It is important to make sure all your drivers and firmware are up-to-date from your hardware manufacturer before running Serato software. If you have purchased a new controller, check for any updates before using the device as you may run into issues if you are running an older, incompatible or outdated driver.
DRIVERS
Why do I need them?
Drivers are used by Serato software to communicate with the hardware you intend to use. To run Serato software on your computer, you will need to make sure you have the correct drivers installed in order for the hardware to be recognised. If you do not have these installed you are likely to receive the "hardware disconnected" or "install driver" messages.
We encourage our users to visit the manufacturer's website regularly to see if there are any updated drivers available for their hardware.
Please note some hardware requires drivers for Mac OSX/macOS, so this is not a 'Windows ONLY' thing.
How do I get those much needed drivers?
To make it easier for you, we have compiled all the manufacturer's websites in one area for your convenience:
https://support.serato.com/hc/en-us/sections/360000031815-Serato-DJ-Lite-hardware-support
Just click on the link above, select your specific hardware manufacturer, then click the appropriate link to be redirected to their website, find your product, and check any updates they may have.
Issues and further troubleshooting?
If you are having trouble installing drivers it is probably due to your machine not being able to recognize which piece of hardware you have connected. Try changing out the USB cable, switching USB ports on your computer and make sure that you are not connecting through a USB hub or splitter.
If you have the latest drivers installed in your computer, and you still experience the "hardware disconnected" message, then please check out the following articles:
Troubleshooting Connection Issues on Windows
Troubleshooting Connection Issues on OSX/macOS
If you are still experiencing problems, please start a help request with us and we can help you
with your issues.
FIRMWARE
What is firmware?
In few words and without going into too much detail, what you need to know about firmware, is that it's required by the hardware in order to interpret an action, like pressing a button, so the hardware knows you are actually doing such thing and can send the message to the computer.
And how do I check if I need an update?
Because this is strictly hardware related, we strongly recommend visiting the manufacturer's website for any updates related to the firmware. In the manufacturer's website, you should also find "firmware update guides" specific to your hardware, so make sure you follow their instructions very carefully when performing a firmware update. These usually contain the information you need to check the firmware version on your hardware, to identify whether you need to perform an update.