USB-Blaster on Windows 7

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 today and got Quartus II V9.0 up and running OK, didn't even reinstall it, just used the installation I previously used in Vista x32. I tried to install the USB-Blaster using the drivers that came with Quartus II V9.0 but Windows 7 complains about them not being digitally signed and installing them either way will not work. Those drivers that came with the Programmer V9.x sp2 won't work either.    Has anyone been able to circumvent this problem? I am aware that Windows 7 is really new and Altera probably hasn't finished porting their software completely. I still have the Vista installation with working QII and USB-Blaster, so there's no need for an immediate fix. Just wanted to let people know that they probably won't be able to use the USB-Blaster yet.

[Altera_Forum]

Hi, 

 I have quite the same issues : when I'm trying to setup the USB Blaster (on Windows 7), I got an error message "Registry key for JTAG server is missing. Setup aborted." Does anyone get the same issue ?  Thanks !  Julien.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  I installed Windows 7 Ultimate x64 today and got Quartus II V9.0 up and running OK, didn't even reinstall it, just used the installation I previously used in Vista x32. I tried to install the USB-Blaster using the drivers that came with Quartus II V9.0 but Windows 7 complains about them not being digitally signed and installing them either way will not work. Those drivers that came with the Programmer V9.x sp2 won't work either.   --- Quote End ---    It was mentioned here in this forum several times, "newer" USB-Blaster drivers don't work on "later" (including both Vista and Windows 7) 64-bit Windows systems. I didn't try Windows 7, but it would likely work as long as it is the 32-bit version.  The problem is that later drivers are not signed, and 64-bit Vista/Windows7 would not load an unsigned driver. You would need to use a driver from earlier Quartus versions, that included a driver signed by FTDI. I don't remember exactly which version, I think it was Quartus 7, but perform a search on the forum.

[Altera_Forum]

OK, thanks vjAlter, that was the information needed actually. After a bit of searching I could verify that x64 does not allow unsigned drivers to be loaded (you can install them, but they will not be loaded). What one can do is the following workaround (applies to Vista x64 also): 

 Hit F8 while Windows is booting and disable the signed driver option under options. Note however, this has to be done each and every time the system boots.    Several fixes have been posted ranging from disabling signed driver checks on x64 alltogether, but it doesn't work on Windows 7 the way I googled it, and on Vista x64 it used to get broken by updates. The other option is to sign the drivers yourself, but to be honest, too much of a hassle, I start my PC at work only one time a day and pressing F8 then seems OK to me.

[Altera_Forum]

Sup all, 

 I am running win7 x64 here. Here is a modified USB blaster driver I came up with. It works 100% as I tested on several machines. Hopefully this helps.   Cheers   Howard

[Altera_Forum]

Thank you very much, I can't try because I've got Windows 7 32bits installed now on my computer. 

 Julien.

[Altera_Forum]

wasabi_rice: what version driver is your package based on? the 9.1 driver should be signed by default now.

[Altera_Forum]

thanks a lot!

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  wasabi_rice: what version driver is your package based on? the 9.1 driver should be signed by default now.  --- Quote End ---    i dont understand what is it! (default) what default?

[Altera_Forum]

I copied these drivers to the quartus 9.1 drivers folder and it changed nothing...is there something I am doing wrong?

[Altera_Forum]

Hmm i am gonna try the drivers that were posted. I am running Quartus 9.1 and the USB-Blaster on Windows 7 x64 came up with No Driver Found. 

 edit: I've installed them just fine there was a small warning about not being able to verify the certificates but it went ahead and installed. The only problem I am having is getting Quartus II to use the blaster to program a DE2 board.

[Altera_Forum]

Did you uninstall your current USB blaster drivers, and reinstall with specifying the new drivers you copied?

[Altera_Forum]

I didn't even have current drivers on there...I had to do it all manually through the device manager.

[Altera_Forum]

--- Quote Start ---  Sup all,   I am running win7 x64 here. Here is a modified USB blaster driver I came up with. It works 100% as I tested on several machines. Hopefully this helps.   Cheers   Howard  --- Quote End ---   Your driver does not work. I have tried this on a Win 7 x64 machine. It installs OK, is seen in the OS hardware list under USB, but is not recognized by Quartus programmer as hardware and cannot be seen.

[Altera_Forum]

Try the x64 driver located in Quartus v7.2 SP1. I have just confirmed that this works with my new Windows 7 machine. You must install SP1 however, since V7.2 only supported x32. SP1 supports x64 OS. You will find the driver located at C:\altera\72\drivers\usb-blaster\x64.

[Altera_Forum]

its work!! thanks a lot!!!

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks rmatsick! 

 I installed the USB Blaster using the Quartus v7.2 SP3 x64 driver on Win7 Ultimate x64 and am able to program a Stratix II GX board under Quartus v9.0 SP2.   Note: For those who don't want to install Quartus v7.2 just to get the driver, I used Universal Extractor to unpackage the installer and then again to extract the driver from the data1.cab file.

[Altera_Forum]

You don't need the full 7.2 installer, only the standalone programmer: 

 ftp.altera.com -> outgoing -> release -> 72sp3_quartus_programmer.exe  (sorry, I cannot yet post links because I just joined the forum, and you need 5 posts to enter links)  Download and install this, then open the device manager, select the USB-Blaster and install the driver from this location:  C:\altera\72sp3\qprogrammer\drivers\usb-blaster\x64  It works fine on my Windows 7 x64.

[Altera_Forum]

i'm curious why everyone is going down the 7.x road. don't the drivers in 9.1 work?

[Altera_Forum]

@danengel Sweet. That is certainly easier than what I did. Thanks for posting it for everyone! 

 @thepancake You are correct. The 9.1 drivers do work. Sorry for all the trouble.

[Altera_Forum]

Thanks for the driver. I've just installed on windows7 64 bits running on HP pavillion dm3 using Quartus 8.1 version and works very well.