prob + soln: leds go out after a few minutes

[Mark_Doran]

Hi Everyone:

I have no idea if my situation is unique or not but in case someone else runs into the same problem...I figured it might be worth sharing.......

Symtoms: after upgrading to the 3.2.25 version of the software, the LEDs on the device come on when you start the applet but within 1-5 minutes (it varies), the LEDs all go out and the applet reports that there is no device connected.

The Quest: I'm one of those unfortunates that could not install properly on XP in the first place. As a result I have the registry magic recipe that Wayne sent me.

This is key because the first thing I tried was a software remove and re-install which necessitated doing the regitry fix dance. Sadly to no avail.

My next suspicion was power shortage to the device; I have a fair few USB devices plugged into this machine (albeit without hubs, XKeys, EPIC, YKeys w/ 2 MasterPilots, 2 mice inc. one via a KVM, keyboard via KVM, oh and a TM Cougar set and standalone Simped-F16+). Tried several different port configs and even installed a dedicated PCI USB2.0 card to connect to -- didn't help either.

On a whim I went poking around in the ..\Naturalpoint\TrackIR4\ directory and found a Drivers subdir with a .sys file and a .inf file in it. Suspecting possible driver problems I tried using the device manager to install that driver directly by pointing it to this directory. This fails with a "cannot find the required software error message" (or something like that anyway).

One level up in the TrackIR4 root I then found installlog.txt and in there I found the following (it's just a part of the whole file content but I think it's the relevant piece ):
code: Install USB Drivers for 2K/XP
ReInstallUSBDevices loaded setuphlp.DLL :
Error = 0
RegisterDriverINF UpdateDriver4PnP Failed! :
USB\VID_131D&PID_0155 AND C:\Program Files\NaturalPoint\TrackIR4\Drivers\NPUSB3.inf
Error = 183
SetupCopyOEMInfA Called[/code]That doesn't look too clever!

So now I'm starting to wonder about the device driver a lot. I look in the device manager both when the red LEDs are on and off and I see that the NaturalPoint TrackIR device is always listed there and the properties say it's working fine. Curiouser and curiouser... So now I'm thinking compatibility issue with whatever driver is installed in there and the newer control applet software; after all it was working before I started trying to upgrade.

Looking deeper into the device properties I open the driver details page and it tells me that the version of the npusb.sys driver code is (wait for it) 1.30.0.0

That is the original driver revision that is on my initial install CDROM. It looks to me like none of the intervening updates I've done have *ever* updated the driver successfully. Perhaps I didn't notice then because like this time the failure was silent -- apart from the entry in the installlog.txt file -- but unlike this time, previous software updates apparently worked with the old driver.

How I fixed it: so what I did was to manually rename the npusb.sys in the system32\drivers directory and copy in the 3.2.25.00 one from the C:\Program Files\NaturalPoint\TrackIR4\Drivers directory.

After one more reboot my problem is gone -- the device has been on with shining LEDs for 24 hours now

Conclusion: Well I'm a happy camper again now I have my TIR3 pro/vector unit working relibably. But...

I have to wonder how less computer savvy gamers would figure this stuff out...

I was disappointed to learn that the newer software loads have not fixed the absurd registry issue that foils installs on some XP machines. I was horrified to think that a driver install operation in perhaps several generations of software updates had failed to complete the device driver updates properly and more or less failed silently -- that's a big NO NO: at least have the grace to make it clear to me that it failed somehow!!

NaturalPoint really needs to think about this resolving these install problems once and for all -- I'd never get away with that level of poor quality in my day job for sure.

...and a final Question: if the support guys aren't too mad with me for the criticism above, I do have one lingering question: I see that there's a npusbrnm.sys in my system32\drivers dir that is *also* the very same revision as the one on my original install CDROM (0.80.0.0). Is that ok or should that have been updated somewhere along the way here also??