Joystick causes PinballX directx crash to windows

[scrivy]

I have spent about 30 hours testing and trouble shooting possible causes for this problem and can't find any user solutions. I am attaching my log and configuration file.

The problem is this: when my Gravis Gamepad Pro is plugged into my USB port, exiting a table or game does not return me to PinballX but instead crashes to windows with a directx error logged. This crash to windows will occur for every system (VP, FP, Mame, and all other personal additions). When the game pad is unplugged, the problem goes away. This problem is not exclusive to just version 1.78. I run PinballX on Windows XP SP3 in a pincab with an IPAC board connected and keyboard (just added the gamepad as well).

Recently I installed Mame so I wanted a game controller that would be useful for this and the game pad works fine for Mame as long as I am not running it in PinballX.

Here are a list of tests I have run and none of these options worked:

1. Unplugged my IPAC board to see if multiple devices cause a conflict.

2. Disabled all plugins and personal scripts.

3. Ran PinballX with and without Xpadder operational.

4. Reinstalled all software including the latest Directx version for XP

5. Temporarily ran a virus scan to make sure I have no viruses. No virus software is permanently installed to disrupt gaming.

7. Tested the problem with version 1.73 and got same results.

The Gravis Gamepad Pro is just a joystick device. I have to use the "ESC" button on my pincab no matter what. FP demands this and VP sees "ESC" as a "Q" in its key assignments. "ESC" is fixed in FP and it can not be changed.

Within the PinballX settings, if I assign "Q" to exit an emulator, pressing the "ESC" button on my pincab while running a VP table causes the mini VP "Paused" window to pop up with options to "Resume Game", "Debug Window", or "Quit to Editor". This is unacceptable because now, I can't get back to PinballX unless I quit to the editor and use my mouse to close VP and then click back on PinballX on the taskbar. This means the setting for exiting the emulator in PinballX has to be "ESC" as well and not "Q".

So the question is this: With a joystick device attached and considering I am exiting a program, why does the joystick disrupt PinballX and cause a crash to windows?

log.txt

PinballX.ini

[Tom Speirs]

My cab uses a joystick encoder and I have never had any problems. I will test on the latest version though as it has not been fired up for a while.

I have not used XP for years in a real environment though and can't properly test and whenever I do use it in a virtual machine I notice various issues with networking and video where support by libraries and apps has been dropped over the years.

Call my crazy but I recommend win 8/8.1 for a pincab setup. PinballX runs much smoother on 8 than 7 too.

[Tom Speirs]

Just tested, latest PinballX with Win 8 and I am not seeing this issue and never have.

My cab uses a dual gamepad (encoder) and also has a USB mouse plugged in right now.

Tested a couple of VP tables with both exit via in game and regular exit.

I realise that is not much help to you though.

Cheers.

Tom.

[Tom Speirs]

Also, try disabling those plugins see if that is the cause. This may be something unrelated to joysticks. it looks like an app or something is interfering with PinballX reinitializing the display.

[scrivy]

Unfortunately even with every script and plug-in turned off, the Gamepad still crashes PinballX and it goes to windows. My pincab is totally stripped to bare essentials with only the absolute necessities of XP running. Nothing runs in the background except windows and hardware services and no additional hardware or services to the outside world.

The other problem I am having is most of the time when I close out of a VP table, the windows error reporting program dwwin.exe, pops up its window to send an error to Microsoft stating that VP closed inappropriately. I have tried everything to make this problem stop even assigning other keys to close the emulator. Nothing works. These errors do not happen when I am running a table outside of PinballX so something is closing the table inappropriately. When closing a table outside of VP, a mini window pops up asking to resume game, debug window, or quit to editor. How is PinballX dealing with this two stage process? If VP is the parent process and the mini window it forked is its child process, is it possible that closing the parent process creates this error? In my way of thinking, PinballX needs to send a "Q" to quit to the editor and then kill the editor that is running the table.

[Draco1962]

Have you tried another game pad other than the Gravis to see if that remedies the issue?

[scrivy]

At this point I have had to roll back to 1.73 version because even if I did get another game pad to work with 1.78, it would not solve the problem of the Microsoft error window popping up when exiting out of a VP table (this happens with no game pad even). With 1.73, I don't have the Microsoft error window problem and I have checked my windows event log just to make sure no errors are being logged. 1.73 is perfectly stable with my own scripts to make sure things close. Although with 1.73, PinballX does crash to windows when closing a program with my game pad attached.