4Game

Just a quick FYI for those having the HOTAS via USB hub, make sure the hub is powered.

I have a cheap D-Link 8-port USB hub, where my HOTAS, MFG rudders, and keyboard is connected. The hub is mounted on my playstand with the HOTAS, so that I can move the stand out of the way, and just plug-unplug power and the one USB port that goes from hub to PC. This setup has been working fine over the years, and is super convenient.

Today I fired up Elite for the first time in 6 months, and I had terrible stuttering even on the loading screen. Tried upgrading drivers, booting, killing processes, the usual fiddling around, no luck. Other games and apps worked fine. Spent hours troubleshooting, and finally decided to just dock my ship again before giving up and reinstalling windows and apps. (PC does need a refresh, lots of crap on it now)

When I tried to fly back to the station I realized my keybinds were gone, weird… Went looking but custom bindings file was were it should be and OK, but Elite logged errors on not finding device so and so and refused to load the bindings. Hmmm…

I also heard the USB ding-dong plug/unplug from Windows suddenly, even though I did not plug anything, so I thought it might be a bad connection somewhere. More fiddling around, and suddenly I notice that the power-plug to the USB hub is missing. Fished it up from the rats-nest behind the desk, re-plugged it, and voila – keybinds are back and no stuttering in game.

TLDR; USB hub powering HOTAS and pedals need external power, otherwise Elite stutters and keybinds are unstable.