Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: Lizard3 on June 08, 2004, 10:55:51 AM
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After DL patch 38 of AHII I played around with it and AHoriginal for a little bit, logged and shutdown for the night. When I turned the computer back on and booted I got a message requesting my windows disc as windows was having problems locating joyblahblah.vxd(I think). I found the cab file saved on the hard drive and it finished booting.
Later when I tried to fly in AH1 I found I no longer had a joystick recognized. I poked around a bit and then logged. I went to CH website looking for inspiration and found they have a new version of there control manager program. Its 3.0 I believe. So I downloaded it and went to bed.
The next day I spent some time removing anything CH from the computer as instructed, unplugged all CH USB devices and installed CM3.0. I then followed the instructions on installing each CHUSB device and everything went well. During one last reboot I got a message asking for the windows disc again. Having had problems after pointing it in the right direction originally, and having already successfully reinstalled the stick throttle and pedals earlier, I hit the cancel button. I rechecked in CM and found all devices were present and working properly. Oh...I had also already gone into AH1 and AH2 and re-calibrated and mapped all the buttons and axis's(axi?) when I did that final reboot.
OK, where were we...I got the disc message again, hit cancel (twice, two messages back to back), checked CM and all were happy. I connected (dialup) and logged into AH1. Well, I found that AH1 had me down for a stick, but no pedals, no throttle. All the stuff I had re-mapped was goofed, it tried to use my stick as pedals or some such. I re-re-mapped the stick in AH1 to get through the night, but finally logged in disgust. Key hunting in the thick of battle can be frustrating. Logged and all that.
OK, its a new day. I started looking at whats up and recognized where. It seems all the devices are still present in CH's control manager. They all still show up in two places in control panel/devices under CM and under HID devices, but the only one that shows up in DX diag is the stick. It seems that DX9 isn't recognizing the throttle and pedals at this time.
Anyone got any idea's? Skuzzy?
My DX version is 9.0b
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I can take a shot at why Windows is wanting the disk.
For some reason, interrupts are being rearranged. Whenever a device interrupt changes, Windows wants to reload the driver for the device.
The clue that the interrupts are being reassigned is when you went to AH and it wanted to treat the joystick as a rudder.
The order of devices is/was being altered, which causes Windows to want new drivers. Until the drivers are loaded for the new interrupts, the devices will not work in DirectX, as part of the Windows re-installation of the drivers also corrects DirectX's knowledge of the devices.
The problem I see is the interrupts or other resources are changing for the stick set. Now as to why that is happening, I have no clue.
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Is that the same as when say a USB printer or device loses power?
I had my USB printer lose the driver a few times until I set the USB port to constant on power wise.
My USB adapter on my CH analog stick did the same til I set its USB port to constant/permanent on.
just me guessing again!
edited: One thing I have noticed with the CHUSB users in AH is they don't bother much with the manager as far as programming their sticks for ingame, they use the keymapping feature.
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A loss of power to the USB bus could cause that effect. It is possible.
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Originally posted by TequilaChaser
My USB adapter on my CH analog stick did the same til I set its USB port to constant/permanent on.
New to XP, where would I find that setting so I can change mine. Mine looses the calibration setting more often than not. Not a big problem, but if there's a fix.... :D
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Originally posted by MaddogJoe
New to XP, where would I find that setting so I can change mine. Mine looses the calibration setting more often than not. Not a big problem, but if there's a fix.... :D
heya MaddogJoe
check the following link it explains it in detail
USB Power on/off fix (http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=421)
http://www.tweakxp.com/display.aspx?id=421
hope this helps
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Thanks !
Cleared the check on the USB, and only time will tell !:D
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Maddog,
The CH Control Manager software is a strange, fickle beast. By tweaking your USB power settings in Win XP, you may not have completely fixed your issue. It has taken me some time as I had similar problems with my setup, but I think I have an install routine for the CH gear and the control manager that works well, albeit a bit convoluted.
If you have problems again, try this:
Clear all the CH control manager stuff off your system.
Plug your CH gear into your USB ports and let Windows detect them and load the drivers (select automatic if it asks). Reboot the system and make sure you get a clean boot (i.e. no more windows loading of your CH devices...sometimes, it takes a couple of boots).
Now load the CM software and be prepared to do a lot of clicking :-) You will be prompted to load drivers for this thing quite a bit, just keep clicking next and let it go.
Once it is all done and windows says your hardware is installed and ready, reboot the system. You will most likely have to do the whole click and load routine again. Just keep doing it until you get a clean boot just like above.
Once you get the clean boot with the CM software loaded, run the program and load a stick map (if you have one). You will once again go through the device detection/driver load routine...just click through like before until you get a clean boot.
Once you have the clean boot with the CM software and you can load a stick map cleanly, run AH and go to setup. Your gear will be displayed either by its name or as device numbers (1,2,3, etc). I do not know why it seems to randomly refer to your stick, etc by its name or by device type/number.
Select the roll, pitch, throttle and rudder inputs and assign the correct axis/device by clicking on the "set inut" button in AH. Don't worry if you don't see any values changing on the device/axis yet...just select each one and when done, click on "apply" and it all should come to life. If you have selected the wrong axis or device for a given input type (roll, pitch, etc)...don't worry, you can change it by selecting the device again and clicking "set input". Once everything is selected, calibrate it and you shouldn't have any more problems with it.
I use this method to load up my CM software and the CH gear and it works great. Once done, I never have to do it again (unless I reload windows or AH, of course). I've gone over a year on that setup in the past and never even had to calibrate the gear.
I use all USB CH gear.
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Thanks Warp,
I'll save this post for future ref. I think my problem may stem from the fact that I'm running analog CH stuff thru an adapter to USB :) I hope to some day get all new USB CH stuff....won't buy anything else :) but for now I have to stick with all my old stuff.
What was happening to me was on the rare occasions that I could spend flying a few hours is my calibration would go nuts....15% left rudder, and 20% nose down most of the time. Would only notice it when I got dead and went to take off again... no wonder I couldn't turn right on that guy and he lit me up ! LOL!!!
So I was hoping that the powersaver was shutting it down and causeing the trouble. Like I said time will tell ! Thanks again !
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MDJOE,
I have the same analog setup as you, I still ( seldomly now) have to recal but nothing like before. mainly for some odd reason it is only on certian maps that I run into this.
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My installation seems to have been different from yours, I clear all CH stuff off the system, unplug all the usb plugs etc and re-install the CH software then one by one plug em in and set em up and calibrate them in CH. Then I map everything in AH like I like it.
This has worked for years with no problems. I have a self powered USB hub. After this last re-install with the new manager everything went well until I rebooted and went back into AH. I've found that DXdiag shows I have a stick and 2 other "CH control manager devices, but no controller ID on anything but the stick. They still don't show up in AH so I'm going to check out that link you gave on constant on and see if thats set right and then do another complete re-intall from scratch.
btw, I'm running winME. Nothing was changed on my system besides the patch 38 install.
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Heya Lizard ( which Lizard are you? the one that use to fly with me? )
anyhawl, WinME you say, then check for USB power On questions on the Microsoft website.
that link I posted for MADJOE is just for WindowsXP I'm pretty sure.
you can still try it though, not too sure how different ME is from XP
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I did find some power settings or readings in control panel/system, but I didn't find any setting that you can make or change.
I just "removed" all of the devices under HID and CH control manager in system and got a protection error when the last one was removed. Machine rebooted. Checked DXdiag and all the devices were listed as they should be. I went to AH1 offline and checked and all was well, the throttle and pedals showed up. Exited and rebooted to see if it would stick and got no dice. After the reboot everything went back to the way it was the last few days. No pedals, no throttle but the stick shows up. I dont hold out any hope of fixing the problem by re-installing control manager and the devices.
What about DX9? I've heard that some people have fixed things by re-installing that. Anyone have any other ideas? Control manager shows all 3 devices and they calibrate and function correctly...in control manager.
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Oh yeah...No, I dont think I'm that lizard. I was Lizrd in AW, he was Lzard.
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I think your current DX problem stems from clicking 'cancel' when Windows wanted to install the joyhid.vxd file the last time. (In your case, having already installed it before, the joyhid.vxd file is in C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM or C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32 folder... so instead of hunting up the Windows disk just point the installer there.)
I'm not sure how to go about making Windows go through the install process again for that though.
If you can get it to do that, that should cure your DX problem.
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as for USB working properly or not in winME, check this help link Lizard.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;255954 (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;255954)
it says you may try switching your USB devices aroun, (not meaning the CH stuff) but like a mouse, printer, camera, keyboard etc....hope this helps
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The CH Control manager software explicitly states that your CH gear should already be plugged in before loading it. Trust me, I have tried this thing a million times in several ways and my previously posted method is the only way I have ever gotten it to work properly and for the settings to stay upon reboot.
Give my method a try and see what kind of results you get. I was having the same problems with the device recognition after reboots, etc until I did the above load method.
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Reading this, I wondered if there was a CH thread in AH BBS? I have a CH Pro Throttle and Rudders with a Thrustmaster TopGun Afterburner. I just programme in AH but am interested in getting the mouse stick to work.
The throttle is an awesome and lovely thing:cool:
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Well...
I re-installed DX9.0b, removed the current hardware, unplugged all CH usb devices. Rebooted. Shutdown. Plugged all usb's back in. Rebooted. Set up and calibrated joy,rud & throttle in control manager. Checked in DXdiag to see if all were present and accounted for. They were. Checked AH1 offline and all were there and worked. Rebooted. Checked again. All there. Upped a plane offline and shot down 3 or 4 drones. rebooted. checked, all there. Logged on, went into AH1. Spent some time setting up devices and stick mapping. I've got it down to reflex now, so it goes quickly. Set in turret of CA for a minute. Upped a P40 in a mission OL, flew for less than 2 minutes and lost stick control. checked in setup, devices all there. Tried to recal, nothing. Rudder and throttle still working. Cuss on squad channel. Loose keyboard. try alt tab to check DX9. Keyboard not working. ALt/F4, AH closes. Check DX9(dxdiag) devices still there. Check CHcontrolmanager, devices still there. Try to recal stick, no go...nothing. reboot repeat....nothing. Rudder and throttle AOK, stick still shown, no activity no recal.
Determine: Stick is finally DOA after close to 4 years dedicated service.
Conclusion: Time to search for a new stick. Dammit!
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You can order parts here : http://www.chproducts.com/shop/parts.html
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Welllll.....a small item in your explanation there...you didn't de-install the CH control manager thing and you didn't let windows do the USB detection THEN load the CH control thing. I know it sounds trivial, but really, for me it made all the difference. If I just load the CH control manager, then plug stuff in, or have it all plugged in and load the CHCM right away, I get very much the same problems you have...everything works for a while, then I lose it, even though everything shows as being there. Sometimes it will work for an hour, sometimes it only works for a few minutes, sometimes not at all. Seriously, just for the sake of it, try my method EXACTLY the way I posted it...in that order. You have nothing to lose :-)