Failed to install RealSense D435 drivers on Windows 10 for Intel NUC 8i7 BEH

[bvenu]

My configuration is as follows

1. Intel NUC 8i7 BEH
2. Windows 10 64 bit ( non activated, reusing the keys )
3. RealSense D435
4. D 5.11.4.0 + firmware
5. RealSense SDK 2.0 build 2.19.2 ( also tried 2 earlier releases )

I am able to see the Imaging devices list my sensor. But the Universal Serial Bus devices does not list the sensor. As a result not able to use the RealSense Viewer. I have tried to uninstall the device and auto reintall, but does not work.

The same camera works fine on a different Windows 10 machine.

The camera also works good on a Ubuntu 18.04 on a different machine.

I am not sure if the NUC is the issue. Or the Windows 10 on the NUC is the issue. Can you give me some pointers on how to debug the same.

[MartyG]

I would recommend looking at the USB ports as the prime candidate for the cause of the problem. Thanks to the built-in 'Vision Processor D4' hardware component inside the camera, its computer hardware requirements are low enough that it could probably run on a potato if it had stable USB ports. If the USB ports on a particular computing device have problems though then it can be a significant barrier to the camera working successfully. RealSense cameras are very sensitive to the state of the USB ports.

If the camera works well on another Windows PC and a Linux PC then you can certainly eliminate the camera's firmware driver or the hardware inside the camera as a cause of the problem. If you are using the same USB cable then that could likely be discounted as a cause too.

USB ports can be made more stable by attaching the camera to a mains-powered USB 3 hub instead of directly to the PC. I can appreciate that this may impact how portable the NUC is though.

A way to test for free whether this method might help would be to attach a device that is chargeable with USB, such as a tablet or smartphone, to one of the NUC's USB ports. The device should be powered off so it starts charging when its charging cable is inserted. Sometimes, it causes the computer to send enough power to the USB ports to make a RealSense camera work (because when a chargeable device is attached, it tells the USB system to provide power for the charging).

Mains-powered USB hubs do not solve USB problems in every case, but historically it is the most successful means of doing so.

[bvenu]

Adding a powered USB 3 hub did not solve. This powered USB 3 hub works on another Windows machine and also on another Linux machine.

I have to say that when using the Ubuntu OS on this NUC, the camera was readable. But the Ubuntu on NUC kept rebooting automatically , hence I switched to Windows 10. Does an un activated Windows 10 cause any issue. I was able to see that the automatic windows driver update procedure is being invoked other keyboard and mouse devices. Just that the USB 3 device for the Intel camera does not seem to be installing.

Also I eliminated the doubts regarding the USB cables. I am sure that the cables are good.

The only variable now seems to the Windows 10 OS. Should I try activating the OS.

Are there cases where Realsense camera was used successfully on a Windows 10 for NUC.

[MartyG · Accepted solution]

I am not personally aware of RealSense cameras being disabled by an unactivated Windows version. Research of the effects of unactivated Windows versions in general suggest that they should work the same as activated ones, except for a watermark placed on the desktop after 30 days in the unactivated version.

In regard to using NUC with RealSense, early models around 2014-2015 were rock-solid stable with RealSense. In NUC models in the subsequent couple of years, the numbers of reports of USB problems did seem to increase slightly in comparison to desktop and laptop PCs, though there are not enough reported cases to establish whether there is a pattern. Here is an example case:

https://forums.intel.com/s/question/0D50P0000490PNDSA2/intel-realsense-sr300-runs-on-nuc6i5syk-but-not-on-nuc7i5bnkbnh-usb-power-issues