If you have not yet attached the stick to your PC, nor installed any stick drivers or software, go here (link to follow)
If you have already attached the stick and attempted to install drivers proceed as follows:
Print this page (you may not be able to access it for reference later and it's a good idea to tick each stage as you work through it).
Go here and download the Vista drivers for the stick (File name - 00010626.zip). Create a new folder in "My Computer" or Windows Explorer - C:\DVBTDriver. Unzip the file to that folder.
Turning Off Driver Signature Enforcement
Vista has built-in security to prevent loading of unsigned drivers (the drivers you are attempting to load are currently unsigned). You have to temporarily turn off this security when you restart your computer, as follows:
After booting, when the boot screen appears right BEFORE you can see the
Windows loading bar, you need to press F8.
If you are too late Windows Vista will start normally.
If you are succesful a menu will appear.
Choose "Deactivate Driver Signature Enforcement" and press "return"
button.
Vista should then start without driver signature enforcement.
(Note - you can alternatively deactivate this from a command prompt - go here for instructions. Note also that Vista 64bit may not permit you to turn off signature enforcement).
Log on to any account which gives you full administrator rights.
Close all active programmes. Disable your anti-virus software
Go to Control Panel/Device Manager/Hardware and check that the Freecom USB Digital Receiver is shown (it may have a yellow exclamation mark beside it). Right-click on the stick, and choose "Update Driver".
The Hardware Update Wizard window should open
Choose "No not this time" and click "next". The following window should open:
Choose "Install from a list or specific location (Advanced) then click next. The following scren should appear:
.
Choose "Don't Search. I will choose the driver to install". Click next and the following window should appear:
Choose "Have Disk" and click next. The following window should appear.
Type the address of the Vista drivers file you created (C:\DVBTDriver) then click OK. A new window similar to the following may open
Click "continue anyway". A new window should open, showing the various files transferring.
Finally, the following window should open:
Click "Finish" then restart your PC.
Go to Device Manager and check that the stick is correctly installed. If it still shows a yellow exclamation mark, turn your PC off, disconnect the stick, connect it to a DIFFERENT USB port, then start at the beginning of this guidance sheet.
Ste 10 - Install the multimedia software programme (Note - Total Media 3.4 is known to work; Windows Media Centre is known to have problems; see the Multimedia Programmes pages on this site for further info.
A Further Suggestion
My thanks to "TonyW" from the Freecom Forum, for his permission to reproduce the following. If you have already installed the DVB-T stick, then find for some reason it stops working when you disconnect and reconnect it, try the following:
From TonyW
Ok, this is some stuff to try - unplug the stick, make a Restore point and/or backup the system. Some of the following suggestions may break Windows and other software so its really important to backup the system.
Uninstall TotalMedia (or whatever TV softwares) being used.
Try a utility like CCleaner which removes all redundant registry entries, its freeware and can be downloaded from wwwDOTccleanerDOTcom/. I use this quite a lot and its pretty solid but i still backup before using it.
Have a look in \Program Files and \Documents and Settings, delete anything that looks as tho' its connected with TotalMedia and the stick.
Go into Control Panel, Device Manager and remove any Freecom TV drivers in Sound, Video and Game, double check the other sections just in case its also been nstalled somewhere else.
Try deleting the main drivers for the stick in -
\windows\system32\BdaPlgin.ax
\windows\system32\drivers\BDA_Capture_225.sys
\windows\system32\drivers\BDA_Loader_225.sys
\windows\systems32\drivers\BdaSup.sys
They may be called something similar depending on which stick/software version you got, check the drivers on the install CD against those in \system32.
Edit the registry and delete all references to TotalMedia, DVB-T, TV etc. hardware, search for the drivers (noted above) in the registry and delete all references to them.
Plug in the stick, cancel the install and manually install from Add/Remove.
TonyW Message ends.
The end.......
The Techie from Sneckie