HOTAS slew button doesn't work

[swimbody]

Hello and Happy New Year.

 

Today while flying the navigation training mission I noticed that my HOTAS slew buttons are not functioning correctly. When I start to use it it just wanders all over the place along some bad axes. Now I cannot even see the buttons when I press them on the control config page in the sim. Additionally, the coolie hat switch just works like a repeater and I cannot hold it down to select SOI on any of the displays. Very frustrated. I have the "new" thrustmaster software driver updates as well as the firmware. I feel it is a problem now. Running Win 10 with and

AMD Radeon R7 360 Series. I have no idea if the problem is rooted in Windows and USB drivers. Can anyone help me out please?

 

Thank you in advance.

[Yurgon]

I would run the TARGET Script Editor (install TARGET first, if you don't have it yet) and from there go to the Device Analyzer. On the top left, there's a button (very easy to miss) that allows you to select which device you'd like to analyze.

 

Select the throttle and check the output. If all works fine and reliable, it would point to a problem with DCS. If you get the same problems, I would download and install the latest drivers from TM (again).

 

If the problem persists, I guess you should contact TM Tech Support, but please do post back here whatever you find, it will help others that have the same problem in the future. :thumbup:

[swimbody]

Thanks Yurgon. I used TARGET to confirm proper operation. It was operating just fine. Seems with Win10, the firmware updates screw my particular HOTAS Warthog controllers up. Throttle, Slew and Coolie all malfunction with the firmware update. I had to uninstall all TM drivers and reinstall but avoid the firmware update to troubleshoot. Problem solved. Works flawlessly.

[swimbody]

now how do I uninstall the new firmware. It is killing my throttle. no longer works after I installed.

[Yurgon]

I can't quite follow. Does it work or doesn't it, and what changed in between? If it worked in between, can you do the same again and then avoid whatever you did later on?

 

In any case, the firmware is more or less the software that's embedded into the device itself. You can't uninstall it, you could just install another version (replace the old one with the new one). However, once the device works, simply leave the firmware alone.

 

The driver runs on your computer and basically tells Windows how to interpret the device once a USB connection is established. You should be able to uninstall it via Control Panel -> Programs (or some such, I have a localized Windows and don't know the English names). In order to prevent Windows from automatically installing or updating drivers, maybe someone else can help, or just google it. Then install the latest driver from TM and you should be good.

[hansangb]

swimbody, are you sure the game controller settings didn't get confused? it's possible that the mapping went crazy. Check out the settings in the game itself.

[swimbody]

Thanks, got it fixed but not the way I predicted. I do understand how firmware works I just frustratingly typed the wrong thing. Got the throttle fixed but this was unconventional after speaking with Thrustmaster tech support.

 

First thing I did was uninstall the drivers and reinstall the drivers. I also performed the bootloader process to ensure a clean install of the firmware, which I thought was faulty, it was not.

 

I read on a post on the interwebs somewhere that one individual was having problems with the mb settings using USB 3.0 vs 2.0 and an enabled BIOS setting called xHCI. I turned it off and rebooted and then plugged my devices into the 2.0 USB slots. No joy. I then plugged them into the 3.0 slots and experienced the same thing, no joy. I then returned to BIOS and enabled xHCI and plugged devices into the 3.0 slots. It worked. I have no idea why. I also removed all the power management features for all the USB devices under device manager.

 

To summarize this is a Win 10 and new motherboard problem, not a Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS problem. I tried calling the computer manufacturer yesterday but got no answer while on hold, figured they were answering thousands of calls from families who had never bought a computer before.

 

Alas, I will update as I discover more if anything from the mb manufacturer and the computer manufacturer as I suspect future problems for folks buying more advanced machines.

 

Now that I have the HOTAS throttle working, (joystick always worked...) I am still having issues with the coolie hat essentially operating in repeat mode whereas I cannot long press coolie hat to establish SOI. The slew button behaves like its an inverse x and y and also has no stops, it just keeps on drifting as soon as I engage it. Can anyone give me some advice on how to make that work/behave better, perhaps a thoroughly fleshed out throttle profile?

Edited January 5, 2016 by swimbody