Hardware & Technical Thrustmaster FAST service (TmService.exe) nolonger starts, so I can't use my bindings. Google is mystified. Any ideas?

Archvillain

Archvillain
Thrustmaster FAST service (TmService.exe) nolonger starts, so I can't use my bindings. Google is mystified. Any ideas?

Any windows gurus know what could be killing or corrupting a service?

Win 10. After a few weeks, an apartment move, a video driver update, and a few minor windows updates, none of the Thrustmaster software will run - it crashes out with an error "Thrustmaster FAST service is not running and cannot be started. Go to services manager and manually start the service, or run with Administrator privileges". If I follow these instructions and try to manually launch the file with administrator privileges as directed, I get "Thrustmaster FAST service has stopped working". If I go to services manager to manually start it, it likewise won't start. And after some uninstall-reinstall of all Thrustmaster software, TmService no-longer even appears in the list of valid services so I can't even do that.

I've even uninstalled it all, then cleared the registry of all the settings it left behind, rebooted, then reinstalled with a fresh download of TARGET software. No-matter what I do, the FAST service will not start, and without it, everything else is dead in the water. I've run CMD sfc /scannow, fixed any corrupted system files, nothing helps, and the error messages don't give me any clues as to WHY the service won't start, so I'm a bit lost as to what to try.

The only account of a similar issue I've been able to find on Google didn't help (it suggested removing the old registry entries).

Has anyone experienced something like this?
 
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Archvillain

Archvillain
Too much software has been updated over the weeks for a roll-back to fix this without screwing up work-critical stuff :(

Investigating further, it appears that InstallUtil.exe (the part of MS .NET that installs services) is completely busted (it instantly crashes on an exception when you try to run it), as is Visual Studio 2017 and the latest version of .NET (the older .NET v2.0 works but is too old to be compatible with TmService.exe), and the .NET and VS2017 respective repair tools don't help either.

From googling people with similar problems, there are some cases in the past where it was Microsoft updates that spontaneously broken this stuff for people ...and later eventually fixed it with another update, but whatever caused this can't be affecting many people other than me or everyone would be screaming bloody murder, so I have no idea how to proceed [cry]
 
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GJ51

GJ51
M$ seems intent on killing anything that isn't installed through the store.

You can try these instructions for installation

https://www.google.com/search?q=how....69i57j0l5.12539j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

and then you might have to edit the permissions of the service as well once installed

Win 10 seems to becoming increasingly difficult to use with each patch and that's not likely to change.

HTH

I've also run into situations where I've had to re-build the .NET installation to fix things on Windows 7 - I have Windows 10 on a couple tablets, but having experienced it there, I've stayed away from it on my desktop.

Good luck
 
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Archvillain

Archvillain
It isn't a software installation issue as far as I can see - everything was installed and working fine, up until very recently when the FAST service would no-longer start, so software depending on it can't run. It looks a lot like the problem is that something has broken Microsoft .NET - a part of the win10 operating system that installs services - rather than the thrustmaster software or service having a problem :(
Visual Studio 2017 also won't start, for I think the same reason.
 
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Archvillain

Archvillain
My hunch was right: It was Microsoft! They just released a Windows10 update today that fixed the problems caused by the previous Microsoft win10 update. As soon as I installed it, services started installing normally again, which means I can run TARGET and use my HOTAS again! Woohoo!

(which in hindsight means there was nothing I could have done (other than attempt to roll back a month), but thank you for the help regardless!)

SOLVED! [big grin]
 
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Antmax

Antmax
My Target stopped working, I had to start the service manually from the task manager. Still stops sometimes, Just have to tell it to start and it works fine till the next time FAST refuses to start up saying the service didn't start.
 
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