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Tuesday, May 22, 2018

Windows 10 - Build 1803 and Startech USB3HDCAP Capture card fun! Includes Fix Info

So, I was going to capture some more footage from my trusty Atari 1040 ST.  I got everything fired up, everything hooked up, and started 'Stream Catcher' to record from my Startech USB3HDCAP and...  nothing.  Stream Catcher does not see the device.  I go to the Device Manager, and Windows 10 reports the decvice is working properly.  I uninstall and reinstall the drivers, plug the unit into multiple USB ports, reinstall Stream Catcher, try OBS, nothing works.  The only known change to the setup was the Windows 10 update/upgrade to build 1803.


I dug deeper in the Device Manager, and looked at the Event Viewer.  There, I find this lovely nugget of information:

Device "BLAH" was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match.    

This item is marked as a warning, and according to Device Manager for the USB3HDCAP - "This device is working properly."

So, I start looking for what this error means.  Unfortunately this is a typical Microsoft error.  Typical in that it says and means almost absolutely nothing.  The common theme seemed to be either there was a driver incompatibility with Windows 10 from a previous OS, or the driver was corrupted.  At the time of this issue, 61 videos uploaded to YouTube argued against the possibility there was a driver compatibility error.  Numerous reinstalls of the driver, including rollbacks and trying multiple versions eliminated the possibility of corrupt drivers.

After this series of failures, I took a break, and then came back and plugged in my other capture device, Game Capture HD.  Results?  It did not work either, and also had the same "Device "BLAH" was not migrated due to partial or ambiguous match." cryptic error.  Almost instant proof this was not a 'picnic' issue (translation: problem in chair, not in computer).

From here I searched more, specifically targeting the El Gato device, found the following link and followed the directions ->
https://www.reddit.com/r/ElgatoGaming/comments/8gsfpd/is_your_capture_card_not_showing_after_windows_10/

    In Windows search, type "privacy" and hit enter.
    On the left sidebar, under app permissions, click on camera
    Find the toggle under "Allow apps to access your camera" and set it to on

Now your capture card will work again in your favorite recording or streaming app.

---

Like magic, my Startech capture device started working immediately after the change.

So, now the questions....

Why was this changed?
Where was the user notification of this change?
Why was the error so cryptic and not proving detail such as "Privacy settings are preventing this device from functioning" ?  Is it really that difficult to provide detail such as that?
I think it is debatable to include a capture device as a camera.  I had camera turned off for a reason; I do not have one hooked up to this specific PC.

I am certainly not a fan of how Microsoft has handled the Windows 10 update system.  For as much as they have modified the system to force feed updates, Microsoft might want to hire some Quality Control Engineers to write meaningful errors messages instead of the nearly pointless hex codes provided by errors, which have been in use for multiple years, so web searches bring up tons of questions, with few solutions.

I did get one benefit out of this fiasco, I installed the MICOMSOFT XCapture-1 drivers released in December of 2017 to use with my Startech USB3HDCAP card, with just a little bit of work.  Driver version 1.1.0.178 is 11 months newer than the last released Startech drivers.  Four captures from the Atari 1040 STf so far today, and no problems in Stream Catcher!

Hopefully this information will help someone else!

1 comment:

  1. J'AI UN SYSTEME DE CAPTURE STARTYECH.COM REF USB3HDCAP
    N; 2 1151100387 3 J'AI PERDU LE CD DRIVER PILOTE MERCI DE M'AIDER POUR LE PILOTE AFIN DE POUVOIR EXPLOITER LE PRODUIT.

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