A possible workaround to the WinXP startup failures

[Wolve]

Hello Community,

I�m Wolve from the German Lockon forum. I�ve had the TrackIR 5 since last spring and have been getting those annoying startup failures in WinXP ever since. Win 7 64 bit it works fine.

My XP is Win XP pro 32 bit.

I�ve made a new try with the 5.1 beta 3 and at first i got the startup failure too. So i installed new graphics driver, didn�t help. Then I tried Chuckf�s (from AVSIM) advice, on windows XP with the missing tlbs-files. TrackIR 5 installation WinXP To expand the stdole.tlb from the stdole.tl_

I got it working one time after rebooting the system, to be on the safe side. I changed some options, then I clicked on shutdown in the start-menu, but aborted the system shutdown before clicking on shutdown in the second menu that pops up, in wich you are asked if you want to shutdown, or reboot or change the user.

Well after that it crashed, I rebooted and did the thing with the stdole.tlb again. I again got it working and then i rebooted, just before the system did shut down, there was an error message, but i couldn�t read it before shut-down.

After the reboot, same again, startup failure. Did the stdole.tlb -thing again. I also checked the event report, and it mentioned a application crash for tir5.exe, just when i shut down the system the last time. I found this odd, since i had closed the program.

I started the program again and changed no options, i closed it down and waited about twenty seconds, then i opened the task-manager over a right-click on the taskbar, the Trackr5.exe process was still running, i terminated it and restarted the system. It worked, i closed it down. New start of TrackIR5.exe, no reboot. I changed some options, closed it, looked for the process and it didn�t show up, i started it again it worked. New change of options, closed trackIR 5, waited 20 seconds, watched in the taskmanager for the process, and terminated it. Reboot, and it worked. The last tests have been with the windows CD in the drive.

So it seems that often the stdole.tlb is missing and the Process does not terminate properly every time and thus crashes on system shutdown, and maybe corrupts the files, so after the next boot it didn�t work again.

So my advice is to check the processes in the taskamanger after you closed TrackIR5 if the process is terminated, if not terminate it. Do it at least before system shutdown.

I hope this might help those with a problem with TrackIR 5 in WinXP and that you might verify this workaround, i will update you on how it works for me. Oh and if it might give the devs a possible source for the problem.

Clear skies and many happy landings

Wolve

[Wolve]

So all of the above in short:
If no TrackIR 5 software works, then:
1. check if either the stdole.tlb or the stdole2.tlb or the stdole32.tlb are missing from your systems32 folder.
2. if so expand the according file using the following steps:

[color:#FF0000]To resolve this issue, expand the appropriate file from the Windows XP CD:

Click Start, click Run, and then type CMD. Click OK.
To change to the root folder of drive C, type cd\, and then press ENTER.
Insert the Windows XP CD, type Expand cd_drive_letter:\i386\filename.tl_ drive:\Windows\system32\filename.tlb, and then press ENTER, where filename is the name of the file that you want to expand and drive is the letter of the drive where Windows is installed.
[/color]
Thanks to Chuckf from Avsim for finding this solution, the link to the original post is above.
3. start TrackIR 5, change some options
4. close track IR
5. wait 20-30 seconds and open the taskmanager, by right-clicking on the taskbar, and check if there is still a trackir5.exe process.
6. if the process is still there, terminate it
7. reboot system
8. check if trackIR runs correctly
9. if so have fun!
10. please give me feedback if this works for you, too.

This is the short version, the old version up above, was too long. I may have bungled it a bit, with to much crisscrossing of preventing evidence and the neede steps.

Clear skies and many happy landings

Wolve

[NaturalPoint - Mike]

Hello

Have you tried re-installing your runtime libraries? It's possible that there is a corruption in one that is causing the issue you're experiencing.

Here's a link to an installer from Microsoft (english).
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d ... laylang=en

If it still occurs, could you post the relevant event log entries for the crash?

[Wolve]

Hello Mike,

I�ll do that if it happens again.
So far after manually killing the process about two times, the failure has not yet shown itself again. And TrackIR 5 works like a charm on Windows XP SP3.

I�ll think about provoking another crash this week, to get some data. The Posts above are thought more as a workaround if you have those issues.

Greetings

Wolve