rec.autos.simulators

  Time for all the hardware geeks to wake up and earn their keep.  The
stranger the solution, the better.

:)

dave henrie

1) Does the USB wheel and other devices work perfectly if you remove
the USB Hub from the equation??
2) Have you updated your Mobo drivers for the USB to the latest version
? I know some Intel based boards require this.
3) Have you tried using your wheel and playing Nascar 2003 from the
external view, hanglider position??
4) Have you emptied your trashcan??  The real one, outside??  Could be
the wife sabotaging you.
5) Have you deleted all your setups and recreated them from scratch??
6) Start a new GPLRank and play with keyboard for a few days until you
get to <100 and see if the same problem reappears with the keyboard
instead of the wheel. (my favourite).
7) Find out which IRQ the USB is trying to use (see if something comes
up after POST, but before XP Boots (disable hard disk if the bootup
sequence is too fast).  Or see if you can find it in control panel if
you get the pc up.
8) Set that IRQ in the bios to be reserved.  Hopefully the USB HUB will
grab it and not clash.
9) Try installing the TPTCC mod for Burnout3 on the PS2 so that you can
practise in the meantime.

Regards,
istoff

  That may be it.  I still have the Hub plugged in, but have removed the
wheel and all other usb devices from it's ports.

    Amd..drivers?  we don't need no s***kin drivers...

   Well that's it!  Who'd a thunk it...merely by driving in the kite mode
solves all my problems...but now I feel dirty..

   Thrash Can?  You mean that dinky wastebasket thingy with a couple of
thousand files inside?

   Izzy...I thought you knew me better.....SETUPS?  

   If I play with the keyboard, won't I go blind.(typing this from behind
some very thick glasses)

  See that was my question, kinda-sorta.  For years we fought Win98se and
tried to make sure certain pieces of hardware did not share IRQ's and
even in some cases did not even have an irq that was numerically close to
each other.(think Nvida graphic cards and Creative Sound cards)
  But I had always been lectured by the XP litteratti that all the IRQ
problems go away with the mighty XP OS.  Obviously, they have never fully
tested their systems with the Dave method...pile on stuff til it begs for
mercy.  

  But wouldn't I get calluses on my thumbs?

   Thanks for your help Istoff,  By at least ignoring the powered hub, I
seem to have gained some stability...no blue screens for about a day now.  
Sheesh...more money well spent eh?  (except I have had that hub
operational for several months now with no previous problems...)

Actually, the point about the IRQ is that you *can* reserve one if you
have to, especially for a legacy device like some telephony cards, etc.
 However, considering that USB is a plug and pray service, you would
imagine that a USB hub would be IRQ friendly.

Note that my understanding of XP's handling of interrupts is quite
limited, but IRQ's are still used, but the OS is able to share them
amongst several devices without getting too confused.  I still get
blue-screens now and then and it always seems to be linked to Network
or USB devices, go figure.

Nice to actually post something on RAS for a change.  It doesn't seem
the same any more.  Atmosphere different, yadda yadda yadda.

BTW.

Been thinking of a coupla utilities for F1C, you still willing to be a
betatester?

  sure...you always come up with unique cool tools

dave

Sudden frequent BSOD:s after NOT doing any hardware updates really does hint
to a hardware problem.

If it was IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL -bsod, as you indicate by saying "something
IRQ related", it will usually tell the driver name that is causing the
problem.

If the driver is not always the same, or the error changes on different
occasions, I would guess it is a power supply, CPU, motherboard or memory
error.

Further analysis can be done with easy by making the computer do a full
memory dump from the control panel -> system, and then installing windows
debugging tools, and after that just opening the memory dump file (defaults
to windows directory\memory.dmp) will tell all sorts of info about what had
just happened before the BSOD.

--
Mika Takala

Recently had a customer with intermittent freezes when downloading from
an iPod connected to a front USB port. The hardware all tested OK, iPod
included.

Eventually we narrowed it down to not enough oomph from the front USB
port. I've seen this before, particularly with other USB devices
attached such as scanners drawing the power.

After removing the iPod software and reloading it with the device
connected to a back USB port, no more problems.

I think your wheel probably draws more power than your average memory
stick or the like.

That said, with XP, I get plenty of systems tripping over after a single
Windows update or a program patch, etc. I'd be suspicious of those race
videos you mentioned though, because from what you say, the system
started tripping over after you downloaded them. Done a spyware check?

Glenn