New TrackIR and a couple of possible problems

[datter]

Hey all,

Really digging the TrackIR so far (just came this morning) but I've noticed a couple of strange things.

In ArmA2 I was finding things were working perfectly when playing as infantry, but within minutes of getting in a helicopter my system would crash forcing a reboot. I started thinking there might be an issue between the TrackIR and my joystick (a Saitek Cyborg Evo with current drivers) so I was going through ArmA2's control options and removing an mapping of my hat to the views and such, as well as the mouse (a Logitech G9) just in case there was some issue there. While doing this the system froze up, which lead me to believe there really was something to the TrackIR/Saitek conflict theory.

I then unplugged my TrackIR and went into ArmA2 and made all those mapping changes. I basically removed any view rotate/control from the joystick at all (hat and such) and also unmapped the "freelook" and such from the keyboard just for the hell of it. I then closed down ArmA2, and replugged my TrackIR5/clip (daisy-chained) into the rear of my system and moved the joystick to the front... just in case that would help.

From there I proceeded to fly around for a good 10 minutes or more with no problems at all. Prior to all this with the TrackIR active I could only fly for a few minutes before everything would crash/freeze up.

Thinking I solved it, I landed and shut down ArmA. At that point I noticed my mouse movements were very slow for some reason. Like the DPI had been set very low somehow. I was just going into my system settings to check the mouse when I got a blue screen of death.

Any thoughts to how all this sort of thing might be related to the TrackIR? One thing I have noticed is that FSX seems to run perfectly fine with the TrackIR running, so perhaps this is all an ArmA2 thing, although it's odd prior to messing around with my mappings I could fly indefinitely, then with TrackIR active it would crash after a few minutes.

System specs:
Q6600 2.4ghz overclocked to 3.7ghz (very stable)
Asus P5N32-E SLI mobo with BIOS 1701
2gb OCZ Reaper 9600 @857mhz (4-4-4-12-1T)
nVidia BFG 8800GT OC2 x2 (SLI) with 190.38
OCZ GameXStream 850w PSU
Two 150gb 10,000rpm WD Raptors + 1 terrabyte WD Caviar Black
Windows XP Pro SP3
Saitek Cyborg Evo with current drivers
Logitech G5 keyboard with current drivers
Logitech G9 mouse with current drivers
TrackIR5 and track Clip Pro with Version 5.0 - Beta 04 software


Any thoughts appreciated.

[VincentG]

Plugging in the TrackIR near your other USB devices, on the MB?

[datter]

Yes, just straight into the back of the system. I've got a cluster of four back there, right now with the TrackIR, my keyboard and mouse. Joystick is now in one of my front ones... again straight into the box. No external USB sockets here, aside from the ones on the back of my keyboard that I never use.

[VincentG]

OK, try isolating the TrackIR on the front, and/or back of the system.

Try using non-beta video card drivers?

[datter]

I'll isolate the TrackIR this evening and get back to you, will also drop back to the previous drivers if that doesn't help and report back also. I was hoping you wouldn't say that, these ones really do good things for ArmA2.

[VincentG]

Something to test with......

[datter]

I did further testing with this last night, and I think I had a compilation of issues. There was definitely some sort of conflict with my joystick and the TrackIR causing freezes and other weirdness, but moving the trackir to a different set of USB posts seems to have sorted that out. The ArmA2 crashing while flying thing seems to be happening regardless of whether trackIR is installed and running or not... so unrelated I'd guess.

Great product, very happy with it.