Throttle not recognized by throttle.exe

[Pendragon]

Hi!

I am new here and this is my first post.

I am running an Asus nForce 2 chipset, and I use the game port on the motherboard.

I like playing BF1942 but was frustrated with various joysticks and controls.

I finally found my old Flightstick Pro and Throttle - both gameport.

They work pretty well and BF1942 and the trim is very handy on the joystick.

My Throttle still has a residual program from 4 or 5 years ago - I was able to map about half of the buttons in BF42 without creating conflicts and I have enough working to do what I need although it is not optimal.

I downloaded http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ this .iso burns to a CD and gives you many boot options.

Did I mention I don't have a floppy drive?

So I boot off the CD and go into FreeDOS I Think (F5, then F3 if you make the disk).

When I run Throttle.exe, it tells me it does not think I have a throttle attached!

I am wondering if this is due to my motherboard or due to the version of DOS I am running. It seems this program should work fine in most versions of DOS.

Anyone have any suggestions or ideas?

I read about the buy on here who made a boot floppy - thats great, but a lot of systems are floppy-less now and floppy disks have a way of failing when you most need them. A boot CD would be perfect (hint hint).

Anyway - does anyone know if the utility for programmig the gameport version of the Pro Throttle will work on the regular throttle?

Thanks.

[Pendragon]

:(

[Debby]

Pendragon,

Michael will be back in the office on Monday to help you out. Sorry for the delay... he's been out of town for the past week.

You can also send an email to our tech support staff.

Thank you!!

[BLAZERBRUCE]

Help is on the way, I will work on designing a bootable CD instructions for you. This may take a week because I am very busy with classes.


-Bruce

[BLAZERBRUCE]

On a side note, unfortunitly you wont be able to save any files un your hardrive for further use. Depending on what all you are using currently, the n-force chipset should work ok once you run a dos6.2 environment CD. I also have heard that some gameports wont work in dos mode, this maybe from the Bios not set to legacy. I will see what I can do for you.

-Bruce

[MichaelCHProd]

I am downloading the UBCD ISO now and will check it out. Problem is I am having a hard time finding a PC to test on that has the 15 pin port on the motherboard. All of my test rigs have the port on the sound card and with out DOS drivers for the cards that port is dead.

[BLAZERBRUCE]

Pendragon,

What type of computer you using? I'm guessing you have a gateway, either way I havent had much luck recently or time to work on bootable cd. I'm not sure how familiar you are working on computers, but it sounds to me it maybe easier to invest $15 in a floopy drive and floopy drive cable. 99% chance your computer should be able to support one. If not let me know, I am trying different ideas on bootable CD's. If all else fails, I maybe able to make a cd and ship it to you.

-Bruce

[MichaelCHProd]

wicked cool of you BLAZER B)

[BLAZERBRUCE]

Thanks Michael,

I try to do my best to help out the group :D


-Bruce

[Pendragon]

Thanks for the reply gentlemen.

My PC is a custom built rig.

Asus A7N8X-X (nForce 2) motherboard

AMD XP3000+ (333)

1G of HyperX PC2700 (CAS2.0) RAM

MSI GeForce 4 Ti4600 (with Zalman fanless cooler)

Audigy 2 (6.1) soundcard

Hitachi 180G drive

AOpen 24X CDRW

MS Natural Pro Keyboard
MS Wireless Intelimouse 2.0

Superflower Aluminum Case (all thumbscrews)

Enermax low noise 365W PS

I do not use a floppy mainly because I painstakingly wired the inside of my PC for maximum neatness and airflow.

This is a pretty decent gaming system and when I first built it, it was extremely loud. I spent considerable time adding damping material to the case and eliminating fans, adjusting fan locations and speeds for maximum benefit with minimal noise (I have Enermax adjustable fans with little rheostat controls).

Anyway - you would think a guy who has worked on computers all his life would have a floppy disk drive - I actually found a drive, but I dont have a cable.

I just moved from CA to TX and jetisoned a lot of my spare parts/junk in the move. I have been unemployed for a while and cannot justify even buying a floppy cable at this time - I actually could probably go find a used one, but I also just flat hate the floppy drive and have been running without one for a few years. I really want to get my throttle working and I think if I can just get a CD that boots to Win98 real mode, I will be fine.

Anyway - thats where I'm at.

I think the floppy thing is a decent workaround, but I would really like to create a bootable CD and possibly a bootable USB flash drive (some will boot like a floppy) with the stuff on it.

My experience with floppys is such that mine seem to get erased and corrupted too easily - so I want to get a solution that is a bit more durable.

I am suprised that the free DOS versions in the Ultimate Boot CD do not seem to work with the throttle.

Even if you dont have a gameport, the throttle essentially functions as a keyboard and I think all you need is KB connectivity to program it.

[Pendragon]

As for making a bootable CD, any program like Nero can do it. Generally, you make your CD with the files you need, then find the box to check to make it bootable.

At some point, the program will have you insert a bootable floppy disk into the driver and the system files are taken from this.

I could do it - but for my floppyless status.

I find that the best boot disk is a Win98 startup disk - if you use it for the system disk, it will actually boot into real mode with realmode CD drivers active and a lot of system files accessible in a ramdrive.

So if someone was inclined to do this:

1. Make a directory with all the support files you would use - for both the regular throttle and pro throttle.

2. Burn the CD while telling the burn program to make it bootable.

3. Use a Win98 startup disk as the bootable disk when it is requested (usually just before the burning begins)

If someone was REALLY clever, they would make a simple little DOS menu to launch either of the two utilities or a query line that lets you type in the name of a profile and then sends that profile to the device with the DOS command.

4. After the CD is made and working, use a program to create a .ISO image so the CD can be distributed over the net.

Not 100% sure, but I think it is OK to distribute Win98 boot disks to people who own some version of Windows.

[BLAZERBRUCE]

Pendragon,

The concept you are thinking of would work, but under certain conditions, it appears some people would still have some conflicts. Under some circumstances, if you are using an audigy card with a built in gameport, the chances of the card supporting any throttle, be it the one the joystick, or HOTAS setup, you will have troubles because soundblaster isnt using the standard 2 joystick (x1,y1,x2,y2) anymore. If you are using an onboard asus gameport, you shouldnt have anytrouble. Alot of people also arent using nero, so trying to make sure everyone is capable of doing this can be some what troubling. I am trying to figure out a way to have a program that will take care of the burning process for anyone with a burner. As for SoundBlaster, it appears the route of going and purchasing a cheap generic soundcard is the way to go because alot of generic cards use the soundblaster clone chipset that runs the the original soundblaster pro configuration. Can't remember the name of the chip off the top of my head, but the cards using it are ussualy $10, $15.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The sound from todays high speed processor fans do generate too much noise, a duct kit for the fans ussualy dampen alot of noise.

-Bruce

[Pendragon]

The Audigy 2 cards do not have a joyport. Most high end sound cards no longer do.

As for making the .iso - that really needs to be done only once from a good CD - once a working CD is made into an ISO, easy CD Creater, Nero and probably most burning programs can make a CD out of the ISO image - I think there are also trialware/freeware programs that can do this as well.

The trick is - getting the CD working.

[BLAZERBRUCE]

I have been working on an ISO, trying to work on some techniques of better access of gameport in dos environment. Some soundcards need drivers in dos to function, hopefully I can make a simple driver loader for people who know what soundcard they are using. I am guessing this is going to be the most extensive BootDisk for any application I have created so far. I am going to post on here to see what soundcards people are having trouble with.

- Bruce

[Pendragon]

Well, a friend of mine made an iso image of a win98 boot disk.

I am able to run throttle.exe off my C: drive (which is fat32).

But I get the same error - it does not detect my throttle!

I thought this was happening with the ultimate boot cd because they were not using MSDOS.

Now that I am using the MSDOS from 98, I think there is a hardware issue.


So I remembered that someone said it could be picky about keyboards.

I have the MS Natural Pro keyboard. It has the little buttons at the top for volume and play/pause, etc.

I thought that maybe my KB was interfering so I made a batch file that gives me a pause - I then unplug my KB and hit a button on the throttle to continue the batch process which then runs throttle - and I get the same error - cant detect it!

So I am wondering - does the throttle need a KB attached to it to make it work? Does the KB "terminate" the circuit in some way? Or should the throttle be able to be programmed just plugged into the PS/2 port and joy port and no KB attached?

This is seriously bugging me and I wonder if there is a problem with my motherboard and the compatibility with the throttle?

I am thinking about buying a pro throttle as they are CHEAP on ebay - but I dont want to have the same problem.

any advice? there are no real settings to mess with in bios...

also - if someone wants this .ISO, it makes it super easy to boot to DOS on a machine without a floppy drive - also, you dont have to worry about floppy corruption, etc. let me know what I can do with it...

[BLAZERBRUCE]

Pendragon,

Im beginning to wonder if your keyboard adapter cable maybe damaged. I would suggest using a 12v electrical tester and making sure your wire isnt damaged. As for the ISO image, I am working on a DOS6.22 image to keep microsoft from getting :censored: off lol. Have you tried running your throttle on another pc?

-Bruce

[Pendragon]

I dont really have access to another PC.

I *might* be able to try to get adaptors and use the AT Connector, but I dont know...

I may just buy a Pro Throttle on ebay - they go for cheap sometimes and I may have a job in the next week...

so - if the throttle otherwise works with its existing program, it is possible to still have a problem that prevents re-programming?

I plan to go all USB when I get back on my feet - but I got several games I really want to play right now and the existing program uses a lot of keys that have conflicts in certain games so only a very few of the buttons are useable.

[Pendragon]

IT WORKS!

I found my little mini 84 key no frills keyboard and just thought I would try it - bam, I'm in!

This is weird since I made a script to do it with NO KEYBOARD at all - but it failed just like it did with my MS Natural Pro kb.

So - it seems that having a KB attached is required, it must terminate the connection in some way.

Well, now that it works, I am looking for a Pro version to work with the Combatstick I picked up on ebay for $7.50 :)

edit: I remove the basic kb after the throttle is programmed - it then works just fine in XP...

[anoblenate]

I see this post is from few years ago, but I'm also having a hard time getting my pro-throttle to connect in throttle.exe.

I'm trying to use an Asus a7n8x-e deluxe mb. The throttle and program worked fine on a different computer with an Asus a8v deluxe mb. So, I"m wondering if the a7n8x isn't allowing the keyboard signal to come through. I've tried attaching 2 keyboards so far with no success. The combat stick i've attached to the throttle was detected fine in windows, but the slider on the throttle won't work...

not sure what to do.