Cougar MFD's and Windows 8.1

Anyone got them working? Mine just flash, and the driver keeps trying to install. I have rebooted with driver signing disabled, no good.

It also appears it may have killed one of them too, the lights don't come on no more.

Oops, I was tempted to press the Update button a minute ago. I think I´ll wait a little bit. Searching for Cougar MFDs and Windows 8.1 this really seems to be a problem. I hope Thrustmaster comes up with new drivers quickly.

Do you also have the TM Warthog or Saitek Pedals? I wonder if these are working on 8.1.

I doubt you've done any damage. Win 8.1 did the same to mine. And TrackIR and my 2nd monitor went on the blink

Removing and uninstalling the MFD's and reinstalling trackIR sorted out that and the monitor issue. My MFD's are unplugged until TM get off their arses and update the driver or there's an MS patch.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1_pr-hardware/thrustmaster-mfd-cougar-problem-in-windows-81/ff1dd578-b265-4b1c-9ac1-7914c61f16ae

I had just got back into BS and was using the MFD's all the time as well! Doh.

Simple solution is to get rid of that garbage win 8 and go back to win 7, win 8 causes so many problems its just not worth the hassle.

Nah, its way faster, and apart from metro, which is pointless on PC, the desktop is better too

The problem is with MS, because the mfds dont send any signal to the comp until u press a button win 8 thinks they are idle and shuts down the usb port.

also MS has removed the update from the store for the time being so it looks like they are sorting a fix, maybe an option to turn off the offending app.

Weirdly, every 2 seconds or so the lights come back on along with the "bingbong" USB device noise from Windows, so the port is switching on and off constantly. Not good for the MFD's I would imagine. Mine are unplugged until there's a patch. This must be affecting a lot of passive USB devices though, (hopefully). The more, the faster the patch will appear,

The problem is with MS, because the mfds dont send any signal to the comp until u press a button win 8 thinks they are idle and shuts down the usb port.

If they're plugged into a USB hub would that still be the case? It couldn't close the usb port if there was other traffic coming from other devices on the hub I'd assume.

I was just relaying what was said on the MS website, to me what your saying makes sense if they are plugged into a hub that is in use then if win shuts the port it would cut all off but this is MicroSoft we are talking about so SNAFU.

To me it seems more likely that Win cant install drivers unless it sees some sort of feedback after they are initially plugged in as Coolts says his is trying to connect all the time.

My MFCDs are doing the same thing - flashing and resetting.

To stop this I simply start Track IR, Center and Pause it, and the MFCDs stop misbehaving. But this happens every time I login to the computer.

^^^ Good to see the post above that the Win8.1 upgrade was pulled. I have two more puters to upgrade but will wait to hear that MFCD thing is fixed.

WC

Tell Windows not to turn off USB Ports in the Power options.

Tell Windows not to turn off USB Ports in the Power options.

I believe someone posted, somewhere, that did not work.

there's advanced options that are hidden, I'll have to look up, I know USB suspending is tweaked by default to turn off ports unless it receives input data.

Did anyone try turning off the Power Management in Device Manager?

Go into Device Manager, expand Universal Serial Bus controllers, right click on everything that has Hub in the name and select properties.

The last tab of the properties window should be Power Management, and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power".

I tried this. It appeared to work but then upon reboot the flashing commences again. I have turned off selective suspend and then in device manager turned off the power management functions for the USB ports/root hubs.

TM did email back. They said for now the workaround is to open the Gamecontroller applet and access the Properties tab and leave it open in the task bar. I noticed that this works earlier but it is kind of a sucky solution. Hopefully there will be an updated driver soon.

Out

The problem is with Microsoft's new "selective suspend" feature. Below is the response I received from TM support.

"Regarding your MFD COUGAR Pack.

Thank you for your reply.

The 8.1 update of Windows 8 brought a change to how the USB ports are managed by the operating system.

In order to save energy, the USB ports will be automatically disabled when there is no device connected or the connected device is on standby.

Your MFD panels do not send any signals to the PC when not being used, causing Windows to think the device is on standby and thus shutting the USB port down.

Since this change will impact a vast number of USB devices, we are currently waiting for Microsoft's official position on this update.

In the meantime, we are recommending you to open the Gamecontroller and access the Properties tab and leave it open in the task bar; this might prevent Windows from seeing the device as on standby.

We rest at your disposal for any further inquiries."

Out

@PoleCat:

True, this can only be a workaround but not the final solution. But does it work for you everytime or is it more a hit & miss workaround?

I don´t want to kill my MFDs by turning them off / on constantly by the OS. The last set of MFDs I had lasted only 2 hours and then I had to wait for 2 months to get new ones. So I´m a bit cautious here.

@WreckingCrew:

The 8.1 Update has not been pulled completely. It´s only the RT version which they pulled back.

Opening the game controllers properties window and minimizing it will keep them from flashing and they will function properly. I imagine they will flash on every boot until you repeat this procedure, unless you set up a script to run the applet and open properties on every boot.

Out

This is so far the only device I am having an issue with under Windows 8.1.

On another note...When running windows 8/8.1 if you prefer to have the old F8 boot menu see this link. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/

Without enabling this legacy boot menu there are instances in Win 8 when experiencing boot issues where you simply cannot access some of these modes at all.

I highly recommend running the command in either Windows 8 or 8.1

Out

Simple solution is to get rid of that garbage win 8 and go back to win 7, win 8 causes so many problems its just not worth the hassle.

Truly spoken like some one that has no idea. :huh:

Specifically what are the "so many problems" you are referring to?

Out

On another note...When running windows 8/8.1 if you prefer to have the old F8 boot menu see this link. http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/enable-the-f8-key-in-windows-8/

 

Without enabling this legacy boot menu there are instances in Win 8 when experiencing boot issues where you simply cannot access some of these modes at all.

 

I highly recommend running the command in either Windows 8 or 8.1

 

Out

Thanks for the tip. :thumbup:

Haven't needed it yet but...

TM said they are "waiting" for a response from MS over a week ago. Did they write them a letter and post it by hand?

I will try the task-bar hack, (but I dont want to brick my MFD's), as playing BS2 & A-10c and BMS for that matter without the MFD's is a massive backwards step for me.

Apart from that, 8.1 hasn't put a foot wrong for me.

I too asked Thrustmaster to see if there were any news about the issue. I got the same response as everyone else. I too wonder if they are communicating with Microsoft via smoke signals. On the other hand, if you read the reply from TM close it sounds a bit like they do not even talked to MS, but that they are waiting for MS to respond with what they "did" with the 8.1 update. Since I never read somewhere with problems with other USB devices, it looks tome like TM is a bit alone with their Cougar MFDs here. I really hope this can get fixed finally.

Respectfully, your expectations may be too high. Windows 8.1 was not released till very recently. TM would not even acknowledge the problem until they had the official release version. They are working on it now.

We will likely have to wait a bit for TM to produce a new Win 8.1 driver for the MFD's.

In my dealings with them through tech support their email responses have been quick and courteous. I know it is not ideal but at least we have a work around until the new driver (clunky as it may be).

Out

My concern is more that there´s a slight possibility that they cannot do anything with a driver. I hope I´m wrong. But if the OS decides that a Port is shutdown, I assume a driver is the last one who can make another decision. But I´m not sure how it really works. I assumed that the OS turns on the Port and then the driver kicks in. But it´s all speculation. I´m happy that there´s at least a workaround for now. Maybe I´ll do the upgrade next weekend.