WARNING Win 10 and Siatak drivers

Cmdr Delmonte[VR] · Oct 23, 2015

Hail Commanders

We have now lost two PC's to the Saitek drivers causing damage to our hard drives

The first machine I updated to Win 10 was an older Intel I7 Lenovo machine ran Elite "Ok" but on limited
graphics settings using a Cyborg flight 5, under Win 8 never had an issues.

Within days of using the drivers and joystick under Win 10 my son unplugged the joystick whilst the machine
was on the desktop, and the machine "locked up" this is a KNOWEN issue with Win 10 and Saitek and I have had several e-mails
back and forth with them since.

In short the forced shut down corrupted a sector of the hard drive and I was forced to re-install windows 8 and that is how the machine has been left
its running fine and no issues.

My second machine is new bought using "I need an upgrade *cough* the Lenovo is just SOOOooo old (4 year's;-)"

And is a custom built gaming rig top of the range with SSD drives.

Ran "Fantastic" with Elite and X52 Pro under Win 8.1 and then I upgraded :-(

I have run several drives all advised by Saitek and forums on line.

Even "Without" unplugging the joy stick I would have a random crash, PC would lock up and forced power down reboot would ensue.
I thought the SSD would save me.... Alas no....

Corrupted files on scan, Elite wont launch and another re install this time a fresh install of Win 10

Note of caution !!! If you install Win 10 "Only" not an upgrade, you will have a missing Dll file XINPUT1_3.dll the best way
to resolve this is installing old DirectX Drives here ... http://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?id=8109 June 2010 version

Win 10 "Does not have" the Xinput_3.dll only the version 4

So back to my brand new gaming machine Saitek have messed up with Pi55 Poor drivers

I have now re installed everything and re setup DirectX and elite and Office and Photoshop and NVidia drivers and, and , and

I HAVE NOT installed the Saitek drives, I have lost some functionality on the X52 pro but this is better than trashing a new gaming machine !

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.........

Fly safe Commanders o7

babelfisch · Oct 23, 2015

Thanks for the advice. Did you try the win 10 beta driver?

LameoveR · Oct 23, 2015

Cmd Delmonte said:
Hail Commanders

We have now lost two PC's to the Saitek drivers causing damage to our hard drives

In short the forced shut down corrupted a sector of the hard drive and I was forced to re-install windows 8 and that is how the machine has been left
its running fine and no issues.

It's Lenovo cheap disks fault, not Saitek.
Need at least three examples to judge that is an axiom - buy third Lenovo PC\laptop and test it!

Soopyyy · Oct 23, 2015

Weird, I've not had anything approaching that sort of drama. I just wish they would release drivers that worked all the time...

Cmdr Delmonte[VR] · Oct 23, 2015

babelfisch said:
Thanks for the advice. Did you try the win 10 beta driver?

Hi, No .... they still look pretty unstable , o7

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Well would agree but the Lenovo drives I upgraded to top spek Western Digital some time ago, all fine under Win 8. I quite like Win 10 but if you unplug the joystick
it will lock up every time.

SpitTheDog · Oct 23, 2015

The corruption isn't caused by the drivers. Anything that casues you to forcibly close your machine, even someone tripping over the power cable could potentially cause this.

However, until Saitek release proper drivers I won't be staying at Win10. I went back to Win8.1 after seeing the same lockup behaviour if the Joystick was unplugged. Had to unplug as sometime is would lose centre. I had plenty of forced shut downs while looking at this and my system survived.

Cmdr Delmonte[VR] · Oct 23, 2015

Soopyyy said:
Weird, I've not had anything approaching that sort of drama. I just wish they would release drivers that worked all the time...

Hope it stays that way ! We have the X52 on a long extension thought that may have been the issue so moved it all around and "taped" the plugs together so they cannot
pull out, also tried USB 2 and 3 ports and installed a second USB port set on the mother board. Brand new bespoke machine. runs fantastic
but then the LED's on joystick would flash and machine would Lock up. You could crash to desktop but as you move your mouse all you get is "Beeps" use
keyboard to select shut down, but the shut down screen just sits there and the machine never goes off. Forced reset. And then corrupt files. Elite launcher worked but would not allow me to Log In, FD support helped me figure out the issue. so Rep for FD on that one they were most helpful o7

CaptainKremmen · Oct 23, 2015

I must say, I've had one "Saitek X52" moment in the past 18 months w.r.t. unplugging the HOTAS. On Win 8.1, the instant I pulled out the USB, Windows crashed in spectacular fashion.

It only ever happened one time, but... wow. My USB asplode!

Cmdr Delmonte[VR] · Oct 23, 2015

SpitTheDog said:
The corruption isn't caused by the drivers. Anything that casues you to forcibly close your machine, even someone tripping over the power cable could potentially cause this.

However, until Saitek release proper drivers I won't be staying at Win10. I went back to Win8.1 after seeing the same lockup behaviour if the Joystick was unplugged. Had to unplug as sometime is would lose centre. I had plenty of forced shut downs while looking at this and my system survived.

Cause and effect

Drives fall over machine locks up Forced reset. Unfortunately I cannot go back to Win 8 otherwise I would ! For some reason it wont let me roll back to pre Win 10 upgrade. Working absolutely fine now under Win 10. no lock ups or anything..... But I have NOT put the drivers back on o7

babelfisch · Oct 23, 2015

SpitTheDog said:
The corruption isn't caused by the drivers. Anything that casues you to forcibly close your machine, even someone tripping over the power cable could potentially cause this.

However, until Saitek release proper drivers I won't be staying at Win10. I went back to Win8.1 after seeing the same lockup behaviour if the Joystick was unplugged. Had to unplug as sometime is would lose centre. I had plenty of forced shut downs while looking at this and my system survived.

Well it could be caused by the drivers...

But generally a forced shut down shouldn't cause corrupted sectors and when it does you should be able to repair via chksdsk.

I am doing fine so far with win 10 + beta drivers, the only issue is that I sometimes get doubled inputs, which is something the beta driver SHOULD have fixed...

Faster than Jesus [VR] · Oct 23, 2015

I used to have this problem (lock ups/beeps), but haven't for a while. Not sure what eventually fixed it.

Have you tried the Win10 beta drivers?

Also, you can disable the USB power saving features through the Power Options settings.

I also changed the X52 thrust control to full range rather than switch from forward/reverse. This meant that the annoying calibration issue only meant a slight loss of reverse speed and meant I wasn't tempted to pull the USB lead out to force re calibration of the stick, and thus not have the machine spaz.

Jigsaw · Oct 23, 2015

When a boot sector is corrupted you should try restoring that first by attempting an install repair instead of reinstalling everything.

Dark Lord · Oct 23, 2015

I have had no issues with the Win 10 Beta drivers for my X55. I had same issue as OP before I installed the Beta drivers, lock-ups and mouse pointer having a conniption.
All good now tho' no issues and can even use the software for some bindings.
My advice is to install the new drivers they are working ok.

Cmdr Delmonte[VR] · Oct 23, 2015

Jigsaw said:
When a boot sector is corrupted you should try restoring that first by attempting an install repair instead of reinstalling everything.

Boot sector was ok, machine booted and worked fine but Elite just would not work after being fine for months. I used sfc /scannow under elevated command prompt
to find corrupt files, But auto repair could not fix them, I eneded up do a "System repair" form a Bootable CD

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Dark Lord said:
I have had no issues with the Win 10 Beta drivers for my X55. I had same issue as OP before I installed the Beta drivers, lock-ups and mouse pointer having a conniption.
All good now tho' no issues and can even use the software for some bindings.
My advice is to install the new drivers they are working ok.

Hi, Is this the X52 pro ? If so please direct me to the Beta drivers !

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Faster than Jesus said:
I used to have this problem (lock ups/beeps), but haven't for a while. Not sure what eventually fixed it.

Have you tried the Win10 beta drivers?

Also, you can disable the USB power saving features through the Power Options settings.

I also changed the X52 thrust control to full range rather than switch from forward/reverse. This meant that the annoying calibration issue only meant a slight loss of reverse speed and meant I wasn't tempted to pull the USB lead out to force re calibration of the stick, and thus not have the machine spaz.

Will try the power stings tonight, I had thought about it but never got round to trying ! A combination of Beta drives and change power settings may help. Thank you o7

Faster than Jesus [VR] · Oct 23, 2015

Check this thread out: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=180924

Steve50 · Oct 23, 2015

hmmm okay, so thats reason #43 why I'm happy to stay with Win 7 and shun Win 10.
"if its not broke, don't fix it"

Dark Lord · Oct 23, 2015

Hi said:
I am using the X55, but here is the link to the drivers.

http://madcatz.kayako.com/Knowledge...aitek-hotas-beta-drivers-and-software-release

Talarin · Oct 23, 2015

Cmd Delmonte said:
Hope it stays that way ! We have the X52 on a long extension thought that may have been the issue so moved it all around and "taped" the plugs together so they cannot
pull out, also tried USB 2 and 3 ports and installed a second USB port set on the mother board. Brand new bespoke machine. runs fantastic
but then the LED's on joystick would flash and machine would Lock up. You could crash to desktop but as you move your mouse all you get is "Beeps" use
keyboard to select shut down, but the shut down screen just sits there and the machine never goes off. Forced reset. And then corrupt files. Elite launcher worked but would not allow me to Log In, FD support helped me figure out the issue. so Rep for FD on that one they were most helpful o7

Tbh that sounds like the X52 not getting enough power. Try running it off a powered USB hub.

CaptainKremmen said:
I must say, I've had one "Saitek X52" moment in the past 18 months w.r.t. unplugging the HOTAS. On Win 8.1, the instant I pulled out the USB, Windows crashed in spectacular fashion.

It only ever happened one time, but... wow. My USB asplode!

That happens to me every time I disconnect my X55 (Windows 10). It's not a major issue, I just need to remember to shut the machine down prior to unplugging - but hopefully the Windows 10 drivers will fix that as it is very inconvenient.

Cmdr Delmonte[VR] · Oct 23, 2015

Hail Cmdr, I bought a "powered" extension an tired it on both USB 3 ports and USB 2 ports... The key to all of this is that "Without" the drives installed everything works fine ! . No crashing no issues at all, X52 Pro works fine, Ok cant adjust LED settings or Clutch mode but I can live with that ! Going to try the Beta drives ! and disable power saving as that's one I have not done so far ! Wish me luck o7

popuptoaster · Oct 23, 2015

My X52 pro has always locked the PC up if you unplug the usb lead without "removing safely" even back when i was on W7, it's not a W10 problem.

Answer is to not do it.