Before I give up on these wondered if any one has any suggestions I have two on separate powered hubs and they keep freezing about 20 minutes into a flight . My multi panel , yoke , radio , rudder ,switch panel all are fine . I used the version 6 drivers , upgraded to 7 and still lock ups. Have tried 3 different hubs all high speed . Also run track ir and wondered if there could be a clash

My pc is only 6 months old , ample power supply

It's not major issue as I only use them for landing really but would be nice to solve if possible

Cheers

Hiya Bozdog

This problem sounds like either 1 of only 2 things...

1. Your USB Hub cant provide enough amps to run these
2. Your CPU cant keep up with FSX and running these at the same time.

I've been down the exact same road as you, but with 6 of these panels..

Initially, I suffered with 4 out of the 6 randomly passing out on me, just becoming totally dead or blacking out on me for minutes at a time as the first powered USB hub I had couldnt provide enough juice, so I changed it for a Belkin slim 7 port hub, which made a huge difference, and the panels could run for quite a while, but then I found that instead of 4 out of 6 of them freezing up, it went down to 2 out of 6 randomly freezing up, but they no longer blacked out on me, they would just freeze up for 30 seconds at a time..

 

I also run all of the saitek panels, had the yoke and twin throttle quadrants too, rudder pedals etc...

 

Turns out that these panels eat up a LOT of CPU juice, which given that FSX is a major CPU hog, was a problem. The solution is to plug them all into a seperate PC and run them via simconnect.

 

Doesnt matter what PSU is iin your PC, thats not the problem, its the actual physical amps they draw from your USB hub, combined with the CPU usage to run them..

 

My PC has a 1200w PSU, and is an i7 quad, overclocked to 4.8, and that isnt enough to push 6 of these with all the other stuff plugged in too..

I simply sold them all and use TrackIR instead to look around the virtual cockpit..

 

I spent ages going over this problem with Madcatz too, who kept telling me I didnt have enough power to run 6 of them, even with my quad core i7 @ 4.8 and 4amps in my USB hub, and they kept telling me to run them via simconnect off another PC.

 

I sold 2 of my panels to a chap that runs 10 of them on an overclocked 6core CPU, and he said that even on his system, every now and then a few of them black out or freeze up for a bit, and he used simconnect on another PC to run them..

 

I bet if you unplug all your other Saitek panels, you may find that these run ok, or when flying at times/altitudes where your CPU is not working hard, these panels may be fine.

Try plugging the instrument panels direct to your motherboard USB ports instead. If that fixes it, your USB hubs don't have the "data" throughput necessary.

Thanks RCITGuy and PCAviator for your advise.

 

Phew I am glad its not just me, beginning to think perhaps my motherboard was faulty.  Unfortunately its not practical to plug them directly into the back of the  the pc as its Is not very accessible and it is a awkward job to keep unplugging and plugging them in when I want to use fsx, its not permanently set up for fsx its the family Pc too  ;-(  its just not practical to leave them plugged in the back all the time.  Really appreciate both your advise

 

I may use them selectively now   and use my Track Ir a bit more instead

 

Cheers

Just ignore the practicality for now, plug them into the back USB ports and see if the problem is solved. If it is, you at least know where the problem may lie, and you could find a solution easier.

I had the same situation after a new build similar to yours....  My panels were locking up almost unusable... I then put the  [JOBSCHEDULER] AffinityMask= 14 tweak in fsx config.... and wow no more problem with panels locking up    essentially freed up the first core of cpu to handle non core fsx duties for addons like panels while the other three cores are now running fsx as smooth as I have ever seen. 

Goodluck

MMV (mileage may vary)

Steve

Make sure all Saitek panels are run off a powered hub otherwise they will freeze

 

Ken