Problems With Device Explorer

farss wrote on 5/19/2009, 5:39 AM

What is it doing exactly?

Megabit (Piotr) did find what seems to be a bug. It would seem that a drive that looks like it might be a "device" can cause the Device Explorer to return a Device Failed To Initialise message and then give up. I think in his case having a BD disk in the drive caused the problem.

Bob.

blink3times wrote on 5/19/2009, 5:44 AM

I can't get mine to work either (with or without a disk in the BD drive)

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 5:44 AM

It's not doing anything. By that I mean it's not reading the SxS cards, whether they're in the camera or the SxS card reader.

I've read the V9 manual--nothing in there of any help. I did reinstall the SxS device drivers, just to make sure that wasn't an issue.

The Device Manager window remains blank.

Like I said, it worked several days ago, but only with the camera, not the card reader. Now neither work.

And I'm really NOT too keen on the idea of paying SCS Tech Support to determine what the problem is.

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 5:51 AM

Bob is right - but in my case, all I got was "Device Explorer failed to initialize" message inside what is supposed to be the Device Explorer window.

If you have the window functional (i.e. the left pane for browsing devices is active), try to copy a valid BPAV structure anywhere onto your HDD (using the OS's tools). Then launch Vegas, open Device Explorer, Rclick the left pane (if it's still empty), and browse to the location holding the BPAV folder. It should show up!

NB, if you have a valid BPAV structure in the root dir of ANY device, it should show up in the left pane without browsing for it.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 5:57 AM

Piotr, I'm not getting any window panes in the Device Explorer, just one large blank window.

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 6:15 AM

Looks like you are witnessing another way of the same bug manifesting itself - pls see the bottom of the "V9 and EX1" thread...

PS Jay, just thought it's important to remind you that a device with BPAV structure MUST be present in the system before you even start Vegas, as it seems to scan devices at startup, and not when you call the Device Explorer (silly, but that's how I "revived" mine...).

Anyway, try and search your PC for the "DeviceExp.log" file and see its content.

farss wrote on 5/19/2009, 6:18 AM

I sure cannot help you with that one, it continues to work OK, I'd have another look see but I just put my V9 to bed however can't you resize the two windows in the pane, maybe you've somehow shrunk the left one too small. Maybe a restart with restore defaults will fix it.

Also don't you get a certain number of days free tech support. Even if not we all still get free tech support, you only have to pay for phone support I thought.

Bob.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 6:30 AM

"... a device with BPAV structure MUST be present in the system before you even start Vegas, as it seems to scan devices at startup..."

Yes, I tried that. It hasn't helped.

"... don't you get a certain number of days free tech support..."

Bob, now that you mentioned it, I think you're right. I will call them as soon as they open.

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 6:46 AM

I tested some more, and it seems V9 scans devices at launch, and once Device Explorer finds something it thinks is wrong (like my BD in the drive), it will never initialize.

However, once it initializes OK at Vegas launch, you can add/change/remove devices with Vegas open, and the new devices will be properly recognized in Device Explorer - that is, without a need to re-start Vegas <Sigh of relief>.

Meaning that I can re-insert my BD with Vegas running, and it will properly recognize all EX contents, added to the PC...

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 6:58 AM

Nothing I do seems to work. I'm going to attempt to talk with someone at SCS tech support about this.

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 7:05 AM

Jay,
Before you do, please locate the log file and let us all know what's inside - TIA.

If you're on Vista, it's located here:

c:\users\user_name\AppData\Local\Sony\Vegas Pro\9.0\DeviceExp.log

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 7:07 AM

I'm not using Vista--XP Pro.

I can't find the file in question. I've searched for it.

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 7:28 AM

Application Data is the folder to look in (it may be hidden).

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 7:37 AM

Piotr, there is no DeviceExp.log in the folder as you outlined above.

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 8:03 AM

C:\Documents and Settings\"user_name"\Local Settings\Application Data\Sony\Vegas Pro\9.0\DeviceExp.log

In Folder->View options, "Show hidden ..." first.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 8:09 AM

Sorry, I didn't explained myself very well.

I do have "shown hidden" selected. I did find the folder(s) and the file "DeviceExp.log" isn't in there. There is no such file on my hard drive.

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 8:30 AM

Piotr, I found it, after much "physical" digging!

Now what...?

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 8:48 AM

Well, I found quite an extensive report on why my Device Explorer was failing...

What's in your log?

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 9:03 AM

Tons of stuff, too much to post here. Every so often as you scroll down through
the text there are blocks containing:

2009-05-19 11:40:46,031 [1] ERROR Sony.MediaSoftware.DeviceExp.Controller [(null)] - SmpteDrop

Just the time stamps are different.

megabit wrote on 5/19/2009, 9:09 AM

These are non-fatal errors, and shouldn't prevent Device Explorer from initializing and working properly.

Any entry with "FATAL" in it?

Jay Gladwell wrote on 5/19/2009, 10:22 AM

No, nothing with "FATAL". But...!

In an effort to calm down, I stepped away from the computer for a while. Came back and ran a registry scan, just for the heck of it. That cleaned out some errors. Rebooted the computer, which took longer than normal. Opened Vegas with the SxS card reader loaded. That took longer than normal, too.

Device Explorer read the card! It appears to be working now. Only Heaven knows what the problem was. However, my external monitor didn't work!!! Once I got that back online, all seems to be well. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Thanks Piotr and Bob for all your help and suggestions--TRULY appreciated!