Windows 10: Schiit Hel usb DAC not recognized - Possibly solved

I was a respondent to one of the original posts on this subject. I believe I have solved this. For months now many have reported on this all over social media. Well, with my plan to power 3 devices with one switch mode power supply, I ordered from Ghent Audio a DC29 - Oyaide DC-2.1G/2.5G to USB DC Cable. I did not know if this cable would work with my power supply and the required components so I decided to test first with a DC only USB cable. I ordered a DC41 Canare 4S6 USB Interconnect DC Cable. This was ordered as a 2 meter length USB A to C.This worked flawlessly no matter how I st

:)

 

Schiit Hel usb DAC not recognized

Hello,

I had the same issue and on my side : it was coming from the power supply provided by Schiit.
I've changed it to a standard USB power supply (from a mobile phone) and it started working (Dac recognized by Windows, etc...)

Even for me : the red light was here, but Windows wasn't recognizing it.

 

Schiit Hel usb DAC not recognized

I have been having similar issues in Windows 11 with my Hel 2, and while it's not pretty the following has worked for me:

1. Unplug the USB from the computer and flip the DAC power off
   
2. Power the DAC back on and wait a minute
   
3. Plug the USB back in
   

When that fails (and it does sometimes with symptoms of popping/crackling sounds and audio skipping) SHUT DOWN Windows, don't restart do a full power off, power off the DAC, boot Windows back up then power on the DAC. Really irritating, I am certain it's not an issue with the DAC as it works flawlessly on the same computer/USB port in Ubuntu and it only started happening recently after some update.

 

Schiit Hel usb DAC not recognized

I have a problem with my Schiit Hel DAC in Windows 10. It does not show up as a device, I can't use it as input nor output. I have tried new cables, different ports, no luck.

The device is connected to a tabletop PC, to USB 2.0 ports, as instructed by the manufacturer, on the back of the case.

The DAC worked fine for 1.5 years, then started behaving weirdly somewhere in the middle of 2021, initially very rarely, not showing up after being switched on or when the PC powered up. The solution used to be that I flipped the power switch of the Hel and then all was OK. But it started happening more often. And then, the Hel restart trick didn't work anymore, I also had to remove the power cable and re-insert it.

And alas, since the end of last year, none of the above and nothing else seem to work anymore. The device switches on, there is the red LED inside, but no device is seen by Windows.

I have tried deleting the device from device manager after selecting ‘show hidden devices’ - no use. It appears there, hidden, sometimes, after some unplugging and system booting combinations, but not as an available device in sound settings.

I did not change my PC configuration last year, I did not add other sound devices, did not install any software that would take over the sound settings functions as far as I know. The only change was that I downloaded and installed Windows updates whenever they came out, apart from the optional KB5009596.

I tried to use the Hel with another PC, my laptop, where it had not been previously used with, and it was recognized and working nicely. So, the DAC is not broken, there is some driver issue I can’t figure out.

There is no software or driver from Schiit’s behalf one has to install, it’s supposed to be plug and play, automatically set up by Windows. But that means I can’t really uninstall and reinstall anything, or bring forth a ‘first time installation’ for the drivers. Windows seems to be stuck in a broken loop, unable to refresh things.

I really do not want to format my system. Are there more ways of resetting the USB audio drivers? Might there be a Windows update coming soon that fixes this or should I roll back to a Q1-Q2 2021 version? Any more ideas?