Test and Measurement Forum

Hi,

I have a ADC-216 connected to my computer but on screen, no signal at all. The red LED on the ADC-216 was flashing fast whenever the software is in "GO" mode. Can anybody please help? I just built a low distortion audio generator and I want to know how clean it is!! (The ADC-216 has not been used for a few months and when I plug the USB socket into the computer, the hardware wizard comes up and installed a driver for it; I don't know if thats the reason but it was working very well before)
James

Hi James,
It might be that the loaded driver for the adapter has been corrupted and it will not be overwritten by a correct driver until it has been un-installed.
Please try this. Plug in the adapter on it's own and then go to Windows Device Manager.("Control Panel", "System" and then click on the Hardware Tab). If there is an "Unknown USB device" there or a "Pico Parallel Port" with a yellow warning triangle under USB controllers, left click on it once to highlight and then right click to bring up a list from which select "Uninstall". Once that is done, unplug the adapter and then plug it back in again. The Windows "New Hardware Found Wizard" will run. Follow the on-screen instructions and, if the wizard asks to connect to Windows Update, select 'No' and allow Windows to automatically detect and configure a new driver after which the adapter should show up in device manager again as a "Pico Parallel Port". If you get that, your adapter should now work.
If you still have problems with the scope not being recognised, please try to eliminate the scope by seeing if it will work on another PC that still has a parallel port to drive it directly. If you are unsure which item is faulty, I can arrange for both the scope and adapter to be returned for checking and we will tell you the result. In that case, please contact via the Help desk:-
support@picotech.com
If the adapter is less than two years old, it is covered by the warranty.
Regards,
PeterF.

Hi Peter,

There was no yellow warning light. I uninstalled it anyway. The ADC-216 red LED is still flashing fast when the software is in GO mode and no signal is shown on the screen. Before I did this, I repair the picoscope software with the original CD ROM. I have no idea why the whole setup behaves like this and I don't see any reason why it should be faulty because the ADC-216 is just sitting on the bench since last time it was working fine.

Hi James,
Please contact us on help-desk if you still have problems:-
support@picotech.com
Regards,
PeterF.