Linda stops working and needs multiple restarts? VRiSim issue?

[Robert McDonald 167]

I am a HUGE fan of Linda, and in the past, Linda got along just great with VRInsight's VRiSim software and Serial Port drivers. However since getting the latest and greatest from VRinsight website, all of a sudden, Linda stops working (the key assignments on my WARTHOG throttle stop functioning!

 

Puzzle:

 

1. Start FSX - Linda autostarts with FSX

2. Select default airplane PMDG 737NGX and default location KLAX airport ramp C8

3. Show FMC on Virtual Cockpit and open a Seperate undocked FMC window

4. Start VRinsight's VRiSim software to control the VRI CDU-II and V737 Overhead units.

5. Linda controls the VRI MCP-combo II plus the Thrustmaster HOTAS WARTHOG throttle/joystick combo

6. Latest version of FSUIPC 4.853 is installed

7. Initialize the PMDG 737NGX from cold & dark using V737 Overhead and CDU-II

8. Commence flight operations

 

During flight, without warning LINDA will suddenly stop responding. I have to forcibly restart linda and even then the results on my Thrustmaster equipment are not 'instantaneous' or immediate. This tells me something must be conflicting with the Serial Port that the MCP Combo II is on (this is my guess). While nothing new has been plugged in or removed during flight, I can count on this pheonomenon recurring, multiple times during a flight.

 

Something is wrong, and I have no clue how to fix it.

 

Any suggestions from Linda team gratefully accepted!

 

Robert

[guenseli 1,580]

This could sometimes happen (meaning this happend to me) if you have something like e.g. crappy Saitek throttle quadrants. These have fired constant button inputs because the reverser buttons where jittering.

 

If you open LINDAs joystick page when this happens: do you see then, that LINDA is always shows that the same button is pressed? And if you press another button, LINDA will jump back to the previous button?

Meaning, there is somewhere a ghost button pressed?

[Robert McDonald 167]

This could sometimes happen (meaning this happend to me) if you have something like e.g. crappy Saitek throttle quadrants. These have fired constant button inputs because the reverser buttons where jittering.

 

If you open LINDAs joystick page when this happens: do you see then, that LINDA is always shows that the same button is pressed? And if you press another button, LINDA will jump back to the previous button?

Meaning, there is somewhere a ghost button pressed?

 

Thanks for the tip - I will check it tonight when I get home!

[Robert McDonald 167]

SOLVED!

 

OK- the short version: I thought I had removed the MCP-COMBO II module from my system - but apparently, using Windows Control Panel Add/Remove, I still had a version of VRinsight Combo II software 'left behind', and I believe this remnant was fighting with Linda. Flying LAX to Las Vegas, and no problems AT ALL! Linda has continued working blissfully. I removed the remnant of the Combo II by going to the VRinsight folder, and choosing "UNINSTALL COMBO II", once I did that, the "troubles" were over! WHAT A NIGHTMARE!

 

Thanks to all who helped and tried to help, especially Andy at VRinsight and Guenseli at AVSIM.net!

This issue was incredibly simple - once I knew what to 'look for' - the duplicate of the COMBO software hiding in the VRinsight folder. Once I chose to 'uninstall' the MCP COMBO from the VRinsight folder, I was 'golden'. Whew!

[guenseli 1,580]

thanks for telling us! Glad you solved it!

 

Yes, Andy is a true gem, a very worthful member of ourflightsim community!

[Robert McDonald 167]

is there any possible way that REX ESSENTIAL could have any kind of impact on Linda? I wouldn't 'think so' - yet today I experienced some strange behavior until I altered some configuration settings in REX. I also know that REX was crashing a lot... and don't know how to go about getting 'updates' to REX ESSENTIAL once I have it installed? Does anyone know how to do that?? Does REX even issue updates or bug fixes?

[guenseli 1,580]

I do not think that REX influences LINDA in any way, as it then also would influence FSUIPC.

(Could that be through simconnect? I don't know!)

 

 

Updates are from the REX forum if there any now for REX essential.

 

I stopped using REX a while ago as I'm not satisfied with - even the textures are good, the software itself does not make me happy.

[Robert McDonald 167]

Don't trade a headache for an upset stomach - or How I learned to love VRiSIM controlling all my VRinsight hardware and give up having LINDA run the MCP-II COMBO

 

News flash!

 

After major sleep deprivation and nearly losing a job I've held down for 23 years, I finally got disgusted trying to make a purse out of a sow's ear! I watched VRiSim in task manager (using the ProcessTamer application I recommended in this thread) and after experiencing unending problems where Linda would lose control of some of my programmed buttons on my Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle/Joystick pair during flight, a dim lightbulb began to glow in the back of my mind...

 

What could be wrong? Clearly Linda and VRiSim were fighting each other, even though when I started up VRiSim, (after first starting Linda) only the V737 OVHD and the CDU-II Flight management computer were showing up to be controlled via VRiSim. So how could I have a problem? Well... I DID have a problem --- and it persisted across days and weeks. Andy Digital got me wondering, he said "some folks" reported 0% CPU usage by VRiSim (which makes sense, once a control is altered and the new data sent to the airplane, why would the VRiSim.exe consume 16 to 28% of CPU? And what did that mean for FRAMES RATES? BAD, BAD, and BAD.

 

So here it is space cadets - the "fix" that thus far works for me:

 

1. Unplug all your VRI hardware from the USB powered hub. Restart your system.

2. After restarting your system, go into Windows Control Panel and select programs and features Scroll down and remove all VRinsight software, start with the modules you have installed, in my case that was 3 modules, the V737 Overhead, the MCP Combo II (Boeing), and the CDU-II FMC. Then, uninstall the VRiSim basic control program as well.

3. Reboot

4. Download the FTClean.zip utility from VRinsight website (do a search on Google).

5. Make sure you have all of your VRi hardware turned off and disconnected from your system

6. Unzip the FTClean.zip and run FTClean. This will remove ALL TRACES of the VRinsight drivers on your system.

7. If you haven't already, go to the link http://www.vrinsight.com/devel_shot and download all the pieces of VRiSim software for your system:

 

Install_VRSim.exe

Install_CDU-II.exe

Install_MCP-II_Combo.exe

Install_v737_OVHD.exe

 

beginning with the FIRST item, right click on it and select RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR.

After running, the VRSim.exe installer will ask you if you want to INSTALL THE DRIVERS for VRi hardware say YES.

A DOS window (Command Prompt Window) will open and the drivers will install. IMPORTANT - all VRI STUFF MUST BE DISCONNECTED DURING DRIVER INSTALLATION!!

Then, install each of the MODULES that apply to your hardware (in my list above there are 3 modules, which follow the VRSim main base program) Be sure to RIGHT-CLICK on each one and choose RUN AS ADMINISTATOR.

After each module installs, you will be asked if you want to install the PANEL for the device. SAY NO.

Be sure UAC is turned off on your system, and all anti-virus software is shut off during this process. Google UAC if you need help turning it off.

Reboot your system

If you have previously been using LINDA to run your MCP Combo II (Boeing) or (Airbus), you will need to go into LINDA MCP settings and DE-SELECT it. Then SAVE your new settings in Linda.

Then go into FSUIPC.ini and remove the line [VRinsight] and the line immediately following that which gives the com port number for your MCP Combo II. SAVE the revised FSUIPC.ini file.

 

Plug in all of your VRinsight hardware

Without starting up FSX, start up VRisim.exe. All of your VRinsight hardware should be detected. If not, click the black + symbol in the upper right corner of VRiSim to Re-SCAN VRI DEVICE. Click on each of the tabs that pertain to each of your VRi hardware devices, and select the aircraft you will be using. Be sure to put a tick mark in the "Use this device" box. After doing all of your VRi devices, start up FSX, and THEN after FSX is loaded, click the FLY NOW! button in your VRiSim dialog box. Golden!

 

Now, you will see that VRiSim is using 0% of your CPU slices, leaving all that overhead to run FSX and your Weather/Scenery software!

 

Hope this saves many of you a lot of the pain, crashes and burnt hours that I invested in coming to this discovery.

 

As always, a full system backup before doing any of the above is smart.

[Robert McDonald 167]

Still more on the continuing saga of VRiSim software, VRinsight Hardware (3 pieces) and Linda LUA all running within FSX:

Even with ALL of the above, I was STILL having my Thrustmaster Warthog Throttle/Joystick pair fail during flight ops. Linda LUA (free on Avsim.net) was intermittently failing to work as expected, so I began thinking that possibly some OLD drivers were lurking on my PC and fighting with the VRinsight hardware. At this point, I was about ready to try to kick my PC through the uprights and try for a 3-point field goal. So I contacted FTDI, the chipmaker whose chipsets are used on the VRinsight products for help.

 

I had a VERY hard time removing all the VRinsight drivers. Their hardware board chipmaker FTDI has an updated utility that forcibly removes all traces of the VRi drivers from the registry, the latest version is called CDMUinstaller_v1.4 - and after UNPLUGGING --all-- VRi hardware from the USB ports, you run this uninstaller. It acts like it didn't do anything, but if you check the 'generate log' prior to running it, you will see it DOES remove several lines from the registry. That was the good news. Then I rebooted the system so I could reinstall the FTDI drivers.

 

The bad news is that, following the UNINSTALL of the FTDI drivers, the reinstallation program (called CDM20824_Setup.exe fails to work as expected. I got lucky and after rebooting (following the install of their drivers), I plugged in the powered-up VRi hardware 1 piece at a time, and EACH TIME the drivers FAILED to install. The error message was FT232R USB UART Failed.

 

I went to DEVICE MANAGER and located the Serial Port device in the unknown new hardware area, right clicked on the device and let Windows Update download the correct driver from the Internet. Then I had to repeat the process for each of the 'new' ComPorts (3 were created to match my 3 VRi units). Again, I had to right click on the failed com port 1 at a time and let Windows Update go to the Internet to get the drivers.

 

Finally, I moved the MCP Combo II (Boeing) VRi unit to a USB port on the back of my PC(not plugged into the Powered USB-2.0 HUB that I was using for all 3 VRi devices.

 

Some combination of the above has meant that for 2 straight flights, my hardware all played nicely with each other, the BAD NEWS is that I cannot control the MCP-Combo-II unit with LINDA, because it plainly speaking uses UNREAL amounts of CPU processor time - 16 to 25% continuously throughout flight ops. That is MUCH TO MUCH of my processing power for so mundane a task. I need those CPU slices to run the SIMULATOR. After removing the MCP Combo II (Boeing) from LINDA setup (and using VRiSim instead), Linda.exe uses 0% of my system resources during flight ops, and VRiSim also 0 percent. So I am compelled to use VRiSim to run the Combo II, the V737 OVHD, and the CDU-II (a total of 3 VRinsight hardware control panels).

 

I -do- use LINDA to control my Thrustmaster Joystick/Throttle and the Saitek Combat Rudder Panels. I love Linda and wouldn't give her up... but you need to alert ARTEM of this problem.

 

A very fine free program I discovered on the web (ProcessTimer) is amazing because in real time it shows which processes are hogging your system resources, and allows you to alter the priorties of any given process ON THE FLY. I highly recommend both ProcessTimer and my other stellar discovery GameBooster (also FREE) to get a better handle on your Windows 7 box and allocate more power to FSX while shutting down any "UNNEEDED" processes prior to launching FSX.

 

Hope Artem (from Linda Lua Team) can figure this out - I shudder at the amount of hours and troubles this issue brought me. I think quite probably some old drivers were left behind from fhe SerialFP2 software (the predecessor to VRiSim from VRinsight. Also, VRiSim may well have left some drivers behind and perhaps there were 'duplicates' assigned to a given piece of VRi flight sim hardware, I'm not sure.

 

What I can tell you is that this was one of the very most challenging tech issues I've EVER had to deal with, I nearly gave my entire system away it was making my life a living hell.

 

Not that much fun playing software engineer just so you can fly your flight simulator.

[KVAZEMODO 1]

Hey Guys. Have a problem with Thrustmaster when FSX started with Linda. Linda log is here : Module base=51A80000
User Name="8888888"
User Addr="888888"
FSUIPC4 Key is provided
WIDEFS7 not user registered, or expired
System time = 24/08/2014 13:31:48
FLT path = "C:\Users\KVAZEMODO\Documents\Flight Simulator X Files\"
Trying to connect to SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07 ...
FS path = "D:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\"
Run: "D:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\Modules\linda.exe"
LogOptions=00000000 00000001
SIM1 Frictions access gained
[E] VRI port 1 "com7" failed to open
[E] VRI port 3 "com2" failed to open
Wind smoothing may be by ASN, not FSUIPC, if it is running
Will switch smoothing action when ASN starts/stops
G3D.DLL fix attempt installed ok
SimConnect_Open succeeded: waiting to check version okay
Trying to use SimConnect Acc/SP2 Oct07
VRI port 2 "com1" opened
Running in "Microsoft Flight Simulator X", Version: 10.0.61472.0 (SimConnect: 10.0.61259.0)
Initialising SimConnect data requests now
FSUIPC Menu entry added
D:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\FLIGHTS\OTHER\FLTSIM.FLT
D:\Microsoft Flight Simulator X\SimObjects\Airplanes\Aircreation_582SL\Aircreation_582SL.AIR

 

Something wrong here

[E] VRI port 1 "com7" failed to open
[E] VRI port 3 "com2" failed to open

 

And engine start buttons are not respons/ Any ideas?