When is a dongle not a dongle?

It looks like I may have broken DaVinci Resolve 17.

I thought I would be a clever fellow and also do the right thing by BM, pay for the software and buy the studio version. However, after installing and Studio initially working, it bailed after a few minutes, advising the dongle should be plugged in. After a few more tries it now does not get past a screen which requests an activation code or a dongle to be plugged in.

The dongle is not seen and things progress no furthur. I think I may have to go back to the freebie version. Life was so much easier. I thought I had learned my lesson from cineform and its clever activation code system which went to the heavens above when cineform sold out to GoPro and I was left with software I could no longer re-active when the hard drive laid down and I had to re-install. I also got burned by screenwriting software with similar protections when the company went belly-up.

So the USB dongle seemed like a good idea. More fool me.

FOOTNOTE: The Studio install and uninstall has stuffed the free version. It still demands the activation key or the dongle. - Donkeyproof?? Not really.

If anyone has any suggestions about how to beat this thing into submission, any advice will be appreciated.

Have uninstalled and re-installed with dongle plugged in and dongle unplugged. - No difference.

Tried the dongle in every USB port - No difference.

In its present state it is neither use nor ornament.

We had a dongle that did not work. Then we exchanged it for a working one from the reseller.

What did the reseller say? what did BMD support say to try?

[Peter Chamberlain]

Robert, if your dongle is from a BMD reseller, it should work with v17 Studio. The limited reasons it wont tend to be USB conflicts but I can say its rare based on numbers shipped.

Is the dongle in the USB port or on a hub or extender? What other USB peripherals are connected?

The free version knows nothing about dongles so if you are installing that and its not working that suggests a system hardware or configuration issue.

The FAQs might be the next step

Does the dongle show up in Device Manager or `lsusb` or whatever the OSX equivalent is depending on what OS you're using.

It should show up as a device with PID/VID 096e:0201 (from "Feitian Technologies" )

Robert, if your dongle is from a BMD reseller, it should work with v17 Studio. The limited reasons it wont tend to be USB conflicts but I can say its rare based on numbers shipped.

Is the dongle in the USB port or on a hub or extender? What other USB peripherals are connected?

The free version knows nothing about dongles so if you are installing that and its not working that suggests a system hardware or configuration issue.

The FAQs might be the next step

----------- The dongle for Resolve Studio 17 came from Videoguys in Australia. The software I downloaded from your site as instructed.

The dongle has been tried in all USB ports. Sometimes after a long wait, the computer will "ding" eventually as if it has found it.

Resolve Studio 17 initially started and all seemed well for about 15 minutes, enough time to see that all my projects were still alive and well. Then it wanted me to make sure the dongle was inserted, so I pulled it out, gave it a few seconds, then reinserted it and all went to hell from then on.

After a bit of mindless logic on my part with a few installs and uninstalls, free Resolve 17.1.1 finally took hold and it is behaving so far touch wood.

USB peripherals are keyboard and mouse. I had not got as far as plugging in the Speed Editor to the USB3 port.

[Peter Chamberlain]

So now its working again i would install the studio version and start with the dongle attached.

Assuming you are on a PC, go into Device Manager and check in the Properties for each USB Hub that under the Power Management tab the box labelled "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" is not ticked. Windows likes to power down the USB Hubs if it thinks they are not being used.

Have tried the suggestions thus far and it is still a dead loss and broken ornament.

Fifth try and nothing has changed. After a long wait, Windows goes ding and throws up a message "The USB device you connected has malfunctioned and is not recognised." - So that's that I guess. "Buying Studio was a good thought while it lasted." All the USB ports work fine. I am running spinning passport drives off the ports I have plugged the dongle into, so power is not an issue.

Thank you everyone for your kind inputs. I shall have to wait to see if BM support sticks its hand up or rattle the reseller for a return and refund.

i'd ping the reseller for a replacement
not BMD directly

Dermot Shane. I have sent an email so shall see what comes of it.

I originally selected the dongle option in the belief that if for any reason Blackmagic Design went belly-up, I would not be stranded with an activation code which would no longer be supported with a response code.

I have been twice caught out with unsupported activations when Ballisticware, the vendor of a scriptwriting software went belly-up.

When Cineform was bought by GoPro, product support was discontinued and product bought and good money paid for was gone when the next clean re-install was required. I know the software companies are protected by their EULA's and fine print but it still galls regardless.

If USB dongles die, then I may need to reconsider the activation code option. It is a bitter risk either way.

I have since discovered that Resolve 17 has stripped the CUDA option from the offered preferences. It was available in Resolve 16 so something funny is going on there as well. Maybe the GTX670 graphics cards fall short of being CUDA11 capable although the memory requirement is met.

Yeah, hw device break, although I would still call it unlikely, it happens. It'd be interesting to do a post mortem on the device to see exactly how it failed, it might be repairable. (Not that you should try but imagine replacement was not an option if BMD wasn't around and it's something fixable, a skilled technician could fix it).

As for your GPU, yeah, GTX670 doesn't meed the minimum requirement for cuda compute capability. You card is "level 3" and resolve 17 needs "level 3.5". ( See https://developer.nvidia.com/cuda-gpus ).

Thank your for your advice.

I have taken a close look at the dongle. There are some small physical differences at the plug-end which might be a cause by not allowing the dongle to insert fully. I have sent images to the vendor and will see what advice comes back tomorrow.

I was asked if there is a light showing. There is a small LED light built in. When the dongle is plugged into any one of several USB sockets on two different computers, nothing happens. Occasionally Windows 10 reports a malfunction but the device is never seen.

I could experiment to revise the fit of the dongle to the USB socket but that would void warranty. So I am not going there unless the vendor approves in writing. As for the GTX670, thanks for the info. That solves a question I could not find an answer for on the internet.

The good news is that the vendor is going to swap the dongle. Thanks for your inputs everyone.

One tip I used for a few years with the DaVinci Resolve dongle: I got a short (6") USB female-to-USB male adapter, plugged one end into the dongle and the other end directly into the computer's USB port (no hug, a direct connection). That way, only the cable was subjected to being bumped or unplugged or moved over time -- the dongle's end stayed pristine.

I had situations where I'd sometimes move the dongle to client systems or laptops, and this way it helped avoid any damage. I did once have a semi-regular client where they moved their own system and the dongle got badly bent, and Resolve started getting crazy and exiting without any warning. I think we wound up duct-taping the dongle to the cable, and the damned thing was still working by the last session I did over there some months ago.

The good news is that the folk at New Magic are sending me a replacement USB dongle. Now all I need is to break the bank and buy in a more up-to-date graphics card than GTX-670 and I can have CUDA back again.

The strange thing is that things were working as fast after I first upgraded to free Resolve 17 over Resolve 16 by mistake. After I uninstalled free Resolve and installed Resolve Studio 17, things slowed down. On reflection the computer may have been operating in Resolve 16.

Mark.

Thanks for your suggestion regarding a short USB cable. I had thought about connecting a USB socket to a spare USB outlet on the motherboard and leaving the USB dongle inside the computer case out of harms way.