Test and Measurement Forum

Hi!

I recently bought a PicoScope3204 and installed the software as explained in the manual. However, I was able to run the PicoScope software only a single time. Every subsequent attempt to use the device failed. In particular, I observed the following:
1.) After booting Windows XP (SP2 installed), the PicoScope is displayed in the list of available USB devices in the control panel's device manager.
2.) When I launch the PicoScope software (by double-clicking the desktop icon which has been created during installation), the red light on the device's front panel is switched off, and at the same time a rather silent "clicking" sound is audible in the PicoScope.
3.) A few seconds later, a popup window appears telling me "PS3000 not connected".
4.) When I check in the device manager again at this point, the PicoScope entry has disappeared.
5.) Steps 1.) to 4.) can be repeated after rebooting the machine (just reconnecting the device doesn't bring it back), but I don't get the application up and running.

Obviously the device is useless as long as this problem persists. Any advice by PicoTech or other users who had similar problems?

Thanks & kind regards,
Markus

Hello Markus,

Could you please confirm which software version you are using by clicking on 'Help' > 'About'.

Regards
John

picojohn wrote:Hello Markus,

Could you please confirm which software version you are using by clicking on 'Help' > 'About'.

Regards
John

I currently don't have access to the machine, but I downloaded (http://www.picotech.com/software.html) and installed the latest version of PicoScope a few days ago, I think it was PicoScope R6.0.12.

Kind regards,
Markus

Hello Markus,

Please try uninstalling the driver from within device manager and then connect the PicoScope to the PC to invoke the 'new hardware found' procedure. Allow Windows to find and install the driver automatically.

If that does not work, please try uninstalling and then re-installing PicoScope 6, ensuring that you have version 6.0.12.

Regards
John

picojohn wrote:Hello Markus,

Please try uninstalling the driver from within device manager and then connect the PicoScope to the PC to invoke the 'new hardware found' procedure. Allow Windows to find and install the driver automatically.

If that does not work, please try uninstalling and then re-installing PicoScope 6, ensuring that you have version 6.0.12.

Regards
John

No way, the same problems as before. I tried the following:
*) uninstall the driver in the driver manager: this was not possible with the device connected, the device manager hangs, I killed the window after looking at the hour glass for half an hour
*) reboot the machine: this was also not possible since the machine hangs during shutdown (actually it always hangs during shutdown when I tried to use the PicoScope device before and the front LED switches off)
*) hard reset (working - no surprise)
*) display hidden entries in the device manager, then three PicoScope instances showed up, one with "PicoScope3000...", the other two with "PicoScope 3000..." (i.e., only differing by the space before the number "3" and otherwise identical). With the device *not* connected, these could be removed in the driver manager
*) reconnect the device: the driver installation wizard starts up and installs the driver, however, during driver installation the LED switches off again -> back to the beginning
*) connecting to a different USB port doesn't help either, so it doesn't seem to be a problem related to the PC's USB hardware

Here is my system information:
*) PicoScope software 6.0.12.2
*) PicoScope driver 1.13.2.0 (date: 2007/04/16)
*) Windows XP Media Center Edition Version 2002 Service Pack 2

Any ideas on how to get the device to work?

Kind regards,
Markus

Hello Markus,

My understanding from your last post is that you finally succeeded in properly removing the device driver(s), and that during the 'new hardware found' process' the LED switched off and "-> back to the beginning" .... what do you mean by "-> back to the beginning"? Also, you did not say whether or not you tried re-installing the software as suggested?

If you have tried everything suggested so far, could you please finally try the installation on a different machine?

Regards
John

I am seeing the exact same problem on my Dell Latitude core duo laptop running XP Pro SP2 as Markus is seeing. I opened up a ticket on this already. I couldn't get my 3206 to run even once. I've tried different versions of the software, uninstalling and reinstalling,.... When I start the Pico software, the USB light goes out with a click and a message comes up stating that an appropriate device cannot be found. For some reason, the software turns off the USB port and the driver cannot be found in the Device Manager list.

This looks like a great product; I just need to get it working.

Doug

Hi Doug,

John is not available today, after reading thorugh the forum post and having a fresh pair of eyes on it, it seems as if the unit needs to be returned for repairs.

If you can email us at support@picotech.com and put your full return address and a brief description of the porblem, then I will generate a returns number and instructions.

Kind regards