diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index 9831927210..88d5777a71 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -196,7 +196,7 @@ jobs:
     - name: Evaluate test results vs Windows file
       run: |
         python $SAMNTDIR/test/compare_lk_test_output.py ${SAMNTDIR}/test_results_win64.csv ${SAMNTDIR}/build/test_results_linux64.csv true
-    
+
     - name: Run SSC Variable & SAM Defaults Differ
       run: |
           python -m pip install --upgrade pip
diff --git a/api/CMakeLists.txt b/api/CMakeLists.txt
index 15ea280f14..cdacf1fd99 100644
--- a/api/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/api/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -110,7 +110,7 @@ else()
     find_library( SSC_LIB
             NAMES ssc.dylib ssc.lib ssc.so
             PATHS $ENV{SSC_LIB} $ENV{SSCDIR}/build/ssc $ENV{SSCDIR}/build/ssc/Release)
-    if (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Debug" OR MSVC)
+    if (CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE STREQUAL "Debug")
         unset(SSCD_LIB CACHE)
         find_library( SSCD_LIB
                 NAMES sscd.dylib sscd.lib sscd.so
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ else()
         target_link_libraries(SAM_api debug ${SSCD_LIB})
     endif()
 
-    if(SAMAPI_EXPORT) # only on Unix
+    if(SAMAPI_EXPORT AND UNIX) # only on Unix
         unset(SSCE_LIB CACHE)
         find_library( SSCE_LIB
                 NAMES libssc.so
diff --git a/test/requirements.txt b/test/requirements.txt
index c7339842bb..bfec01749b 100644
--- a/test/requirements.txt
+++ b/test/requirements.txt
@@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
-NREL-PySAM==3.0.0
+NLR-PySAM==8.0.0
 requests
diff --git a/test/run_defaults_diff.py b/test/run_defaults_diff.py
index ff9e2da394..21ff199217 100644
--- a/test/run_defaults_diff.py
+++ b/test/run_defaults_diff.py
@@ -69,6 +69,23 @@
 
 old_ssc = installations_dirs / "linux_64" / 'ssc.so'
 
+# update runpath of old ssc.so (in release) - should be done in the future by the SAM build system, but for now we need to do it manually
+# Set your target directory and new runpath
+target_dir = Path(installations_dirs / "linux_64")
+new_runpath = "$ORIGIN"  # Or an absolute path like '/usr/local/lib'
+
+# Loop through all .so files recursively
+for so_file in target_dir.glob("**/*.so"):
+  try:
+    # Run patchelf to set the rpath/runpath
+    subprocess.run(
+        ["patchelf", "--set-rpath", new_runpath, str(so_file)], check=True
+    )
+    print(f"Successfully updated: {so_file.name}")
+  except subprocess.CalledProcessError as e:
+    print(f"Failed to update {so_file.name}: {e}")
+
+
 ssc_dir = Path(os.environ.get("SSCDIR"))
 new_ssc = Path(glob.glob(str(ssc_dir / "build" / "ssc" / "*ssc.so"))[0])