decklink studio and windows 7

I have a decklink studio card which I have been working with for years. I recently changed my workstation, and tried to install the card, with no success. the machine is a Dell Vostro 470, with an I7 3.4 GHZ processor, 8gb of ram, and windows 7 64 bit. the problems I am having are :

*. the drivers (latest version, 9.6.7) install fine, and the machine "seems" to see the card correctly. the control panel applet works. BUT :

a. everytime at startup, it asks for the firmware to be updated, and then fails to do so. nothing significant shows in the windows event log.

b. although the card "Seems" to work, it does not generate any output.

any ideas how I should proceed ?

thanks, Mike

[Albert Chu]

Hello Mike,

If the firmware update does not complete, then the DeckLink will not function. If you have not already done so, do try the DeckLink in other available PCIe slots to see if the firmware update finishes.

You may also want to check to make sure the computer has its latest BIOS and chipset drivers up to date.

If you have access to the older system, you may want to try the DeckLink back on this system, just to verify that the card does work and you might be dealing with a hardware incompatibility.

We generally do not recommend Dell systems due to scenarios like these. It can be hit or miss when using a Dell configuration. Our support page does list minimum system requirements with motherboards and full systems out of the box that should work.

If you have any other questions, do let us know.

I also have similar problems with my PC and decklink studio. I tried with decklink driver (7.6). It works fine.

I tried my old system, with drivers version 7.1.2 (which it used to have). it asked me for a firmware update (which was probably a downgrade), which worked. the card worked just fine. I then installed the latest 9.6.6 version on to the old computer, to see what would happen. it asked again for a firmware update, did it, and the card worked fine with these drivers as well.

so, it is indeed a compatibility problem. I tried all available PCI slots with no success (on the Dell). one thing I have NOT tried is this :

after updating the firmware via the old computer, does it make sense to move the card to the new one and retry ? in other words, what are the chances than (on the Dell) the firmware update does not work, but the card does ? I ask this because it is a lot of work to open up both computers again

one last thing, just i case it matters. in the old computer, the card was inserted in a full-length PCI slot, simply because it did not have any short PCIe slots. in the Dell, which does NOT have full-length PCI slots,
I had to use the short PCIe slot. is this relevant ?

I tested with both Dell Vostro and Dell Precision work station-- it works fine, but you need to install deck link driver 7.6.4 in your Dell workstation.
No need to update firmware from your old computer. It asked you for a firmware update in the end of driver 7.6.4 installation process. Update firmware and restart your pc. It works with short PCIe slot too.
Nice weekend!!