Thrustmaster FF Wheel Driver help desperately sought

Single white male seeks attractive, educated driver for the Thrustmaster-Guillemot Ferrari Force Feedback Racing Wheel. You: compatible with Windows Me, but ready to move on to Windows XP when the timing is right. Me: hard driving, hard luck stock car driver with a chip on my shoulder about bad software. Lets see if we can work it out. ------------------------ Okay, here is the situation: ---running Windows Me, with aforementioned Thrustmaster Ferrari FF Racing Wheel. Was successfully running the wheel under drivers dated, I believe, 8-28-2000. ---preparing machine for an XP upgrade this afternoon I checked the TM site for new drivers. Found one. Installed. ---after install this new driver (dated 7-23-2001) the wheel shows up under the Device Manager but under the game controller control panel it is now listed as "not connected". I reboot. Machine hangs on reboot. Reboot again. Inside Windows, the Wheel isn't recognized as connected. I reinstall the 7-23-2001 driver in case I screwed it up the first time. Reboot, machine hangs, wheel still isn't recognized. ---now I "update" the driver but put it back to the 8-28-2000 driver which it finds in my Windows directory. It asks me to insert the TM cd to find files (why, I don't know). I do, it finishes installation. The wheel still is "not connected". Reboot, machine hangs, reboot, etc. ---now I remove the wheel from the game device control panel, the device manager, reboot, Windows Me detects the device and installs the 7-23-2001 driver from my hard drive. Wheel "not connected" again. ---again I remove the wheel from the game device control panel and the device manager, plus I manually delete the directory where the 7-23-2001 driver is located. Reboot, Windows Me again finds the 7-23-2001 driver somewhere on my computer and installs it. ---"update" the driver from the TM cd to the driver it shipped with (8-28-2000). Reboot, now windows begins bluescreen crashes, plus the wheel is "unconnected" plus under the device manager is the yellow exclamation point and the following message: "The NTKern.vxd, MMDEVLDR.vxd device loaders for this device could not load the device driver. To fix this click Update Driver below." ---I do that, reinstall 8-28-2000 from the cd being careful that I'm not selecting from a Windows NT subdirectory (looking at that first file name). Same result: bluescreen crashes, exclamation point, warning message, "not connected". ---------------------------- What do I do? I am gonna upgrade to XP. I am completely confused by my driver situation now under Me. I wonder if moving on to XP I might get the 7-23-2001 driver to work. On the other hand I sure hate to install an operating system over top of serious technical problems (the yellow exclamation point and the blue screen crashes to be specific). I can't even figure out how to get all these dam files off the system for a clean driver install (why is the 7-23-2001 driver still on there after I deleted it? Is the whole driver package still on there somewhere, or just one pointer file?). Any advice appreciated.

You should do a clean install of XP in any case. Iain "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> Single white male seeks attractive, educated driver for the > Thrustmaster-Guillemot Ferrari Force Feedback Racing Wheel. You: > compatible with Windows Me, but ready to move on to Windows XP when > the timing is right. Me: hard driving, hard luck stock car driver > with a chip on my shoulder about bad software. Lets see if we can > work it out. > > ------------------------ > > Okay, here is the situation: > > ---running Windows Me, with aforementioned Thrustmaster Ferrari FF > Racing Wheel. Was successfully running the wheel under drivers > dated, I believe, 8-28-2000. > > ---preparing machine for an XP upgrade this afternoon I checked the TM > site for new drivers. Found one. Installed. > > ---after install this new driver (dated 7-23-2001) the wheel shows up > under the Device Manager but under the game controller control panel > it is now listed as "not connected". I reboot. Machine hangs on > reboot. Reboot again. Inside Windows, the Wheel isn't recognized as > connected. I reinstall the 7-23-2001 driver in case I screwed it up > the first time. Reboot, machine hangs, wheel still isn't recognized. > > ---now I "update" the driver but put it back to the 8-28-2000 driver > which it finds in my Windows directory. It asks me to insert the TM > cd to find files (why, I don't know). I do, it finishes installation. > The wheel still is "not connected". Reboot, machine hangs, reboot, > etc. > > ---now I remove the wheel from the game device control panel, the > device manager, reboot, Windows Me detects the device and installs the > 7-23-2001 driver from my hard drive. Wheel "not connected" again. > > ---again I remove the wheel from the game device control panel and the > device manager, plus I manually delete the directory where the > 7-23-2001 driver is located. Reboot, Windows Me again finds the > 7-23-2001 driver somewhere on my computer and installs it. > > ---"update" the driver from the TM cd to the driver it shipped with > (8-28-2000). Reboot, now windows begins bluescreen crashes, plus the > wheel is "unconnected" plus under the device manager is the yellow > exclamation point and the following message: "The NTKern.vxd, > MMDEVLDR.vxd device loaders for this device could not load the device > driver. To fix this click Update Driver below." > > ---I do that, reinstall 8-28-2000 from the cd being careful that I'm > not selecting from a Windows NT subdirectory (looking at that first > file name). Same result: bluescreen crashes, exclamation point, > warning message, "not connected". > > ---------------------------- > > What do I do? I am gonna upgrade to XP. I am completely confused by > my driver situation now under Me. I wonder if moving on to XP I might > get the 7-23-2001 driver to work. On the other hand I sure hate to > install an operating system over top of serious technical problems > (the yellow exclamation point and the blue screen crashes to be > specific). > > I can't even figure out how to get all these dam files off the system > for a clean driver install (why is the 7-23-2001 driver still on there > after I deleted it? Is the whole driver package still on there > somewhere, or just one pointer file?). > > Any advice appreciated. > >

On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 20:09:41 -0000, "Iain Mackenzie" <[email hidden]> wrote: >You should do a clean install of XP in any case. >Iain > When you say "a clean install of XP" do you mean that when given the option to upgrade my current operating system or do a full install (in the XP setup program) to choose the latter? Or are you talking about wiping the hard drive, etc.? (I don't believe I've ever upgraded Windows before so its a new "xperience" for me).

I did an upgrade, and then I did a clean install, and I definitely agree with Iain that a clean install is best. Remember to save your application folder in the windows folder. David G Fisher "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 20:09:41 -0000, "Iain Mackenzie" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >You should do a clean install of XP in any case. > >Iain > > > > When you say "a clean install of XP" do you mean that when given the > option to upgrade my current operating system or do a full install (in > the XP setup program) to choose the latter? Or are you talking about > wiping the hard drive, etc.? (I don't believe I've ever upgraded > Windows before so its a new "xperience" for me).

On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 22:26:22 GMT, "David G Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>I did an upgrade, and then I did a clean install, and I definitely agree >with Iain that a clean install is best. > >Remember to save your application folder in the windows folder. > >David G Fisher >

I still don't understand exactly what you mean by "clean install", if you could be more specific. If you're talking about wiping the hard drive I'm very concerned about being able to install all of the programs that came on the computer when I bought it (which comprise the majority of my expensive software, i.e. Microsoft Office XP and stuff like that). Seems like it could take weeks to do all that if I even have the ability to do it. Right now I am still hung up trying to get a driver installed for the TM wheel that doesn't crash windows, or at least to uninstall all of it.

I reformatted the HD (wiped it clean) and did a clean install of XP. I had to have the XP CD in the CD drive when re-booting after I wiped the drive clean. During installation it asks you to momentarily insert your previous Windows CD to make sure you qualify for the upgrade to XP. It took some time but was worth it. You may have a lot more software installed on your computer than me though. Try simply upgrading to XP without reformatting and you'll probably be just fine. You could always do a clean install later on. I felt like I had a lot of "junk" on my hard drive and thought it would be best to go with a clean install. Here's a link to the latest Ferrari FF wheel drivers. http://us.thrustmaster.com/support/driver_view.php3?id=357 David G Fisher "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 22:26:22 GMT, "David G Fisher" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >I did an upgrade, and then I did a clean install, and I definitely agree > >with Iain that a clean install is best. > > > >Remember to save your application folder in the windows folder. > > > >David G Fisher > > > > I still don't understand exactly what you mean by "clean install", if > you could be more specific. > > If you're talking about wiping the hard drive I'm very concerned about > being able to install all of the programs that came on the computer > when I bought it (which comprise the majority of my expensive > software, i.e. Microsoft Office XP and stuff like that). Seems like > it could take weeks to do all that if I even have the ability to do > it. > > Right now I am still hung up trying to get a driver installed for the > TM wheel that doesn't crash windows, or at least to uninstall all of > it. > > > >

On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 23:44:45 GMT, "David G Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>I reformatted the HD (wiped it clean) and did a clean install of XP. I had >to have the XP CD in the CD drive when re-booting after I wiped the drive >clean. During installation it asks you to momentarily insert your previous >Windows CD to make sure you qualify for the upgrade to XP. > >It took some time but was worth it. You may have a lot more software >installed on your computer than me though. Try simply upgrading to XP >without reformatting and you'll probably be just fine. You could always do a >clean install later on. I felt like I had a lot of "junk" on my hard drive >and thought it would be best to go with a clean install. > >Here's a link to the latest Ferrari FF wheel drivers. >http://us.thrustmaster.com/support/driver_view.php3?id=357 > >David G Fisher

Thanks. That is the same driver I began by upgrading to and started all my problems. Oh well. I imagine I will do the upgrade rather than the HD wipe at this point. As you said, I can do a clean install later on if need be. Right now I have got my FF drivers installed at version 2.11.11 which is the older version on the TM website. The wheel doesn't work but at least it isn't crashing windows. (Pretty sorry when that's the best you can say about a product.) I suspect the "not recognized" thing is not directly related to the driver version since I haven't been able to get it to show up in the game device control panel in any driver version since I started messing with it. I can't think what else it might be but I seem to remember something weird when I first installed this wheel.

per chance if you are using a Ferrari FF wheel did you use the cleanW.exe before re-installing your new or any other drivers? if you dont use the cleanW.exe in the Start Menu it wont take all your old driver info out for TM aka Guillemot ferrari wheel or even for their FF joysticks. just a passing thought. thom_j. "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... | On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 23:44:45 GMT, "David G Fisher" | <[email hidden]> wrote: | | >I reformatted the HD (wiped it clean) and did a clean install of XP. Ihad | >to have the XP CD in the CD drive when re-booting after I wiped the drive | >clean. During installation it asks you to momentarily insert yourprevious | >Windows CD to make sure you qualify for the upgrade to XP. | > | >It took some time but was worth it. You may have a lot more software | >installed on your computer than me though. Try simply upgrading to XP | >without reformatting and you'll probably be just fine. You could alwaysdo a | >clean install later on. I felt like I had a lot of "junk" on my harddrive

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| >and thought it would be best to go with a clean install. | > | >Here's a link to the latest Ferrari FF wheel drivers. | >http://us.thrustmaster.com/support/driver_view.php3?id=357 | > | >David G Fisher | | | Thanks. | | That is the same driver I began by upgrading to and started all my | problems. Oh well. | | I imagine I will do the upgrade rather than the HD wipe at this point. | As you said, I can do a clean install later on if need be. | | Right now I have got my FF drivers installed at version 2.11.11 which | is the older version on the TM website. The wheel doesn't work but at | least it isn't crashing windows. (Pretty sorry when that's the best | you can say about a product.) | | I suspect the "not recognized" thing is not directly related to the | driver version since I haven't been able to get it to show up in the | game device control panel in any driver version since I started | messing with it. I can't think what else it might be but I seem to | remember something weird when I first installed this wheel. | |

On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 04:27:55 GMT, "Thom j." <[email hidden]> wrote: >per chance if you are using a Ferrari FF wheel did you use the >cleanW.exe before re-installing your new or any other drivers? >if you dont use the cleanW.exe in the Start Menu it wont take >all your old driver info out for TM aka Guillemot ferrari wheel >or even for their FF joysticks. just a passing thought. thom_j. > I think that is the answer I've been looking for. Going to try it now.

On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 04:27:55 GMT, "Thom j." <[email hidden]> wrote: >per chance if you are using a Ferrari FF wheel did you use the >cleanW.exe before re-installing your new or any other drivers? >if you dont use the cleanW.exe in the Start Menu it wont take >all your old driver info out for TM aka Guillemot ferrari wheel >or even for their FF joysticks. just a passing thought. thom_j. Hey, it worked! Thanks a million.

On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 08:59:26 GMT, [email hidden] (meettonysoprano) wrote:

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>On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 04:27:55 GMT, "Thom j." <[email hidden]> >wrote: > >>per chance if you are using a Ferrari FF wheel did you use the >>cleanW.exe before re-installing your new or any other drivers? >>if you dont use the cleanW.exe in the Start Menu it wont take >>all your old driver info out for TM aka Guillemot ferrari wheel >>or even for their FF joysticks. just a passing thought. thom_j. > > >Hey, it worked! Thanks a million.

I take it back. It still isn't working. (Whoever is reading out there let me strongly recommend you not repeat my error and choose another brand -- any other brand -- than Thrustmaster).

I am sorry it didnt but I thought I would give it a try as many forget to do this when installing or re-installing drivers for the FF Ferrari wheel. One last thought, When you used the "cleanW.exe" did you do a full re-boot and then re-install? just another passing thought.. If this doesnt work my idea pool is empty but we tried...eh? :) "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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| On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 08:59:26 GMT, [email hidden] | (meettonysoprano) wrote: | | >On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 04:27:55 GMT, "Thom j." <[email hidden]> | >wrote: | > | >>per chance if you are using a Ferrari FF wheel did you use the | >>cleanW.exe before re-installing your new or any other drivers? | >>if you dont use the cleanW.exe in the Start Menu it wont take | >>all your old driver info out for TM aka Guillemot ferrari wheel | >>or even for their FF joysticks. just a passing thought. thom_j. | > | > | >Hey, it worked! Thanks a million. | | I take it back. It still isn't working. | | (Whoever is reading out there let me strongly recommend you not repeat | my error and choose another brand -- any other brand -- than | Thrustmaster). |

On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 21:14:12 GMT, "Thom j." <[email hidden]> wrote: >I am sorry it didnt but I thought I would give it a try as many forget to >do this when installing or re-installing drivers for the FF Ferrari wheel. >One last thought, When you used the "cleanW.exe" did you do a full >re-boot and then re-install? just another passing thought.. >If this doesnt work my idea pool is empty but we tried...eh? :) > The CleanW did *something*, that's why I thought it worked. For the first time it finally showed up as "Okay" under the game controller but when I tried to use the TM wheel editor it couldn't detect it. I uninstalled everything, the wheel, the driver, the editor, then reinstalled (after using cleanW). Now its back to the same nightmare as before, computer crashing, etc. The truly maddening thing is that I have deleted all of the driver updates from my computer, used cleanW, then tried reinstalling the original (from CD) driver for the thing, and when I do that it comes up with the message that I am overwriting a newer file. In other words it is not removing the files when I delete the wheel, the drivers, run cleanW, etc. I don't know what to do. It is crashing my computer about 75% of the time it boots up and I can't even fucking seem to remove the wheel from the computer now.

On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 21:14:12 GMT, "Thom j." <[email hidden]> wrote: Another update in case you can help me (it is appreciated, by the way).... I've got it back to where it is running the most recent drivers, and is showing up in the game control panel as okay, but still is not recognized by the TM wheel editor software. I have no idea how or why it is running the latest driver, because I did everything I could to delete all remnants of that driver on my computer, and yet when I cut the wheel on, Windows automatically installs it (plug and play and all that) and it digs out that driver. Is there a trick to getting the wheel editor to work? Or do you think my driver installation is still screwed but its not showing up until I try using the wheel editor? (the wheel is operating properly in the game control panel when I go to the Test screen). I would rather have a driver installation that I understand how it got there but I'm afraid to make any more changes given the hours and hours that have been lost every time I try to reinstall a driver. Thanks again.

I've been fighting with my wheel last night. What seemed to work was to use CleanW, install Thrustmapper (3.08), all with the wheel turned off. When that's installed and rebooted, turn on the wheel (USB) and direct the installation to the directory with the wheel's drivers. With NFS5 the latest drivers don't seem to work that well, I cannot feel the resistance of the road.

I just uninstalled my Ferrari wheel drivers and then clean the system with a program called system mechanic which you can get from download.com . Installation of the older drivers (had to go backward for F12001) went fine (it did have to overwrite some newer files though) and F12001 ff is excellent now. Might give the system mechanic program a try. David G Fisher "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 21:14:12 GMT, "Thom j." <[email hidden]> > wrote: > > Another update in case you can help me (it is appreciated, by the > way).... > > I've got it back to where it is running the most recent drivers, and > is showing up in the game control panel as okay, but still is not > recognized by the TM wheel editor software. > > I have no idea how or why it is running the latest driver, because I > did everything I could to delete all remnants of that driver on my > computer, and yet when I cut the wheel on, Windows automatically > installs it (plug and play and all that) and it digs out that driver. > > Is there a trick to getting the wheel editor to work? Or do you think > my driver installation is still screwed but its not showing up until I > try using the wheel editor? (the wheel is operating properly in the > game control panel when I go to the Test screen). > > I would rather have a driver installation that I understand how it got > there but I'm afraid to make any more changes given the hours and > hours that have been lost every time I try to reinstall a driver. > > Thanks again. >

On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 22:11:11 GMT, "David G Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>I just uninstalled my Ferrari wheel drivers and then clean the system with a >program called system mechanic which you can get from download.com . > >Installation of the older drivers (had to go backward for F12001) went fine >(it did have to overwrite some newer files though) and F12001 ff is >excellent now. >

I got and used system mechanic. There are so many different aspects to that program that I am not sure if I did the necessary cleanup but we'll see what happens.

On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 22:11:11 GMT, "David G Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote: >I just uninstalled my Ferrari wheel drivers and then clean the system with a >program called system mechanic which you can get from download.com . Unfortunately it did not do anything to end the loop I am stuck in. Still have either a corrupted driver install that is a combination of the original and latest drivers, or the latest drivers but the editor doesn't work. (Even after I ran that System Mechanic I am getting the new drivers installed, although to the best of my ability I deleted them about 12 hours and 25 installs ago.)

Junk files and registry clean would be the two necessary clean ups. David G Fisher "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > On Sun, 25 Nov 2001 22:11:11 GMT, "David G Fisher" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >I just uninstalled my Ferrari wheel drivers and then clean the systemwith a > >program called system mechanic which you can get from download.com . > > > >Installation of the older drivers (had to go backward for F12001) wentfine

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> >(it did have to overwrite some newer files though) and F12001 ff is > >excellent now. > > > > > I got and used system mechanic. There are so many different aspects > to that program that I am not sure if I did the necessary cleanup but > we'll see what happens.

On Mon, 26 Nov 2001 04:01:18 GMT, "David G Fisher" <[email hidden]> wrote: >Junk files and registry clean would be the two necessary clean ups. > Those are the two things I did but they didn't get all of the wheel stuff. I actually went in manually a bit ago and deleted everything that matched a file on the cd from Windows/System. This had somewhat of an effect as next time I installed the drivers it went back to the original version, but the original version doesn't work anymore and just gives error messages. I guess I'm going to have to throw the wheel away and buy another one; I seriously cannot think of anything else to do. (Obviously I will wait to install XP first and see if by some miracle it solves all my problems).

Installing XP may very well fix it. Delete everything relating to the wheel and then install XP. David G Fisher "meettonysoprano" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Mon, 26 Nov 2001 04:01:18 GMT, "David G Fisher" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > >Junk files and registry clean would be the two necessary clean ups. > > > > Those are the two things I did but they didn't get all of the wheel > stuff. > > I actually went in manually a bit ago and deleted everything that > matched a file on the cd from Windows/System. This had somewhat of an > effect as next time I installed the drivers it went back to the > original version, but the original version doesn't work anymore and > just gives error messages. > > I guess I'm going to have to throw the wheel away and buy another one; > I seriously cannot think of anything else to do. (Obviously I will > wait to install XP first and see if by some miracle it solves all my > problems). > >