USB IrDA devices no longer work in W10

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  1. Posts : 248
    W10 Pro/W7 Pro 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #11

    spapakons said:
    Maybe there are no drivers for it included in Windows 10, but you can connect it and then browse for drivers in Windows\Inf and Windows\System32 folders of your Windows 7 installation and it might install and work. I would try that.

    I had done the same trick for my old parallel port Iomega ZIP-100 drive. Officially Iomega has dropped support for it in Windows Vista and later. But I have detected the relevant driver files in a Windows XP installation, copied them in a folder and managed to manually install it in Vista 32-bit and Windows 7 32-bit. Unfortunately Microsoft has changed the drivers of the parallel port in Windows 8 and 10, so it is not detected at all and I cannot install it manually any more. I could try to add it as a legacy device, but not sure if it will work or give a BSOD.


    EDIT: Have you read the following line from the link in your original post?

    "In the past, many vendors are using the IrDA stack, implemented in Windows. So USB infrared receivers don’t need their own drivers or IrDA stack. It simply works. Now Microsoft has removed the IrDA stack in Windows 10 RTM, so all USB infrared receivers/devices are bricked. Only, if a vender already has implemented its own IrDA stack and provides Windows 10 compatible software, the infrared receiver/devices may work."

    So try the manual installation as I describe above and it might work for your device!
    There is a driver in Windows/System32/Drivers/ dated 10/25/15 or the release date of W10 so any driver I try to point to manually it says that I already have the latest.
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  2. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #12

    When I say manually, I mean to not allow Windows select a driver since it will tell you latest driver is already installed. From Device Manager right-click on the IrDA device and select Update drivers. Then select the LAST option in every screen, until you see the Have disk button. Click on Have disk and browse to the folder with the driver. Select the first result and proceed to install it. You may have to start your computer in test mode (ignore driver signing) to successfully install the device the first time.
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  3. Posts : 248
    W10 Pro/W7 Pro 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #13

    One thing I didn't mention. The W10 driver is installed but the Device Manager states the device not working because it couldn't load the driver. It might be any driver won't load because something is missing within W10.

    There are lots of different IRDa devices that don't work under W10 that it probably isn't something simple.
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  4. Posts : 1
    Windows 10
       #14

    Using VMWare's free VMware Player to use a IrDA in Window 10


    I have been successfully using VMWare's free VMware Player to use IrDA in Window 10 to get my Polar watch data. I need IrDA to download the data off my Polar watch, which records my heartrate, distance, altitude data, and from a sensor on my bike ride workouts, and for my other sports activities.

    All of the software it took was free, but there was a learning curve. There are a few of posts out there you can google that describe how to do this, and it is obviously a bit of a round-about solution to get the data off the watch, but it works, and it will buy me the time to either ditch the watch for another heartrate monitor/bike data recording solution, or for someone to write an IrDA stack for windows 10.

    In the VMware Player environment, I loaded a current version of Ubuntu. In the Ubuntu environment, I loaded an Ubuntu utility called "Wine", which creates an enviroment that runs my Polar Precision Performance software. This software reads the data off the watch.

    In Ubuntu, you can find free software librarys that support IrDA. I found the software, "Ircp Tray" and "irda-utils" (don't know if I needed them both, all I know is my system works <g!>)

    I just plug in on USB-based IrDA adapter, choose to connect to in on the top-right part of the menu-bar, start the transfer with in the Polar software, and everything just worked! ;-)

    A final rub was moving the data files out of the Ubuntu/Wine environment and into the Polar software environment in my Windows 10. There are multiple ways to do this.

    You may choose to ingor the general "best practices" rule not to allow VMware direct access to your Windows 10 harddive, and you might choose to write the data directly to your Windows 10 harddrive. I make my life a bit more complicated by using an intermediary USB memory drive to transfer the data, as follows:

    I find my Polar data in Wine is in a folder at the following path:
    /home/[USER]/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Polar/Polar Precision Performance/[USER]/2015

    I copy the day's .hrm and the .pdd files for that day's bikeride/workout over to a USB memory drive and from the USB memory drive, after I've closed the VMware Player, into my Windows Polar environment on my harddrive, where it is at this path in Windows 10:
    "C:\Users\[USER]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files\Polar\Polar Precision Performance\[USER]\2015"

    When I run the Polar software in Windows 10, my daily workout data is displayed normally as though I had synced it there normally!
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  5. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #15

    Well, using Ubuntu is free but not that easy for the average user. I would install Windows XP or whatever I have and install the software there. To get the data you can copy the folder in guest and paste in a folder in Windows 10 (host) which is much easier.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 248
    W10 Pro/W7 Pro 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #16

    No change from the W10 Fall Update either!
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  7. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #17

    No, once they remove something they usually don't give it back, unless there are many user complains about it. Try using the IrDA adapter from the virtual machine running Windows 7.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 248
    W10 Pro/W7 Pro 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #18

    spapakons said:
    No, once they remove something they usually don't give it back, unless there are many user complains about it. Try using the IrDA adapter from the virtual machine running Windows 7.
    Don't need a VM, I have the real thing. There are lots of people with $1500-$2000 so-called dive computers that are really mad about this.
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  9. Posts : 3,506
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit 21H1 (May 2021 build 19043.1083)
       #19

    If they start complaining to Microsoft, they might add back IrDA support with an update. Isn't there a third-party workaround yet to add IrDA support in Windows 10?
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 248
    W10 Pro/W7 Pro 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       #20

    spapakons said:
    If they start complaining to Microsoft, they might add back IrDA support with an update. Isn't there a third-party workaround yet to add IrDA support in Windows 10?
    MS is stone walling the chip manufacturers.
      My Computer


 

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