Anyone else have issues with losing ATC voice using headphones?

[Goatman24]

Have spent a lot of time trying to troubleshoot this to no avail.

 

When using my headset and using it only for listening to ATC it suddenly turns off and starts coming out of my surround speakers. At first I thought it was my usb sound card but recently purchased a PCIE card and it does the same thing.

 

I'm beginning to think the culprit may be Saitek's instruments because I've noticed when I use the trimming wheel especially I hear the dreaded sound of the usb being unplugged then replugged in. I've also had this happen on occasion with the flight yoke. It seems whenever this happens, the sound card for the voice setting gets put back to the default sound card.

 

Everything is run through FSUIPC paid version. All controls in FSX settings are off.

 

I know Saitek has tons of issues with it's throttle potentiometers which is why I upgraded to my TG6. Guessing maybe a similar issue with the flight yoke and trimming wheel causing a problem.

 

Just curious if anyone else has ever had this issue.

[il88pp]

More likely the headphones are disconnecting. Broken wire perhaps. Win then switches to default device.

[Goatman24]

That's one thing I have not tried. Will do and post results.

 

Thanks

[Goatman24]

Not that Top Gun.

 

I put in another headset with same results. I can guarantee that when I scroll the trim wheel that it will cause it to revert back to the default sound card. I'm pretty sure it has happened on occasion with the yoke but not as often.

 

I've also noticed that when I stand up and walk in front of my system it causes the same thing most of the time. And that's without touching anything. I hear the familiar sound of a usb device unplugging and reconnecting. I even thought it may have something to do with my insulin pump but took it off and put it into another room and it still would do the same thing.

[il88pp]

Could be a problematic Usb device. For example a printer with a fault. (paper jam, cartridge error.).

Try clearing faults.

Also, shut down pc and disconnect from wall socket.

Press power button on front a few times to clear remaining current.

Unplug Usb devices you don't need.

Then unplug controllers too, and plug those back in.

Re-attach wall power.

Stuart pc and try again.

 

Printer faults can cause weird errors.

 

If it happens also when you are not at the yoke/trim then that's not it. Moving around still sounds suspiciously like broken wire.

 

Other option. In windows sounds there is some setting to "mute sounds" or something when there is cm incoming call. You need to set that to "do nothing".

 

Having sound playing in another program, for example internet radio from browser, could interfere too perhaps.

[Goatman24]

Okay, will try all this tomorrow if time permits. I don't have a printer hooked up to this computer so there shouldn't be anything there.

 

Very strange.

 

Thank you for the advice.

[Goatman24]

Think I've got it pin pointed Top Gun.

 

I unplugged all unnecessary usb devices, turned down all scenery graphics to half, unplugged and turned on the power supply a couple times as you suggested and this is the result.

 

At first, the Saitek flight yoke didn't light up and I thought I had unplugged it by accident however it was plugged in. So, I unplugged it and re plugged it in and it came on. I then set headphones to my added sound card. After a little flying the light flickered on the yoke and I heard the dreaded noise and the headphones went back to the default sound card. I'm virtually sure that is the problem and I think the Saitek trim is another culprit doing essentially the same thing.

 

I've already had to pitch one Saitek throttle quadrant (Read of many others having potentiometer problems with them.)

This is my second Saitek flight yoke. My other one doesn't work at all.

Lastly, I can re-create the problem right away withe the Saitek trim wheel.

 

Guess I need to swap out my yoke for a better quality one. Trouble is I have my cockpit built around two Saitek yokes and it will be a major hassle to try and incorporate another style. I had made my dash out of Corian and spent a lot of time building it. Arrrggghhh!!!!

 

Thanks so much for your advice. When I finally get another yoke to officially verify this I will post again.

 

Take care

 

[il88pp]

Don't throw the device out yet.

 

I tried something. To test. Hadn't used headphones in a while.

 

I was doing a flight

I plugged in my headphones to test.

(Wireless, plug dongle in Usb, and connects automatically.)

That became default device, all sounds came through headphones.

 

I set it different in fsx.

set other sounds to my onboard (VIA blah blah)

set "Voice" to headphones. (Logitech blah blah)

Worked fine. Voice came through headphone, others through speakers.

 

 

Then I did some tests.

First I plugged in a usb pendrive. Heard the 'doing' and got a warning from antivirus asking to scan pendrive.

But sound was unaffected.

Still ATC through headset, rest through speakers.

 

Then tried something else.

Unplugged my keyboard. (Again, wireless dongle for keyboard and mouse.)

That did it.

Now all sounds came through headset. (In other words, all sounds came through Default Device as set in Windows.)

 

It seems a controller disconnecting can cause this to happen.

Doesn't have to mean controller is damaged internally.

Could be a bad contact in the Usb port. Or a bad cable to the controller.

 

Tried the same with my joystick. Logitech 3D. Wired.

Again, disconnecting joystick from Usb port caused all sound to go through Default Device as set in WIndows.

 

I wouldn't throw the controller out just yet.

Try another Usb port perhaps.

 

(I heard recently some threads about controllers get linked somehow to the usb port they were first used with. Don't know more about that really. If I come across one of those threads again I'll post a link.)

[il88pp]

Ps. That headset dongle works as a second sound card. Separate from the onboard audio. Just like you have it set up.

[longbreak754]

Somethings to check out........

 

Look at the OS power options in the system settings (or use the start menu search tool and search for Power Options. These settings are used to set 'rules' on how the OS reacts to certain background events and there is a specific section regarding what actions the OS takes when it 'detects' (or a better descriptive word would be 'thinks') that the system is idle, including USB ports. Check and the current settings and change as follows:

 

1. Click Change plan setting.

2. Click Change advanced power setting.

3. Find USB settings and open.

4. Find USB selective suspend setting and change it to disabled.

 

If the option is already set to disabled, select enabled and then disabled again.

 

Sometimes, connecting USB 2.0 rated items to a USB 3.0 port can cause problems. Basically, a 3.0 port uses a different power rating (about 4.5W versus the 2.5W of a 2.0 port) and when you connect a 2.0 device it should recognise it and drop the power down but it can still fluctuate enough to cause disconnects. The other main differences between 3.0 and 2.0 is that 3.0 has more internal wires and can handle faster data speeds.

 

If your rig has a mix of port types making sure that the controllers are connected to the correct ones - USB 2.0 I believe - may resolve the issue. Depending on the MoBo, it may also be possible to disable' 3.0 mode in BIOS - this will still allow 3.0 ports to be used but will restrict them to 2.0 mode.

 

NOTE - This last option requires you to consider doing something that may render the port unusable and, therefore, should only be considered as a last result...........

 

Another possible, but less likely cause, based on the fact that you can 'induce' the error by simply walking around, is that the USB port connectors are 'slack' and susceptible to slight cable movement, thus causing a 'phantom' disconnect and reset. However, the problem tends to be more common if you regularly insert and remove a USB cable. If you look inside a port you will see metal retention pins/tabs - these are designed to 'grab' the connector via the indents located on the USB plug. You can 'tighten' the USB port by carefully bending the tabs slightly so that they make a better contact.

 

Bearing in mind my warning above, it may also be a simple case of rerouting the cables to minimise contact with items that may move when you walk around the rig or shuffle in your seat..............

 

My final comment is WRT the last comments of il88pp at post #8 - controllers/USB devices can get linked to a specific port. It depends on whether the device has what is called a USB serial number allocated to it by the manufacturer, normally 'hardcoded' into the device. If the device has one, Windows will recognise the device irrespective of which USB port you plug it into. If it doesn't have a serial number, Windows treats each new connection on a different USB port as if it were a new device. Windows may sometimes even treat it as a new connection when you reconnect it to a previously used port.

[Goatman24]

Top Gun, glad you were able to duplicate my issue. That helped to narrow things down.

 

Brian, I think you actually pegged it. I made the usb change in the power settings and I just flew a complete flight from Dillingham to Honolulu on Oahu with no trouble. I also tried to move the cable to the Saitek yoke physically and had no drop of connection. I'm going to plug everything back in and move my settings back to normal and keep my fingers crossed.

If you weren't in Yorkshire I'd track you down and buy you a beer sir.

Thank both for all the help.

 

Mitch

[Goatman24]

Well, I spoke a little too soon. After plugging all back in and cranking my settings back up I still get the issue although I think it has helped in that it is less than before.

 

I have put all of my usb devices into 2.0 outlets only. I have no idea where they may have originally been plugged in when set up but they all are now 2.0. I tried to wiggle the connector while plugged in and it had no affect. So I assume that the connectors are all making decent contact.

 

Something else I noticed while flying a mission last night for several hours is that the flight yoke on screen seems to be flickering between two positions as if it's not sure where to be. I was also going to go back into the settings to make sure that the setting was still the same being disabled. (Btw, there was another setting I passed up in the power settings that gave a choice of High Performance or Power Saving. I'm going to set it to High Performance.)

 

There are no settings within FSX that run my controllers as it's all run through FSUIPC (Paid version.)

 

I'm not going to disable my 3.0 ports even though they are not used since I have enough 2.0.

 

These are all of my 2.0 items running on my system.

1. Wireless Trackball Mouse

2. Wireless Mini Keyboard

3. CH Pedals

4. Saitek Flight Yoke

5. Saitek Trim Wheel

6. Saitek Switch Panel

7. 2120 Pulse Generator (From Desktop Aviator.) for switches and buttons

8. USB Powered Hub

9. GF-TQ6 Throttle Quadrant

10.Triple HeadToGo (For multiple monitors.)

11.Scenery Hard Drive

 

4 items are plugged into the usb hub.

2 wireless devices are plugged into the front of the computer.

2 items are plugged into the back panel usb ports.

3 items plugged into a card (Non-pci) plugged into the motherboard.

 

One additional piece of information:

I have a fan blower hooked up to my cockpit dashboard that I run through vents in the dash similar to what is on a car dash. The switch has 4 settings, off, high, medium and low. The switch seems to be going bad because when between high medium and low I get some static sound through my speakers and if I keep doing this I can also re-create the effect of the yoke disconnecting. I've left this unplugged and it doesn't help my problem which is why I didn't mention it.

 

Anything else I can check before purchasing a new flight yoke?

 

 

Edit:

Just checked and the usb selective setting had reverted back to "Enabled". Not sure what would have triggered this to happen.

[longbreak754]

Hi Mitch,

 

First, WRT to the USB setting reverting back to enabled. You mentioned that you had noticed the High Performance setting in the power options and was considering trying it. If you did, this may have triggered the reset as the High Performance plan is aimed at/based around providing as much resources/power to the CPU and may, by default, turn off/disable other resources.

 

Another possibility is that there may be a 'disconnect' between the settings made on the Power settings page and those contained within the registry, which by default, are set to use the 'balanced' based power plan. See this page for more info on how power plans are implemented - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/935799.

 

WRT to the problem - Based on the amount of stuff you have connected, and the test flights results of the initial flight after changing the USB setting but before you re-added stuff, it seems more likely that the cause of the problem is due to a Interrupt Request (IRQ) conflict rather than the Yoke being faulty. An IRQ is a hardware signal sent to the processor to temporarily stop another running program to allow another to run instead. Hardware interrupts are used to handle a number of events/processes such as receiving data from a modems/NICs, keyboards, mouse and joysticks etc. If you have two (or more) items attempting to send an IRQ request at the same time you get a conflict

 

Your best bet here, is to google about IRQ conflicts and find a guide that suits your way of working so that you can investigate further. Unfortunately, IRQ problems can be a PITA to resolve and may entail lots of testing.

[Goatman24]

Thanks Brian.

 

I had not switched the "High Performance" setting before the "disabled" setting was reverted back. In fact, I just checked the setting now and it was still on "disabled" and I hadn't changed the "High Performance" yet. I just did now and it did flip the "disabled" back to "enabled" so I in turn flipped that back.

 

I've got a lot to try while attempting to figure this thing out and it'll take some time to experiment but, I will post any results as I keep searching.

 

Nothing I do is ever easy.

 

Thanks again.

Mitch

[longbreak754]

Hi Mitch,

 

Based on your last post it definitely looks more like a conflict. The yoke worked fine by itself in your earlier test flight that you made prioir to posting post #11, so it might help to disconnect/revert settings back to how they were when you made that test flight and then add an item, test, change the settings of the that item to what you normally use and then test again before doing the same with all of the other items. Unfortunately a tedious and time consuming process..............

 

WRT IRQs - the number of IRQ channels available will depend on the age and/or the config of the MoBo fitted - older types will only have 16 whilst newer types will normally have 24. However, in both cases, not all are automatically available by default as some are reserved for use by certain functions - those assigned to the system time (IRQ0) and the keyboard controller (IRQ1) are just two examples.

 

Lastly, here is a link to very basic guide on how to find IRQ issues - planned to provide it in my last post but could not find in the list of useful links that I have in my favorites..........

 

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-to-detect-an-irq-conflict

[Goatman24]

Brian, I have not yet pulled each device and given a test run for each of my usb items just yet.

I did however go to the link and followed the procedures for finding items with conflicts.

 

There were a whole lot of things listed but none had the yellow exclamation mark showing a conflict.

 

The numbers ran up to 190 but many were missing in between. (Mostly between 20 and 80) The one listed with the highest number is (ISA) 0x000000BE (190) Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System.

There were 3 listed for (19) but were all (PCI) items.

 

Mitch

[Goatman24]

After going through and making most of the suggestions here: http://www.simforums.com/forums/the-fsx-computer-system-the-bible-by-nickn_topic46211.html

my problem has been solved.

 

Not sure exactly what did it, but I now have no issues with the sound card changing on me.

 

Thanks for the help guys.

Mitch

[lnuss]

Not related to your problem, Mitch, but the guy you are calling Top Gun is il88pp (screen name). The "Top Gun" might will show up for any poster with a certain number of posts behind him -- just like calling you "Member."

[Goatman24]

Thanks Larry. I've been away for quite a while and just getting back into things again. I appreciate you letting me know so I don't continue it. :o

 

Mitch

[il88pp]

Don't worry about it.:D

[Rupert]

OK, I admit I haven't seen this thread before. I scrolled through it and found some very helpful info for myself. However, since I don't recall seeing it mentioned, I have to ask. Are your multiple USB plugins powered by your computer or by a powered USB hub?

 

I found some time ago that various unexpected issues arose when I had several devices plugged into USB ports. Just because your computer has many USB ports doesn't mean it can power them if they are used simultaneously!

 

Too many USB devices including flight control devices can rob the Motherboard of power and cause many, many unexpected results.

 

If you haven't already done so, I suggest you spend the $10-$20 and buy a powered or maybe, depending on your application, more than one powered USB port. Is low USB voltage your issue? I can't pretend to say. But if you use a powered hub, that's another thing you can check off your concerns list. ;)

[Goatman24]

Rupert, I am using a powered usb hub and have 4 things plugged into it.

 

Since running through most of the list of things to do in that earlier post, (The Bible, by Nick) I'm running clean and mean glad to say. Lot's of stuff that I had to go through but I would highly recommend it to anyone that hasn't used it. I still don't have a clue as to what the actual fix was or what was causing the problem.

[Goatman24]

Just wanted to update this because I am still having issues. I've ordered a power supply from Amazon which says takes between 1 and 2 months to ship. Geeeeezz!

 

After that it looks like I'll be purchasing a new yoke if that doesn't help.

[Goatman24]

I will keep my fingers crossed but have made many long flights and it seems the power supply not included with the Saitek yoke has done the trick. They don't even mention the power supply on their website. On other forums like this one I have read where the power supply is actually for powering the USB hub on the yoke base but evidently, it also helps to power the yoke itself.

 

It would be nice if Saitek would at least mention the specs on the power supply needed or make one available for purchase from them our their retail outlets. It's 5v 2.5 amps.

 

Just wanted to make this final post in case anyone else ever has the same problem.

 

 

 

Mitch