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Author Topic: "Dead Stick" problem  (Read 1120 times)

Offline Lt. Fragg

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"Dead Stick" problem
« on: July 18, 2003, 11:11:16 PM »
Imagine for a second...


You've just been bounced by an nme plane and he's on your six. You begin to scissor to spoil his aim and force overshoot....however as you complete your 2nd turn and try to bank for the third which would get you that nice snapshot, the stick doesn't respond, nor throttle, or the views.... you simply drift like an idiot till the bogey lights you up.

Or my favorite... going into a shallow dive swooping down to divebomb a hapless panzer. Getting closer you release the bombs perfectly and start to pull up. One problem... stick is dead, view is froze and you nicely go splat into the ground.

You get the picture :mad:

Now this happens ALL the damn time for me. Its not from me moving my controls rapidly or anything like that. It happens in straight level flight, or in the middle of a dogfight. It causes me to sometimes fire off ALL my ammo at one time because it freezes for a good 3-4 seconds.

Any ideas what may cause this to happen? No proggies running in the background either...

Please help! :)
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Offline Xjazz

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #1 on: July 19, 2003, 03:05:37 AM »
More info about your PC and stick is very much needed....
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Offline Lt. Fragg

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #2 on: July 19, 2003, 03:29:19 AM »
Ah yes sorry :)

Using a MS Sidewinder Precision 2 stick on a PIII 850mhz comp with 128mg ram, and a no name 64meg vid card...
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Offline MaddogJoe

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #3 on: July 19, 2003, 10:37:28 AM »
I'd upgrade the video drivers, and also check your sound card. I've seen a friends computer that was on the low side of performance freeze as it played some sounds.  With an 850, and only 128 megs of ram its very important to keep your system running as clean as you can.... newest drivers, scandisk and defrag often, and atleast 350 megs of free space on your hard drive for the windows swap file to use.

You might want to start saving for an upgrade to your computer, I hear that the recomended middle of the road computer will be a one gig processor, 256 ram and good 64 meg video card for the new AHII
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Offline Lt. Fragg

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #4 on: July 19, 2003, 12:12:36 PM »
I fully agree about the upgrade thing...I am on the way to grabbing a better system. But it baffles me...its not like the GAME freezes, just the stick and any control linked to it for a period of about 3-4 seconds happening every 5 minutes.

Its getting under my skin, I just smashed a 163 on landing because it "dead sticked" again :mad:


Thanks for the input though
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Offline MaddogJoe

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #5 on: July 19, 2003, 01:48:11 PM »
thats why I was thinking the sound card. Your stick uses to game port on the sound card. The card my be over loading. You drop gear to land and it is also trying to play a vox message, engine sounds, sirens, incoming message AND use stick input. See what I mean? Get the newest drivers for your sound card and install them. Skuzzy I think was the one that suggest turning down the hardware accelaration in the advance sound properties. It helps with some sound cards. Worth a shot till ya did up a new system  :)
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Offline Lt. Fragg

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #6 on: July 20, 2003, 01:52:42 PM »
AHh ok, well thanks alot for the help, I'll try that out. I may just have to slug it out till the new machine arrives :)


Again thanks :)
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Offline DAVENRINO

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #7 on: July 20, 2003, 03:40:40 PM »
Isn't the MS PrecPro 2 USB only?  You might try plugging into a different USB port.  Some have better luck with a powered hub.  I have my MS FF2, CH throttle and pedals all plugged into the same 4 port powered USB hub.  Might be worth a try for $25.  Buy a USB2 hub since your next upgrade will likely have that and most  are backwards compatible to USB 1.1. Good luck.

DJ229 - AIR MAFIA
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DAVE aka DJ229-AIR MAFIA
CH USB HOTAS/ONKYO 705 7.2 SURROUND SOUND/ 60" SONY A3000 SXRD  TV

Offline BNM

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #8 on: July 22, 2003, 05:38:03 AM »
I'm no expert but if it happens at regular (5 min) intervals it sounds like memory I'd think. 128 sounds real low to me, could be virtual memory set to low or something?
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Offline Pei

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Re: "Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #9 on: July 22, 2003, 07:39:07 AM »
Quote
Originally posted by Lt. Fragg
Imagine for a second...


You've just been bounced by an nme plane and he's on your six. You begin to scissor to spoil his aim and force overshoot....however as you complete your 2nd turn and try to bank for the third which would get you that nice snapshot, the stick doesn't respond, nor throttle, or the views.... you simply drift like an idiot till the bogey lights you up.

Or my favorite... going into a shallow dive swooping down to divebomb a hapless panzer. Getting closer you release the bombs perfectly and start to pull up. One problem... stick is dead, view is froze and you nicely go splat into the ground.

You get the picture :mad:

Now this happens ALL the damn time for me. Its not from me moving my controls rapidly or anything like that. It happens in straight level flight, or in the middle of a dogfight. It causes me to sometimes fire off ALL my ammo at one time because it freezes for a good 3-4 seconds.

Any ideas what may cause this to happen? No proggies running in the background either...

Please help! :)


I used to get this all the time when I used an MS Sidewinder FF2. Every so often the stick would just stop responding. This happened with 2 separate sticks. In the end I swapped to a Saitek and the problem stopped.
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Offline Rutilant

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #10 on: July 24, 2003, 12:12:03 PM »
Ditch the stick, happened to me too. :mad:
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Offline Blue Mako

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #11 on: July 24, 2003, 06:35:55 PM »
Your system specs are better than mine and I used the MS PP2 stick for 2 years with no problems like the one you are describing.

Try the suggestions on cleaning your system.  Ensure no background programs are running when you are in AH.  Upgrade your joystick, vid card and sound card drivers.  Turn down the sound hardware acceleration a couple of notches.  Also, reinstalling a new version of DirectX (8.1 or later) would probably be wise too.
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Offline Rutilant

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #12 on: July 24, 2003, 11:09:19 PM »
Lol, it won't get fixed, just ditch it. someones said that if you stopped using it for a while it'll work again.
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Offline Heinkel

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"Dead Stick" problem
« Reply #13 on: July 27, 2003, 08:35:45 PM »
Fragg...had the same problem. Stick turned out to be broken, but I just called Microsoft and they sent me a new one free of charge...didn't even have to send the old one back. Might as well give them a call and see if you can get a new one. If not, I opened mine up and resolidered all the wires, worked for a few weeks them broke again. Hope this helps...

Heinkel
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Offline Bubbaj6

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Mine does the same thing
« Reply #14 on: July 28, 2003, 02:51:50 PM »
I have the same problem except I use a CH combatstick

I used to use the gameport one and then this behavior came out of nowhere.  Checked all the stuff previously mentioned and didn't really find anything.  I decided it must be a busted stick so I get a brand new USB cersion.  Same thing.

I have a 1 Ghz, 512 MB ram, GF2 Ultra 64MB ram video card.  Any other ideas what this might be?

Only other thing I can think of is that maybe it is using a USB 2.0 device on a 1.1 controller?
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