Author Topic: Joystick dies after brief flight (Read 462 times)

LoneStarBuckeye · « **on:** November 26, 2001, 08:40:00 PM »

I use an Saitek X36 rig, along with CH Pro Pedals. The X36 is USB; the pedals plug into the joystick port of my soundcard.

Since updating to patch 5 of AH 1.08, I see the same behavior EVERY time that I fly (on-line or off-line): after about five minutes, my joystick and throttle die. They are completely dead and do not recover. Unplugging and replugging do not help. Moreover, it is not just the X36 rig that is dead. If I quite to Windows, all of my USB devices are dead.

I had never seen this behavior in AH before patch 5, and I have never seen it in any other games for which I use my X36 (e.g., IL-2).

When this problem first occured, I lost both my USB port and my LAN card. I checked MS Config, thinking there might be an IRQ sharing problem. Sure enough, the USB port and LAN card shared the same IRQ. I moved the cards around so that the USB port has its own IRQ. The problem persists (although when it happens, it no longer takes down my LAN card). I also tried removing all other USB devices, but that didn't stop the behavior either.

I have no thoughts of where to go from here. Any help would be appreciated.

My system specs:

1.1 MHz T-Bird (not overclocked)
Abit KT7-RAID MB
512 MB SDRAM
32 MB Asus GeForce2
RAID-0 array (2x40 GB IBM Deskstar)
Creative X-Gamer 5.1

Thanks.

Lephturn · « **Reply #1 on:** November 27, 2001, 08:53:00 AM »

Happens to my USB mouse all the time playing Quake 3 engined games like Team Arena and RTCW. It looks like the USB bus just dies.

Make sure you have the latest VIA 4-in-1 drivers. Then start unplugging USB connected stuff and see if that helps. I'm thinking it's a power problem in my case.

DES · « **Reply #2 on:** November 28, 2001, 08:21:00 AM »

I have the X36 and pro peddles usb. My stuff goes dead several times a night and unplugging then repluggong the peddles fixes it. I can fly all night without the peddles so as near as I can tell it's a conflict with the peddle drivers.

DES

LoneStarBuckeye · « **Reply #3 on:** November 28, 2001, 08:29:00 AM »

Thanks for the replies.

I don't think it's a problem with my pedals, because I have played AH (prior to patch) and IL-2 for hours (after the patch) with the same rig and have never had a similar occurrence.

I think that I solved the problem. The VIA chipset on my motherboard is notorious for USB problems and long ago I bought a four-port, PCI USB board. I thought that everything was alright with my set-up, because I hadn't had any problems prior to my recent AH problem. I went and read all of the information at the excellent USB help site www.usbman.com, however, and I discovered that disabling the on-board USB via BIOS (as I had done) may cause problems with PCI USB boards. Thus, I enabled the MB USB chips in BIOS (although I still don't use them, because doing so invariably hangs my system). Since then, I haven't had a recurrence of the problem.

Thanks for the input.