Hello there!

I've been into lfs since october 03, but now i've got a new ff wheel and something strange happens...
The ff fx didn't seem to work and there was this red little message popping up everytime I started S2:

SetProperty failed.

So I reinstalled it and everything went fine.FF was ON, feeling was great, but the buttons were wrong... So i put every function where i wanted it and there was my problem again.

SetProperty failed.

and the ff was gone.

can anybody explain this to me please? Maybe it's just one little mistake i make, or maybe i just HAVE to use the default buttons...don't know.

thanks for any advice.

butz


[Edit:] I even reinstalled S2 (unzip, overwrite all) and put the p2 patch over it all, still the same problems. So I presume it has to be some kind of config file... but I already deleted the cfg.txt, still the same error

[Edit II ] another update: I deleted every config file in the root dir of lfs, still the same error message. Installed the game on another hd, no user, no account, STILL the same error... scanned the registry for "SetProperty" but didn't find anything.
But as I said, an hour ago, after a total new start it worked just fine!


[Final Edit: PROBLEM SOLVED] Man, when was the last time aomebody told me the mightiest letters when having software Problems? RTFM!!!! I just pressed shift+c and the fuzz was gone!

Have a good one, ladies! cu on the track!

I'm sorry, but i have to post again...

As I told you the problem was gone once I pressed shift+c. That was not the whole truth :-( Everytime I want to race I have to start the game twice...
when I run the game for the first time there is this error message again, so I have to play a short single player race, press shift+c, get out of the game and start all over again. It works well then, but I want to ask how I can get rid of this awful ceremony.

Thanks for advice.

butz

Please guys, isn't there any advice for me?

I really don't want to start the game several times before i can drive...

hy
strange problem, what wheel do you use?
did it still work with the default buttons?
can you post a sreenshot after you change the buttons.

Hey there, mounthy!
Thanks for anwering this desperate post!
the wheel is a standard ms sidewinder ff (gameport version). When I start the game there are mostly 2 error messages, both times "LoadProperty failed". I have to get into a single player race, reset my steering by pushing "shift+c" , after this the message dialog sais "Eingabegeräte initialisiert" or so, which means something like "controls initialised", but directly after this there is the error message "LoadProperty failed" again. then i have to get out of the game and restart. Mostly there are the two similar messages again, so I continue this procedure until there is only one "LoadProperty failed" at game start. then the ff works.

Oh Yes, and sometimes there is a quick message at the beginning of a single player race which says "Path info changed", but this doesn't seem to be a severe error.

My system is
Athlon3200+
Ati 9600pro
512MB ram 400MHz
Elitegroup board (n2u400-a)
winXP (absolutely new and clean)
soundblaster live player 1024 (with the desired gameport on it)

arrg, gameport and xp is often a tricky combination.
did it work in other racegames?
which driver have y installed for the wheel, 3.02?
and did it work in the gamecontoller settings?
whats if you didn`t change the buttons in LFS

yea, lot of questions but i hope to get closer to the failure with it.

besides that, if your mobo has a own gameport try this one also.

okay, on with the informations ;-)

mainboard doesn't have gameport, AND the nforce2-ultra chipset only supports gameports from sb live or sb audigy cards (BEWARE OF NFORCE) . but the wheel and anything else I stuffed into the gameport work perfectly with the port and xp (also tired it with win2k, same there).
The only thing i can remember was that during installation of the sb drivers there was a win compatibility error "this gameport might not support bla bla for older wheels or joysticks" or sth like that.
But everything works well, even other games which use ff like flatout and...hmm.. like flatout :-). And sometimes lfs also works pretty well.
I didn't get any driver for the ms ff, downloaded this 3.02 thing but couldn't install it (BIG error message, not the little "doesn't work on xp"-type)
Sooo...
The wheel also didn't work with the standard button set, but i didn't care about errors back then, I thought the damn wheel was broke. So forget what I said in the first thread, at the moment the wheel works 1 out of 5 times I start lfs and do the shift+c-procedure.

thanks for your help, mounthy, appreciate it!

normaly you can change gameport settings in the device-manager/properties/ressources
but if I look at my audigy2 gameport i can`t change anything.
looks like a limitation from the soundcard. duno, never use it.

damn I forgot that 3.02 install doesn`t work under xp, sorry my fault.
you can install the SW 4.0 for the usb ff-wheel
duno if it helps, but should be worth a try.

if that failed try other soundcard/ gameport drivers.

overall I have not to much hope to get it work properly.
what MS said to xp, gameport and drivers (german)
http://www.pcgames.de/?article_id=36653
not the best news, but thats why MS-gameport wheels so cheap on e-bay. ;(

other options:
-win98/ME
-maybe(!!) with a pci gameport card or other soundcard
-buy a wheel with usb device

well i have a gameport version aswell and it works fine under xp, it is strange that you are getting such errors, maybe the pci gameport might help, ive heard soundblaster gameports dont always work well with ms ff, other than that i dunno, have you calibrated the wheel in windows and in lfs»?

Okay, maybe ms ff has a problem with the soundblaster, i've calibrated it in windows and in lfs. Could you tell me if you've got the 3.02 drivers installed? I think I'll install win2k again and try the 3.02 as well. I also bought another sb live (this time it's slightly another version of the live!player) and try it again. But I'd love to know what really causes these stupid messages...

I'm going to instal 2000 in October since I don't have an unlock code left, I'll tell you what happens then.

Thanks for your help, cya on the track ;-)

butz

there are no drivers for this wheel in xp i just followed the add new hardware wizard in the cp.

Hey there,

I installed win2k recently, installed all the newest drivers, hotfixes and service packs , still the same error :-( When I start the game I have to press shift-c about 30-50 times (no joke!) to get ff working. Any good tips left?

thanks for everything

butz

Hi!

I'm not completely sure if i have the same wheel(I'm not that good in english...), but i have a Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback wheel from about year 2000, and it works flawlessly! I Don't remeber which card i have, but i think it is soundblaster. When i installed it, I just plugged it in, and went to Control panel>Game Controllers>Add>MS Sidewinder and it worked! I didn't get any "found new hardware" before I added it there. But, as I said, I'm not sure if i have the same wheel

a little story to laugh (cry) about...

yesterday a friend of mine visited me, we tried to play lfs, he sat in front of the screen while I kept pressing shift-c (booooooooriiiiiiiiing) but after 10 minutes of constant pressing nothing happened. After he was gone later I started the game again, pressed shift-c ONCE and it worked!

on one side: AAAAAAAAAAARGH!
on the other: haaahahahaaaaaa!

i had the same wheel some time ago and couldnt get it to work under xp too. only way to get it really working is using win98...

my only real suggestion is buying a wheel with usb.

I will, m8! as soon Iget 100 bucks i'll go to the next hw store and buy one!

Hi folks,

I only can say that I have the same problem
ms ff gameport version, onboard sound chip and gameport with an older via chipset (athlon xp 1400 on it),
last week I wondered, it worked the first time with FF, I was so happy.
But that was the only time it worked with FF.
I will also buy a new one, the logitech I think for 69€ is very good :-)

Greetings
Chris aka. Softman

Same wheel, same problems here, but here is the ultimate solution:

1. Start your PC, maybe login if necessary
2. Go into System Panel (Systemsteuerung) to Game Controller --> you see the wheel, press OK
3. Run LFS get into Single Player and :eclipsee_

... May the force be with you. :jedi:

It seems you need to init the driver in an uncommon way, but who knows.

I always use the USB wheels so I dont know a lot about gameport<>wheel problems, but a good way how to improve the gameport function is to upgrade a soundcard driver(if the gameport is on it). AFAIK there were some fixes for soundblaster cards that had something to do with gameports so worth a try.

MS Sidewinder (gameport) and an SB sound card, same problem for me.

Good to know I'm not the only one.

When the FF is not working and you get the error message you will find that the wheel force tries to center the wheel instead of doing what the game tells it to do. Normally when FF is working the force will let go when you hit esc to go into the control menu. If the FF is not working then the wheel will continue to try and keep to the center.

Another way I have been able to get it to work is going in to controls on LFS and holding the wheel slightly to the side and clicking the wheel/joystick tab over and over until it lets go. You will see the setProperty failed message each time. Once you feel the wheel relax then you know its working correctly. Beware if you hit alt-tab to use another program then you will likely have to do this all over again.

If this trick doesn't work in the first few minutes of clicking then go reinitalize the driver in the control pannel, if that doesn't work then try a power off/ power on. For some reason just a soft reset doesn't seem to help.

I love my sidewinder except for that little odity. Running a 40 lap race with no feedback really sucks!