Does the NXT EVO have a "sleep mode"?

[1sascha]

Whenever I want to use the joystick after the PC has been up and running for a few hours, it seems to have disconnected itself/signed off from the computer. The blue LED near the F3 button will be off and the stick won't be recognized anywhere (Win Joystick panel, VKB's stick-software, games). I thought it could be due to having put the PC into sleep mode, or due to some other Windows energy-savings-feature that might disable USB ports after a while. But it just happened again and the system had definitely been running all the time and no other USB devices have been affected in this manner.

So far, it's been an easy fix - simply unplug the stick and plug it back in. Strangely enough, unplugging in this state will still prompt Windows to play the "USB device connected/disconnected"-sound. I've never had a joystick or any USB device that behaves like this and, like I said, none of the five other devices I have plugged into this PC (keyboard, mouse, PS3 webcam for Opentrack, Delanclip and TM TWCS throttle) have behaved like this, either. So I'm wondering if this is normal.

Stick is plugged directly into a USB 2.0 socket on the motherboard and the PC is pretty much brand new (only built it from scratch a couple of weeks ago).

Some specs:

Win 11 Pro
MSI Z690 Tomahawk Wifi DDR4
i5-12600 K


S.

[fallout9]

Try another port.

[Jack]

I have similar issue and resolved it recently. Don't know if your issue is the same but I have documented here: viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6439

[1sascha]

Thanks for the heads-up. Checked my device manager, but I don't see any conflicts in there:

German system, sorry about that..

The thing is that I may have been premature suspecting the stick to be the culprit. In my defense: It was the only device at that time that had noticeable issues. I've re-plugged it into a 3.2 port on the mobo, but I did have another of those "disconnected after long PC uptime with stick idling" events since then.

However: Now some other USB devices (both plugged directly into the mobo and into my monitor's 3.0 4-way USB-hub) have had occasional issues. Once my mouse wasn't recognized upon Windows startup, once my TM TWCS was still recognized by Windows as a device, but no control inputs from it were detected. Both are plugged into my monitor's hub and both were "fixed" by re-plugging. Also: My PS3 camera I use for Opentrack (plugged into a 2.0 port on the mobo) sometimes will correctly shut down when I shut down the PC, sometimes it will stay on for some reason. I'm starting to think this could be a Windows power-management issue. Checked the BIOS where all USB-settings are on default and from what I can make out, all is set so that the USB-ports should stay powered on while the PC is on and should shut down when I shut off the PC. I have Windows power management set to "balanced performance" and the only thing I did change there was to deactivate Windows fast start-up - but I'm 99% sure that I did run into these issues both before and after I changed that setting.

*shrug*


EDIT: Digging a bit deeper I came across this setting in Windows device-manager:

The non-greyed out entry with the checkmark in front of it says "Computer may switch off device to save power". I'm thinking this could be part of the problem perhaps? If only there were some proper labels on these devices... other than the Razer mouse, that is... Guess I'll have to unplug everything and test one device at a time.

EDIT 2:

I've managed to ID both the Thrustmaster throttle and the EVO NXT in the device manager. Went to the "devices and printers"-panel, right clicked on the device in there, clicked on "properties". In the pop-up that opens, clicked on the "Hardware"-tab, then selected the "USB input-device"-entry from the list. This will show you some (seemingly?) unique config info (port and hub), which seems to allow finding the device in question in Windows device manager. Went in there and IDed the two devices using the port/hub info and deactivated the "Windows may shut device down to save power"-option for both of them.

So far, neither the stick nor the throttle have switched off on me unexpectedly (fingers crossed). I do believe however that my PS3Eye I got with my Delanclip might be the real culprit here (or at least part of the problem), because I keep getting driver errors/conflict messages for it in the "devices and printers"-panel from time to time. No idea why or when this happens... and even if it does pop up, the camera still seems to function normally. Kinda clueless on this one...



S.

[1sascha]

If anyone's interested:

Ever since I've deactivated those two switches, forbidding Windows to shut off either my throttle or my Gladiator Evo, neither device have ever gone into "sleep mode" again.

Been nearly two weeks now without incidence, so I'm calling this one "solved".

S.

[1sascha]

I'm going to resurrect this one, because today, my system started acting up again. Stick and throttle started cutting out while they were being used in games. First in IL-2, then in WW2ONL, which is an MMO. Lost the stick while I was on landing approach. Since it's an online-game, there's no pause key of course and I wasn't fast enough re-plugging the stick, so I crashed my 190 into the dirt and ended my kill-streak... grrr...

Anyhow: I'm still convinced this isn't the stick's fault because it has happened with other USB devices (everything except for my keyboard, basically), plus if it were a common problem with the Gladiator, I'm sure I would've found some sort of complaints by VKB users... which I haven't.

All I could still think of was to go into Windows power-settings and change my plan from "balanced" to "ultimate" (highest preset). Double checked the "USB selective suspend"-settings in that plan and saw that it is still set to "enabled" by default, even on the two highest presets ("high performance" and "ultimate"). Disabled the silly feature and am now hoping that this will fix it, because otherwise, I'm at my wits' end. Although: I saw that I had already disabled that particular feature when I was still using the "balanced" energy management plan, so I'm not sure this will help.

Or I'd have to suspect that this is a fault in my 1.5 months old mainboard - which would be bad news indeed. Been flying on- and offline for 20+ years straight now, and I don't think I ever had a joystick or any other input-device just shut down on me like that mid-flight.

EDIT: After a bit more digging on the web, I found this guide to fixing USB weirdness:

https://4ddig.tenorshare.com/usb-recove ... cting.html

I then went into the device-manager and (right-)clicked through all entries in the "USB Controller" section. All those that had the "Power management"-tab I checked and they all still had the "Windows can shut down this device" checkmark enabled. Despite the fact that the system was already set to maximum performance mode. I disabled that setting for all devices and am now keeping my fingers crossed. Oh, and I did the same thing for all entries in the "Human Interface Device" section which have the Power Management tab as well. Most of those too still had the setting enabled. Didn't bother IDing individual devices this time but disabled Windows' ability to shut down on all of them.



S.

[Raudryn]

Thanks for this, dude! Been having my joysticks randomly not come on when booting my PC. Unplugging and plugging the devices back in resolves it, but I bet this is what is causing my issue as well. Thanks for posting the instructions. Fingers crossed this resolves mine too!

[Raudryn]

Not sure why my post isn't showing up. But thanks for this response. I'm having the same issue.