After 3 months of use, program is suddenly having problems

After 3 months of use, suddenly the program is having problems. Either that or i'm having problems. Jajaja

Appreciate any help solving this. Yesterday VarAC was working fine. Today it was not working, and i spent hours troubleshooting.

(1) After a fresh install, the directory c:\varac doesn't exist.

(2) On a different radio, on a different computer, WSJT-X works.

(3) On the 'main' computer, and the 'main' radio (Varac), WSJT-X works.

When I run Varac (tho i don't know how it is running with no executable?), I get the following messages:

(a) Unhandled exception has occurred in your application. If you click Continue, the application will ignore

this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately. ... Could not find

file. ... Could not find file c:\users\wn1z\Desktop\VaracAC_cat_commands.ink

Also, on the VARA screen, the left dial goes all the way down to -95 or so. ... I did a factory reset on the FT-991A, to

no avail. I also did a couple 'Restore' on Win10.

Thanks for help. -- Orrin

6 comments

Comments (6)

Orrin Winton

Apr 14, 2023

G4AON Dave, well it's some comfort that someone else is experiencing this. Like you, this happened suddenly (overnight) in the past 3 or 4 days. Maybe it is the Windoze updates. -- Orrin WN1Z

G4AON Dave

Apr 14, 2023

Replying to

What PC/notebook are you using Orrin? There is a suggestion that it may be an issue with Dell computers, my laptop is an Asus Vivobook (i5, Win 11 Pro) and I am currently trying that to see if the same issue occurs, so far no QSOs (typical) and therefore no issues...

73 Dave

G4AON Dave

Apr 14, 2023

Replying to

Just had a couple of quite long QSOs using the Asus laptop and had no problems at all. It’s pointing to the Dell desktop install as the issue, after the weekend I will fully de-install both Vara and VarAC and try fresh installs and see if that makes a difference.

73 Dave

Orrin Winton

Apr 15, 2023

Replying to

Dave, it is a Lenovo model a couple years old. ... Since i switched to Omni-rig i haven't had the soundcard disappear on me, but there are a couple problems, such as when i've QSYd to have a chat, when i'm finished the radio goes back to the main frequency, but the program stays on the QSY frequency, so i have to change it on the drop-down menu. ... Also, it looks as though the sounds are muted even tho i left that box unchecked. ... So, it's not trouble-free, but i'm able to operate. ... Also, i don't know if Omni-rig is actually necessary, but i'm leaving it on for now. ... Also, i am not willing to upgrade to Win11.

G4AON Dave

Apr 14, 2023

Orrin, with my "hang up" problem (on another but similar thread), sometimes I cannot see a sound card in the Vara program, or if it is there I have -97dB of input level (ie no input). Like you found, hitting the tune button sometimes clears it.

This problem has only happened here in the past few days. Which leads me to suspect something in Windows updates... That might be false info, but I have been using VarAC for months with zero issues until this week.

My system is a relatively new Dell Optiplex 7000 series, vPro i5, Windows is 11 Pro, In use in the shack since purchase in January 2023.

73 Dave

Orrin Winton

Apr 13, 2023

I did manage to get the soundcard working again in Varac. (1) I switched to OmniRig and that caused me to be able to manage the soundcard, (2) I still was getting "zip" for the level of the soundcard. ("Missing soundcard.") (3) Then, inside VARA, i hit the TUNE button, and the soundcard came to life. I don't know why it did that. I also don't know if Omnirig was necessary -- i'll try that another day,

Can someone say what hitting the TUNE button in VARA had to do with it? (I know it's for setting the ALC, but my 991A was already not too far off.) ... Thanks for the 22 views of this post so far.