TrackIR freezing after periods of inactivity in Win 7

[Dominoes]

I've been using TrackIR 5 on Vista for a while. I installed Windows 7 64-bit about a month ago, and have a problem with TrackIR.

I'll often find out when I launch a game that TrackIR is not working. When I bring up its software, the program is mostly frozen, and won't exit. I force it closed, open it again and it's fine. It doesn't cut out while I'm playing, but if I come back from being away from the computer for a while, it might not work. Has this happened to anyone else?

[VincentG]

The USB could be powering down,

Have you tried turn off any kind of power save feature for your USB ports?

In the "Device Manager" you can right click the "USB Root Hub"(s), that show, and then select properties. On the power management tab, uncheck the box that allows the computer to turn off the USB port to save power (i.e. uncheck the box). Sometimes that has an impact on the connectivity of the devices.

[Dominoes]

Thank you Vincent - that sounds plausible. I have turned this setting off on all 7 USB Root Hub icons. I'll report back when I confirm if this is the problem. I won't be able to say for sure for a few days.

[Dominoes]

Unfortunately, this didn't fix it.

[Icarus]

I have this problem too with Vista 64. I also have a weird problem when I shut TIR4 down it shuts down all my USB hubs and devices. Usually they reboot, but a couple of times I found myself with nothing, not even a mouse, because it did not come back on.

[VincentG]

Have you looked at updating the motherboard bios, and chipset drivers?

[Icarus]

Thanks for the reply. Yes I have.

My specs: QX6850 @ 3.3Ghz, nVidia 680i mobo latest drivers.
GTX260 x2 in SLI, latest drivers, 8Gb Ram
1000W PSU, four month old install of Vista 64

I am however looking into one of my USB hubs, I believe it might be under powered (cheap). I'll let you know either way.

[Icarus]

Yes, the hub was to blame, but not as you might think. TIR was plugged directly into the mobo, but the suspect hub was daisy chained and I think it was sapping too much juice from the mobo. Using hubs only plugged into the mobo has also solved a few other niggling problems too. (I should mention I have four @ seven port hubs)

One last question. In F4AF, I initially find it very sticky at the far left and right of my yaw axis and I need to spin my head around a few times and that makes it goe away. I have to do this everytime I enter the pit. Smoothing does nothing, neither does moving the camera. It is in no other game, so it must be F4AF, just wondering if you had heard of this or if there was a solution.

[VincentG]

Nothing that I have eer heard about before.