Sena Issues

[johnsimion]

I have been using Sena SMH5s as an intercom with my wife. I had some problems using the Sena Device Manager before, but eventually broke through and got them set up properly. That set worked great except for short battery life. Well, I thought, why not just buy a second identical set that I could just snap into place when the battery gets low on the first set? So I did, but never bothered to go through the Sena Device Manager. Unfortunately the second set produced poor sound quality and echos, so this morning I thought I'd better update the firmware and make sure the settings were the same on both sets.

Sena has a new version of the Device Manager, which I installed. Now it won't recognize ANY of the SMH5s. This, of course, means that I can't do anything with them - can't update the firmware and can't change the settings on ANY of the four. I tried very hard to troubleshoot this. It was pointed out on YouTube that it takes the special USB cable that Sena provides in order to do this. Fine, I try that. No difference. In YouTube, I found that there is a USB Checker hidden among the program files for the Sena Device Manager. Well, I used that and it says the USB connection is fine. Another hint on YouTube says to uninstall the Sena Device Manager and reinstall it as "admin." Fine, I did that. No change. Next, YouTube tells you to look in the Windows Device Manager and find the Sena. I did, and there was a cute little Windows "exclamation mark" on it, telling me that the drivers were UNSIGNED. Go ahead, try using Sena's own driver installer (also hidden in the program files). No change. I also had Windows check for the latest driver - Windows indeed says I have the latest driver, thank you very much, but Windows won't recognize it because it's UNSIGNED. There is no fix for this - a Google search does not turn up any other source for SIGNED Sena drivers.

I spent another hour trying to figure out how to bypass all the "security" in Windows 10 so I could install UNSIGNED drivers but I lack the computer skills to outwit Windows. There are two levels that both have to be turned off in order to do this and I'm not going to screw up my entire computer because Sena doesn't bother to provide SIGNED drivers. It's not like this is unknown to them. There is actually a post by another user on the Sena web site who faced the same issue; unfortunately his tactic for defeating Windows didn't work for me and I am tired of wasting my day and making myself angry. It totally flabbergasts me that a major company like this cannot even provide a simple thing like SIGNED drivers for its program. It's not like Windows 10 is new any more.

At this point I regret both my purchases. I guess I will have to look for another brand of communicators that isn't so sloppy and uncaring about its customers.

[spydernatic]

I had similar issues with Sena we have the SMH10 set and have used them for 5 years with no problems, my unit paired to my Garmin 660 worked well then I purchased a 2017 RTL with a Garmin 590 and found that the directions from the Garmin started to come through garbled/broken up so I decided to do an update as in the 5 years I had not done any updates. Did the update on my unit and it said update was successful and I need to do a factory reset which I tried to do but my unit would not power on, I tried everything eventually calling Sena for help which ended up been a waste of time as Sena support from wherever overseas could not resolve my problem. They are just script readers and are not technical help even though I spoke to a higher up manager, Sena told me that the update had bricked my unit and it was done so I asked for a replacement as their software update had rendered my unit useless .....I was told that due to the age of my SMH10 they would not replace it even though it was their fault. I was lucky to get a replacement from a person here on SL that had upgraded to a newer Sena.

[nhoj]

Sorry you are having these issues. Could you possibly tell me the Driver Details that are installed on you computer now?

Here's mine running on Windows 10.
Driver Provider: Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd.
Driver Date: 1/26/2018
Driver Version: 2.5.3.5
Digital Signer: Sena Technologies, Inc.


I recently upgraded from SMH5's to SMH5-FM's but the computer still recognizes either device. Notice the driver is Digitally signed.

There is another driver for the SMH5-FM's.

I would suggest you uninstall the SENA Device manager again, reboot, then go in and delete/unistall the (hidden) SENA driver(s), reboot again and then install the SENA manager running in Admin Install mode.


Thanks, John

[johnsimion]

Sorry you are having these issues. Could you possibly tell me the Driver Details that are installed on you computer now?

Here's mine running on Windows 10.
Driver Provider: Cambridge Silicon Radio Ltd.
Driver Date: 1/26/2018
Driver Version: 2.5.3.5
Digital Signer: Sena Technologies, Inc.


I recently upgraded from SMH5's to SMH5-FM's but the computer still recognizes either device. Notice the driver is Digitally signed.

There is another driver for the SMH5-FM's.

I would suggest you uninstall the SENA Device manager again, reboot, then go in and delete/unistall the (hidden) SENA driver(s), reboot again and then install the SENA manager running in Admin Install mode.


Thanks, John

Thanks for the advice. I tried doing what you suggested; no luck. The driver it installs is Version 2.5.3.6 dated 4/10/18 (less than two months ago), which is even newer than your 2.5.3.5. I will also correct myself; Windows Device Manager says the driver is indeed signed by Sena, but "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device." That's essentially the same; either way the driver doesn't work. If only I could "roll back" the driver to your version, I'd be happy to do so but since this is a new computer, that option isn't available to me. Windows is particularly irksome because you have to disable so much stuff to install unverified drivers and for some reason, my computer always crashes when I attempt an Advanced Start, which is one of the steps in doing this. I am waiting to hear something from Sena.

[nhoj]

....If only I could "roll back" the driver to your version, I'd be happy to do so but since this is a new computer, that option isn't available to me.

Well if you need an older version of SENA Device manager I can get that to you. Mine are 64-bit versions.

[hypurone]

Thanks for the advice. I tried doing what you suggested; no luck. The driver it installs is Version 2.5.3.6 dated 4/10/18 (less than two months ago), which is even newer than your 2.5.3.5. I will also correct myself; Windows Device Manager says the driver is indeed signed by Sena, but "Windows cannot verify the digital signature for the drivers required for this device." That's essentially the same; either way the driver doesn't work. If only I could "roll back" the driver to your version, I'd be happy to do so but since this is a new computer, that option isn't available to me. Windows is particularly irksome because you have to disable so much stuff to install unverified drivers and for some reason, my computer always crashes when I attempt an Advanced Start, which is one of the steps in doing this. I am waiting to hear something from Sena.

I got the following from Sena's site which outlines how to get the drivers installed if something went wrong (this happens due to UAC being set too high on Windows. which is a default Windows setting to protect you from yourself ;-/ ).... NOTE: I copied and pasted directly from their site so all the typos are on them!

1. Unplug the headset from your computer.
2. Restart the Sena Device Manager. (SEE MY NOTES BELOW IN BOLD ON THIS!)
3. Reconnect the headset to your computer using the provided microUSB cable.
4. Perform a "Fault Reset" on your headset. Please refer to the User's Guide for more information on how to perform a Fault reset for your product.
5. Follow the instructions for having your headset recognized.
6. If it needs to be powered on, then power it on. If the LEDs on the headset don't appear as normal then that's okay.
7. Press the NEXT button. You should see a prompt saying that the current firmware is v0.0 and that a new firmware version is available.
8. Press OK to save the firmware to your computer and start the firmware update process.
9. Follow all of the orange messages that appear during the firmware update process as instructed.

If the case where the driver for the headset was not installed correctly then use the follwing steps below.
Uninstall the Sena Device Manager and redownload the Sena Device Manager for your operating system's version. Before beginning the installation process, right-click on the installation file and choose "Run as Adminstrator". Once installng make sure after plugging in the name of the headset when it asks you to that you see the "Welcome to the Device Driver Installation Wizard" so that the driver for the SMH10 is correctly installed. If you do not see that and are running a Windows machine, then please go the Windows Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > Device Manager) and you should see the headset listed once the unit is powered. If the headset is listed under "Other Devices" or "Universal Serial Bus controllers", then right-click it and choose Update Driver Software. Then choose Browse my computer for driver software. Click the Browse... button and select C: > Program Files > Sena Technologies then click OK. The "Welcome to the Device Driver Installation Wizard" should appear now and install the driver for the headset. Now you can use the Sena Device Manager to update the firmware on your headset.
If the above does not work then please go to the menu, of Sena Bluetooth Device Manager program, by moving to Start Menu -> All Programs -> Sena Technologies -> SenaBluetoothDeviceManager then select "Install Driver" in the SenaBluetoothDeviceManager menu to begin the "Welcome to the Device Driver Installation Wizard".



I used a borrowed SMH10C from a friend for awhile and had trouble with the Sena Device Manager "seeing" it and it was very picky about having the Sena Device Manager open and opened cleanly (not just "re-opened" after closing it if there was a prob). And if there was a prob I had to end all running "instances" of it and anything related to SDM before opening it again to try again, THEN and only then should the headset get plugged in and powered on!

If you are not intimately acquainted with Task Manager in Windows, you can always just restart the machine to close everything related the Sena. Be sure that the Sena Device Manager is not set to "autorun" when Windows loads AND MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DISCONNECTED THE HEADSET FROM THE PC BEFORE YOU RESTART AND OPEN SENA DEVICE MANAGER.

There is always the Zooz products which I am currently using now that are much easier/simpler. But the buttons on the module are small and can be difficult to find sometimes....

[johnsimion]

The problem comes at this point:

"Once installing make sure after plugging in the name of the headset when it asks you to that you see the "Welcome to the Device Driver Installation Wizard" so that the driver for the SMH10 is correctly installed. If you do not see that and are running a Windows machine, then please go the Windows Device Manager (Start > Control Panel > Device Manager) and you should see the headset listed once the unit is powered. If the headset is listed under "Other Devices" or "Universal Serial Bus controllers", then right-click it and choose Update Driver Software. Then choose Browse my computer for driver software. Click the Browse... button and select C: > Program Files > Sena Technologies then click OK. The "Welcome to the Device Driver Installation Wizard" should appear now and install the driver for the headset.

It will do all of that, but when it installs the driver, Windows says it cannot verify the driver signature (even though it says it is signed by Sena) and therefore Windows continues to leave that little exclamation mark on it in Windows Device Manager and the Sena Device Manager won't recognize my communicator. If I ask Windows to update the driver, it tells me that "Windows has determined that the best driver for this program is already installed."

I've installed, and reinstalled the program several times, as administrator and as not-administrator and it makes no difference - the Sena Device Manager never recognizes my SMH5. It just says, "Failed to recognize device. Cannot open USB." I also tried closing everything out through Task Manager and then did a cold boot - no difference.

However, it's not a USB problem because I'm using the original cord for the Sena, and more importantly, the Sena USB checker (within the Sena program files) verifies that the USB connection is working.

The only thing I can figure is that the driver they provided is corrupt or they didn't follow Windows' rules for making drivers.

[finless]

FYI the new Windows 10 April update 1803 broke a lot of different driver signing even from some major companies.

Some drivers are being updated now but yea a lot of people (including me) have to turn off driver signing after they updated to 1803 to get around it until the manufacturers can update their drivers. So I cannot say if Sena is totally at fault here it "maybe" Microsoft also with the 1803 update. If you have not updated to 1803 (most have by now) then yea.. It is Sena's fault 100%.

Bob

[pidjones]

I know this is old, but it is an old problem that Sena STILL refuses to fix. The problem is that 64 bit Windows 10 demands that device drivers be signed by Microsoft, and Sena refuses to send them for signing. As with most, there IS a work-around:

To disable driver signature enforcement and install drivers that are not digitally signed, use the following steps:

1. Click the Start Start menu and select Settings.
2. Click Update and Security.
3. Click on Recovery.
4. Click Restart now under Advanced Startup.
5. Click Troubleshoot.
6. Click Advanced options.
7. Click Startup Settings.
8. Click on Restart.
9. On the Startup Settings screen press 7 or F7 to disable driver signature enforcement.
Your computer will restart and you will be able to install non-digitally signed drivers. If you restart your computer again the driver signature enforcement will be re-enabled.

[Motorcycledave]

PLEASE NOTE:

All the above issues are 3 to 5 years old check the dates of the posts.
the units they are referring to are no longer supported by SENA
Much has changed in those years following the posts, the units out now
are mostly trouble free and most problems are because of operator error.
Dave

[2007276SSX]

Dave, I have a question on communicators... I have a group of 10 riders that are interested and I was wondering which system you recommend?

[K80Shooter]

You would be better served to call Dave @ 209-887-3283

[Motorcycledave]

dave, i have a question on communicators... I have a group of 10 riders that are interested and i was wondering which system you recommend?

Call me 209-887-3283