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Mwo Damaging Usb Devices


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#1 poopfactory

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 09:04 AM

Hi everyone, first post here. I wanted to share a story that I have with a damaged peripheral playing MWO.

The issue originally became apparent when I started getting dropped out of games during the map launch. This happened every time that I tried to play. The level would start to load and then something bizarre would happen, I would lose internet. The modem and router were fine, but it would drop me out of Skype and even windows would say that I lost internet. My laptop next to my gaming rig would still be connected just fine. I would then get kicked back to the login screen of MWO and it would say something about being disconnected from the servers.

My internet would then reconnect in Windows and Skype, and I could log back in to MWO.

This occurred a few times, and I noticed that more than just my internet was going out. Something strange was happening with my USB devices. I could hear a clicking noise in my USB headset like it was changing audio devices. After trying a few times I gave up and started doing some googling.

I tried several things like the repair tool, reinstalling etc and nothing worked. I went back to google and I found someone mentioning the same issue I was having and that all they needed to do was unplug their Xbox controller to get MWO to launch successfully into a mission. Ah ha! I have been playing another game with an Xbox controller lately, so I figured I would give it a shot. Well, after unplugging, MWO worked perfectly.

Sometimes I forget and leave the controller plugged in, but have discovered that if I unplug it early enough then MWO will launch correctly. So this has been going on for a couple of weeks. Same kind of deal, headset starts going all clicky, and if I unplug the Xbox controller quickly enough, everything goes back to normal and MWO launches.

Until now...Now my headset has started clicking on its own. The same kind of noise that happens when I have the Xbox controller plugged in while trying to launch a match. Somehow, during whatever is happening while MWO is trying to load, going haywire on my USB and network, it has infected my headset. I have tried the headset in different ports and different computers and it does the same thing. Sucks because the headset is less than 6 months old.

No other games have ever cause this issue on my computer, and I have never in general experienced something like this before. My headset never made this noise prior to this incident. Luckily, my Razer mouse and Xbox controller still work...

Hopefully anyone else who is running into this issue sees my post before their peripherals succumb to the same fate as my headset. Just make sure you never launch MWO with an Xbox controller plugged in LOL.

Here are the relevant system specs in case it helps:
Asus Sabertooth Z77 motherboard
Turtle Beach Earforce Z60 USB headset
Xbox One Elite controller for PC

TLDR:
Unplug your Xbox controller before playing MWO or you might lose a headset!

#2 MechaBattler

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 09:11 AM

I don't think I've heard of anything like this happening before.

You should contact support.

Edited by MechaBattler, 22 March 2017 - 09:11 AM.


#3 LordNothing

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 10:18 AM

i know mwo likes to play havok with video drivers from time to time, last patch/driver combination seems to be pretty stable though, i haven't had any crashes due to video drivers. somehow it also seems like its taking down network drivers as well, as sometimes i cant get my wireless card to start up after a crash. it has all the symptoms of a psu problem, but they only manifest themselves while playing mwo. i play newer games than this and run some pretty high end cad applications and never have any problems. according to math, i have 300 watts more than i need to run this thing, and thats accounting for capacitor aging. i do log my voltages from time to time and when i do i find that they are stable.

totally unrelated i did have a short in my rudder pedals caused by an overzealous snake hunting cat who sees any usb cables as potential prey. after a game where my mech started rotating on the spot for no reasons, and my controls were non-responsive, i immediately knew what was wrong, and a quick inspection of the cable found teeth marks. i stopped playing to splice my cables. any kind of short is bad, and will break other things, but the usb specs are supposedly capable of surviving shorts on the bus and are in theory cat proof. in theory.

Edited by LordNothing, 22 March 2017 - 12:10 PM.


#4 TKSax

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 10:28 AM

View Postpoopfactory, on 22 March 2017 - 09:04 AM, said:

Hi everyone, first post here. I wanted to share a story that I have with a damaged peripheral playing MWO.



TLDR:
Unplug your Xbox controller before playing MWO or you might lose a headset!


There is no possiable way MWO damaged your headset to any other perphial. It does not work like that, you have a bigger problem possiable with your motherboard. MWO does not interact directly with peripherals that is what Windows does. Yes if you leave your joystick or controller plugged in it will affect MWO, I have done the lots over they years but all it does is mess with how the mech is controlled in game because it supports joysticks/contollers being used.

#5 Deathlike

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 10:54 AM

I'm mostly convinced that MWO is unnecessarily resource intensive, so that's most likely what's causing the problems.. but I don't think it's trying to intentionally sabotage USB devices.

I do lean towards your motherboard not being able to survive whatever stress testing that MWO is causing.

#6 RestosIII

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 11:20 AM

View PostLordNothing, on 22 March 2017 - 10:18 AM, said:

totally unrelated i did have a short in my rudder pedals caused by an overzealous snake


You scared me for a second there. Thought that a poor snek got crushed or electrocuted. :(

#7 MischiefSC

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 11:29 AM

Perhaps your USB just failed a crit check.

#8 McValium

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 11:35 AM

that seems like damage on the USB controllers side or overloading and USB using cheap adapter/extension.
should be a typical case of false perception, a perceived logical connection between 2 unconnected issues.
A. you have connection issues on your gaming rig.
B. you have USB issues (overloaded or damaged ports)

alternativ
C. your headset just failed due to unrelated production issues.

best regards
mcv

#9 The Unstoppable Puggernaut

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 12:16 PM

View PostMischiefSC, on 22 March 2017 - 11:29 AM, said:

Perhaps your USB just failed a crit check.

lol !
Someone shot his USB port within the cockpit. Damn !!

#10 LordNothing

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 12:18 PM

View PostRestosIII, on 22 March 2017 - 11:20 AM, said:

You scared me for a second there. Thought that a poor snek got crushed or electrocuted. Posted Image


this is lizzy the "snake" slayer:
Posted Image

lizzie likes to chew cables. she thinks they are snakes. we dont actually own any snakes and there are no indigenous snakes in the state of alaska, they wouldn't be very happy in our cold climate. this fuzzy little beast of prey is why im running out of electrical tape and heat shrink. with her wire chewing shenanigans, its amazing im not living in the stone age.

voltage does not scare lizzie. i once caught her repetitively licking the terminals on a 9v battery as if trying to steal our human powers. fortunately lizzie has never tried to attack a mains cable while it was plugged in, she almost exclusively hunts usb (especially my last 4 remaining micro usb cables, 1 of which remains intact) and the 5v@100ma generally doesn't bug her.

she is also directly responsible for about half of the friendly fire i put out on mwo. she even killed an atlas once. she is a proud mascot for clan fuzz monster.

Edited by LordNothing, 22 March 2017 - 12:26 PM.


#11 Abisha

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 12:28 PM

software can't damage hardware only thing what's passable in theory is that software can damage harddrives by making all 00 of the disc which would makes it extra magnetic and damage the header this is still in debate.

#12 Fake News

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 12:50 PM

MWO damaged my usb keyboard.
I dropped faction warfare, got locked up just as I was killing most of Davion, and my session locked.
this caused me to punch my keyboard and break the tab and shift keys on the left side.

PGI PLS.

#13 LordNothing

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 01:48 PM

View PostAbisha, on 22 March 2017 - 12:28 PM, said:

software can't damage hardware only thing what's passable in theory is that software can damage harddrives by making all 00 of the disc which would makes it extra magnetic and damage the header this is still in debate.


this is not entirely true especially when you get to really low level firmware stuff which can be modified by software. then you have access to programmable oscilators and voltage regulators covertly overclocking you. a lot of features are dependant on active monitoring. fan controllers for example can be throttled back while the cpu is overclocked and the voltage increased. whatever firmware level safeguards that are in place can easily be overriden by hacked (disassembled and modified) firmware. then you are only left with whatever hardware level safeguards, which may very well be omitted to cut cost.

i knew in one of my projects i burned out a number of overdriven leds because the mcu's clock was inadvertently changed by a bad setting in my flashing utility. the leds were on for 10x longer than they were supposed to be and commenced the spectral drift that happens a second or two before they burn out. this could have very well been a $500 cpu that requires active cooling to keep it from burning itself out. granted this kind of thing would be more of a planned and intentional hack to destroy a particular system and is very unlikely to be caused by bad code.

Edited by LordNothing, 22 March 2017 - 01:54 PM.


#14 poopfactory

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 01:57 PM

Yeah, honestly, software shouldn't do anything like this. However, software does control some pieces of hardware. I am not even sure what MWO is doing during this phase of loading.

I do know that MWO is not intentionally doing this LOL. I also don't have issues with the joystick of the controller interfering with the mech's piloting because I simply can't even get that far with it plugged in. No feline snake hunters either, unfortunately Posted Image

No other games or software ever make the USB ports go haywire like this. Everything works perfectly fine in all other regards, so I cannot agree with the fact that there is a short in my motherboard or USB bus. I can also reproduce the issue consistently, but I'm not going to risk another headset for testing purposes either lol.

Not saying it is MWO's fault either. Who knows, maybe it is the Xbox controller itself, doing something crazy when MWO does some standard USB call (that none of my other games or software happen to use). Just wanted to let everyone know to be careful if they experience anything like this. Also, the first time that it happened, it did not damage the headset. The damage only came after a couple of weeks of dealing with the issue. Maybe something eventually got fried in the headset...

Either way, it's really really bizarre! Cool cat LordNothing! My last cat used to do the same thing Posted Image Thanks all for the input!

#15 Raubwurst

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 03:03 PM

Well, as mentioned by other: MWO is not able to damage your hardware.

The first thing that came to mind while reading is, that your issues seems to occur, when your pc uses more ressources.
This leads to a higher need of power for your cpu and gpu. It may be the case, that your piwer suuply is not sufficient to provide all components under heavy load and the usb devices do not get enough energy to function properly.

You may check the power needed by your components (fans, cpu, gpu,...) add them up and check against the maximum power provided by the power supply. Maybe that can give you an answer.

#16 Mister Blastman

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 03:09 PM

I play with my 360 controller all the time. The precision is astonishing.

In fact, it is my preferred peripheral...






































Edited by Mister Blastman, 22 March 2017 - 03:21 PM.


#17 Revis Volek

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 03:12 PM

A program like MWO cannot damage a USB powered set of anything. Its doesnt work that way like many have said already.


Sounds to me like you are running into a low voltage problem and the USB the whats getting the short end of the stick. If i was you i would start checking out the power supply and things like that.

How old is your PSU? They do degrade over time...

Added any new parts? Did you go bigger then before and now are a little low on the voltage?

I suggest you take a serious look into your rig before you keep blowing things up because the next one might be a major component.


MWO is very CPU intensive, unlike any other game i play which may be why you are seeing a power issue like this when you play the game. Your CPU is being a hog im sure...

Edited by Revis Volek, 22 March 2017 - 03:14 PM.


#18 LordNothing

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Posted 22 March 2017 - 10:22 PM

i think most of the problems stem from the fact that the engine mwo is running on hasnt seen a major revision in quite some time. its sort of like when quake started freaking out over the networking subsystems in newer versions of windows and none of the classic engines would work anymore, of course since the engine was open source at that point it was just a matter of time before that was rectified. i very much doubt pgi has the luxury of such low level bug fixing. you never know how much of cry engine is a closed binary blob that pgi doesn't have sourcecode for. you end up with an engine dependent on a bunch of deprecated function calls to a dll which is a completely different version than what the engine was built on.

#19 jjm1

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Posted 23 March 2017 - 12:52 AM

Check your cabling. Everything is cheap garbage these days and interference will cause audio problems.

I can hear my CPU crunching away through my onboard audio when no other audio is playing. Too lazy to fix it though.

#20 Shiroi Tsuki

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Posted 23 March 2017 - 04:02 AM

I've used both a PS3 controller and a Logitech Joystick and I've honestly never have encountered any problems. Contacting support would be a great idea. Alex is the best





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