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Blue Microphone Yeti Pro doesn't work in Windows 7?

I bought a new Yeti Pro microphone and while it looks very cool and probably sounds great on recordings, I can't get it to work on my Microsoft Windows 7 system. When I check the system status it shows "This device cannot start (code 10)" and when I plug it in, it fails. On some discussion boards they say that I should just keep unplugging/plugging and it'll eventually work, but that's driving me crazy. How the heck do I get this to work??!


Dave's Answer:

I also have a Yeti Pro from Blue Microphone and I have to say that I really like it. It's big and feels like real audio gear, not some cheap $20 product from Radio Shack, and the sound I get is terrific. On the other hand, that's my experience plugging it into my MacBook Pro. When I plugged it into my Dell Win7 laptop I saw the same darn error you did and even trying to reload audio drivers, etc, never caused it to show up as a known device in Windows.

Fortunately the solution is pretty straightforward and involves downloading the proper driver from the company. You can shortcut and just do that, or you can read my entire tutorial and see how it works and avoid the surprise part-way...

Still here? Great!

Let's start by confirming that your computer sees the microphone, it's just the OS doesn't know how to mount it and make it an available device. To do that, go to "Control Panels" from the Start menu. Look for the Hardware and Sound section and click on "Hardware and Sound". Below you'll see I've highlighted "View devices and printers", but we'll come back to that. For now, just click on "Hardware and Sounds", as I've said:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 1

You'll move to a section with a ton of options related to devices and sound. You want to look for "Manage audio devices":

windows win7 yeti pro fails 2

Click on the "Recording" tab and, alas, you don't see the Blue Microphone device:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 3

Now back up to the first set of Control Panel controls, where we clicked on "Hardware and Sounds" and this time click on "View devices and printers" instead. Now you'll see all the devices and peripherals hooked up to your PC:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 4

There's the problem, the tiny yellow warning symbol next to the Blue USB Audio 2.0 device. Click on it and you'll get even more detail:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 5

There's the problem. The default Windows audio driver can't handle the Blue Microphone Yeti Pro (and quite a few other Blue Mic products, but it's no sweat, we just need to install the driver, so don't worry) so we see This device cannot start (Code 10)

To fix it, you need to download the driver from the bluemic site.

Got it? Excellent. Now make sure you do not have the mic plugged in and launch the installer...

windows win7 yeti pro fails 7

Nothing unusual so far, just click on "Next >".

windows win7 yeti pro fails 8

This, I have to admit, threw me for a loop! Baltic Latvian what? My first thought was that it was a neatly packaged virus or spyware or something. Not good.

Inquiring of the company, however, I learned that "Blue" stands for Baltic Latvian Universal Electronics and that this is indeed the correct device driver for the Yeti Pro.

Phew!

Click "Install" to install the driver and a number of new files will be added to your Windows 7 system:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 9

After a moment or two, it's ready to connect and configure the mic:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 10

When I plugged in my Yeti Pro the PC immediately saw it and connected properly:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 11

Looks good! A click on "Next >" and we've succeeded!

windows win7 yeti pro fails 12

Now when the microphone is plugged in it shows up, albeit as "Line", but still, it's alive:

windows win7 yeti pro fails 13

Finally it's all good and the microphone will work as desired. Not too bad!


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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics   (Article 10070, Written by )
Tagged: blue microphone, microphone driver, windows audio drivers, windows drivers
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Reader Comments To Date: 24

Brenden said, on October 6, 2011 4:34 PM:

So what if this problem exists, but instead of a malfunctioned driver, the issue is that windows 7 see this as an "unrecognized usb device"? The Blue driver isn't there, and downloading it from Blue's website doesn't help. When the setup says to "connect the device you want to install and turn it on", windows won't recognize it, so I can't get past that step!

Blue Mic said, on October 7, 2011 11:36 AM:

Hi Brendon,
Here are some trouble-shooting basics that you can try:
- Make sure you are using the USB cable supplied with the Yeti Pro
- What other devices do you have plugged into your computer? Try removing other devices from your computer, as one may be interfering with the Yeti Pro.
- Is the Yeti Pro plugged directly into your computer? Make sure you are plugged directly into your computers USB port.
- If your computer has USB 3.0 ports, try using your USB 2.0 ports instead.
- Do you have any other Audio drivers installed on your computer? (other than the stock audio drivers for your computers sound card). It is possible that another driver can interfere with the Yeti Pro.
- Have you tested on another computer? This will help narrow down if the issue lies within the Yeti, or your computer.
- Try Testing on another USB port.
- If all else fails, a simple restart of your computer may clear things up.

You may also contact us at support@bluemic.com for more assistance.

George said, on October 17, 2011 11:29 AM:

I have the Blue yeti mic (not the pro) and same problem. i get to the same problem and my comp. wont recognize the mic and im stuck. i just got a NEW COMPAQ with windows 7. i have had a compaq with windows xp and it worked great before. but now its not registering and i cannot select it as an audio device because it wont let me install the driver.

Bob said, on October 25, 2011 8:16 AM:

The Yeti Pro driver keeps crashing my Windows 7 system. Was easy to identify, because I had just bought a new computer and installed/uninstalled/installed/uninstalled, etc. to reveal that it was, in fact, the Yeti Pro driver. Told the company and they said they'd get back to me when they had a new driver....months ago. System crashes if left unused for a short while. Very inconvenient, as you have to restart frequently throughout the day. Is there a fix for this??

Herman Vandecauter said, on January 6, 2012 7:05 AM:

Problems on XP and vista craches also with driver installed!
Now I use a preamp edirol and I can use it anytime but it was designed to go directly into the pc!!!Herman

Stephen said, on April 28, 2012 11:57 AM:

Similar to everyone else, I can't get my computer to recognize my Yeti Pro But on a MacBook Pro. It's extremely frustrating! It turns on and i can hear through headphones but that's it. none of the sound from the computer goes through the yeti, it doesn't recognize that i've plugged something in or anything. any help?

Thanks!

Thomas said, on July 14, 2012 7:23 PM:

This thing is useless. I had great hopes for it, but it simply won't install on any of my computers - 2 x Windows 7 and one XP

Bob said, on August 26, 2012 4:40 PM:

I have this same problem with my BLUE Snowball microphone, however, when I opened the link to the download you posted in the article, there were no download links. Nor could I find any on bluemic.com period. Is the link outdated? And what else can I try?

Blue Mic said, on August 27, 2012 12:34 PM:

Hi Bob,

Apologies for any confusion. Please find links to the Yeti Pro drivers under the Drivers tab here: http://www.bluemic.com/yetipro/#/drivers/ Please click on the buttons for “Download A” or “Download B” accordingly. For further help, please see the FAQ and Support tabs or contact us at support@bluemic.com. Thanks!

Mike said, on September 14, 2012 1:38 AM:

I have installed everything, on Windows 7 btw. When I plug in the mic during installation it tells me the auto-install is failed, but I continue with my downloaded drivers. I install it, and the Thesycon drivers that Blue has us using are absolutely terrible, and they fail constantly. I don't have the lettering next to the USB port so I downloaded Driver B, it doesn't matter. I start up audition, audacity, anything, and the drivers don't work. I wish you guys had spent some time with your own hired programmers to make the drivers yourself, rather than loan them out to an apparently second-rate audio driver company. At this rate I'll be demanding my refund and never coming back to this company until they come out with some decent drivers.

Kevin said, on November 4, 2012 9:49 AM:

So with the new drives that Blue has issued I've had nothing but problems. Does anyone have the old v1.22.0 drives or a place where I can download them? These 1.29.9 drives are just stupid.

thinknologist said, on November 5, 2012 10:52 PM:

Hi All:

What took place in my side was totally different. Image #7 didn't came up and worst was the installation failed!. Tried using administrator account and installation failed!!!

Here's my hardware:
- Bluemic YetiPro / No usb label
- Windows 7 Pro 64bit
- USB 2.0 port

Software Installation Procedure
1. Know your hardware type.
- is it with USB label or with NO usb label.

2. Get / Download the appropriate driver version, YetiPro-DriverA or YetiPro-DriverB.

3. What I have used was "NO" usb label (YetiPro), so I need to use Yetipro-DriverB as per documentation.

4. Extract the file to whichever location you want.
*** Note: Do not forget its location, you will need this exact path when "manually" installing driver.

5. Try your luck, run setup.
- in my case, installation failed.

***THE WORKAROUND***
5a. Go to Device Manager > Right click > BLUE USB Audio 2 > Update Driver

6. Browse / Locate the YetiPro driver (as per instruction #4).

7. In my case, I have to provide 2 driver files to complete the installation.

8. Done complete. Device is properly functioning. > http://postimage.org/image/xqjauq7lt/

I hope this procedure helps.

Bluemic YetiPro is an excellent condenser microphone "if" you only to put the correct driver, else it is just a piece of metal.

- thinknologist

Dave Taylor said, on November 5, 2012 11:14 PM:

Great stuff and a nicely detailed comment, thinknologist. Thanks for helping people out!

flora said, on November 20, 2012 10:40 PM:

hello there,

i got yeti pro very recently, also a new laptop two days ago. my one and only laptop runs windows 8, so as you can guess there is no driver for me to install. i really want to use my new mic, so I would like to know if this is only a matter of driver (so it only takes blue to give me an option for windows 8) or it just means my microphone is not compatible and will never be and I can only go analogic. Excuse my ignorance and please,let me know. It would help a lot. I really want to record.

Flora

thinknologist said, on December 10, 2012 2:25 AM:

I am not sure but you may test the Windows 7. Driver could be forward compatible with Windows 8.

thinknologist said, on December 10, 2012 2:28 AM:

I am not sure but you may test the available Windows 7 driver. http://bluemic.com/yetipro/#/drivers/
This driver could be forward compatible with Windows 8. Again make sure of what version of Blue Yeti Mic you have. See my previous comment.

David Levine said, on December 11, 2012 3:21 PM:

December 11: Downloaded the latest driver from http://bluemic.com/yetipro/#/drivers/ onto new Windows 8 laptop.

When you run the setup.exe program, you get a fatal error listing all the operating systems supported - that does not include Windows 8.

Windows 8 does ship with a nifty compatibility expert thing that will try to find a compatibility mode. So if you run it under Windows 7 compatibility mode, you can launch the installer, but it will not recognize the Yeti Pro mic plugged into the USB socket. I played around with all the other wizard options I could find, no dice.

I submitted a support request to them asking if it's supported or when so we'll see.

michael said, on January 10, 2013 9:05 PM:

What about the regular yeti blue it doesnt work either There support stinks also
I am thinking of reporting them to the better business bureau you have to keep unplugging and plugging it back in 3/4 of the time it doesnt recognize the microphone in windows 7

Any suggestions

Steve Foerster said, on February 26, 2013 2:58 PM:

Tried to install B version of drivers on my Windows 7 machine, failed without explanation. Even my Linux machine doesn't make me mess around with drivers like this anymore. Sorry, but I'm just going to use different kit that doesn't waste my time on this nonsense.

Jared said, on March 4, 2013 12:50 PM:

The mic obnly works with USB 2, however, the new iMacs are made with only USB 3 ports. Is there any way to get a Yeti Pro to work with the computer?

Rchard said, on March 4, 2013 1:38 PM:

Blue Yeti Pro USB Microphones .It is not compatible with windows 8 operating system.
This is the reply i have had from blue.
The Blue Yeti Microphone works fine but if you are operating windows 8 do not buy the yeti pro as i did as it does not work.


Adiel said, on March 23, 2013 2:29 AM:

I tried what thinknologist did especially when I got the failed installation but I got access denied when I tried updating my drivers. Do I need the driver in a specific folder or can I leave it in my download folder? Also, I tried running the installation as an administrator and that failed. So what else can I do? I run an ASUS G75 and I tried installing it on my USB port and then on a USB 2.0 port hub but no success. So what am I doing wrong otherwise I'm returning this and getting something else.

Ghaz-ranka said, on March 30, 2013 4:36 PM:

I am also having issues with it on my asus g75v it connects fine but after 30 seconds of being plugged in it stops working. I emailed blue tech support but im only giving them 2 days until I return this to the apple store and buy another mic. I wouldn't expect such a crappy mic for $250.

David Floyd said, on May 8, 2013 6:47 PM:

The following SOLUTION worked for me when Windows 7 would not install the Yeti Pro Driver v1.29.0. The problem is that the installation setup files are encrypted by Windows 7 when downloaded. Here is how to fix that: After downloading the "Driver A" for Windows 7 from the Blue Mic website, unzip the file and place it somewhere (for instance, your desktop). "Right-click" the "YetiPro-DriverA" folder. Under the GENERAL tab, click the ADVANCED button. In the ADVANCED ATTRIBUTES window that pops-up, UNCHECK the box next to the phrase "Encrypt contents to secure data". Click OK, and then OK again. Try running the setup file in the "YetiPro-DriverA" folder and the driver setup should work. It did for me.

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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