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Zbootloader Crashing on Load

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 22:53
by KWard
I received my Stronghold mounts yesterday (and they are SO AWESOME) and today I'm trying to set up my GF III F-14 grip and rudder pedals. And I'm stuck at the step where ZBootloader is supposed to launch. It either doesn't, or immediately freezes upon opening.

Following both the official video here, as well as this video that I found here while searching these forums for help.

I've got VKBDevCfg-C 0.91.30 and ZBootloader-C 1.13, in the same folder, and I've set them to run as administrator as instructed. The zconfig.ini file has been created and per the second video I've added the 'user-developer' line.

The steps according to the instructions are
  • open VKBDevCfg
  • Select the device
  • click Tools
  • click Bootloader
  • VKBDevCfg will close and ZBootloader will automatically launch.

This is where it goes off the rails. VKBDevCfg does close, but ZBootloader won't open automatically. If I launch it manually, it usually freezes instantly. One time it didn't at first, and I was able to select the _BlackBox_MK2_GF_F14_v1_99_6.vkb firmware and click 'Flash It'. It delivered an error message and froze again.

Again the versions are VKBDevCfg-C 0.91.30 and ZBootloader-C 1.13, and I'm using Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. I hope I've provided enough data to diagnose the problem. Help?

Re: Zbootloader Crashing on Load

Posted: Wed Jun 17, 2020 23:17
by fallout9
Things to try: start VKBDevCfg as Admin. If it still not works disconnect other USB controllers are kill the utilities software running in the background, like Aorus, Logitech, Razer etc (best would be to restart computer in safe mode). If it still not works try on another computer.

Re: Zbootloader Crashing on Load

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 0:49
by KWard
Thanks, but unfortunately none of that helped. I was already running as admin, and I don't have another computer. There are no other USB devices are my keyboard and mouse, and there are no utilities running I can find. I get the same results in Safe Mode. I did get a screenshot of the error message this time. "Error write data: 0"

VKB Screenshot 01.jpg


And now VKBDevCfg is crashing too.

VKB Screenshot 02.jpg

Re: Zbootloader Crashing on Load

Posted: Thu Jun 18, 2020 1:50
by fallout9
First screenshot is actually alright, there are 0 errors when writing data :) After that the zBootloader should turn off and when you open again the VKBdevCfg it should be ready for resetting to default and calibrating.
Try to delete the folder, download again all the files and start all over, maybe one of the files got corrupted during downloading.
Another thing to try is to connect the joystick directly to the computer (no extender, no powered USB) in a stable port on the back preferably.