TrackIR switching on/off mid-game

[spotlope]

I've got a couple of new problems with FSX and the latest TrackIR drivers (4.1.029a3). The issues are twofold; The first is that the LED's on the front of the trackIR unit don't ever go off, even when it's not in use, unless the software itself is stopped. I thought I remembered a setting in the software to turn them off when the unit wasn't in use in earlier iterations, but I can't seem to find it now.

That's not a big deal, but this second problem is: when the TrackIR LED's are lit, I've noticed that certain file operations in Windows, like opening a folder or loading software, will cause the TIR unit to turn off for up to 20 seconds. During this time, the entire system will freeze until the lights come back on, at which point everything resumes. I've tried all the same operations with the TrackIR software not running, and these pauses never happen. The biggest problem is that it will sometimes happen in mid-game when I'm flying FSX, causing the whole works to freeze until the unit activates again.

I'm not sure if this is a known issue with this version of the software, or a problem with my unit in particular. It's a TrackIR 3 w/Vector Expansion, serial number 25425.

thanks,
Bill Womack

[VincentG]

What type of system are you running?

Chipset?

Motherboard?

Have you tried the device on another system?

Are you plugging in directly to the system, or are you using a hub?

Have you tried isolating the device on the USB ports?

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 Hub"(s) that show and turn off the power saving feature that turn those ports off when idle. Sometimes that has an impact on the connectivity of the devices.

[spotlope]

Hi Vincent,

It's a homebuilt XP Pro SP2 system with an Asus K8N-E Deluxe motherboard (nForce4 chipset). When the problem originally happened, the TIR device was on a powered USB 2.0 hub, but I've since tried plugging it directly into an on-board USB port with the same results. At your suggestion, I tried disabling the power-down feature on the USB controller, but it still does it. In fact, it just winked off and back on, freezing my computer, while I was typing this. I don't have another machine available for testing currently.

thanks,
Bill

[VincentG]

Are you using the latest chipset drivers, and motherboard bios?

[spotlope]

I believe so, Vincent. The problem only started with this lateest version of the TIR software.

[VincentG]

Does the issue go away if you reinstall the 4.1.028 version of the software?

[spotlope]

Does the issue go away if you reinstall the 4.1.028 version of the software?

Yes, I tried it this evening. Once I uninstalled 4.1.029b3 and reinstalled .028, the problems went away. Reinstalling .029b3 brought them back again.

[Schnurx]

Switching the LEDs off: You can find this, when you use the settings button on e.g. the track or heads view window.

[spotlope]

Thanks, but the LED's are the least of my worries. I noticed, btw, that when I regressed back to the last version the lights started working properly again. That is, the green light only came on when the trackhat was visible to the TIR unit. Now that I'm back on the beta version, the green light is on all the time now, even in a dark room with no hat or dots in sight.