AH hang on start vs. trackir

[-error]

Hello.
AH client hangs on start when staring after IL2 BoS or WT. I have to kill AH process, restart trackir5 software to make AH work again.
Doesn't happen with mentioned games.

[Skuzzy]

This usually means other applications are leaving things in an unknown state.  We do make some assumptions about the state of DirectX when we come up.  However, we have played WT and IL2 both, and have not noticed anything like you have suggested.

Are you running any anti-xxxx type of software?  That could introduce problems.

Where does the game appear to hang?  At what point, precisely?

[-error]

This usually means other applications are leaving things in an unknown state.  We do make some assumptions about the state of DirectX when we come up.  However, we have played WT and IL2 both, and have not noticed anything like you have suggested.

May be. Even if it is true then both IL2 & WT are re-initialiazing things to known state while AH fails to do that.

Are you running any anti-xxxx type of software?  That could introduce problems.

The only anti- thing that I have is MS Security Essentials.

Where does the game appear to hang?  At what point, precisely?

It hangs right when I start it. AH window with "Aces High II" title and white background appears and nothing more is happening. After about 10 seconds it turns to "Not Responding" state. After that I close window choosing to terminate program in dialog window or just go to Task Manager and do this manually on AH.exe process.
After I kill AH.exe right green light on trackir is still on. Like something is still using trackir.
If i try to launch IL2 after that, it starts normally but after some time right light turns off. And trackir does not responds to head movements in IL2. If I close IL2 and try to start AH once again - it starts perfectly! I suppose it is IL2 that resets things to known state so AH could work again. Restarting of trackir software helps too.

[Skuzzy]

The opening screen is fired off before DirectX is even initialized.  That is just a regular Windows dialog panel.

I did just test WT and IL2 and cannot recreate the condition you are having, on eight different machines.

At this point I am left only guessing what is going on. 

[Skuzzy]

I do seem to recall some third party software WT uses (or used to use) which can interfere with Aces High, but that has to do with the joystick.  It runs in background all the time.

[-error]

Thank you for your extensive testing.

I had this issue before. I reported it here already. Now I've re-installed win7 and stuff on SSD drive and bought IL2 BoS.
But this issue is still here on my machine. May be there is some kind of debug mode in AH so I could gather and send some logs?

[Skuzzy]

There are no debug tools in the game, as it is shipped.

This is the only report I have of this type of problem.  I know a lot of other players are running those other games as well.

We are missing something here.  Can you post me a link to a complete DXDIAG output?

[-error]

Sure. This is plain dxdiag and this is 64bit dxdiag outputs.

[Bizman]

You seem to have a whole bunch of USB devices including headset, another microphone in the webcam, UPS, mouse, keyboard, stick, rudder, pedals... Do they get their power from the motherboard or do you use a powered USB hub?

[Skuzzy]

The CH and Saitek stuff warrants their own powered USB hubs for each set.

Might want to update that RealTek audio driver as well.  Also noted you have two different audio devices.

Pretty sure none of that is what is causing the game to not run after WT/IL2 is, but you never know.  The opening of the basic Aces High start up screen is very odd as that is such a basic Windows screen.

[Skyyr]

After I kill AH.exe right green light on trackir is still on. Like something is still using trackir.
If i try to launch IL2 after that, it starts normally but after some time right light turns off. And trackir does not responds to head movements in IL2. If I close IL2 and try to start AH once again - it starts perfectly! I suppose it is IL2 that resets things to known state so AH could work again. Restarting of trackir software helps too.

Three of our members (myself included) have the exact same problem with AH+TrackIR, though it doesn't involve any other games. It even happens during a normal shutdown. I'd say 90% of the time, if I close AH, then reboot the game (for any reason whatsoever), TrackIR will stay illuminated, and then shut down once the game restarts. I then have to restart AH a second time to get TrackIR to function correctly.

Again, this is not just me, this is three separate members of our squadron, with completely different PC's and configurations, having the identically-same problem. None of the other games I'm familiar with have this problem.

This really becomes an issue when AH crashes to desktop (or a server disco happens). If you reboot the game immediately, TrackIR is disabled. We have to remember to reboot the game, then immediately shut it down, then reboot it again to ensure TrackIR works correctly. If we don't do this and we reconnect, then TrackIR doesn't work at all. We can't exit again with losing a plane to the disco, so you're stuck dogfighting without views set up (as we use TrackIR, so we have no reason to map them to our sticks).

[-error]

I have stick, throttle and pedals plugged in powered d-link USB hub. All other USB stuff is plugged in motherboard ports. Including trackir5 camera itself.

PS. I wonder how do you Skuzzy know that I should update audio driver?

[Skuzzy]

I have stick, throttle and pedals plugged in powered d-link USB hub. All other USB stuff is plugged in motherboard ports. Including trackir5 camera itself.

PS. I wonder how do you Skuzzy know that I should update audio driver?

The driver date is in 2011.  I am pretty sure RealTek has updated their drivers since then, although, it is possible that is the latest driver.  It would be odd though.

Any abnormal crash can leave things in a mess.  When software is not allowed to exit normally, then those cleanup routines are not executed leaving things in a potentially unknown state.

[FLS]

Three of our members (myself included) have the exact same problem with AH+TrackIR, though it doesn't involve any other games. It even happens during a normal shutdown. I'd say 90% of the time, if I close AH, then reboot the game (for any reason whatsoever), TrackIR will stay illuminated, and then shut down once the game restarts. I then have to restart AH a second time to get TrackIR to function correctly.

Again, this is not just me, this is three separate members of our squadron, with completely different PC's and configurations, having the identically-same problem. None of the other games I'm familiar with have this problem.

This really becomes an issue when AH crashes to desktop (or a server disco happens). If you reboot the game immediately, TrackIR is disabled. We have to remember to reboot the game, then immediately shut it down, then reboot it again to ensure TrackIR works correctly. If we don't do this and we reconnect, then TrackIR doesn't work at all. We can't exit again with losing a plane to the disco, so you're stuck dogfighting without views set up (as we use TrackIR, so we have no reason to map them to our sticks).

Have you tried waiting until the light goes out before restarting AH?

[Skyyr]

Have you tried waiting until the light goes out before restarting AH?

To the best of my knowledge, it doesn't go out. I think the most I've waited is ~20 seconds or so, so if it goes out after that, I wouldn't know.

That said, it does go out immediately when the game is restarted, and then comes back on immediately when it's restarted a second time.