DID manage to get the QA401 running on XP. I have no idea how, but I have emailed with the guy who assured me it was working.

As a first step to verifying your QA400 hardware, it's pretty quick (and free) to install Oracle Virtual Box on your Win10 machine and host a version of WinXP inside that. My guess is the QA400 application will run fine and the QA400 hardware will run fine too. It's not ideal, for sure. But if your aim is to get some measurements made and move on to the next task in your week, it's the most certain path.
 
QA MATt,

Thanks for replying. :) I moved the QA400 to my old desktop box and got it working there, so I know the QA400 is working now. :)

The DELL laptop is what I also need it to work with for measurements, etc. So I take it then for this laptop I should use: Oracle Virtual Box I have that and it is opened. But now I'm having problems with the windownsXPMode CAB. The darn thing won't enable me to view the contents of the CAB file as shown in the MUD link. LINK

Windows 10 doesn't give any other options. Other than it says the windows store. Whoop Ti Do--NOT. So not sure what to do here. Read through your instructions again. Note: When I tried to open the CAB file, Win10 says it isn't compatible WIN7. I will try to decompress from within the Virtual Box :)

Oh the joy.

Well doing this is going to be like and all day sucker. In process....it is what it is. So, do I install the QAsofware on the VM Disk that I created? and run it there?

Well this is a whole new can of worms. :( Can't get the WINXP File to the VM Disk I created a small on on the hard driver and a larger area on a CD-R, formatted for windows machines like USB Drives, SATA, etc. There isn't an XP Available that I can just use without WIN10 OS trying to screw it up.

unCheers,
 
You would probably be better off buying a legitimate Windows 7 DVD / image with key, and installing that (assuming it's supported by your laptop hardware).

If your laptop is 3 or more years old it'll probably work just fine.

You can also check the laptop manufacturers website to see if there is driver support.

By the way - windows 7 support expires in January next year.
 
I Can't take the chance of screwing up everything on the laptop for win 7. More Joy. I do have licenses for it Win7 Home. and Old Version of winXP and 95 that are legit. I do have an other 'puter lap top that is old which might work. But that was a HD issue with back then. so it has just been sitting. I don't even know if it would start up. It is buried in with all the other "collections" folks discuss.

Cheers,
 
Other good news updates, the winXP file is only 481 GB. My Win7 Home...I don't know where the disc is. My better half re-organized everything I own. So it's a constant challenge for me. Now I'm wondering if I got the wrong winXP, the one I downloaded with winXPmode from the link I posted above.

unCheers
 
Last edited:
Member
Joined 2004
Paid Member
I set up my older laptops to multiboot. XP sometimes Ubuntu and Win 10. I would start with a clean sad and follow the on line instructions. 50 GB is usually enough for XP. Opera does work OK on XP still. I would not use XP for web surfing but fine for running tests and if you share the data directory you can access the results from a newer pc (if you can get Windows network working). You can use Ultravnc to operate the computer from another pc (or even a phone).
 
Status
This old topic is closed. If you want to reopen this topic, contact a moderator using the "Report Post" button.