Manual Installation of SDR#

Manual Installation of the RTL-SDR drivers with SDR# for the RTL-SDR

Note you only need to do a manual driver installation if the automatic installation described in the quick start guide has failed.

1) Download the RTL-SDR Drivers, and extract the rtlsdr.dll file from the x86 folder into the SDR# folder:

http://github.com/rtlsdrblog/rtl-sdr-blog/releases/latest/download/Release.zip

2) Download zadig from their website and place it into the SDR# folder:
https://zadig.akeo.ie

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auadis

Excuse me, I have one PC without internet connection with WINDOWS 10.
I want install the RTL SDR key.

In ANOTHER (!) PC with WINDOWS 10, I have the RTL SDR key perfect installed.

My idea is COPY the files and PASTE in this PC without internet connection.

Where I find the drivers?
Where I paste this drivers?

I hope you help me.

Many thanks.

Harry

It works and it is easy. Look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUwRt5qn-6U
If you still have a problem with the driver (stick doesn’t work), look here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWyswHcE5dU

Worked perfect!

Francesco

It used to work, then I updated the software and windows system and the pendrive now sits like a stone.
No, it doesn’t work. It used to work but not anymore. Problem is it is too complicated and they don’t have any self installing package to solve the damn problems that always arise with Windows. I just didn’t want to ruin my evenings trying to make it work. It’s easier to reach Mars than make this sdr pen work again.

Harry

I had problems as well. Then I followed the steps in both youtube videos and now it works fine. You are correct, it would be better with a self installing package. But – here we are. With the help of both youtube videos I got it running today. It took maybe 30 minutes.

T

I wish I never bought this.

Francesco

I purchased it and was very happy. Then all of a sudden after some months and an upgrade concerning the software used, it did not work anymore. So far I can’t figure out why they are unable to pay a damn software engineer to produce a self installing software instead of forcing us users into hell. I mean, it seems a computer science degree is not enough to make this shit thing working. This is one of the reasons why I don’t want anything to do anymore with these windows drivers and my next pc will be a mac. I don’t want to hear anymore the word “driver”, that fucking useless term to indicate all and nothing.

Ron D.

Mac’s use driver too. just sayin’

T w

I know just how you feel! Biggest waste of time ever! Why has no one made an SDR that you just download the software, plug it in, and it just works without any issues! Instead of having to download a gazillion different drivers and pieces of software only for it to keep saying “no device selected” even though it’s plugged in and working!

Dave

Because EVERYONE related to SDR software development is a raging fucktard. No more. No less.

Francesco

It used to work, then all of a sudden maybe after some windows update, it kept on crashing and crashing on launch. It is so difficult to install and use that it requires a master in computer science and since I have a degree in law I am completely lost. Holy crap, no self installing package, just thousands of different instructions, do this, try that, then if the xy2 doesn’t work add this and cut that. I can’t believe this shit.

whatever

your changelog says nothing about .net 4.8! It says 4.6 thats it.
I just went and bought a laptop with vista and installed 4.6 and now it wont work. wtf?

Daniel Payne

Instructions were not clear enough and now I have a chineses radio USB stick stuck up my ass. Sick of dealing with windows cheap garbage.

Jerry Demas

After many frustration attempts, I got it working. It seized my computer and could not exit program. I had to manually push the on button. Tried using it days later, had to go through the same frustration M…F…ing crap again. Why isn’t there a complete install package?

James

Try selecting rail with Deb file going to the 32-bit drivers select test or start TCP connection and then go into SDR sharp and open up the right underneath the USB driver there’s a TCP connection that usually works if the other driver doesn’t

greg birdsall

After 3 hours of trying everything zadig still fails to install the driver in windows 7.1 64 bit. I will try it with an android device but really, what is it with the driver. I agree with others that this is bullshit and I will be giving it a bad review on Amazon.
It looks like the driver is copyrighted by a guy in Germany.

John Coleman

Will windows 11 accept zadig with regards to rtlsdrdongle. V3

Joe
Salar Yunis

How did you find the x64 version of the rtlsdr.dll? please can you share the link if possible. Thank you!

Saverio Saggese

What a bullshit! Close to 2020 we are stilll dealing with Win crap: on my MAC I’ve installed Cubic SDR (that has basic functions) in two muìinutes. After 3 hours on my Win laptop I’m lost .

Fu@* Microsot and windows

Anonymous

ok boomer

gey

ok boomer

Brian

I have downloaded the Zip and extracted all the files but I have another app other than SDR# that I want to use. I can’t get the computer to recognize the folder I extracted the files to as a driver. would these files be relevant to any other SDR so were like GQRX or GURC? How do I make use of the dongle without SDR#?

Jason Charney

So the version of zadig.exe that install-rtlsdr.bat is incorrect. If you get a message say that Zadig is Corrupt or unreadable is is because, it’s not really an .exe but a file that probably contains an HTML 404 message or something. You’ll need to go to the Zadig website and install the program (which as of July 2019 is called zadig-2.4.exe manually into the sdrsharp-x86 folder. You can delete that other zadig.exe which isn’t the Zadig we need.

Johann Stieger

Hi, I run zadig-2.4.exe and have replaced the driver for Bulk-In, Interface 0 with WinUSB v6.1.7600.16385 on Windows 10 1809 x64 but in SDR# v1.0.0.1703 when I select RTL-SDR(USB) I can’t see the device in “configure source” and when I press the play button I get the error “no device selected”. I have tried the x32 and the x64 Version of rtlsdr.dll from 2014 but also the x32 and x64 Version of librtlsdr.dll from the 14. of July 2019. When I use rtl_test.exe I don’t get any error.

greg birdsall

I found the zadig.exe that comes with sdrsharp to be the same version 2.4 as the one downloaded from from zadig website. After 3 hours of trying everything zadig fails to install the driver in widows 7.1 64 bit with net 4.8 installed.

anonym8

Works great for me. I suspect that most these comments are malfunctioning people. Computer only does what you tell it.

Tim Buctu

Bully for you, shame its not helped your malfunctioning personality….

Hhh

Ok boomer

Allan Watson

The original article in “Silicon Chip” magazine, May 2013, mentions XP and Windows 7 installations. Unfortunately, the SDRSharp installation requires .NET Framework, but when I try to install it I am told that it is not supported on XP. My Windows 10 version on my laptop works perfectly, as does the Android app on my phone.

graeme61

unfortunately not all the people in world have the knowledge to delve deeper into computers.
On/off button is there limit.
Does not mean to say their malfunctioned people.
Bet they have skills which you could not complete,so does that make you malfunctioned then ?

graeme61

The post I sent 2 minutes ago is for ANNOYM8

Dude who can't get it right

I’ve tried every trick I can find here. I can’t get the bat file to load peoperly. Zadig has 0 bytes in it and won’t run because of this. I tried to download the stuff manually and still no joy. I can see why people are getting frustrated. I’m beginning to wonder if its worth it myself.

Jack

Too complicated set up compliance,go here go there if not wait go back,does not work for me very dissapointed,going back to my Yaesu tranceivers.

Tom Beattie

On Win2008 server I cannot seem to get the gear to open for device selection. Drivers install fine. Still can’t make it work. Been fiddling with this for days.

Stephen Eyles

I’ve installed the SDR and got it working on my home PC but when I try on my work laptop I can’t run Zdiag.exe – I think it must be locked down as I am not an Administrator.

Is there any way to get around this without going through the procedure of justifying SDR to the company IT gurus etc. and getting them to help me install it?

Thanks for all your support and assistance!

HL

Probably the SDR# cant see the installed C++

Because I installed another radio from : http://m3ghe.blogspot.hu/p/adding-support-for-rtl-sdr-usb-dongles.html
And the installer put on a C++ automaticaly.
Earlier the rtl_test gives this message: ” No supported device found”
But now said this:

D:\SDR_radio\sdrsharp-x86>rtl_test
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7
20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0
49.6
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.

Info: This tool will continuously read from the device, and report if
samples get lost. If you observe no further output, everything is fine.

Reading samples in async mode…
lost at least 108 bytes

HL

Hi,

I just try to install and use the DVB-T+FM+DAB dv3 (820T2 & SDR)
I use Win 7.
It seems I can install the driver by Zadig… the insatalled driver WinUSB v6.1.7600.16385 usbid: 0BDA 2838 00
But the SDRSharp (SDR#) can’t see the device. At the configure source’s Device is grey (empty)
When i hit the run button I got : No device selected.
I set the RTL-SDR (USB) before for source.

Thank You in advance!
L

Jimmy

My rtl Sdr 2838 works fine on my Android tablet. Tried downloading all drives and software so I can operate it on my Acer aspire x desktop with 2.34ghz processor and Windows 8 . I had no luck . What am I doing wrong . Have sdr Sharp . Keeps saying no device found . And looked in devices and rtl sdr driver isn’t installed . Help please

n3mmr

AirSpy’s sdr# distro still uses the old, no longer functional, url in install-rtlsdr.bat.
Modify accordingly.

Also, if you have an x64 windows distro of sdr#, you should look for the dll in the x64 subfolder, not the x32.

Frank M Koerber

Is there a simple step-by-step guide to installing this (and the drivers) on windows 7?

Frank M Koerber

Is there a simple step-by-step guide to installing the drivers and software on windows 7?

Milt

To clarify couple of things in a question I just asked. I am operating Win 10, 64 bit and the actual message I get is “DRIVER INSTALLATION FAILED (COULD NOT ALLOCATE RESOURCE).

Milt

When I hit the “Replace Driver” button, I get a message: Download failed, “could not allocate resource.” How do I work around this?

ALEXIS CORREA

I just bought an android stereo for my car. My goal is to use the SDR as scanner and Shortwave receiver as an added feature in the radio. The radio runs android 5.1 and is not rooted. The driver installs good, but doesn’t work. As soon as I open any app and tries to deal with the driver, the program just disconnect. However I tested another app that doesnt use the driver (the one that tracks planes) and works pretty good. How can I make the SDR driver work om android 5.1?

Simon

OK I just bought 2 V3 USB RTL-SDR radios. One works.
In Zadig the one that works shows up as RTL2838UHIDIR Wheras the one that doesnt shows up as
RTL2832U. I used the same procedure on both to change the drivers. The one that doesnt work gets a response of ‘Cannot access RTL device in SDR Sharp. How can I fix it.?

anonymous

in sdr# software in the rtl sdr controller it is showing device is unknown and i cannot set the RF gain. what to do?

ilk

doesnt work on WIN 10 at all

Jake

i spent 5 hours trying everything and have got nowhere honestly im kinda at a loss for what do do im on windows 10. i consider myself to be very computer savy and im at a total loss

Jimmy willis

Problem I am having is getting sdr# to work on windows 8 . I have downloaded everything it needs to run and still saying device not found . Or can’t run program. I have been trying to get my rtlsdr going for the past 3 years no luck yet

EllisGL
Jon Kreski

Did that. SDR# runs and works although if I select a new Frequency Manager selection, etc. the waterfall doesn’t change and the audio doesn’t change – unless – I turn the software off and on again – and then it works on the new freq in tandem. Also – when it loads the RTL-SDR USB driver the software only shows a Generic radio and that works as above. This is on a new PC. On my old PC it shows the actual RTL-SDR instead of a Generic radio.

Henk Oegema

I can’t install the driver for my NooElec R820T SDR & DVB-T NESDR Mini on my Windows7
The USB ID: 0BDA 2838 00
As device I choose: Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)

In the Driver field is written: WinUSB (v6.1.7600.16385) => WinUSB (v6.1.7600.16385)
i.s.o. RTL2832UUSB(v64.1.xxx.x) => WinUSB (v6.1.7600.16385)

What is my problem?

Henk Oegema

Please ignore my previous message. It’s working never the less. 🙂

Andrea

It doesn’t work under Windows 10 x64 Runs ok on windows 7 32-64bit

The Master

No problem for me under Win10 x64

Sean

I don’t think he was using SDR#. Is there a page and links to the other software?
S.

Lothar

dos the software work on
WIN 10

Jason

The link to /trac/raw-attachment/wiki/rtl-sdr/RelWithDebInfo.zip is not responding. Is the server up today?

Mike

Installation is tricky but possible. Read the directions from the Quick Start Guide and follow them closely. Install your SDR# directory in C:\ not Program Files. When logged in as root, set that SDR# directory to have write permissions also (default read only). Then go into Norton or other antivirus and set an exception for your SDR# directory and all subfolders. It is key to make sure that the .bat installs properly. It seems the WinXP version zadig works in Win7 also.

Not sure about Win10. It’s too new to support many programs and drivers so my sympathies. I’ll try it in a year or 2 when they work out the bugs and driver incompatibilities.

Dennis Farr

Unable to get RTL-SDR to work after upgrade to WIN10. Worked on same PC using WIN7. There is no .bat file in the SDR# zip file. Loaded and ran zadig.

Mike

Norton claims that pthreadVC2-w32.dll is an “Insight Network Threat and has been removed. There are many indications that this file is untrustworthy and therefore not safe.”

Threat name: WS.Reputation.1

Anonymous

completely lost.