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While this may be related to the other issues people reported with .029 alpha drivers for FSX, I have not seen part of the problem posted anywhere, so I decided to post it separately.

Upon the initial install, the .029 drivers worked fine in FSX and other sims, but then the jerkiness, particularly in the vertical, creeped in (I don't see any artifacts other than reflection points in the tracking screen and I use the profiles provided with installation; I have the Vector Expansion installed). But the real problem is that TrackIR now crashes WinXP upon exit from any sim I try to use it with (FSX, WOV, LOMAC). Most of the time, the tracking works in the sim, albeit a bit erratically, but when I exit from a sim, I'm presented with a totally black screen with only my mouse cursor on it. I can move the mouse, but the keyboard is unresponsive, hard reboot is the only option (after waiting for a few minutes for Windows to come back). After reboot TrackIR starts and works fine (if you disregard jerkiness). I don't use any background programs while running the sims, but have other USB devices connected (separate stick, throttle and pedals). I do have windows blinds installed on my machine (AlienGUIse), but I don't use it (that is, my desktop theme is a regular WinXP desktop; had to give up those fancy skins after finding out that windows blinds will prevent you from being able to change graphic settings in FSX; I hope I don't have to completely uninstall AlienGUIse).

I guess I have to roll back to .028 for the time being (I haven't tried it yet but hope that at least I will be able to use sims other than FSX reliably), but not being able to use TrackIR in FSX that just begs to be ogled is a real bummer. I'm curious if anybody else experiences black-screen TrackIR crashes upon exiting from a sim.

Michal

PS. As far as stable, previous versions of the driver are concerned, did anybody else notice that the TrackIR installation becomes somewhat corrupted (green junk in the tracking screen, totally erratic tracking) after a long period of not using the device (the device remained connected at all times, but the app was not launched for an extended period of time -- weeks), forcing you to reintall? I had to do it a few times on my old machine. The jerkiness issue seems to be similar (degradation over time) but accelerated.

A couple of things to look at.....

1 - Latest motherboard bios update, as well as chipset drivers.

2 - Try moving the TrackIR to a different USB port, i.e. if it is currently on the back of the system, move it to a port on the fromnt of the system.

3 - Have you tried the device on another system?

4 - 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.

Thanks, Vincent, I might try some of your suggestions. The device worked fine on my old machine as well as during first couple of sessions on the new one. As I mentioned in my PS, on the old machine I used to have to reinstall the device and drivers after long periods of non-use. On the new one I've added and removed some USB devices after the original installation, so it may have something to do with that. I do have it plugged to the back plate as the installation manual recommends avoiding USB hubs.

Michal

Generally USB hubs, that have their own power supply, are usable with the TrackIR units.