TrackIR freezing

[Peachy9]

I have been using Track IR 3 (serial 18603) for several months now but recently I have been getting random lock ups and freezing of TIR and my PC.

This occurs when using IL2 FB and Pacific Fighters (more recently) - I do not use TIR for anything else.

The TIR will be functioning perfectly and then will suddenly stop responding - the green LED stops displaying on the unit. Sometimes the whole game will lock up but more usually I will exit out of FB and then try to maximise the TIR software from the toolbar but the icon does not respond and I cannot even close the TIR software from the Task Manager - I will have to reboot to reset TIR.

I have the TIR unit plugged direclty into the USB port on the Motherboard (Gigabyte S648FX-L) and have tried several different USB ports. In addtion I have reinstalled the TIR 3.12 drivers several times(following strict guide in the manual). I have in fact reinstalled the latest drivers for the soundcard (Audigy 1) and I have tried various drivers (recently settled on 66.81 drivers) for my Geforce 6800 GT graphics card. None of these changes has had an impact.

FYI I have a P4 3 GHZ processor wth HT, 2 IDE hard drives, 1 DVD drive and a USB Microsoft Sidewinder Joystick and a USB Belkin Nostromo Speedpad. In addition a 450 watt power supply. I am using XP pro sp2.

I cannot identify the source of the problem although the freezing of TIR as the first sign and then the lack of response from the TIR software makes me feel that it is a TIR problem.

It is a random issue that occurs sometimes soon after starting to use TIR and other times it will work for well over 1 hour before the problem occurs.

Any ideas and/or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[Wayne]

Peachy9,

I believe that I have answered your e-mail also, so that we can look at what may be causing the lockups.

[Peachy9]

An update here. For all sorts of reasons I did a complete reformat and also replaced a stick of memory to ensure that my memory was matched. I seem to have got rid of the lockups in PF (in the main). However I am still suffering from Random problems with TrackIR3. I have upgraded the software recently but this has made no difference.

The Issue is that I will be in mid flow in IL2/PF - sometimes after 5 minutes and sometimes after 2 hours when the green LED will just turn off and Track IR will stop responding.

I will close down IL2/PF and go into the track IR software and it will show no tracking at all. I can close down the software however I cannot re-launch the software. At this point XP seems to become very sluggish in responding to commands.

If I go into Task Manager it shows the trackIR software still running. I try to end the task but it will not allow me to and the only option is to reboot in order to get the TIR software up and running again.

I have tried re-installing the software but to no effect. I have also reinstalled USB drivers and tried all of my USB ports both on the motherboard and on my case.

At a bit of a loss really!

[Wayne]

Peachy9,

When this happens and you are unable to exit the software, what happens if you disconnect the unit, does this allow you to exit without having to reboot?

[Peachy9]

next time it happens I will give it a shot - I used it for 1.5 hours last night with no problems. I will let you know what happens

[spotlope]

Hey Peachy, I've been having some sort of similar problems off and on too. It only happens now and then, but it hit me yesterday. When I clicked the exit button in TrackIR, it showed the down state, but didn't release when I let go of the mouse. My system then got sluggish as TrackIR began to eat up 99% of my processor cycles. After about 5 minutes it finally quit, but once it did my mouse buttons were screwed up; the left button acting like a double-click. I've found the only way to get out of this situation is a system reset. Just thought you and Wayne might like some corroboration.

thanks,
Bill Womack

[Peachy9]

Good to know someone else is in the same boat - I was beggining to think I was the only one out there. Unfortunately I have had no "air time" at the weekend so I will try and test it this week.

Cheers