ForceFeedback Pro

[Derek]

Hello

I've got an MS Forcefeedback Pro, and I'm running Windows 2003 (I know this
is an XP forum - but I figure that it'll be faster to get a response here).
Anyways the joystick installs fine however when I start playing a game (like
Flight Simulator for instance) after about a minute or so the joystick will
behave erratically (it will violently toss itself in random directions) and
as a result it will also crash the game (it will get extremely choppy).

If I look at the device manager, and check out the joystick settings, it
looks like it is going from a Connected, to a Not Connected state at random
times (however it happens frequently).

So has anyone out there successfully used the FFBack Pro on Windows 2003 -
or can help explain these issues?

Thanks in advance!
Derek

 

[Highspeed]

Try looking in alt.games.microsoft.flight-sim.

 

[Cari \(MS MVP\)]

Well most folks don't use a Server for gaming! Try the Server groups. 2003
is so locked down by default its possible something needs to be enabled.

Unfortunately have no idea what. I do have a Windows 2003 Server but it's
used as a Server, not as a gaming platform and that's the way I'd like to
keep it.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

Cari hit the nail on the head. Windows 2003 is not desigend for gaming.
It lacks many capabilities including support for certain hardware.
There are a few guides out there on how to make it more gaming friendly,
but this isn't a promise to make it fully compatible. Anyone who says
2003 is better for gaming is misinformed. I would suggest a dual boot
environment if you plan on running a server using Win2003 and you want
to continue gaming

 

[Joshua Smith [MSFT]]

The DirectX test team actually does regular testing on the Windows Server
OS's. There are some things that need to be changed (like turning on
hardware video acceleration) before all gaming can be done like on an
install of XP, but it is possible to do. As far as game controllers there
should be nothing that has to be changed to get input data. For some reason
I can no longer see the original message so I am not sure what the issue is.
Send me a mail and I can help you get going if you like. Remove the 'online'
portion.

Joshua Smith
DirectInput and OpenGL Test Labs
Microsoft

 

[Joshua Smith [MSFT]]

There really isn't a big enough difference in most cases as far as
hardware goes between XP and Server with respect to gaming. The team that
tests DirectX here at Microsoft tests games on Server OS's all the time. I
have seen cases where a vendor will block the install when it detects it is
running on Server, but that is most likely because they just haven't tested
it so they block to avoid issues. As far as input controllers goes I have
yet to find a controller that doesn't
work on Server but does on XP.

As far as your device goes the gameport was at best a "works
most of the time" bus. There were lots of problems as far as
how well it worked. Generally the issue was in the fact that when a card
producer was looking to save on cost it was generally the
gameport/MIDI bus that they started the cost savings. This leads to bus
instability. Since the gameport only allows for data to
travel in one direction the way the stick gets the force data is through the
MIDI channel. So we will want to check a few things to
begin with that will help us get the most likely issues out of the way.
First we want to make sure that the sound card is installed
correctly and that there are no devices with any yellow "bangs" in the
Device Manager. Second we want to make sure there is only one
gameport in the system. Things tend to go south fast if there is more than
one gameport. Often if there are more than one gameport
the input data goes into one, but the force data goes out another. Try
checking the BIOS to make sure there isn't an extra one
getting exposed there and disable it if there is, providing you have an add
in sound card. If you are using the onboard sound card
you may want to try disabling it and trying an add in card such as a Sound
Blaster Live! or similar.



If possible and you don't mind you can always send a "dxdiag"
report of your system that will help me see your hardware
and possibly point out what the issue may be. Here is how you can do that.

DXDIAG:
1. Click Start -> Run
2. Type "dxdiag" without the quotes and press Ok.
3. In the DirectX Diagnostic tool click "Save All Information..."

Let me know if you have more questions or that doesn't get you fixed

Joshua Smith
DirectInput and OpenGL Test Labs
Microsoft
-----

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

The DirectX test team actually does regular testing on the Windows Server
OS's. There are some things that need to be changed (like turning on
hardware video acceleration) before all gaming can be done like on an
install of XP, but it is possible to do. As far as game controllers there
should be nothing that has to be changed to get input data. For some
reason I can no longer see the original message so I am not sure what the
issue is. Send me a mail and I can help you get going if you like. Remove
the 'online' portion.

Joshua Smith
DirectInput and OpenGL Test Labs
Microsoft
-----

Get Secure! www.microsoft.com/security

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights