Is it the game or my T500 that's broken?

smithaz

Hi, I'm wondering if anybody can help me diagnose whether a problem exists with my T500 or with rFactor.

I have been having problems with my T500 and rFactor 2 lately, basically the wheel works fine for 20mins, sometimes more sometimes less, then all of a sudden (usually at a moment of high FFB like a tankslapper or hitting a curb or going on grass) the wheel goes light and rF2 freezes up and must be closed via task manager, the wheel sometimes loses its center position after this as well. The wheel also doesn't work in some USB ports that it used to work in.

I have had a new main PCB from Thrustmaster and sent it off for them, they say they have tested it extensively and found no problems yet I'm still having issues. Predictably they're now saying that it is my PC that's at fault, I doubt that it's my computer, I had no problems for the previous 6 months and changed nothing before the problems started. So what do you guys think, is it me or is it them?
 
Only some USB ports work? Ports that worked before you started having troubles?

Normally if your mainboard was an old one, this would indicate an age related solder breakdown. But your MB is not exactly an old one.

Does this only happen in rF2?
 
I had that exact same problem happen to me with my T500 today. Restarted my computer and than it seemed to be working again. Don't know if it's an rFactor 2 or a problem with my PC though.
 
smithaz said:
I have had a new main PCB from Thrustmaster and sent it off for them, they say they have tested it extensively and found no problems yet I'm still having issues. Predictably they're now saying that it is my PC that's at fault, I doubt that it's my computer, I had no problems for the previous 6 months and changed nothing before the problems started. So what do you guys think, is it me or is it them?
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Unfortunately it is a typically behavior of electronic components to change suddenly from normal to unexpected. Worst case is the sometime error.
In your case the issue is reproducible (that is good in a bad situation)
Is it possible for you to test your wheel on other PC (friend or so)?
It should be enough to install the rF2 demo and plug in your wheel and do some more laps as on your own pc.
edit: how long it takes normaly until you got the failure? Hope not hours because if in case of yes it will be need more time to ensure that the behavior has changed :p

In my working life I'm system engineer for storage and server virtualization systems
due this I've a lot of expirence with strange behavior of some systems.
I always try to sort out possible reasons until I got a point on which the behavior made sense.

If the wheel work flawless on a other pc you have to search on your pc hardware or software if not you have to search on the wheel maybe a broken wire a bad connector or a bad power supply......
 
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Like alpha said, you need to try you wheel on another pc. Do that and you can confidentally rule out their theory of your pc being the issue (or possible not and confirm their theory). You never know, pc could be at fault...you need to find the evidence. If you test it with another pc and it works fine, at least you can then say with certainty to Thrustmaster that it's not your pc at fault after testing it on another pc. They will be much more willing to take a second look at your wheel then.
 
Agree with above. Computers are strange things. Sometimes they work perfect and then for some strange reason they decide to play up.
The first thing has mentioned above is to try the wheel on another computer to see if you can replicate the problem if everything is fine and working alright then it is trying to find the problem on the computer. You say you have had problems with your usb connections then the first thing I would do is try another usb lead and also th check they are not powering down in power saving options.
 
Yep USB ports it used to work in it doesn't anymore after installing a new replacement PCB.

It is totally reproduce-able in rF2, it just takes 20mins or more before it happens, then happens again sooner after that.
I tried once in AC in the past and it didn't freeze the game but I felt a change in the wheel and the game stuttered after that.
I admit I need to test again in AC when I have the time. It would be hard work to test at a friends but possibly do-able.
Also I have none of these problems with my old G27 which I have been using instead.

I suppose I will try to get it over to a friends at the weekend and test it there. Personally I suspect it is something in the wheel overheating or something, just based on the fact that it always seems to cut out when it is giving high FFB.
 
melg said:
then the first thing I would do is try another usb lead and also th check they are not powering down in power saving options.
Click to expand...

good idea :) additional suggestion use a USB 2.0 port on the backside (direct connected to the board in other words not a port which is through a wire connected to the board.


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smithaz said:
Yep USB ports it used to work in it doesn't anymore after installing a new replacement PCB.

It is totally reproduce-able in rF2, it just takes 20mins or more before it happens, then happens again sooner after that.
I tried once in AC in the past and it didn't freeze the game but I felt a change in the wheel and the game stuttered after that.
I admit I need to test again in AC when I have the time. It would be hard work to test at a friends but possibly do-able.
Also I have none of these problems with my old G27 which I have been using instead.

I suppose I will try to get it over to a friends at the weekend and test it there. Personally I suspect it is something in the wheel overheating or something, just based on the fact that it always seems to cut out when it is giving high FFB.
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this.
 
I had this too a while back, whenever I had a big slide with lots of tire smoke and only at high quality tracks like Silverstone and lots of a.I near. I don't know why it started happening and but it hasn't happened for some time know its just gone away. smithaz try reproducing it with special effects off, as I could swear it's the tire smoke which caused it for me.

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PS also try reproducing it with with no ffb what so ever as well, should narrow it down for you.
 
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I don't think it's the wheel. For me the sound from my headset dissapeared aswell. Tried to recreate the problem in other games but it only seems to happen in rfactor 2.
 
Sorry it took me so long to see this :eek:

This is 100% an issue with the Thrustmaster drivers.

https://community.racesimcentral.net/showthread.php/19929-RF2-crashing-and-controller-out-of-sync

I have had this exact issue twice in the time I've owned my t500, first time was fixed when I reinstalled windows and the latest time with just a driver removal and reinstall. When it happens the symptoms seem to show up first in RF2 then AC after it gets really bad in RF2, there must be something with the way RF2 handles it FFB that makes it more prone to whatevers going wrong.
 
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Yesterday I was driving the erd egt mod on the ferrari in lrp, after the chicane starting the uphill my Wheel died. I have an DFGT only not super advanced, the gt logo was on off on off and the wheel completly died. Rf2 was still running but had to force the pc reset as my mouse and keyboard was not responding. Never happened to me and was really strange.


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Adrian said:
Sorry it took me so long to see this :eek:

This is 100% an issue with the Thrustmaster drivers.

https://community.racesimcentral.net/showthread.php/19929-RF2-crashing-and-controller-out-of-sync

I have had this exact issue twice in the time I've owned my t500, first time was fixed when I reinstalled windows and the latest time with just a driver removal and reinstall. When it happens the symptoms seem to show up first in RF2 then AC after it gets really bad in RF2, there must be something with the way RF2 handles it FFB that makes it more prone to whatevers going wrong.
Click to expand...
thanks for that linked thread as I must have missed it, thinking back now thanks to your thread jogging my memory, I did a fresh install of windows some months ago so everything is installed clean and have not had the freeze since. have you noticed just unplugging the t500 from USB in game also causes the freeze too, although it dose not go off centre.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk
 
OK so I have done some testing today and narrowed down the problem a bit. I have found that with FFB on 100% power in driver it crashes almost straight away whenever I go on the grass or kerbs, but on 50/60% it doesn't crash at all no matter how long I drive for. This suggests to me that its still the wheel thats at fault and not rFactor, I'm gonna get back on to thrustmaster warranty people and see if i can get anywhere with them this time.
 
smithaz said:
OK so I have done some testing today and narrowed down the problem a bit. I have found that with FFB on 100% power in driver it crashes almost straight away whenever I go on the grass or kerbs, but on 50/60% it doesn't crash at all no matter how long I drive for. This suggests to me that its still the wheel thats at fault and not rFactor, I'm gonna get back on to thrustmaster warranty people and see if i can get anywhere with them this time.
Click to expand...

Mate thanks for this, on my dfgt i have all default ffb settings in windows and 2.00 force on all cars from the egt mod. Now with 1.40 inside the sim did 61 laps with the same car/track combo with no problem, but ffb is now too light for my taste....


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I had this too a while back, whenever I had a high ffb moment the wheel would cut out. Had to set ffb to a low setting, what I Noticed was the blue light on the power supply go out, contacted thrustmaster and they said it would be the pcb so I replaced that and the fan mod ($60.00 au) all fixed and quieter fan.
 
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