The message "An unexpected error Prevented Miracast sink from starting. Please contact support with the error code." is a very common error, especially for users running Windows 10.


Possible causes of the error message

  • Another software such as Microsoft's "Connect" app, is currently using resources that are needed by AirServer's Miracast functionality.


  • Your computer does not have a Wi-Fi Adapter or a Wi-Fi adapter that is compatible with Miracast. This is a requirement in order to use Miracast as this screen mirroring protocol is built on Wi-Fi Direct.


  • If you are not using Windows 10 or Windows 8.1, make sure to check which Windows Display Driver Model is used on your computer. Miracast requires Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) 1.3 or newer. WDDM 1.3 was included with Windows 8.1.

    To check the WDDM version, please follow the steps below:
    1. Press Windows Key + R, enter "dxdiag" and press ENTER.
    2. Let the tool (DirectX Diagnostic Tool) collect all information
    3. Press “Save All Information...”. 
    4. Save and open the resulting text file and search for WDDM.


  • Miracast mirroring requires a Miracast-compatible graphics adapter/card and a Wi-Fi adapter/card with, at least, NDIS 6.3 drivers on both the receiving and transmitting devices.

    If you are unsure about this, you can check whether or not your computer running AirServer supports Miracast by following these steps:

  1. Open up a Command Prompt window
  2. Write "netsh wlan show driver" and press ENTER
  3. The command prompt will show you whether or not your device is Miracast compatible

If the command prompt displays the "The Wireless AutoConfig Service (wlansvc) is not running."-error, you can try to enable to. Instructions can be found in a dedicated support article.

 


            To check if you are using the correct NDIS drivers, please follow these steps:

  1. Open Powershell and type “Get-NetAdapter | Select Name, NdisVersion”. 
  2. The output will show NDIS versions that need to be 6.3 or higher for the Wi-Fi adapter.


Possible solutions

  1. Make sure you are using the latest version of AirServer Universal.
  2. Make sure you are using at least Windows 10 build 1709 or higher (using at least build 1809 is recommend as this introduces Miracast PIN support).
  3. Turn off any other software that you suspect is using Miracast such as Microsoft's "Connect" application, then restart AirServer. If the error message is still being displayed after restarting AirServer, go ahead and restart your computer and start AirServer again.
  4. Download and install/re-install the latest updates for your Wi-Fi adapter then restart the computer.
  5. If you are a corporate user, we also recommend checking out our Miracast-troubleshooting article especially for corporate network users.