Installing RTL dongle SDR driver using Zadig



Installing RTL driver using Zadig

What ever program you intend to use with your RTL dongle you need first to install a special driver, what follows describes how to achieve this.
When you plug your RTL device in for the first time, Windows may request a driver or automatically install a driver from Microsoft - this is OK as it will be replaced in the next few steps using Zadig. Don't install the software on the CD that comes with the device.

Note that you will need to run Zadig for every USB port you use an RTLSDR dongle in as Windows seems to only apply this driver to the port in question at the time.

  • Download the latest version of Zadig. Note that there are different versions, 1 for XP and another for Vista, Win 7, Win 8, Win 8.1 & Win 10 on.
  • Run the Zadig.exe file and you should see the following with an empty list. [Note that Zadig should run with administrator rights if it does not, right click the exe file and select "Run As Administrator"]


  • Click on Options and select “List All Devices”.


  • Choose the one that says “Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0)”. Ideally this will be the RTL device you want.


  • It has been noted that in Windows 7 & 8 the RTL device maybe listed differently and may appear as below.


  • Please note that it could be either that shows up, for me the RTL2832U is my Generic RTL2832U (e.g. hama nano) dongle and then RTL2838UHIDIR is the later ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle. 1 dongle 1 entry, 2 dongles 2 entries.
  • In the box to the right of the green arrow make sure “WinUSB” is chosen - not libusb or libusbk. The big button underneath will say “Replace Driver” or “Reinstall Driver”. Before you continue make sure the USBID matches the VID/PID in the Hardware table.



Note that if you insert the dongle into a different USB port you may have to use Zadig again. It seems that you can change which driver is loaded depending on the USB port used. So you could use one USB port for RTLSDR and another port for using the dongle to watch DVB-T with the supplied Windows application.


5 comments:

  1. this is awesome and very straight forward...

    thanks.. i have done this a few times before and hopefully this is the last time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ran Zadig several times but buggered if i can get any SDR software to work..

    ReplyDelete